Page 11 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
“Ash…” Bella whispered. “Careful…”
I was so steamed that I hadn’t noticed that the lumbering mountain of a man was standing right next to me, fuming at my master. I felt as insignificant as I ever had in my life. The raw power in the prince fumed like a geyser. He had magic. He was beyond wealthy, and he had killed men with his own bare hands. As completely terrified as I was, I had to admit to myself that part of me liked being beside him. He was as dangerous as the devil, but at that moment, he made me feel like someone had my back. Someone was supporting me against the man who’d beaten me more times than I could count—and I liked it.
“You would sell the Gold-Marked to someone else, for… profit?” The prince was roaring with rage. I could hear it building deep in his powerful chest.
“So?” Garris forced the words out. He sounded more like his cocky, arrogant self, and I was loving it. “What was the crown gonna pay? Five hundred royals? She used magic! She should be worth five thousand!”
“You worm…” As the Blaze Prince said that, he raised his arm, and I could immediately feel the heat emanating from it. His hand, covered in layers of black steel, glowed. His fingertips burned with a fiery golden orange light, and as he clenched it into a fist, flames erupted from its top and bottom.
Bella and I inched backward as the walls of the round rock room were bathed in the bright, intense light from his hand.
As the fiery flames poured out from his hand, burning into long lines toward the ground and ceiling, I saw there was something within the flames. And when the flames and light died down, and Garris looked like he wanted to shrivel up into nothing, a marvelous staff appeared in the prince’s hand.
Its top was a marvelously sculpted bird’s head. Its eyes shimmering rubies, its sharp beak was a white crusted jewel, and its fiery red feathers spread sharply in two fans for its wings. The staff was gold from tip to bottom, streams of red gemstone like lava snaked down it.
The staff’s ruby eyes sparkled as he held it up before Garris, and I was so entranced by the spectacle of it—hell, I’d never seen magic before that day—I didn’t notice the elderly man with the age spots slip out the door until it closed behind him.
“I’ll give you a good deal,” Garris whimpered.
“A good deal, eh?” The prince’s words seemed laced with blazing fire.
I stood there, still completely nude, covering my body the best I could while the Blaze Prince pointed the tip of his red-bird staff directly at Garris, hovering only inches from his face. Garris poured sweat, and his gaze was fixated upon the staff’s glowing ruby eyes.
“Two thousand royals,” Garris’ voice trembled. He was a bastard, but he coveted money more than anything, so he was sure as hell going to try to get the best deal he could.
“Two thousand, eh?” The prince sounded deep in thought, letting a moment slip by as his staff’s tip was held like a statue at Garris.
I was so caught up in the conversation I didn’t really grasp that the infamous, murderous Blaze Prince was trying to buy me. To take me with him to Odiun knows where, and probably be tortured to death.
Garris licked his lips at the thought of the payment, but his smirk dropped to a sickly frown.
Flames roared down his staff from his handhold on it to the fire-bird’s tip, casting a bright light onto Garris’ face. “How about ten, instead?”
“Ten?” Garris’ jaw dropped nearly to his chest, and his slick brow furrowed. “You are joking…”
The Blaze Prince didn’t respond, but instead lowered his staff and took lumbering steps toward Garris, who cowered back against the wall of the cave. His lips quivered, and the expression on his face showed he was in an absolute struggle between bitter anger and overwhelming fear.
“You’re lucky I don’t have my dragon burn your entire operation to the fucking ground.”
Garris swallowed hard. The Blaze Prince hunched his back and lowered his wolf mask to look squarely into my master’s eyes.
“For trying to sell the Gold-Marked before our queen would give you a fair price for such a young girl? Yes, you’re lucky I don’t incinerate your whole forge, take her, and send your other slaves unshackled, running for their freedom.”
Garris’s anger overtook his shaking cowardice. “One thousand…?”
“Five,” the prince spat back quickly. He then pulled back, turned his head, and whistled loudly. The ringing whistle filled the air with a perfect tune, followed by the ear-piercing roar of the fearsome dragon just outside the forge. I’d never heard anything roar like that before. The roar filled the room, vibrating off the walls, sending dust and tools falling to the stone floor. I’d heard dragons far, far away, up in the sky, but nothing like that. Yet, as small as I felt at the sound of the beast, the thought of riding on the back of one sent a curve on the side of my lips. It didn’t only sound like death and destruction to me; it sounded like—freedom.
The prince pulled a single coin from his pocket and held it out. A five royal coin.
What a slap in the face to Garris. I’d never seen him sulk like this before. I absolutely loved it.
“Take the coin. Trust me, Garris Bardenal, originally of Coppertown, son to two aristocrats, and who’s got two childrenout drifting in the world. If you want to keep your little life just the way it is… take the coin.”
The prince’s words were as hard as iron, as cold as a wintry blizzard, and made the adrenaline rush through my veins like I’d just been chased by a tiger. I’d never heard anyone talk like that to him, and I loved every bit of every second of it.
The prince was so powerful I couldn’t believe my eyes. Butterflies erupted in my stomach. I’ve never felt the presence of a man so utterly powerful… to belittle and humiliate Garris like that. It was about more than coin; it was about power.
As I was filled with complete elation—hugging Bella, partly out of the excitement of my master’s shame, and partly just to keep fucking warm—a new fear gripped me as the coin exchanged hands… I was about to have a new master. Possibly the most feared man in all of Allovan just bought me.
