“Don’t be afraid,” he said.
He drew his hands up, and in unison with his movements, the force of the beast rose within her.
“No!”
The rush of wind in her ears drowned out the word. No, not wind, but a change in her body, her very essence. She fought, her soul scratching and clawing against it. But when the mist cleared and the deafening sound quieted, she stood on four legs, not two. She took herself in, seeing the long snout growing out from her face, the talons on her hands, the red scales shimmering in the sun just as the dew had.
No, no, no! Her soul cried out at the ugly armor, and she closed her eyes and looked upward, pleading for the gods to kill her.
Something cool rubbed against her neck, startling her. A Dragon with scales black and blue like the heart of midnight, eyes holding the flicker of a flame within. The Dragon Prince.
He rubbed his head against her cheek. “You will get used to it.”
“And what of the smell?”
He shrugged, or she thought he did. “You’ll get used to that, too. And the drooling. Yes, we are ugly, horrid beasts, but we are the strongest of all.” He nipped her, though she barely felt it through the scales. “Show me that spirit, love. Fight me with all you have so I know where to start.”
He dared call her ‘love’! She spun around and knocked him to the ground with her tail.
Chapter 8
Ruby sat in the passenger seat of Cyntag’s T-bird, The Book of the Hidden on her lap. “I don’t remember anything in Mon’s stories about them being naked.” She absently scratched at her rash.
“As you know, he took some liberties with the truth. For instance, was I drooling? Did I smell like”—his nose twitched—“dirty socks?”
“No.”
He was gorgeous as a Dragon, if you were into that sort of thing.
She blinked. God, she was. She remembered feeling a powerful draw to him, or at least some part of her did.
Her Dragon.
God.
She ran her hands across the pages, forcing those thoughts away. “There were beautiful illustrations here. Since the fire, they’re gone.”
“Moncrief probably created them with magick. Just like the spell he put over you, the stories disappeared, too.”
No, she didn’t want to think about never seeing the illustrations or his beautiful writing again. She tried to remember the main story line: the Dragon Prince kidnapping Garnet, but saving her as well, imprisoning her, casting the Dragon spell, training her. There were similarities in the story and what had happened so far.
Think. Think about the rest of it.
Something bad was coming. Something they had to fight together.
She turned to Cyntag, trying not to get caught up in his profile, the natural pout of his lower lip, the bump on his nose that spoke of a break in the past. He looked aristocratic, regal. Even as Dragon, actually. His eyelashes were thick but not feminine. Yeah, he was total hotness.
Uh, not getting caught up in his profile, remember? “You said Brom can tell the future?”
“Yes.”
“Could Moncrief?”
“Not that I know of. His skills ran toward creating illusions, like the pictures in the book and his magic tricks.”
So the parallels with the story were a coincidence and not a foretelling of the future.
While Cyntag drove, he kept watching the rearview mirror as well as their surroundings. She knew he wasn’t watching for traffic but for horrid creatures.
Speaking of…“When you were at the Yard, did you see any of those things you said were all over, like the one in your office?”
“A couple, yes. One stayed close to you. A fire Elemental, like Allander.”
So ironically, she wasn’t crazy because the monsters and creatures were real.
“I could see Leo’s and Jack’s Crescent eyes. Why couldn’t I see this Elemental?”
“Your ability to see the Hidden isn’t consistent because you haven’t been Awakened yet.” He pulled down the street on which his dojo resided, driving slowly. Odd, since he’d been driving fast the entire way.
“Get down,” he said.
“What?”
He placed his hand against her head and pulled her toward him. In that second before her cheek was on his hard thigh, she saw an old man sitting on a bench in front of the dojo.
“One thing we need to get straight right now, Ruby. When I tell you to do something, you do it. You don’t question or hesitate.” Tension vibrated in his voice. “You just do it.” He took a corner sharply. “Now you can get up,” he said in a very deliberate voice because the moment he’d lessened his pressure on her, she’d snapped upright.
“What the hell? You can’t just shove me around—”
He grasped her face with one hand, pulling her close. “I am the difference between whether you live or die. You don’t have to like me. In fact, disliking me would probably be better in the long run. But you have to obey me, which means trusting me.”
“You have to earn someone’s trust.”
“We don’t have time for that.” He released her. “Did you see the old man on the bench?”
She rubbed her cheeks where his fingers had dug in. “Yeah.”
“Not an old man. A harbinger demon. One of the few that can be seen by Mundanes, which is why they take a disguise. And they can take any disguise. But we can see the shadow around them that signals what they are.” He pressed a couple of buttons on his phone. “Dragon Arts,” the DJ-smooth voice said through the car speakers.
“Glesenda, there’s a harbinger outside the door.”
“Oh, shit. What are you involved in—it’s that girl, isn’t it?”
He slid her a look. “It’s not her fault, but yes, it wants her.”
“Can I play with it?” Glesenda’s eagerness permeated her words. “I can draw it in. What’s the girl’s name?”
“Ruby Salazaar, and I’m not a girl.”
Glesenda laughed. “Ooh, baby, you are a baby. Cyn, you got your hands full with that one.”
He sighed. “Indeed. Go ahead, lure it into the Obsidian Room. Call if you need me. Have fun.” He disconnected.
“You’re going to let her fight that thing by herself?”
“Glesenda can hold her own. She’s a hundred and forty years old, so to her, you are a child.”
“You’re really…what’d you say, two hundred years old?”
“Two hundred fifty or sixty something. After a while you tend to lose track. Once you’re Awakened, the aging process slows down. You’ll look like you’re in your mid-twenties for decades.” His mouth stretched into a sort-of smile. “If I can keep you alive that long. That will depend on you.”
“On whether I obey your every command.”
“Exactly.”
She flopped back against the seat, arms crossed in front of her. “There’s a reason I’m my own boss. I never had a lot of rules to follow growing up. Dad was busy with his science stuff, and Mom was busy with the Yard. I don’t take orders well.” Ever since losing her parents so suddenly, being in control of her life was paramount. Now this arrogant man-Dragon was insisting she follow his every order without question. He was right though. She needed him. And when he’d held her face and harshly ordered her to obey, she thought she saw a speck of fear in his expression. Fear for her safety.
“Everything in your life is about to change,” he said, getting onto one of the interstates. “You’re about to change. I suggest you put aside your stubbornness and pride. Neither will serve you well right now.”