One good thing about her unexpected disappearing act was missing out on Tristan’s reaction to the news. Cian wouldn’t be able to keep the discovery to himself for long. He hadn’t wasted any time telling Tristan and Cale after he’d learned the truth about her controlling her shift to stone. She didn’t expect less now that her brother knew exactly who her mate was.
But once they knew, how long before one of them foolishly said something to Lucan? Or had the damage already been done? By now all three of them could have cornered Lucan not realizing that the news would mean nothing to him. If he’d felt sorry for her in the alley, she didn’t want to think how he’d look at her once he knew the truth.
The sensation of being watched crawled across Briana’s skin.
Senses primed, she ventured a little closer to the wall separating the grounds from the jungle that looked to stretch on for miles. Nothing crouched above, waiting to pounce, but the tease of magic that washed over her was unmistakable.
Vines as thick as her wrist hung from blossom-covered trees that bordered the manicured lawns and courtyard. Branches reached for the top of the wall and the flowers pulsed in shades of pink, red and blue, their leaves stirring in a breeze Briana could only see but not feel.
A security system.
Anyone who thought to leave through the jungle would likely find themselves snared in a net of twisting vines—possibly poisonous ones. Maybe not lethal, but strong enough to severely weaken an immortal.
More movement to her right had her pivoting to identify the potential threat. Across the courtyard a giant fountain poured water into a wading pool. The water spilled from it into a larger one made for swimming. On the other side of the water’s glassy surface, she spotted someone through the trees.
Pulse picking up speed, she skirted the edge of the pool. Keeping the castle masking itself as a mansion—or vice versa—in her peripheral vision, she cleared the trees.
A wave of power crackled on the air, raising the hairs on the back of Briana’s neck.
The woman’s dark hair blew in another empty breeze that didn’t touch the large, black-haired immortal opposite her. Flickers of iridescent color brightened his skin.
Briana had found the dragon she’d scented earlier.
“Scared, pet?” The dragon’s tone was bored and directed at the female opposite him.
The woman—a sorceress judging by the ball of blue fire that appeared in her open palm—cocked her head. “Do you think anyone’s pet would spend thirty-five hundred dollars on a pair of boots you just singed without the courtesy of a warning first?”
Something about the way the woman held herself struck Briana as familiar. Emma?
“The fire was the warning.”
“Dragons.” The brunette rolled her eyes. “All fire and brimstone. Have a little imagination once and a while. Might help you shake that predictable reputation you have.”
“Roasting little girls like you is how I earned my reputation.”
The laughter that burst out of the sorceress helped Briana put it together. Not Emma, but her infinitely more powerful twin sister, Elena.
“Really?” Elena stared at something on her hand. “Damn it. I just got this manicure yesterday.” She sighed. “I thought Kellagh the Black earned his reputation from abandoning his men when he realized Arthur might lose the battle of Camlann.”
The dragon betrayed no surprise that Elena had recognized him. Which was more than Briana could say for herself at hearing who the gargoyle was.
Rumors had abounded for centuries that the gargoyle traitor had become one of Morgana’s favorite mercenaries before his dragon half took over, leaving him as one of the Forgotten. Stories were still told to young ones that the bloodthirsty black dragon would snatch children right out of their bed if they didn’t mind their parents.
Kellagh the Black was here? Wherever here was.
“Briana, have you met Camelot’s feared dragon?” Elena sounded like she was talking about a harmless teddy bear.
Surprised that Emma’s twin had recognized her when they’d only met in passing once or twice, Briana only nodded. Elena wasn’t exactly one of her favorite people, seeing as the sorceress had trapped her brother Cian in his stone gargoyle form for over a hundred years. Cian had been willing to forgive her for the sake of his mate, but Briana wasn’t quite as quick to let it go.
Elena turned her back on the dragon, openly dismissing him as a threat. Her eyes narrowed at something over Briana’s shoulder. “Behind you.”
The vague warning came a heartbeat after Briana realized someone was stalking her.
“Briana!”
Lucan collided with a stone wall where the rainy street had been only moments before. Water dripped off him and the sword he’d drawn the second he’d witnessed her thrown backward.
And then she’d vanished before his eyes.
“Briana!” Ignoring the burning at his lower back from being struck by something, he spun around, scanning the unfamiliar room.
Where was he? And where the hell was Briana?
“I must have been a very good girl this year, and it’s not even Christmas yet.”
Lucan turned at the voice, spotted a woman perched on the edge of the bed next to him. He held his sword to the female’s throat. “Where is she?”
Innocent blue eyes blinked up at him before compressing ever so slightly at the corners. She lifted a hand to the sword, her fingernails grazing the blade. “Is she your female, this Briana?”
“No.” Claiming Briana that way placed an importance on her that would have too much potential to be held against them.
Ignoring the sword, the blonde peered up at him. “Then you’re fair game.” A carnal smile curved her glossy lips as a heady, sensual undercurrent hummed on the air, one that didn’t faze Lucan in the slightest. Enchantress.
He lowered his sword, but didn’t vanish it. “Did you bring me here?” As far as he knew, enchantresses didn’t have that kind of power.
She cocked her head, giving him a thorough once-over that reminded him of livestock being purchased at auction. “If I say yes, will you take off your pants?”
He gave her a hard look.
As if finally taking notice of the sword only inches from her face, her eyes widened in terror. “You’re a wraith.”
“And you’re about to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
She scrambled away from him, sliding off the massive poster bed. “I woke up here.”
“Are there others with you?”
“Like your Briana?” Disdain dripped from her words as though the enchantress had already made up her mind to hate Briana despite her apparent repulsion of him.
With a stiff nod, Lucan surveyed the room furnished similar to his old chambers in Camelot, then headed for the door.
The enchantress tripped after him, careful to keep some distance between them. “So you don’t know where we are either?”
“Not yet.”
She hesitated, then followed him
He blocked the door. “Stay here.” Here where she stood less opportunity of stabbing him in the back.
The Lady of the Lake’s wanton daughters were known to favor bed sport over other pastimes, but that didn’t mean he could dismiss her as a threat entirely. After the trouble at Pendragon’s tonight, he’d had his fill of enchantresses.
The reminder twisted him inside. The look of pain and betrayal on Briana’s face when he’d said he didn’t want to be with her, that he never had…
It wasn’t her fault that she’d been caught up in the lust-fueled magic. He should have chosen his words more carefully or waited for the spell’s effect on her to fully wear off. He shouldn’t have lashed out that way, but a spell or not, he couldn’t let her believe they could ever be together.