Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

Heat blossomed so quickly that I let out a cry and covered my head with my arms. Scalding air boiled against my skin and singed my lungs, and I heard cursing from Callum. More from the driver’s seat, followed by a series of impacts that rocked the vehicle.

At least the driver was still alive, though he might not be for long. Even if he made it out, it took a lot to stop one of these custom armored cars, so whoever attacked us probably wasn’t that concerned about loss of life.

Possibly a fire and an earth elemental working together?

I jabbed at the button to release my seatbelt just as dark smoke covered the windows, obscuring my view. We had no way of knowing what was happening outside, only that it was getting hotter by the second, and if we stayed inside the car, our attackers could basically use it like a giant air fryer.

Panic sent me scrabbling for the door handle, but it refused to budge, and I was about to start kicking at the window when something grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to the floor.

I picked up my head and risked a glance, and found a furious dragon shifter looking back at me. The rage in his eyes matched the fire crackling around us as he knelt beside me and glared at the doors.

“Electric security locks,” he said grimly. “They engage when the vehicle stops, and now they aren’t getting power from the battery.”

I glanced at the rear of the car, and he shook his head quickly. “There’s an armored bulkhead behind the seats. Lock can only be disengaged by the driver.”

Who, by this point, had either escaped or was dead.

“Windows?” I choked out.

“Only the front windows are operational.”

All that security, and now it was little more than a death trap.

Smoke had begun to filter in from the outside as the heat grew more intense. The fumes penetrated my lungs, bringing on a fit of painful coughing as involuntary tears rolled down my cheeks.

“Raine!” Callum swore, stripped off his jacket, and pressed it into my hands. “Breathe through this. And stay down!” His face had gone nearly feral with rage and frustration, and something shifted even as he crouched there with his eyes on mine.

I could only stare back, snared by the realization that even though I was looking into the eyes of the man, it was the dragon looking back at me—a possessive creature of fire and fury who would never consent to being caged.

“I won’t let us die here,” he promised.

Smoke clogged my lungs, but I managed to nod. “I know,” I rasped hoarsely, and then watched as he rose into a crouch and threw himself against the locked door.

The interior molding shattered under the power of his assault, but the door itself did not budge, and Callum let out a snarl of fury as he pulled back to hit it again. Each time, the actual frame of the vehicle groaned, but still the door held firm. It had been built to withstand rollovers, bullets, collisions, and possibly anti-tank missiles, so even Callum’s rage could not break through. Not in his human form.

But he refused to admit defeat. His shirt was ruined and his skin torn, but he gathered himself once more, muscles bunching and then uncoiling explosively as he launched himself forward… just as the door was forcibly ripped off the vehicle and thrown to the side.

Callum flew out, hit the concrete and skidded at least ten feet with the force of his charge. But he didn’t run. He rolled to his feet, darted back, and grabbed my arm. Strangely, the flames had all but died, but I still flinched as he pulled me out, dragging me away from the car and all but carrying me out of the street and onto the curb. The moment my feet hit the sidewalk, he pinned me against the side of the building and leaned in. Caged me with his arms and his height, placing his entire bulk between me and the smoking SUV.

My chest was still heaving, drawing in deep, rasping breaths of smoke-tainted air that felt like heaven after the hell we’d just escaped. It seemed safe enough, so I let the jacket fall from my face and leaned my head back against the wall of the building behind me.

Callum, too, was breathing hard, but his face was an iron mask, showing no emotion despite what had to be intense pain from his shoulder. His black shirt was visibly wet with blood, and I winced as I contemplated the extent of the injuries it must be hiding.

If I hadn’t been so utterly shell-shocked, I probably never would have found the courage or audacity to touch him, but I didn’t stop to think. Just reached out, touched his arm, and peeled back the edge of the torn fabric to reveal shredded skin, rapidly swelling bruises, and bleeding wounds…

A sound of horror escaped my throat.

“Raine, no.” Callum’s voice was rough, pained. “It’ll be fine. I heal quickly.”

I risked looking up, not even knowing what I hoped to see. But once I met those intense amber eyes, I couldn’t look away.

They burned. Not with fire, not with fury or frustration, but with relief. The dragon was relieved .

“We’re okay,” he said, in a tone that was gentle and yet utterly unyielding. “We survived.”

I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to reassure me or himself. Did dragons need reassuring? Would they admit it if they did? And exactly how much smoke had I inhaled?

The screech of brakes and the blaring of horns began to intrude on my awareness, even over the roaring in my own ears. I pushed against Callum’s chest, and after a moment of hesitation, he dropped his arms, allowing me to step out from behind him to see who had saved us from almost certain death…

My jaw dropped.

