Page 67 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
“I didn’t.” Navin’s voice was strained. “It just came to me.”
“Well, we know the songs work,” Svenja called, glancing out at the cliffs.
“But we still needed the dragon,” Timon countered. “The songs aren’t enough on their own.”
Navin wrapped his coat around me, and I shrugged it on, stepping out from behind him.
“And what if something happens to the dragon?” Kian cut in. “What if all the Silver Wolves stay in their human forms and Haestas decides she’d rather hunt for deer than turn our enemies to ashes? What then?”
Ora worried their lip, looking out to sea. “We need both,” they said, distracted as they repeated what was already said. “And we need all of our songs...” Their words died off as they looked at each of us in turn.
“What is it?”
They whirled, searching more frantically. “Where is Asha?”
And then I remembered her scream.
Briar
I SAUNTERED INTO THE OFFICE IN A SHEER GOSSAMER GOWN, wearing nothing beneath the translucent fabric apart from a thigh belt and a scabbard. Maez sat atop a stool in the corner, sharpening her dagger. I knew blade sharpening was something she could easily do with magic, but I guessed the methodical action was more out of habit than necessity.
Shick, shick, shick... The sharpening stopped when she lifted her gaze and saw what I was wearing.
“I want you to bring me someone,” I demanded, placing my hands on my hips.
“Bring you someone?” she repeated, confused.
I pointedly pulled open the high slit of my dress and stuck my leg out, more prominently displaying the belt holding a single knife against my bare thigh. “Someone deserving of my knife. I need to practice.”
“You temptress.” Maez’s eyes filled with green sparks, her magic delighting in my request. “Whatever tricks do you have up your sleeve?”
“I don’t want your magic depleted, darling,” I crooned, speaking directly to Maez’s power. Lust clouded her gaze at my tone. “Bring me someone to replenish you with. Let me feed your power.”
Wicked gratification filled her face as a smug expression crossed mine. I wanted her to see how well I knew her,all of her, how well I embraced that darkness, too.
“So you want to play, Briar?”
I licked my canine tooth, knowing how much I was turning her on. “I do.”
Maez stood, stretching her neck side to side, before sheathing her sharpened dagger. She wandered to her desk and perched, gripping the edges tightly. “Then let’s play.”
With a crack of green lightning, a tall, stout man appeared in the space between us. He landed on his feet, hands wide, knees bent as if catching himself from falling.
I sniffed the air, assessing my prey. “A Wolf. Ice judging by the blond hair and the frost still clinging to his boots,” I announced to Maez. The man looked between us, dumbfounded, clearly wondering if this was real or a nightmare. My eyes dropped to the weapons on his belt. “A soldier.” I scented the ale seeping off him. “And a drunkard. Possibly a defector.” My playful gaze slid to Maez. “Was he a bad man?”
She cocked her head. “Does it matter?”
Before I could reply, recognition sparked in his eyes and then a moment later in mine.
“You,” he said, brows pinching. “You—you’re the Princess. You’re supposed to be dead. Nero said—”
“You’re one of the soldiers who took me from Taigos,” I recalled, remembering his thick blond beard and ruddy cheeks, the same stale breath as in the carriage I was tied up and brought to Nero’s castle in. “You delivered me to Highwick.”
“He fled to the mountains after Ingrid’s death,” Maez said mildly. “Now he serves no throne, only the bottom of every barrel of ale. Too cowardly to fight in the Taigosi civil war, hmm? Care to apologize to my mate?”
“Let me handle him.” My voice was colored the shade of death.
Maez’s smile stretched wider.Oh how she loved when I played her games. Oh how I would have her playing mine all night long once I finished off this man.
