Burning Desire (22 page)

Shara stopped short of rolling her eyes as she looked at Balladyn. He was out of place in Kiril’s home, a foreign object in a residence of peace and pleasure. “Did you say something?”

His face mottled with rage. “Our Claiming will be talked about for centuries.”

“I’m not going to be your wife. I’ve already told you that.” She stood when her bottom began to hurt. The more she walked, the more she worked out the ache. Sitting or being still for a long period of time made the pain worse.

Shara leaned against a wall and sank her nails into her palm when she heard the crashes upstairs begin. The Dark were literally tearing things apart. As if Kiril would be hiding under a bed or chest.

“You were practically begging yesterday,” Balladyn said.

“I don’t fear you. My family wanted me dead for centuries, and now I’m your captive. You can threaten and torture me all you want, but I won’t be a part of the Claiming nor will I tell you anything about the Dragon King since I know nothing.”

Balladyn folded his arms as he leaned against the front door. “Do you remember what Rhi looked like, Shara? I’m toying with her. Do you have any idea what I could do to anyone that I wanted to destroy?”

She lifted her chin despite the chill of foreboding that settled in her gut. Shara knew what Balladyn could do, and it terrified her. “I won’t live in fear, nor will I live in chains, visible or not.”

“You’ll do whatever I tell you. You spurned your family, remember. Not to mention they would never dare to go against me. You have no one, Shara. No one but me. Remember that the next time you want to tell me what you will and won’t do.”

Across the entryway on the other wall was a mirror. Shara caught her image in the reflection and hated the red eyes. They had turned red the first time she kidnapped a human male. With the red eyes was a faint silver strip in her hair. It wasn’t until she’d kidnapped the girls that the silver became more visible as it was now. She touched the strip of silver, despising it.

“You’ll have more soon enough,” Balladyn said, misinterpreting her actions.

Shara’s eyes skated away. She stilled when she caught sight of a door that hadn’t been there earlier, a door that stood less than twenty feet from the stairs.

A door she
knew
she had never seen in the times she had been in the house.

Her eyes jerked to Balladyn who walked to the stairs and placed a booted foot on the first step as he gazed upward. Two Dark appeared at the top of the stairs shaking their heads. Balladyn gave a sound of fury and turned to the other Dark searching the bottom.

“Anything?” he demanded.

“Nothing,” one responded.

Balladyn pointed outside and told them, “Go help the others search.”

Shara glanced at the new door. Suddenly she knew without a sliver of doubt that Kiril was through that doorway. She wanted in there with him, but she didn’t dare draw attention to it. Even if she was the only one to see it, she refused to let Balladyn know.

“The moon is hidden again tonight,” Shara said.

Balladyn looked at her and shrugged. “Your point?”

“His car is here, but he isn’t. Where else would a Dragon King be but up in the sky?”

Shara didn’t have to say more as Balladyn grabbed her. They appeared in his chamber where he deposited her before he vanished. She glanced around to see she was alone. That she was inside the chamber. He probably had others guarding her, and since she couldn’t teleport out, she was going to have to think of something.

She pulled open the door, prepared to ask one of the guards a question, when she discovered the hallway empty. Finally, something was going her way.

Shara slipped out of the chamber and closed the door behind her. She walked with purposeful steps to the doorway that would lead to the Blackwood estate. Just before she stepped through, Shara veiled herself. The moment she was back on earth, she teleported to Kiril’s estate.

She let the veil fall when she found herself alone. Immediately, she walked to the door and paused. She still didn’t know how she saw it, but it didn’t matter if it led her to Kiril. Shara twisted the knob and pushed. The door opened easily. She was surprised it wasn’t locked, but since she assumed it was supposed to remain hidden from view, there wasn’t a need for it to be locked.

Once she walked through the doorway, she softly closed the door behind her. When she turned to look into the dimly lit room, she froze as she stared down at the most magnificent and frightening sight she had ever witnessed—a dragon.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Shara’s knees buckled at the sight, and she fell back against the wall. The dragon lifted its massive head from its paws and regarded her silently with slanted, faceted royal blue eyes.

