Page 9 of Caress of Fire
Draekon.
Marielle shivered deep in her soul where her fear of the beasts and their masters resided. Where humans still cowered in awe of the powerful aliens who descended from the sky with fire and death in their wake.
The stranger approached and the guard finally woke up from whatever spell the Draekon had put him under. The guard rushed out of the cell and fell to his knees as the Draekon approached. Those cold eyes, shining like a naked blade, were set on her like on prey as the Draekon stalked toward Marielle, not even glancing at the kneeling Delradon guard.
Marielle stood straight, not knowing the appropriate way to greet him. Should she lower her head? Put her knees to the ground in submission? Cry and beg for mercy? The very idea made her stomach churn with bile.
Never.
“Are you the one they call Marielle Jansen?” The Draekon’s voice was deep and soft like black velvet, the same color as the hair that fell to his brows, and it was layered with enough anger that her knees trembled.
Maybe she would throw herself on the ground after all. Marielle stared at him, the first Draekon man she had ever laid eyes on directly, and her mind was a blank.
His silver eyes squinted and his full, hard lips curved down. His high cheekbones were sharp enough to cut glass, and his honey colored skin was smooth and gleaming under the faint light. He had an exotic beauty, masculine and dangerous, from the athletic musculature of his arms and legs to the way he moved. He was a predator in every sense of the way.
Those silver eyes made her tingle, deep in her belly, and the sensation shook some sense into her.
“Yes. I am Marielle Jansen.” Her voice sounded strong, much stronger than she felt in the small enclosure. Marielle lifted her chin and met the Draekon’s stare dead on even as she was melting inside. “And who are you?”
The Draekon’s already narrowed eyes reduced to two slits and a tic agitated his jaw, making the muscle tighten along his neck. He wasn’t used to being talked to like that by a human—even less by a human woman—and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.
“You should be more worried about what I am going to do with you than what my name is.” That voice of black velvet spoke low, like a growl, and terror filled Marielle’s heart. “And you should worry about the family of the man whom you murdered.”
“I didn’t murder anybody!” Marielle shouted, throwing caution to the wind, her eyes filling with hot tears of frustration. She was done anyway, if that Draekon had decided she was guilty. But she wasn’t going to plead and beg. She wasn’t going to admit to something she didn’t do. “When I got into the throne room, the dragon was already dead, and Lord Aymond died a few minutes later. There was nothing I could do to help.”
The Draekon lifted his chin, his unreadable eyes not missing one iota of her expression.
“Nissar died first?”
“Yes. He was dead, on top of the stairs, just behind the throne. I found Lord Aymond beside him but I didn’t have enough time to help him.”
The Draekon turned away from her, then paced back and forth along the bars of the cell, lost in his own thoughts. Marielle watched him walk in silence, her lungs burning from holding her breath. This was the first time anyone had paid any attention to anything she had to say since she had been dragged away from Lord Aymond’s corpse.
Finally, the Draekon turned back to her, and Marielle inhaled a deep, shaky breath. He looked pissed enough to snap her in two.
“You will tell me everything you saw before you found him.” Anger twisted the Draekon’s mouth but there was no violence in his voice. “Everything.”
Marielle nodded furiously. Power exuded from the man’s pores like a perfume, and she was too scared to say anything. This Draekon, for some reason, believed her when she said she didn’t kill Lord Aymond, and she would be damned if she messed up her chance of getting out of this Godforsaken castle alive.
“I don’t know more than that.” She shook her head, trying to make him understand. “When I arrived, it was already too late. I’m sorry.”
“This is something in itself.” The Draekon spoke softly this time.
It had worked, she wasn’t going to die just now. Marielle mentally shook off her fatigue and her fear to concentrate on the Draekon and whatever he wanted from her.
“Tell me everything from the moment you stepped inside the castle. Even if you don’t think it’s important, tell me.”
“Okay.” She nodded, seeing the merit in what he said. She closed her eyes, trying to conjure up all that happened since that day Ignio Marula had threatened her family. “I was brought to the castle right after visiting the Delradon-Human liaison office. A young Delradon servant came to see me, showed me to my new rooms, had me cleaned up and put into some fancy gown. I waited until another servant and two guards came to take me to the throne room. They waited outside. When I entered, there was no one. I called, many times, but it was empty. There was some noise at the top of the stairs, and I climbed. I saw the dragon first. He was dead, that was obvious. Then I heard the noise again, and went around the dragon. That’s when I found Lord Aymond. He was almost dead by then. He tried to tell me something, but I couldn’t make it out. And then… then he died. I didn’t have time to help him.”
Fedryc swallowed, his silver eyes gleaming with emotions she didn’t understand. She could tell it had shaken him, what she’d said, but not in the way a man would usually be shocked to lose the High Lord of his kingdom. At least, not that she thought.
A while later, he nodded. “Thank you.” He reached for her, his palm cupping her cheek, swallowing it whole. Marielle was too shocked to move and her breathing became fast and shallow. His skin was warm against the cold of the night, and it made her crave his touch even more. “You gave me more than you know. Whoever killed Nissar couldn’t have done it more than a few minutes before you entered the room. Nissar drank the poison, that’s the only way it could have killed him so fast, before he could even fight back. If he had known, the whole castle would have been reduced to ash and rubble. As soon as Nissar was dead, Aymond had but a few minutes to breathe.”
“What do you mean?” Incomprehension filled Marielle’s mind. The Draekons were all-powerful, had conquered the entire planet in the space of a few months, mowing down human resistance and taking over the land with so few casualties of their own, it was heartbreaking. Surely they couldn’t die so easily.
“This is not a weakness the Draekons are keen to make known.” His mouth curved down. “Dragons are powerful, their years many times a man’s life, Delradon or human alike. A Draekon’s life is the same, because of the link we share. But this is also our curse. We are born together. We die together.”
“So killing Nissar killed Lord Aymond.” Marielle understood now, and the implications of this left her speechless. Fortunately, not for long. “And the murderer had to have been there just before I entered, since Lord Aymond was still alive when I found him. The murderer had to know I had been summoned to the throne room, had to have acted right before I went in. He wanted me to take the blame. He planned everything.”