A dragon stood in the middle of Sheridan Avenue.

His scales were a deep, fiery red, and while his dragon form appeared to be smaller than Callum’s, he did not seem appreciably less deadly. His body was sleek and muscular, with spikes that flared down the length of his neck, and armored plates covering his chest and belly. The head that loomed over us was slender, but had longer fangs, and featured four wickedly sharp horns over pointed ears. His tail whipped back and forth like a cat’s, and in one clawed foot, he held the ruined door he’d ripped from the SUV.

I finally managed to recover my powers of speech long enough to form a sentence. “Who is that?”

Callum moved to stand beside me and let out a sigh that sounded simultaneously annoyed and aggrieved. “That,” he informed me reluctantly, “is my brother.”

I was still gaping up at the red dragon when he bent his neck, brought those terrifying teeth within an arm’s length of my face, and grinned.

Followed by a very deliberate wink.

“That’s not Declan,” I declared firmly, fighting the urge to smack the smug grin off the giant lizard’s face. Not only had he just saved my life, but it would be an incredibly stupid way to die.

Callum raised a decidedly unimpressed eyebrow at our savior. “Stop flirting with my staff, or I’m going to tell Mother you’ve gotten bored again.”

The red dragon recoiled with a look of exaggerated horror.

“You are correct,” Callum confirmed. “That’s Ryker. He’s been posing as my driver ever since I arrived. We were hoping to keep his presence quiet, but I probably should have known better than to expect he could keep a low profile for longer than ten seconds.”

Not that I was going to complain.

I heard a pop and a hiss from the smoldering car, just before Callum grabbed my arm again. “Stay back,” he warned, not even looking at me as he tugged me firmly away from the vehicle. “The gas tank might still explode, not to mention that whoever hit us is probably out there waiting for another opportunity.”

But I didn’t think so. Not after I’d gotten a good look at the remains of the SUV.

A chunk of stone had been dropped squarely on the engine block, which meant Ryker had been almost absurdly lucky. The driver’s side window was down, which was probably the only reason he’d managed to escape. But if they’d only dropped that stone just a little bit further back… If they’d only kept the flames going a little bit longer, and a little bit hotter…

We would be dead.

So why weren’t we?

The aftershocks finally hit me. My heart rate accelerated, I started gasping for air, and my limbs began to shake as if I were about to freeze to death. I was all too familiar with the sensations of delayed panic, so I dropped down into a crouch on the sidewalk before my knees decided to quit working.

Some bodyguard I was.

But even as I struggled to focus on slowing my breaths, Callum knelt in front of me and took me by the shoulders. “Raine. Look at me.”

I saw what it cost him to make that gesture. Saw him wince when he tried to use his right arm—now a bloody wreck from when he’d used it as a battering ram to save me.

Chaos still surrounded us. The SUV was still smoldering, and traffic was stopped in both directions, with horns blaring, human drivers swearing and gesturing angrily, and a dragon standing in the middle of the street.

But this dragon was utterly focused on me, and it was bizarrely comforting even in the midst of disaster.

“I’m fine,” I murmured, closing my eyes and counting my breaths. Focusing on the feeling of the concrete beneath my fingers, the pressure of Callum’s grip on my arms. The acrid scent of smoke and the sounds of angry drivers. Grounding myself through these simple details.

I’d survived yet again. I was still here, despite the odds stacked against me.

I opened my eyes, and, with Callum’s help, rose to my feet. “I’m okay,” I repeated. “But we need to call the other delegates. Find out if any of them were also attacked.”

Callum stared at me intently—as if he could somehow detect lies if he glared hard enough—then pulled out his phone, which was miraculously still intact.

Meanwhile, Ryker set down the mangled piece of his brother’s SUV and somehow managed to ease out of traffic without stepping on anything or anyone. The first police car pulled up, sirens blaring, just as he maneuvered carefully onto the sidewalk and wrapped his tail around his feet.

Nothing to see here—just a polite, civilized dragon, sunning himself without a care in the world.

But because he was currently unable to communicate and Callum was on the phone—and was the sort of person who had “people” to talk to other people for him—it fell to me to assure the Oklahoma City Police Department that we had been driving along, minding our own business when someone dropped a giant rock on our hood.

Thankfully, no other cars were damaged, and I couldn’t see any signs that anyone was hurt. The fire department seemed happy to take charge of the smoking vehicle, and as the traffic began moving slowly around us, it quickly became evident that the human police had little to no interest in squabbles between Idrian factions. When they realized we’d been attacked by one of our own, they glanced at each other, gave me a sternly worded warning about cluttering up the city streets or allowing our affairs to harm humans, then got back into their car and drove away.

