Page 54 of The Sacrifice

“Such a dirty good girl. You love being my naughty pet, don’t you?” He kneads the sore area before bringing his hand down hard on the other cheek.

By the time he’s finished, my ass is properly sore and inflamed but not to the point of welts or marks. Next, Drago has me dress in a simple white lace shift. Thin but long sleeves, floral patterns decorating the border, and transparent enough to tell I wear no bra or panties. Facing me, the King toys with the ends of my gray strands just above my belly and utters, “Your hair will look lovely in the moonlight. Silver as a dream.”

I part my lips, awed by his words. Tears burn at the back of my throat from the overwhelming emotion. Of course, it always sounds a little silly when he tries to speak romance. Drago may be a master of the bed, but he’s not the true poet among the four rulers. Mayce is.

Still, I smile and fold my hand into his, accepting his embrace as he leads me out of the bedroom and then the castle, into the courtyard near the ruined gardens. Shaking his bushy tails, Jinx ambles on ahead of us. Now and then, he sniffs the ground and pounces on invisible prey.

The wily wind blusters, pestering the ends of my nightgown, so they lash the air, exposing my calves. It’s not long before the cold turns my nipples erect and straining with the thin lace. But I don’t shiver. Not with Drago’s arm woven around the side of my body, pulling me close to him. Barely reaching his chest, I nestle into his slabbed body. Even his scales simmer with warmth. Another thing I love is how his long, flame-red ponytail swings to brush my shoulder at times. Most of all, I love his random touches. How he tenderly squeezes my sore ass or rubs a thumb across a nipple through the fabric to have me hissing my desire or a tender but bewildering kiss that leaves me wanting. Judging by his growing smirk, he’s enjoying this buildup.

Just as we approach the field of weeping roses, a rush of lascivious heat rushes to my center—intense enough to leave my head whirling and dizzy. My nipples ache for a warm mouth, the nip of teeth, and pinching fingers. Drago chuckles darkly at my arousal but says nothing to embarrass me. Something else I love about him. And I’m still making up for lost time. All my senses have been rapid-firing on overdrive. While Drago enjoys stimulating me with sexual touch, anything can practically get me there. A simple touch of fingers, a hand cupping my shoulder, warm or cold breath drifting too close...even a whisper in my ear to curl the hairs on the back of my neck.

Will I always be so starved for touch? I smile and clasp my hands in front of me, hoping so. I never want to lose this.

As we step onto the field, Jinx leaps ahead of us and crouches, his hackles raised, teeth bared in a growl. Puzzled by his behavior, I scrunch my brows. Next to me, Drago stiffens, all his muscles turning rigid. A grimace twists his features.

“Something’s wrong.”

Fear shivers along my spine, prickling my nerve endings at his statement. Two words, but so deep and dangerous with his brows lowered and shadows darkening his eyes. I flinch when Jinx nudges his body against my leg, ears drawn down as he whines at me. I kneel and cup the kit’s furry cheeks to plant a kiss on his snout before scooping him into my arms, hoping to soothe him. But Jinx doesn’t stop whining as Drago scans the area, sniffing the air.

A second passes before he grips my arm, “A foul stench in the air. I’m taking you back inside the castle. Now,” he growls, and I swallow a hard, fearful knot in my throat while clinging tighter to the shivering kit.

Before we even get the chance to turn, stones and mortar fracture and fall from the castle, crumbling to the earth. Waves of pain rack my chest from the sight of multiple walls collapsing. Crippled with horror, I stare with my breath bursting from my throat at the sight of bones rattling and awakening. Drago grips me by the waist, hauling me further into the field. Every muscle in his chest and arms bulges. With his stomach sealed so close to my back, I feel those scales penetrating the surface of his skin. He’s growing, armoring himself, preparing, and gathering his strength. He will need it. Because I can focus on nothing else but those bone skulls, as massive as Thayne’s, shifting in our direction, leering at us.

