He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the ballroom toward a terrace. Good thing she'd already kicked off her shoes or she'd have been tripping all over her feet at the rate he was dragging her away.
“Hey, stop right this instant or I’ll bring out the self-defense moves.”
“Save your defense for the council. You’ll need it.”
This dude was seriously a wackadoo. Where was the pepper spray when she needed it? Oh, that’s right, still in the bag from the store her mother had insisted they buy in bulk from.
“Let me go.”
“Return my relic.”
“I’m gonna make you a relic.”
“Save your spells, witch.”
“Your face is a witch.”
The scary man released her and grabbed at his face. When he didn’t find anything wrong with it, he narrowed his eyes and glared at her. “Good try, witch. You’ll pay for that.”
Ciara pivoted and bolted weaving her way between the tables. One second she was zigging and zagging, the next she was airborne.
Great talons gripped her shoulders and a deep whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sounded above her.
She wriggled and screamed, frantically trying to see whatwas happening above her. Her feet crashed into empty glasses and caught a centerpiece of giant lilies dead-on as she was dragged through the air above the tables.
Before she could even take another breath to scream again, they swooped out of the French doors, over the balcony and into the night sky.
Ciara lost her effing mind as the ground beneath her sunk down into tiny squares of land. She couldn’t look any longer, or she’d throw up. So instead she glanced up, not fathoming that she’d see flying above her the giant wings, flapping gracefully through the sky, of a dragon.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
The little thief wriggling in his talons was going to drive him batshit crazy.
No, no. She wasn’t little. She was curvaceous, luscious. Absolutely edible. Good Gods, that ass. He could sink his hands into those hips and worship that plump rear end of hers for years, centuries, millennia. If she were anyone other than the thief who’d stolen the Wyr’s most precious reliquary he’d wine and dine her, woo her with all his jewels and wealth until she agreed to go to bed with him.
As it were, if he didn’t get her to reveal where she’d hidden the relic and how she’d stolen it in the first place, he’d have to take her before the AllWyr Council, and that meant admitting he’d lost the relic of the First Dragon.
There had to be another way to get her to talk.
“Let me go, you, you, monster.”
You don’t really want me to do that a hundred meters over the ocean do you, witch? That water is probably very cold and teeming with unfriendly sea life that would love to take a bite out of your plump ass.
“Eep.” She stilled and fell silent. Whether it was his threat or because he’d spoken telepathically into her mind didn’t matter. At least she wasn’t wriggling below him anymore.
For seven blissful minutes they soared through the air toward the continent and his home. Cage Gylden’s golden dragons waited for him every thousand kilometers or so into the flight and gave them another push with their power over the warm winds.
Surprisingly, he didn’t need as much of their help coming back as he did going. He wasn’t getting as tired, as if he had a renewed energy. He felt stronger now when he should already be exhausted.
The golds were discreet and kept well out of sight. He’d have a lot of explaining to do to Cage in the coming days about why he needed the emergency flight across the Atlantic on such short notice.
If he was lucky, he’d have the relic back before then.
“How did you do that?” The fear had gone from her voice. Interesting.
Do what?
“That. Talk but not talk. I can hear you in my head.”