Taken by the Dragon King (7 page)

“Yes it is. If you want it.”

Asher’s jaw hardens as he stands and turns to face me, but his eyes are still so lost and heartbroken. “There’s only one thing I want, Lindy. You.” He’s on top of me in a flash, groaning and pulling at my clothes. My heart slams into my ribs as my body heat rises. “I need you,” he rasps, grinding against me.

The next thing I know, my shirt is off and the room is shaking violently. One of the treasure piles is flattening out, revealing a solid slab of gold. “Is that a bed?” I ask.

Asher grunts affirmatively, scooping me into his arms. “It’s incredibly soft, but it bothered me when I first came here so I buried it.”

“Bothered you? Why?”

“Because it comes equipped with shackles and I was just a kid.”

Shackles
? “Slow down, Asher.”

“I don’t want to,” he growls, his fingers circling my wrists and pinning them to my sides.

Chapter Eleven

“I’m scared,” I croak.

He pulls his face away from my neck. “Of me?”

“Yes,” I admit. “This isn’t a dream. You can really hurt me if you lose control.”

“I won’t hurt you, love, and I won’t lose control. I’m not in the fog anymore.”

He lifts my chin, my eyes lingering on the flexed muscles of his broad chest. My mouth goes dry as my pulse starts racing. Maybe I am ready for this. I better be, considering my pants are suddenly around my ankles. This bed truly is ridiculously soft, like it’s made down instead of metal.

Asher sits back on his knees, staring down at me. “I don’t much care for the extra barrier, but this…” He loops his fingers under the strap of my bra and snaps it. “Is strangely appealing now that I see it.”

“Don’t set it on fire, please.”

“I would never risk burning your exceptionally creamy white skin. There’s got to be a knife around here somewhere.”

“There’s a hook on the back!”

“You’ve never understood how much I enjoy stripping you naked,” Asher laughs, ripping the matching panties to my knees as I gasp.

I’ve never gotten a bra off this fast before, tossing it a safe distance away. Asher wants to admonish me for that little act of defiance, but he’s too distracted by seeing my breasts in person for the first time. Flames fill his dark eyes as little curls of steam puff out of his nostrils. I guess he still likes them.

“Asher…” I moan as his mouth closes around my nipple. “Don’t tie me up.”

“Lindy,” he whispers soothingly, kissing his way up from my breast until we’re face to face. My fingernails are digging into the back of his palm from my apprehension. “I know how to fix this.” He kisses my furrowed brow and my trembling lips as he pries his hands free from mine. “Just relax.”

“Okay.”

His mouth leaves mine, licking and suckling its way lower, lingering at my navel as his hands caress the flesh of my belly. “You’re so much softer in real life,” he murmurs. “I love it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he chuckles staring up from between my legs. “And I love this.” His fingers trace the brand on my inner thigh, leaving the skin hot and tingly. “
Me
,” he breathes, the mark on his chest flaring from black to red. “Seared onto you. The way it’s supposed to be.”

He flashes me a lecherous grin before his face disappears and that forked tongue of his is lapping at the throbbing between my legs. Holy shit. I’m not sure if he’s better at this or the sensation is just more intense in real life and I don’t really care. I’m panting and squirming, my arousal climbing higher. Asher lets out an admonishing grunt, peering up at me from under his brow as his mouth claims me. Reaching upward to toy with my nipples, he pushes my chest firmly down into the bed, leaving me immobilized and helpless in his grasp.

I shudder, wrapping my hands around his wrists. Asher senses my impending release and pulls his mouth away, leaving me begging for more. But I’m glad he stopped, I want him closer to me now, inside of me. Our eyes meet and I beckon him with a curl of my fingers.

“I love you,” he murmurs, positioning himself between my legs.

“I love you, too,” I reply, squirming down to get closer to him. “Come here, baby.”

Wrapping his arms around my waist, Asher enters me slowly, watching my reaction the entire time. My back arches and I cry out, digging my nails into his shoulders. He kisses me, plunging his tongue into my mouth as he thrusts until he’s completely inside me.

The kiss gets hotter and the dragon inside him threatens to take over. I can hear it in every frenzied groan, feel it with every greedy thrust. Asher pulls my hands free from his body, gripping my wrist tightly and jerking my arms upwards. I don’t even try to resist when he binds them in the golden shackles above my head. I want him to lose control, I love it. I’m all his.

