Dragons Against Them (Kingdoms of Fire and Ice #2)(19)

Unlike the men at her castle who wore tunics and armor or robes and furs, Jaxon wore neither. His pants looked to be of the softest of leathers, colored a deep brown, and fit like a second skin to his long, lean legs. The shirt he wore was ivory in color and of a different fashion from anything she’d seen before. There were no buttons or strings, only clean lines and a collar that formed a V at his chest, offering a glimpse of fine russet hair which matched that of his thick, wavy locks. Today those locks were no longer pulled back from his face but hung loose upon his shoulders, still wet from an early morning bathe, and his feet were yet bare.

“Now, before ye jump up and start screaming about your sleeping here, Princess, let me first say two things. One, the sleeping potion was to protect, not harm ye, and two, I did no’ lay so much as a finger upon your snowy white skin.”

“You drugged me? Do you have any idea—”

“How that makes ye feel? No. But had I no’ placed ye in my own bed, a floor in another hut is where you would have slept last night. And likely not alone.”

He rose to his full height, drawing her gaze along with him. And a fine specimen he was. Fire rushed to her cheeks. “Perhaps I would have preferred the floor.”

“Aye, but you would no’ have enjoyed the company. Or so I have heard.” He crossed the room, his stride undeterred by her petulance, and stopped to kneel before her. The teasing look vanished from his countenance. “What do ye remember from yesterday, lass?”

Rosalind tried to look away from his gaze, from the dim glow of his russet eye and the clouded look of his other, but again found she could not. “I remember the flight and the arrows, the wall and how you somehow flew straight through it—how were we able to pass through solid rock?”

“The rock is but a trick of the eye. There exists a cavern leading to Edana, hidden from view by a spell of illusion cast by those among us who are skilled in such ways.”

She frowned. “But what would keep Forath’s guards from following your path?”

“They never approach the cavern, as wards have been cast all around its location to bring feelings of unease and fear to anyone—man or beast—who draws near it. Tell me, what else do you remember?”

Rosalind squirmed beneath his stare, the space around them beginning to feel far too small. “We flew a short distance beyond there, and landed in a meadow at the edge of a wide field. You both returned to human form, offered me a drink of water, and—”

She narrowed her eyes. The water. It must have been tainted.

“And how do ye feel?” Still his gaze commanded her attention, just as his questions demanded her answers be voiced. Was she under a spell even now?

“Sore. Stiff. Angry.”

Jaxon responded with deep, rolling laughter. “I like a woman who is no’ afraid to speak her mind.”

“Oh? And here I thought that was perhaps why you had drugged me—to keep me from speaking my mind sooner.”

“No, it was to keep you from seeing the path to Weston. I suggested a blindfold, but the others thought this a wiser option.”

“Weston?” Rosalind knew of no such place.

“Come, I will show you. We will visit the well first, so you may cleanse the dirt from your hands and face. I have no clean clothes to offer ye, as we are hardly alike in size, but my mother is sure to have a gown ye may borrow.”

He rose to his feet and offered her a large, calloused hand—a welcome change from the usual incessant royal pretenses offered by the servants in her former life. Though her private bathing quarters she did indeed miss. And while she was still furious at being drugged and carried off like a hunter’s bounty, they were petty matters in comparison to the throne she sought to reclaim.

Magic—it was magic she sought, which could send Adelaide back to wherever she’d come from. Until such magic was found, Rosalind would endure what she must to acquire it. Hopefully, Jaxon would lead her to another in their clan able to do more than transform into a dragon and convince unsuspecting foreign lasses to drink sleeping potions.

She placed a hand in his. “Your mother? Is she the town seamstress?”

Jaxon chuckled, the sound less bold than before as he helped her to her feet. “No, and I dare say ye should no’ address her in that way if ye wish to remain among us.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

A flash of white greeted her as his smile widened. “’Tis no’ the way to address our queen.”





Chapter 10





Zayne stood in the scroll room at Forath Castle, reading the message he’d penned for his mother. It was answers he sought today, as he was certain Adelaide would soon rise and demand to know them as well. Answers that she rightfully deserved and might help to soothe her worry.

Footsteps sounded in the hall, and Zayne quickly rolled the parchment closed to keep his inquiries from view.

“Homesick so soon?”

He held his tongue at Tristan’s taunting. Instead, he secured the scroll’s edge with melted wax, pressed his royal seal into the pliable red substance, and handed it to the castle’s head scribe before finally turning to address the son of his royal host.

“Wherever Princess Adelaide resides, so too becomes my home. My mother, however, I do miss dearly when I am away.”

He offered Tristan a cursory smile and walked from the room. Much to his chagrin, Addie’s twin fell in step beside him.