The burnt orange scales glistened with a metallic sheen in the light of the lamps hanging from the walls. His head was wide, his eyes unblinking. The dragon’s nostrils flared as if scenting her. Then he drew in a huge breath, his body lighting up from within with a blue glow for several seconds. Her mouth dropped open in wonder and surprise.

“Kiril,” Shara whispered.

In all her dreams, she had never imagined anything so spectacularly frightening. She wanted to go to him, to touch his scales, but trepidation kept her rooted to the spot. It was no wonder the Dark were panicky any time the Dragon Kings were mentioned.

Kiril shifted his shoulders, causing his wings to brush against the top of the cellar, triggering mortar dust to drift around him. It was wrong that he was hiding in such a small space when he should be soaring among the clouds.

“No one knows I’m here,” she said and scooted to the first step. “I swear.”

He blinked his huge blue dragon eyes.

Shara drew in a shaky breath. “Your original plan isn’t going to work. We need a new one.” When Kiril didn’t respond, Shara urged, “Please. I want to help you. I
need
to help you. It won’t right the wrongs I’ve done, but it’s the only way I know to do something.”

The shape of the dragon suddenly vanished, replaced by a very nude Kiril in human form. Still, Shara remained where she was.

“He dared to harm you.” Kiril’s words, harsh and rough, filled the cellar.

Shara gave an absent shake of her head. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“He. Hurt. You.”

His words were clipped and filled with rage. That’s when Shara noticed that his hands were fisted by his sides. She rose to her feet, unmindful of her sore backside, and walked down the steps.

She didn’t stop until she stood before him and placed her hands on his face. “I’m all right.”

“How did you find me?”

“I saw the door. A door, mind you, that I’ve never seen before.”

“You shouldna have seen it at all. I used dragon magic to hide it. Fae can no’ see dragon magic.”

Her arms fell to her sides as she shrugged. “I can’t explain it. One minute it looked like a wall, and the next I saw a door. I let Balladyn believe you were somewhere else, and after he brought me to his fortress I came here.”

“You were able to use your magic to leave the fortress?”

Shara twisted her lips in a rueful smile. “Not exactly. I tried, but apparently Balladyn has spelled it so no one can just appear in his home. I was able to use the doorway to my parents’ home. I snuck through when a guard wasn’t looking. Once I was back on this realm, I teleported here.”

“You’re risking a lot.”

“I had to know if you were down here.”

One side of his lips lifted in a grin. “Did you now? If you wanted to see me in dragon form, all you had to do was ask.”

Shara rolled her eyes, even as she smiled in pleasure. “I can’t believe you’re teasing at a time like this.”

“There’s always going to be something going on.” Kiril glanced at the door. “Good idea to tell him I was in dragon form, but it willna keep him away for long. Or keep him from returning to his fortress for you.”

“I’ll return there. With you.” She melted against him when he drew her into his arms.

“I doona want you anywhere near him again.”

She closed her eyes and savored being with him again. “I must return. If I don’t, he’ll come looking for me.”

“No’ if he’s coming after me.”

Shara leaned back and looked into his shamrock green eyes. She knew what he was about to ask. “I won’t fit in at Dreagan.”

“And you do here?” he asked, frustration clouding his face. “Shara, you may have been born into a Dark family, but you are no’ a Dark Fae.”

“Look at my eyes. Look at the silver in my hair. I’m a Dark Fae. Nothing is going to change that. We’re the most hated beings on this realm.”

“You’ll be safe at Dreagan. They willna harm you.”

“I wasn’t harmed in my parents’ home when I was locked away for hundreds of years either. Being ignored and scorned can be worse than any kind of torture.”

Kiril released her and began to pace. Shara knew the situation was dire, but she couldn’t stop looking at his splendid body. Her gaze stopped on his chest with his dragon tattoo, and she jerked because she would swear on her life that she had just seen the dragon move.

“You plan to remain here?” Kiril asked.

She pulled her eyes up from his chest and belatedly realized he had asked a question. “I’ve not thought about it.”

“Unless we kill Taraeth and Balladyn and you rule the Dark, they’ll relentlessly search for you.”

