Page 10 of A Story of Mates and Temptation

Maeve. My dragon. I knew she was alive, but now I can feel her in my heart and mind. She is here and alive. I know I’m crying, even as the wind blows the tears away. “No, you’re not well, Maeve. I can feel you.” I frown. “What happened?”

“My wing was torn in two places.” She huffs as worry floods through me to her. Her concerns come back in full force for me. “And you? He had you. The one you fear.” She pauses for a moment. “Worry not about me, Story Dehana. You are hurt and you must get to a healer,” she commands like a mother hen.

“First thing I’m going to do, I promise,” I vow to her. Daegan’s dragon moves into a glide. We get our first look at the hideout.

“I do not like you riding on another dragon.”

“Don’t worry, Maeve. I only want to be your rider too,” I whisper as I watch the hideout. It’s a town—a town buried inside a mountain. Somehow, it’s bright here, and I realise the cave walls are like mirrors, reflecting light from somewhere else. It almost looks like daylight constantly. If it is this bright even when the sun must have set by now, I wonder if it ever actually gets dark.

The town isn’t big, maybe no more than a hundred houses, and all of them have seen better days. Rows and rows of houses are built with the same mirror-like rock, but some don’t have roofs, and it looks like they have been abandoned. Is this all we have left to fight with? No wonder Daegan has half given up. Flames and smoke curl from some of the homes, and I straighten my shoulders. As long as we aren’t all dead, we can fight. We have to fight them, because it can’t be this easy for him to win. Outside the city lie fields upon fields of watery beds with plants growing within them, and strange buildings on the outskirts almost seem like towers. “They don’t have much food, and their education…is lacking. But it is home for now. Maybe forever.”

I look at him, my eyes sharp. “Forever? While the rest of our people are slaves? One city might be gone, but the rest of the world?—”

“He has an army of flying creatures and vampyres!” Daegan snaps at me. His shoulders drop. “I’m sorry, but it is true. We would need a miracle to save us now! We will make it work for the people here, and that includes you. For the last fifty years, the leaders have been bringing the fae in, trying to save who they could without revealing the location and to build their own ranks after an illness killed a bunch of them. Some fae apparently just find themselves here when they run away, but it’s still not many. It’s complicated magic and the last head count before we arrived was nine hundred.” I glance down at the cavern under the ledgethe town is nestled on, sensing Maeve further down. “Are you feeling Maeve down there? I wasn’t sure if she’d returned with the others. That’s where the dragons go. They get called up, and we can fly off on them, but a lot of them are ignoring their riders. Odemis didn’t, but something’s wrong with them.”

“Another problem to deal with,” I murmur, my stomach twisting, and I hold my hand against it.

He frowns at me, touching my hand. “Are you okay?”

I don’t get to say another word before I pass out.

When I wake up, a warm fire flickers beside me, and I’m nestled in under thick fur blankets. It’s different from being so cold when I woke up like in the past, and I flinch, feeling pain in my stomach. I reach down, touching a bandage wrapped tight around my ribs and a stitched scar right under it. “Hey there, Trouble.”

My eyes shoot to the male voice, seeing Calix sitting in a rotting wooden chair by my bed. His black hair is tied back, and his eyes tell me how worried and exhausted he is, even before he smiles and tries to hide it. Calix touches my arm, leaning over me.

“Don’t you dare attempt to get up. I’ve just watched them cut you open, fix your internal bleeding and broken ribs, and then put you back together again. Thank fuck you’re awake. I didn’t want to explain to Ziven—when he gets back, that is—that you died on my watch.” He groans when I try to sit up, and he physically pushes my shoulder down. “Seriously, the healers we have leftare struggling to use magic down here, and she warned me not to let you get up. You need to rest.” He meets my eyes. “Please.”

I rest back and nod, feeling too weak to attempt it, even if Calix hadn’t just said please. My voice is groggy. “What happened?”

He blows out a breath, sitting back. “Well, I was looking up at Odemis and fucking Daegan holding you, smiling at you because he’d done it, but then I saw you were passed out. He said you pretended to be fine and then you weren’t. I almost threw the pretty Sun king off the cliff edge to be dragon food.” I smile weakly at Calix. I feel exhausted and drained, otherwise I might have laughed at that. “I’ll let Ziven have the honour when he is back.”

I don’t have the heart to tell him what I’m feeling about Ziven. I can’t even admit it to myself. He has to come back. Calix and I share an unbroken stare, where we both can’t admit anything out loud about how worried we are for Ziven.

“She’s awake!”

I hear Hettie’s little squeal before I see her in the door and it shuts behind her. She’s all dressed in green, with a yellow pin clipped to the side of her hair, but she is moving towards me so quickly I barely get to see anything other than her light hair as she hugs my neck tight. I breathe her in, wanting to cry just from knowing she is okay.

“Careful,” Calix warns her, picking her up off me and moving her to the side to sit on the bed.

She wipes her tears and grins at me. “I was so worried when I sent you into that forest alone,” I tell her. “I prayed to the deities to keep you safe when I couldn’t. I failed and I’m sorry, but I won’t again. I promise to keep you safe, no matter what.”

“You were worried and you’re sorry?” Her words come bursting out. “What do you mean, you were worried? I just watched you go off with that vampyre prince to save me! I was worried! I was scared! You shouldn’t have done that, and you can’t say sorry for saving me!”

Her cheeks are so red as I take her hand. “Okay, but I don’t regret my choice. If anyone deserves to be free, it’s you. We are okay, and it’s all that matters.”

Calix softly watches me. “Our future queen always returns to us. So does the princess.” He grins. “I see that as a good sign our king will follow.” He bows his head. “It is an honour to serve your family and be your friend.”

“We are the lucky ones,” I whisper, crying again. I relax as Hettie tells me all about her new room, about the weird food and how the people here don’t know much about the outside world. “Uncle Daegan has been really nice to me. He told me the book made his mind go bad when he hurt me, and now he’s okay. Is that true?”

Calix touches her arm. “People lie, but for what it’s worth, your uncle did risk his life to save Story. I’m not sure it answers the unsaid question of whether we can trust him or not. At the moment, he has us surprised, as I didn’t expect a hero move from him.”

“Neither did I.”

Calix clears his throat. “He saved all of us and led our dragons here. Daegan brought in the fae and single-handedly fought off the Silkvir that tried to follow. Got them into the tunnels that led here, because he knew the way. He was on his feet for a good three days, never stopping, and then he flew to you.” He pullsout a note from his pocket. “Ziven gave me this in a hurry, and it’s apparently for you.”

I take it and see my name in Kyrell’s handwriting on the folded letter. I can’t explain it all to Calix, not what Ziven did, not to him. I nod, tucking the letter into my blanket like a treasured prize. If only his redemption were that easy. “What about Luna?”

I smile as she steps in through the wooden door, closing it softly behind her. “I’m okay. I flew with Cal. Glad to see you awake, friend.” She tucks her hair behind her ears. “I prayed every second that you were gone for your return once I heard from Hettie what happened.”

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