The dragon’s satisfied groan reverberates through Asher’s body into mine as he sits up on his knees and stares down at me, eyes flaring almost as much as the tattoo on his chest and brand on my thigh. My arms are stretched to their limits, the cuffs digging into my wrists as he drives deeper inside me, gripping my ass harshly. If he’s trying to hold back, he’s definitely failing.

I’ve always loved how much attention he gives my breasts when he fucks me. His mouth is so hot on my nipples, that flicking tongue unraveling me as I spread my legs wider. Flames lap at the peripheral of my vision as I writhe, unable to hold back anymore. A violent shudder rolls through my body and I buck against him.

“Lindy?” Something isn’t right. “No!”

The pleasure doesn’t subside, it just keeps going and I let out a guttural howl. The sensation of the gold shackles on my wrists disappears, along with the feeling of his body pinning mine to the bed. I can’t see the lair anymore, can’t feel Asher as I try to reach out for him. I can’t even feel my own hands, can’t hear my own voice moaning his name.

Fire. At first I think it’s swirling around my body, but there’s nothing left of me to surround. I am the white hot heat of a thousand suns. I am the spark that turns to flame, the ember that will never be extinguished. I am the Inferno, I always have been. And nothing can change that now.

Asher’s frantic voice pulls me back to reality. My hands are free from their restraints and wrapped around his shoulders, clinging to him almost as desperately as he’s clinging to me.

“Where did you go?” Asher asks, his shaking lips brushing across mine.

“I don’t know.”

He’s still inside me, the dragon’s lust unquenched. But my Asher, my frightened boy hunting alone in the dark, those are the dark eyes searching mine for reassurance as his strong arms pull my body tightly against his chest. They both need their release. My lips on his throat distract Asher from his fears and he drives upwards.

“You are mine,” he snarls in his Dragon voice, thrusting wildly.

“Always,” I whisper into his ear and hang on for the ride.

It rips through him suddenly and he shudders against me, growling like the beast that he is. He’s panting when it’s over, his forehead resting on mine.

“Fuck,” he groans, sinking his head into my shoulder. His shoulder muscles twitch beneath my hands. Oh crap. “I’m going to shift.” Asher pulls out of me, but won’t let go. “I don’t want to… Fuck!”

He pushes me away at the last instant, but not far away enough to keep me safe from the flames of his transformation. They can’t hurt me now, I doubt they ever could have. The Dragon’s head lifts out of the fiery vortex, roaring loudly in frustration as flames erupt from his throat. The fire lingers and the Dragon disappears as quickly as it emerged.

Asher strides toward me, still naked and hard as a rock. I’m in his arms and he’s back between my legs in a heartbeat. He just holds me while he calms down, kissing every part of me that he can get to without letting me go as he grows softer inside of me.

“You disappeared,” he chokes. “Again. Will it always be that way?”

“I hope not. I don’t think so.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’d be great if I wasn’t so exhausted,” I yawn, letting my head slump against his chest. I’ve been awake for more than 24 hours.

Asher lays us down on the bed, curling his body around mine. “Rest,” he says, kissing the crown of my head. “I’ll be right here waiting.”

“You need to rest too, Ash.”

“I’ve been unconscious for the last three thousand years. I’ll be fine.”

“But if you don’t fall asleep with me, we won’t find out if we still get to dream together.”

Asher huffs and snuggles closer. I try to outlast him, but I don’t have a chance.

Chapter Twelve

Asher groans in his sleep, jerking as he rolls over.
Thank you.
I’ve been laying here awake for a half an hour, unwilling to disturb him by wiggling out from under his heavy arm across my chest.

There is no barrier keeping me away from the Inferno now, and all the power that comes with it. Gathering up the energy needed to make a fireball is nearly effortless. I let it grow between my palms until it’s bigger than a beach ball and launch it into the air.

It flies a little to the left and doesn’t quite hit the ceiling, but it’s a good start. Fireballs are incredibly unpredictable and most witches don’t bother with them. I call it back to me and let the energy absorb back into my hands, flowing through my forearms and into the gold surface beneath me. I bet I can make a bigger one. Hell, I bet I can pick what color it is.

“I’ve never seen a pure blue one before,” Asher says a few minutes later, startling me.

“Geez!” I gasp, my concentration shattering along with the fireball as blue sparks rain down on us. “How long have you been watching me?”

“Three fireballs now. Please don’t scorch my ceiling unless you can remove the char.” Ash kisses the tip of my nose before leaping to his feet. “I need to stretch.”