I nodded and smiled and apologized like a good little flunky until Callum finally ended his call, looking about ten years older.

“You were right,” he said. “Rath stepped out for lunch and was thrown fifty yards by a ‘random gust of wind.’ Talia said a gargoyle spiked her drink, but the hotel claims there are no gargoyles on their staff.”

“What about Leith?”

Callum grimaced as if he’d eaten something rotten. “The wildkin delegate sends his regards and says he is perfectly capable of seeing to his own safety and security, thank you very much.”

“So he’s the only one of the sovereigns who wasn’t attacked?”

From somewhere above our heads, Ryker let out a snort of annoyance, along with a puff of smoke.

I wasn’t sure what that was intended to communicate, but I didn’t buy whatever our attackers were trying to sell. It was too obvious.

“We need to talk to him.” I said the words in tandem with Callum’s much deeper but identical assertion, and we turned to stare at each other for a moment before he nodded.

“You don’t believe it either?”

I shook my head. “It’s too convenient. Someone wants you all at each other’s throats.”

Or they wanted us distracted.

“I’ll request a meeting.” Callum pulled out his phone again and began texting too fast for the eye to follow. “But you need to go get checked out. I’ll alert Faris and arrange for a ride to the closest hospital.”

I didn’t bother to conceal my surge of annoyance.

“Oh you will, will you?” I snapped, suddenly irritated beyond all patience at his high-handed demands and idiotic disregard for his own safety. We’d just survived nearly burning to death, he could barely move his right arm, and now he thought he could send me away while he waltzed into danger alone. “Does this mean you’ve decided to stop pretending you offered me a job in good faith?”

His kingly mask suddenly fell into place. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that wherever you’re going, I’m going with you.”

“You just nearly died ,” he growled. “I’m not taking you anywhere near Leith until I know for sure he wasn’t behind this.”

I took a step closer, glaring up at him from less than an arm’s length away. I could feel his frustration simmering between us, threatening to blossom into anger, but I didn’t care. He wasn’t going to hurt me, but he was going to listen.

“I wasn’t the only one who almost died just now,” I reminded him pointedly. “You were in there, too. And you hired me for a reason. You said you needed my help to keep the other courts in line, so were you lying?”

The dragon’s face had gone flat and impassive, his lips pressed together as if to hold back whatever answer his heart wanted to give.

“You can’t have it both ways, Your Majesty. Not this time. And I never agreed to sit on my hands and be content with distracting your friends so they won’t watch you too closely.”

I thought I saw him flinch, but I wasn’t finished.

“I genuinely believed what you told me about why this Symposium matters. About why you agreed to take this on. You asked for my help, and I chose to offer it. I made my own decision to fight for the same things, so don’t tell me to go home, to stay away, or to be safe. Even if you lied about my job, at least grant me enough respect to let me make my own choices about what to fight for.”

Callum blinked at me in stunned silence for a moment, as if unable to believe that I’d dared to throw his own words back at him. From somewhere over my head, I heard what sounded suspiciously like dragon laughter.

But then the shifter king’s expression turned fierce. Implacable. Forged in fire and steel. “Raine, what if we’re wrong? If it really was Leith behind this attack, he won’t be easy to resist, and I promised that I would protect you.” His voice went deep and harsh—the dragon putting in an appearance once again. “As I told you, I keep my promises. Always .”

At any other time or place, I might have swooned right there in the street. But not this time. I had a point to make, and he had to know that I wasn’t going to let him run me over.

“I believe your intentions are good,” I granted. “I even believe you will keep your word. But, if you plan to do so by forcing me to act against my own judgment, then I release you from that promise.”

His mouth opened as if he had plenty more to say on that topic, but it was too late. Another of his black SUVs pulled up to the curb, effectively ending our argument—for now. We were too busy drowning in the overwhelming onslaught that was Magnus, Angelica, and Heather in full damage-control mode.

Angelica immediately took over communication with the fire department and tow truck operator, while Heather scurried around taking notes and making phone calls with a look of terror every time she happened to glance at the towering red dragon.

Magnus stood there with his tablet, one earbud in, talking to someone in monotone while inputting some probably vital information. He didn’t seem to react to anything going on around us with actual emotions, which struck me as odd considering the potential consequences of what we’d just gone through. Did he not care that Callum had almost died? Or was he just so accustomed to violence and near-death experiences that they didn’t even seem unusual anymore?

