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Stavrok reached out for my arm, squeezing painfully. “Where?”
I tugged my arm away from him and although I couldn’t move far, he got the message and let go.
“I don’t know. There was a stony path I’ve never seen before. The creek leading out of the castle. We have to go.” I stumbled toward the door. “He won’t last the night.”
The party of family and friends followed me as we raced for the front door.
“Do we fly?” Stavrok asked me.
I wasn’t sure. I didn’t even know which way we were going. “I don’t know. Dad and Iain flew, so perhaps it would be faster...”
Stavrok began to undress, throwing his clothes to the floor. All the men around me prepared themselves to shift.
“I’m coming with you,” I said, pulling off my boots. “You won’t find him without me.”
None of the men around me argued, though I could tell they were hesitant to take me.
“Come on,” I said, pushing the last of my own warm clothes to the ground as the servants pulled open the front door and a blast of icy cold air hit me in the face. I stifled a sigh. This weather would take some getting used to, again.
Then I thought of Iain, unprotected and in danger of dying. No time to lose.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter 3.
IAIN.
I must have fallen asleep again, because I had to be dreaming if I was hearing things now. I’d heard Veronica’s voice but there was no way she was here.
“It’s just your own mind, idiot,” I chastised myself. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. In fact, I’d promised myself I wouldn’t. But between the cold, the hunger and the pain, I probably hadn’t had much fight left in me. At least no one was here to see me failing.
But why hadn’t anyone found me yet? Where was Damon? I’d heard him yell out after the house had caved in on us, something about going for help. But that could have been a dream, too.
My whole body was shivering again, from my lips and chattering teeth to my shaking shoulders. Even my pale white, bloodless fingers seemed to be frozen.
I didn’t have clothes, or blankets, but I’d managed to pull over some rough hessian bags to cover my chest and leg a little. I wasn’t sure it was doing much, but it was better than nothing.
My leg wasn’t throbbing anymore, which was kind of a relief, though part of me knew that was a bad thing. The nerves were dead, or there was no blood flow any longer. Either way, I doubted I was getting out of here alive.
And even if I did, would I be looking at life without my leg?
I closed my eyes and dreamed of the only thing that ever gave me any peace. Veronica.
The dragon daughter herself. A princess.
We’d grown up together, as cousins. We’d always been told that my father Stavrok and Lucy, Veronica’s mom, were first cousins.
She was seven years younger than me so when I turned eighteen and she was only eleven, the strange feelings I began to feel toward her made me feel sick. I pushed her away. Hard.
I taunted her and played tricks on her. I was mean, even as she got older. By the time she was sixteen, she hated me.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after her sixteenth birthday that I discovered two things.
One, that the feelings I’d been fighting against for five years were the result of our fated mate bond, and two... that she wasn’t really my cousin.
I’d used the blood relative excuse for years as to why finding Veronica attractive was wrong. Even though second cousins wasn’t considered a close relationship, I convinced myself it was disgusting.
But then, after an offhand comment from Lucy, I realized that my father had adopted her as his cousin. My grandparents and Veronica’s grandparents had been friends, so when they’d all died, Dad had taken Lucy into the castle and cared for her as he would a younger sister.