The three enormous skeletal dragons shed bone dust, tails battering the castle and knocking more stones loose as they take to the air one at a time. With their gargantuan bone bodies slamming upon the earth, smiting hundreds of weeping roses, I cover my ears from the thunderous clap. The force rocks into my body, reverberating into my very bone matter. Stinging wind rips across my face and yanks tears from my eyes. If it weren’t for Drago, the inertia would have knocked me out cold on the ground. As it is, I almost squeezed Jinx too hard. And now, I cling to the fox even more as all the hairs on my body prick with static fear. My whole body trembles.

The bone dragons don’t move. They linger, staring us down, but their bodies are too much of a barrier for us to dream of reaching the castle. Not that it would matter since several of its walls have caved in. Panic spirals pain into my chest, and I nearly expect my ribcage to cave in like those walls. At first, all I can think of are the other kings, but I remember what Drago said. How it takes far more to kill them. A sob lodges in my throat when I consider all the servants in the castle, ones like Eyn-Amaru, wondering, suspecting, knowing some must be hurt. Shuddering, I almost double over. My vym hums its yearning in my blood, but Drago is not about to release me. No, between the claws growing while his arm binds around my waist with his dilated eyes, quaking chest, and iron-hard jaw, they suggest he’d go to war with a thousand of these bone dragons if it meant protecting me. Dread curdles the contents of my stomach. He’s known me for a week at most. It doesn’t make any sense for him to risk himself, his ancient bond with his brothers for a girl of scars and ink. It defies all rational thought, and I won’t let him do that.

“You were right, Dragomir.”

My skin crawls from the familiar voice behind us. Holding me tighter, Drago turns with me, and I shiver from those ghostly orbs in the hollow sockets, the bony limbs, long, rakish claws for fingers, and tentacles protruding from each side of her face. Mouth open, teeth razored, and jaw detached. Jinx yelps and whines, nudging my cheek as if in pain.

“You are forbidden from our territory, Hag!” growls Drago, but his words seem paltry compared to the threat of the bone dragons behind us.

The Hag wags a thin claw. “The rook was a bad omen indeed,” she informs him in the disturbing voice of rich seduction. “But he made the perfect bait and trap for you.”

Horror attacks my insides. Guilt and rage shred my heart lining. This is all my fault! And still...with the fox rubbing his snout against my neck and whining, I can’t find any regret within me.

Not a hundred feet away, at the border of the trees, the Hag paces, raising a spectral arm. Threads of her black hair eclipse it like scrawls of ink. “No rook would bind themselves to an assassin or spy. One must be pure of heart. You believe I have no skull spies to alert me if a human crosses the Veil of Souls? Such arrogance in assuming none of your Waste-folk would be loyal to me. Unlike that traitorous rook your precious pet holds,” she hisses, and Jinx recoils against me.

I glower at the Hag and cover his little face, stroking his fur to calm the kit.

“At least he served his purpose to carry the spell to unbind the Princes,” she croons, a smile twisting her features, too sinister from the jagged teeth. “I don’t believe they are too enthusiastic with how you skinned them and displayed their bones as castle trophies.”

I crane my neck back to see Drago narrow his eyes while more scales rupture along his arms. “They fucking deserved it after their betrayal of aligning with Kronos. You will meet the same end, Hag.”

When she laughs, smoky and beguiling, it sends poison to blister my veins. But Drago captures my chin and forces my eyes to his. “Whatever happens, Quintessa, you run. Find Merikh, Mayce, and Kyan. They will keep you safe.”

The words stab thorns in my heart. I glare, burning my eyes against his, but his gaze only matches mine for fire and flame. The urge to throw my fist into his jaw rears up inside me. I shake my head wildly instead. “I won’t leave you.”

As soon as I speak the words, a familiar presence drifts to my side, and I turn to meet Qora’s smoldering amber eyes, narrowed in a wrathful warning. “Listen to him, Quinn. Run now.”

“No.”

“Goddamit, pet!” Drago grabs the back of my neck and roars hot breath in my face, “This is my final command to you as your King.”

Pulse hammering, I stab out my chin and refute, “Pet in the bedroom. But I’m the Queen of your Ash Court.”

“We’re not in the Ash Court,” he growls, strengthening his grip, but his eyes soften to liquid gold that has me melting. “Tessie, if you go, I will have a chance. But if you stay...” he purses his lips and swallows hard to finish, “I will set myself on fire if anything happens to you.”

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