At some point after I realized I had no more responsibilities, the tension of the accident finally started to drain from my body, leaving me limp, exhausted, and feeling a little like crying. Since no one needed me, I sidled up to the closest wall, leaned against it and closed my eyes. I probably could have slept for a week, but just as I was contemplating the thought of my bed and my pillow, I sensed someone’s approach and opened my eyes to see Callum watching me with unconcealed worry.

I wasn’t ready to argue again. Didn’t really want to fight with him. But if I had to…

“Are you ready?”

Our gazes clashed—scruffy, singed little me versus the king of the shapeshifters. He looked weary. Determined. Significantly worried, but still steadfast. Unyielding. As if the fate of the world rested on his battered shoulders and he was belligerently insisting he could take more.

“Ready for what?” I asked cautiously.

He regarded me steadily. “To go meet Leith.”

A tiny flower of warmth blossomed in my chest. “Yes.”

“Promise that you’ll tell me if you’re in pain, or feel like you can’t breathe. If you start feeling anything at all out of the ordinary, we’re going to get you checked out.”

I scowled, but nodded. It was a fair compromise.

“And we’ll stop by your place so you can change out of those clothes. Otherwise, I’m afraid I might get myself arrested for employee endangerment.”

I looked down at myself and grimaced. He wasn’t wrong. My once immaculate white shirt was ripped and stained with blood, while my pants were torn in three places.

But I couldn’t let him come home with me. Couldn’t risk him meeting Kes, Logan, or Ari.

“I’ll walk home and change and meet you back here,” I promised. “Twenty minutes, tops.”

“I’ll drive you,” he insisted. “We can leave from there.”

I shuddered a little as I contemplated getting into another car right at that moment. I’d known those custom vehicles were meant to withstand attacks, but it hadn’t occurred to me how those same modifications could become a death trap under the wrong circumstances.

“Sorry, but no.” And a part of me truly was sorry. The part of me that felt exhausted, bruised, and alone. Wishing there was someone else in the world that I could share my burdens with. But even if there was… that person was not the king of the shapeshifters. “I need to do this on my own.”

Callum’s arms folded over his chest as pure frustration flashed across his face. “So it’s okay for you to go off by yourself, but not me?”

When I didn’t answer, he took two steps closer, his head tilted and his gaze pointed. “If you’re worried about betraying your secrets, I already know where you live. Hotel Idria. Second floor, room two-oh-eight.”

I know my face must have blanched, but he just kept going.

“There are three others in the room, one female around six years old, one male around thirteen, and a female in her twenties. They rarely go outside and are wary of strangers, but frequent the rear garden of the hotel after dark.”

I tried to step back, away from him, but there was nowhere to go.

“You came to Oklahoma City in a stolen Mercedes, fae diplomatic plate L35T981, which you left hidden in an abandoned garage three blocks from the hostel. According to the human government and all of the Idrian courts, there is no record of your birth, but your name can be found buried deep in the Colorado foster system. All photos and fingerprints have been deleted, but the child who matches that name was estimated to be ten years old, with dark hair and dark eyes.”

The blood was rushing in my ears. Heart pounding out the unforgiving rhythm of failure. I wondered briefly, wildly, if I could kill him if I had to, but then I remembered the second dragon and recognized the impossibility of dealing with both of them.

“How?” My voice was hollow. “How did you know all that? And more importantly, why do you even care?”

“You’re working for me,” he said impatiently. “Did you really think I wouldn’t ensure that I understood your weaknesses? At least enough that I could shield them from my own enemies?”

I had. In my head, this job had been no different from what Faris had hired me to do. But Callum was playing a different game, by very different rules. I did not blame him for it, but I did blame myself for not anticipating his ruthless thoroughness.

But even if he thought he understood, he couldn’t possibly. He was still talking to me calmly, as if we were allies.

“Fine.” There was no going back now. No way to undo the damage my foolishness had done. My only chance was to pretend with every fiber of my being that the secrets he’d uncovered were all the secrets I had to hide. “You know the truth. What are you planning to do about it?”

“I’m planning to make sure you live to see another day.” Callum’s voice had gone deep again—the dragon peeking through once more. “That means no going off by yourself when we’ve just been attacked.”

Still, I hesitated. He had no idea what he was asking. How vulnerable I would have to be in order to accept this.

“Okay.” If my voice was trembling, I hoped he would chalk it up to our recent near death experience, and not the risk I was about to take. “You can come. But only you. You drive, but you stay in the car.”

I thought he might reject my demands, but as our eyes locked together and I fell into that amber fire, oddly, I felt no threat. Only concern. Possibly even worry.

“Deal,” he said. “Let’s go.”