Shara suddenly had a plan, one that she wouldn’t share with Kiril. It wasn’t to punish him, but to set him free—from her. He was honorable enough that he would continue to try to help her, which would only put him right back in the predicament he was in.

“Let’s think of that once we have Rhi.”

Kiril walked around her to the stairs where a set of clothes was neatly folded. He grabbed the pair of dark denim and slid first one leg and then the other on before he fastened them.

“You should go somewhere safe while I go into the fortress alone,” he said as he pulled a solid black shirt over his head.

Shara was shaking her head before he even finished. “As I told you before, you’ll never get past the guards at my house.”

“Watch me,” he said with a smile.

After all she had seen him do, Shara believed him. If only she could transport him from one location to another in a blink as she did herself, but she wasn’t a powerful enough Fae to pull that off. “I believe you, but I also know that Balladyn will need distracting. Let me do that.”

“Nay,” he said, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.

And maybe she had. “It’ll work. Besides, I got away from him just now. I can do it again. How else will you get around his compound?”

Kiril shook his head. “I doona like the idea of you going back to him.”

“I can handle Balladyn. He doesn’t scare me.” At Kiril’s knowing look, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, so he does scare me a bit, but I can get away from him, Kiril. Trust me. I had over a thousand years to myself going to many different realms and managing to stay out of any real trouble.”

He finally sighed and gave a nod. “Doona make me regret agreeing to this.”

“I won’t,” she said with a smile.

“We keep to the plan,” Kiril said. “The difference is how I’ll get into your house and to the doorway.”

“You don’t know which doorway it is.”

“I will once you tell me,” he said with a wink.

Kiril prayed she accepted all he was telling her, because if they didn’t get moving soon, he was going to shift back into a dragon and fly her to Dreagan, regardless of whether she wanted to go or not.

Never mind the fact that she could return to Ireland with barely a thought.

“There are over a dozen doorways. You need to go to the…” She paused, her head cocked to the side. “Wait a minute. You can’t see Fae doors.”

Kiril sat on the stairs and tugged on his boots. “Let me worry about that.”

“You’re insane.”

“Probably, but we can debate that later.” He stood and held out his hand for her. They walked up the steps to the door. “Do what you have to do in order to keep Balladyn content. I doona want him hurting you again. Once I have Rhi, you can leave with us.”

“Sure.”

He wasn’t fooled by her quick answer. It was the way her gaze flickered away right as she spoke that gave her away. Though no matter how hard he pushed, she wouldn’t tell him more than she already had. He had to accept that. For the moment.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Not even close.”

Kiril smiled and drew her against him to kiss her slowly, languidly. He would never grow tired of her sweet taste or the way she softened against him. As much as he wanted to continue the kiss, he pulled back and looked into her red eyes. He tugged on her strip of silver. “I want a promise from you.”

“What is it?”

“If I’m caught, I want you to get as far from Balladyn as you can. He’ll use you against me.”

“You want me to leave you?” she asked incredulously.

“Aye, lass. I do.”

She gave a firm shake of her head. “No.”

“Aye. A Dark can no’ kill a King, remember.”

“They can do other things,” she whispered.

“Other things that they will do to you to break me. They will bring you in to see if I give any response. I wouldna, but they will keep trying. I doona know how long I could hold back seeing you harmed. As soon as I do, they’ll do whatever’s needed to try and break me.”

She looked at his chest. “Then don’t go.”

“Give me your word, Shara, that you’ll go somewhere safe if I’m caught.” When she didn’t answer, he enfolded her in his arms and held her tight.

“I promise,” she said.

Kiril kissed the top of her head. “Stay safe. No matter what. Say whatever you need, do whatever you need to do, but you stay alive.”

She pulled back and looked up at him with red eyes swimming with tears. “Don’t you dare get caught.”

Without another word, she was gone, vanishing right out of his arms. Kiril dropped his chin to his chest and reached for the doorknob before he stopped. He ran back down the stairs to the far wall. Using his magic, he wrote a message on the cellar wall that only a Dragon King would be able to see.

Kiril wished he could manage the rest of his plan on his own, but if he wanted to succeed, there was only one person who could help him. He pulled out his mobile and dialed the number. His call was answered on the second ring.