“Huh?” The entire chamber sparkles brightly, the flames of his transformation reflecting off the treasure. “Oh.”

He stretches his body one half at a time, kind of like a cat, not that I’d ever tell him that.

“Did you ever take things from wizards?” I ask him, digging my hand down into the golden pebbles at my side, seeking out the source of power that makes my fingertips tingle.

“Yes.” Ash shifts back to human, probably sensing his treasure being threatened.

I fish out a strange piece of metal pulsating with a fiery energy. It’s a flat, black medallion with a loop on one side. I stick my middle finger through it and the disk presses firmly against my palm. “There might be some crazy ancient valuable stuff in here that I’m going to want.”

Asher strides over and takes me by the wrist, bring my hand up to inspect and grazing his fingers over the metal. It glows red, and I can sense the piece sinter together fully, growing harder against my skin.

“This should be yours,” Asher murmurs, closing my hand around the artifact.

“Where did you get it?”

“I have no idea where that came from. I found this hoard when I was twelve. I believe it belonged to one of my long dead and forgotten grandparents.”

“How did you find it?”

“It called to me when I was flying over. It’s not unusual. Most dragon hoards are generational. This has been here for millennia before I was born.”

“Wow.”

“There’s something else you should have, Lindy” he says, looking around the room at the different piles. “But I’m not quite sure where it is.”

“Is this place organized in any particular way?”

“Not really. Stuff gets older the deeper you go,” he calls out, rummaging through a pile near the back of the chamber. “Here.”

Grinning, he runs back over to me and holds out his hand. It’s a bracelet, gold of course, with four carved jewels across the top. He doesn’t even tell me how it works, I can see it. I never knew witches could see spell’s but now that I can it’s so obvious. “A portal bracelet.”

“Yes.” Ash slides it over my hand. “The sunstone will bring you back here.”

“And the black sapphire will bring me right to your side, wherever you are.”

“You catch on quickly,” he laughs.

“The lapis will take me anywhere I want to go Uptop, and the emerald is for moving around Underground. It works best if you know the place well.”

“Right. I don’t know what happens now, where you’ll end up. Where
we’ll
end up. But I want you to be able to get back here quickly if you need to.”

“Thank you. I love it,” I reply. He kisses me, softly at first, but I know his body well enough to see where this is headed. Unfortunately, I have to stop him. “Asher, I need to ask you something.”

“Anything,” he breathes, his hungry mouth working its way lower.

“Why aren’t you worried?” I say softly, running my fingers through his hair.

His lips still against my collarbone. “About what?”

“You know what I’m talking about, Ash. Renewal Day. The ancient curse that could trap you again.”

“It won’t.”

“But why are you so sure?”

Ash lets out an exasperated sigh, breaking away from me. His face it guilty, he’s clearly hiding something. “Because I won’t let it.”

“I can fix this now, I’m positive.”

“Lindy…”

“I can see the curse, Ash. Well, it’s not really even a curse, it’s like a block. A giant boulder in a river, rerouting the energy around you.”

“Stop looking at it,” he orders.

“I can’t unsee it now. I can break it, I don’t even think it will be that difficult, but I need the other witches and I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it here. Maybe if we-”

“Absolutely not.”

“You didn’t even let me finish,” I snap, “Maybe if we go-”

“There won’t be a Renewal Day Celebration, Lindy.”

“What?”

“I won’t let it happen. If they can’t renew the binding, the last trace of it will crumble and fade away.”

“But Asher, how would you stop it?”

“At first, I wasn’t sure, but I figured it would involve burning the castle to the ground once all those awful Faeries and spell casters are inside.”

“My father is one of those spell casters,” I remind him.

“The man that disowned you? Yeah, I thought about that.”

“It should really go without saying that I don’t want you to burn my dad to death. Just because I used to cry a lot when I was a kid-”

“Cry? I don’t think there’s a strong enough word for the way I used to find you, curled up in a corner, sobbing so hard you could barely breathe.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Well, if you’d like to reconcile with anyone, find a way to pull them Uptop against their will.”

“Why?”

“Because there won’t be an Underground for much longer. I’m going to destroy it. Well, let it fill up with rocks and sand so nothing happens to the human city above.”

“What?”

“That cave system would have naturally filled in itself a long time ago without a series of dams and supports. A physical system, no magic involved.”

“I’ve never heard of that.”

“No one has. My father told me before he went off to war, just in case. If I pull it all down, the Fae would have to use up most of their magic to just to save themselves, assuming they survive.”