I could tell Angelica wasn’t exactly happy as we drove off, but she had plenty of other worries to keep her busy. Even Magnus stared after us with a furrowed brow, but it took only a moment to leave them in the rearview as we pulled out into Sheridan Avenue traffic, heading towards the hostel.

“I meant it about you staying in the car,” I reminded Callum firmly. “I don’t want you scaring anyone. They’ll probably assume you’re holding me hostage, and I don’t know how they’ll react.”

“I doubt your family can hurt me,” Callum said, with an expression of sublime and utterly unwarranted confidence.

I would have so enjoyed proving him wrong, but alas, that would be counterproductive.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” I said instead. “We’re very protective of each other. We’ve had to be.”

He was silent for half a block before curiosity got the better of him. “What happened?”

I shook my head. “You haven’t earned that story.”

“What would it take for you to trust me enough?”

I almost laughed. Not because I was amused, but because it seemed so impossible. Trust a dragon. Trust the king of the shapeshifters. Trust a man who could kill us all without a second thought, and probably would if he ever learned the truth.

And yet, he’d asked the question in earnest, as if the answer actually mattered, so I had no choice but to answer him honestly.

“I don’t think it’s possible.”

Because it wasn’t just my story. It was Kes and Ari and Logan’s. Zoe and Lucas and Blake’s. And so many others who might not even be alive now. Human and Idrian alike, none of whom had ever made it home, leaving their loved ones with nothing but questions that might never be answered.

For the sake of all of us, I would never take that risk without their permission. Even if I was beginning to wish that I could…

I had to distract myself, and Callum, so I turned to confront him on an entirely different topic.

“You know, if I were you, I’d be firing my bodyguard right about now.”

One of Callum’s eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

“You have to admit that I’ve failed rather spectacularly at my job today.”

His lips curved, acknowledging my statement with the ghost of a smile. “On the contrary. You’ve done everything I’ve asked.”

“But you ended up getting hurt trying to save me . And now you’re driving me home. Have you forgotten who’s supposed to be guarding whom?”

He didn’t even pause. “No. And you’re right. You’re a terrible bodyguard. But you did warn me. And besides, if I fired you, I would have to find someone new, which is way too much trouble.”

I tilted an eyebrow. “So the only reason you aren’t firing me is because it would be too much work ?”

My sarcasm didn’t even ruffle his scales.

“Well, as you so helpfully pointed out, your performance hasn’t exactly warranted a medal.”

I turned to scowl at the windshield.

“I had to open my own door. Twice.”

Now he was just being a jerk.

“The second time was your own fault,” I muttered, casting a slightly guilty glance at his shoulder. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but even for a shapeshifter, it was going to take a little longer for that kind of damage to heal.

“Do you always blame your employers when someone tries to kill them?”

I definitely wasn’t in my right mind. I’d breathed in too much smoke and almost died. That was the only rational explanation for why I was still arguing.

“Only the insufferable know-it-all dragons. And now that I think about it, I wouldn’t say that I completely failed at my job.”

“You wouldn’t?” One eyebrow shot up—sarcasm mingled with amusement.

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

I was rewarded by a brief chuckle, followed by a sideways glance laden with curiosity.

“So why didn’t you try using water?”

Why hadn’t I… I scrambled frantically for a reason that would make sense. I couldn’t exactly tell him that I hadn’t even thought of it. That I was utterly unaccustomed to thinking of myself as an elemental.

“Gasoline,” I blurted out. “If the fuel line was broken, water would have just made it worse, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” he allowed. “But there are other ways to use it in that situation.”

I shrugged as nonchalantly as my nerves would permit. “I guess I was too startled to think clearly. And like I told Seamus, I don’t have a lot of experience with using my power. Not sure what I could have done.”

“Broken the windows?” he suggested.

Hah. “Those windows are made to stop bullets,” I retorted. “What was ice going to do?”

I realized my mistake a moment later when I caught a sidelong glance from those keen dragon eyes. He said nothing, but I could practically hear his questions mounting.

The average person would have no reason to know about bulletproof glass, or any of the other safety modifications to his SUV. The more he learned about me, the less was going to add up, and the more questions he was going to have.

I’d been stupid to agree to work for him. A fool to think I could hide the truth from Faris, let alone from a powerful, professionally paranoid dragon. But I’d felt trapped, first by our need to… oh, I don’t know, eat , and then by the lure of actually doing something to help others like me. Now I was facing the consequences, and I could only hope that I could manage to contain them.

Prevent them from hurting anyone but me.

But the longer I knew Callum…

The more I began to doubt that this was possible.