Page 169 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Resting on the palm of her hand was an orb. Something about the orb tickled my memory.
No, the orb wasn’t important.Nothing was important when I could finally grasp the truth of who I was.
A warrior who bowed before his true queen. The queen for all the realms.
She lifted her chin in acknowledgment. “Who am I?”
“Leanora,” I answered.
“What am I?”
“Tenebris, first of yourkind.”
Her smile grew, lighting those pretty gray eyes. But they were the wrong eyes. The wrong smile. The wrong voice. The wrong female.
I couldn’t shake that notion of wrongness. Didn’t have to when I remembered who I was. What my queen had made. I was her loyal warrior, no longer chained to laws and ideals of the dragons.
“Be a good pet and hold this for me,” she said, handing me the orb.
It felt wrong. Holding this object that quaked with unrestrained power. Why did it feel so wrong? As if I shouldn’t be holding it, but . . .
My queen entrusted me to hold it so that was what I’d do.
The lirio parted, allowing their queen, our queen to pass. I followed a few steps behind, my instincts on high alert of any incoming threats.
There was a barrier, though. An invisible barrier that stood between my queen and what she wanted. It felt familiar, like a part of me I’d forgotten. I sniffed the air, scenting that same familiarity embedded in my bones and soul.
I held my palm to the shield and imagined it breaking. A crack formed, and Leanora smiled. Her hand grazed my face, and that wrongness flooded my veins. It wasn’t her touch I wanted.
Leanora called her magic and tore that crack farther until we could walk through it. That familiar scent enveloped me, drew me toward a dragon, whose large head stood mighty several feet above me. Her golden eyes watched me, seemed to see through me, into me. She was breathtaking and lethal, a majestic green face with large yellow horns. Her tail, lined with sharp spikes, swished in agitation. Scales patterned inblack and green covered her body and enormous black wings fanned out. As beautiful as she was, she was a liar—as deceitful as the rest of her kind. Plumes of white smoke flared from her nostrils.
I called out my sword, ready to defend my queen. She patted my cheek, and I flinched. Her eyes narrowed, and again, she told me of the things taken from me. From us. The many wrongs these dragons had done against us—the mages and fae.
“Let’s see if we can get your mate to cooperate as well,” Leanora said.
My mate. I searched for her in the foggy sea of familiar faces. And there she was; my mate. With her kindness and resilience despite her human frailty. The one whose soul danced with mine.
Amused, Leanora watched as I put away my sword to draw closer to my mate. My canines elongated as I sniffed her face, her throat. Her blood sang to me, a craving I didn’t just want but needed. My queen’s soft encouragement filled my ears, urging me to take what was mine. When I moved my mate’s head to the side, ready to dig my canines into her soft flesh, I stilled and took in the way her breath hitched, the way her pretty eyes searched mine.
I knew her.Recognized her.
With her name on my lips, I moved to cup her face when a male slammed into me. I took this male, my enemy, in. The way his whole body shook and his eyes darkened. His anger and fear filled my nostrils, but it was the defensive position he took in front of my mate that unfurled something devastating and poisoning inside me.
She was my mate. Mine to protect. Not his. Not anyone’s.
He held his sword while his smoke magic trailed towardme, burning my hand when it made contact. I hissed, circling this male whose eyes widened in a silent plea. “Kill,”Leanora demanded in my ear.Kill.The silent command had me lunging, dagger and fangs the only weapons I needed. I sliced through his shirt and across his skin, enough to draw blood but not a lethal blow. Still, he kept himself between my mate and me, his sword ready to strike.
“You know who I am,” the male said.
I angled my head to the side, considering his words. When my mate put her hand on his shoulder, I growled. Leanora used that jealousy to urge me to kill the male. Instead, I stilled, waiting to see what my mate did as she touched another male. Rather than stand by his side, she inched closer to me, her features open with what looked like love. Although I scented fear, it didn’t come from her. She wasn’t afraid of me.
I held my hand toward her, and she took it. Then it was just us. My mate and me. She extended her neck to the side and pushed the thick tendrils of her red hair out of the way.
“My mate,” she whispered, a pretty smile painting her pink lips while her worried eyes studied my face. “I want to feel your teeth on me.”
I licked my lips, pushed my face against her throat, and licked her warm skin. Her arms wrapped around my neck while her hands held the back of my head. I almost dropped the orb, wanting to feel her chest against my own, but held it instead because it was what my queen asked of me. My queen, who’d brought me to my mate.
“Elias,” she said, her voice like a tender caress. “My love.”