“But all those people…”

“Stop calling them people. They aren’t.”

“Ash, you’ve never even seen the Underground, or anyone who lives there.”

“And I never will. We’ll find a way to evacuate somehow.”

“No, we won’t, because this isn’t happening. I’m going to seal in my coven, make it officially mine, and we’ll unbind you.”

“It’s too risky.”

“Did you not notice the giant, flaming, power-awakening orgasm I had back there? My magic is fixed.”

“For how long? We share a familiar glance and I understand what he’s getting at. This won’t last. Will it work just as well the next time? We still have a lot to figure out about how all of this works.

“Your powers are all wonky, too, Asher!”

“I’ll barely need any. It’s a delicate system, I’m surprised it hasn’t failed already.”

“Ash, for all you know, Arralt replaced those supports a thousand years ago and it won’t work.”

“Then I guess we’re back to firebombing Renewal Day, then,” he snaps, his eyes narrowed. “That option was always the most appealing.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this. I can’t believe you would even consider hurting all those people. I don’t think you have it in you.”

“I certainly do. If it means keeping you safe, staying with you forever, then I can definitely do it. I would do anything to have that, Lindy, I don’t care what it takes or who suffers.
Anything.
”

Well, this sure went downhill fast. It sounds like he’s trying to convince himself more than me. Asher might be a Dragon, but he’s my Dragon and he isn’t a murderer. He’ll fly in there and find all those happy people dancing and celebrating. Little kids. Old women that have been hanging on for years just to see this day.

Once he sees it in person, he won’t be able to go through with it, but by the time he figures that out it will be too late. And I’m sure Arralt knows his weaknesses better than we do. It will be a disaster.

But I can’t argue with him, that will just push him away. All Asher has seen of this world,
my
world, has only angered him more, made him more reluctant to claim his rightful place on the throne. He needs to see the good stuff, too.

“Fine,” I say, surprising him.

“Fine?”

“Yeah. But one condition. You need to see the Underground first.”

“I don’t want to see it. I want to remember it the way it was.”

“You can’t stay in the past.”

“I’m moving forward, just not the way you thought I would.”

“I want you to see my home. Where I grew up. I need you to know what you’re taking away from me.”

“Nice try, Lindy,” he laughs. “It pains me to do this to you, but there is no other way.”

“I’m asking you to do this. Begging you.”

I can see his resolve crumble. “If I go down there, Arralt and this SIGMA you’re all so worried about will sense my return and attack us. I can’t do this for you, not until we’re sure our powers will last.”

“Yes, you can.” I pull out the portal bracelet. “
When
we go, I can hide us, but you can see it just fine from right here.”

“How?”

My finger traces the emerald, circling outward in a ring of smoke. “Like this.” I let out a puff of air and the smoke clears away, revealing the window I’ve created so we can look at the Underground Forest. It’s so green and lively, with birds chirping, water flowing, and flowers blooming.

“This can’t be…”

“It is. The Underground is basically an oasis. It was difficult for me to leave this when I moved Uptop. You forget that you’re in the desert down there.”

“But… how?”

A lion maned fairy boy runs past us, tears streaking down his face as his parents chase after him. “The Fae. They had to leave their forests when Magic broke, so they made their own. It’s magnificent.”

Asher is dumbfounded, curiously watching the fairy parents chastising their progeny. The mother wipes his tears away as the father tries to distract him by making a tree grow taller. “That child… What’s wrong with him? Why does he keep pulling away from his mother?”

“He’s probably not accustomed to her yet.”

“Accustomed to his own mother?”

“Yeah, he looks like he’s around three. They probably just took him.”

“Took him from where?”

“His human parents,” I reply, unsure why Asher is so confused.

“That child is human?”

“He was. Now he’s one of the Fae.”

“How?”

“That’s where faeries come from, Asher,” I laugh.

“No. Fairies are born from fairy mothers, like every other form of life, magical or otherwise.”

“The Fae can’t reproduce. They convert humans, that’s the way it’s always been,” I explain. Based on Asher’s expression, it hasn’t. “Right?”

“No,” he whispers. “No, that is most certainly not the way it’s always been.”

“Oh. They can’t have their own children now, Asher. This is the only way.”

“So you’re telling me that every single one of these fairies are humans?”

“Well, not anymore.”

“But that’s what they are. Little human toddlers, snatched from their human mothers, brought down below and… converted.”