Flame Bound (Seeking the Dragon Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Ella

  Kaden

  Ella

  Ella

  Ella

  Kaden

  Ella

  Ella

  Thanks for Reading

  About the Author

  Flame Bound

  Seeking the Dragon: Book II

  by

  Alexis Radcliff

  Books by Alexis Radcliff

  Seeking the Dragon

  Flame Kissed

  Flame Bound

  Flame Stirred

  Flame Stoked

  Flame Slain

  Copyright © 2017 Alexis Radcliff

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express permission in writing from the author.

  Ella

  I tried hard to stay calm, but there’s only so much a girl can take in one day. I’d been humiliated in front of Nick, frightened for my sister, whisked off to some bizarre fantasy land, threatened by terrifying monster-men, and kidnapped by a thoroughly arrogant asshole who wouldn’t take no for an answer and came off as a real creep.

  Then he told me that he was going to hand me off to yet another guy called the Dragon who was going to burn me.

  Some girls would have been frightened senseless.

  I was beyond furious.

  I didn’t even care what they did to me anymore. I was going to give Prince Rhys and this Dragon a piece of my mind. Who did they think they were to push me around me like this, to threaten me, to treat me like an object? Screw that. I glowered at the back of Rhys’s head as he led me from hallway to hallway, hardly noticing the beautiful artwork scattered haphazardly around the castle, the liveried servants glowing with painted runes, or the intricate crystalline designs etched into the walls. Instead of admiring the golden city down below as we crossed the shining bridge to the central tower, I was planning the string of profanities I was going to use in the rant I’d prepared for the both of them.

  When Rhys finally paused before a pair of giant doors made of solid gold and turned to me with that contemptuous sneer that seemed to be his default expression, I almost unloaded on him then and there. But that wouldn’t have been good enough. Oh no. I was saving it.

  “What?” I growled. I hoped my eyes were adequately delivering the daggers I was imagining shoving into him.

  “You look bedraggled,” he said, frowning. “I’m not handing you off in this condition. The Aethling court would be talking about it for weeks.”

  A wide mirror stood across from us, and I stole an angry peek at myself. My hair was a tangled mess, my skin was blotchy, and the eye makeup I’d put on for Nick was smeared all to hell and streaked down my face from my crying. Even my swimsuit was wrinkled and dusty.

  I wanted to strangle Rhys, most of all because his words actually stung a little. Venom dripped off my reply. “Why don’t you try getting literally dragged around for hours and see how nice you look afterward?”

  As usual, he ignored me. He spoke a few words under his breath and his eyes brightened. I watched my reflection in shock and fascination as a sparkling light flew in speedy circles around my head. My hair untangled itself and rewove in a complicated up-do that would have have been prom-appropriate, and my face shimmered and resettled with makeup that made me look like a runway model. The sparkle sped in quick circles down my body, draping me in a gorgeous red dress suitable for a princess, although with the corset tightening around my torso and constricting my breath, it didn’t feel quite as nice as it looked. This was some next-level Cinderella-stuff. I didn’t even want to look at the heels he’d stuck me in. I was afraid they’d be glass.

  The sparkle winked out and Rhys smiled at me appraisingly, waiting for my response, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of one. I just fumed in silence, my stance rigid, and stared straight ahead at the grand doors. I didn’t feel like encouraging him, even if a small part of me was glad to finally be dressed decently again. But this was no fairy tale, Rhys sure wasn’t any kind of fairy godmother, and I was still hopping mad.

  “That’s better, even if you are an ungrateful brat.” He chuckled and walked around me in a half-circle, pausing behind me to lean in close over my shoulder and whisper into my ear. “Are you ready to meet the Dragon, songbird? At least with me you would have enjoyed yourself. Eventually.” His eyes darkened. “I hope you like fire.”

  I shuddered and wished that my hands weren’t bound so I could punch him in his stupid face.

  “Let’s get this over with,” I muttered.

  Rhys inclined his head, threw open the doors, and led me into one of the grandest rooms I’d ever laid eyes on: tall marble pillars, intricate gold and silver accents everywhere, and a long red carpet leading the way up a series of steps and ending at an enormous crystal throne. The throne was empty, but a beautiful long-haired woman with coloring similar to Rhys stood beside it with her arms folded. She wore an even fancier dress than I had on: deep purple silk slashed with gold and intricate lacework. Her skin had the same ethereal sheen and the ageless beauty that I was coming to associate with these “Aethlings” people kept talking about, and her eyes also glowed faintly with violet light, though the shade was a tad lighter than Rhys’s.

  Rhys paused at the foot of the steps, and I halted beside him. “Sister,” he said. “Where is the Dragon?”

  The woman, who I realized must be the Princess Valeria that Mariana had mentioned earlier, pursed her lips. “You know as well as I do how tempestuous that man can be. I came as soon as you sent word, but Kaden will come when he comes. This is her, then?”

  Rhys nodded, and Valeria strode down the steps to peer at me more closely. I flinched back. I was still angry, but Valeria intimidated me—tall, pretty girls like her always did, as much as it annoyed me. I shoved the roiling anger down and waited. It wasn’t her I was really annoyed with.

  “The spark,” Valeria murmured. “How long has it been since the last one?”

  Rhys hadn’t seemed to hear her. “What right does he have to keep us waiting like common servants?” he said, sounding annoyed. “I have half a mind to take her back just on principle.”

  “He has the right of rule,” Valeria said evenly. “No matter how much you might dislike father’s covenant.”

  “The rule should be mine,” Rhys growled. “When father forged the Flamepact, the dragons still had a king. Kaden is a prince. He has not even found a mate yet.”

  “Which is understandable, considering his circumstances,” Valeria replied. “Here he comes now.”

  She nodded behind us. I turned to see a tall, black-cloaked man stride into the room, his face obscured by his drawn hood. He wore a white silk shirt with gray cotton pants, and as he approached Rhys and Valeria they both moved aside to allow him to mount the steps. My breath caught as he passed me by, my anger momentarily dampened by curiosity. His scent was thick in the air, exotic spice and sandalwood. Everything about him radiated power: his stance, his graceful gait, even the way he’d ignored us all while he ascended to the throne.

  He threw back his hood, and I was stunned by how attractive he was. Not beautiful, like Rhys and Valeria, but breathtakingly handsome in a rugged, royal way. He had dark wavy hair and a strong, lean jawline. His smooth, tanned skin was a rich golden-brown color, and I’d never seen eyes like his before: a deep crimson wi
th golden flecks in them, stormy and commanding, but also sharp and intelligent. He gazed down at me with an unreadable expression, his eyes lingering on my body, but where Rhys had made me feel uncomfortable, I actually kind of enjoyed the Dragon looking at me. I wondered what he was thinking and stood up a little straighter. Then I realized what I was doing.

  Stop it, I told myself. You’re angry, remember? Quit swooning over boys. Rhys was attractive too, and he turned out to be a real jerk. And then there’s the whole thing about him burning me. I set my jaw and stiffened.

  “You’ve found another,” the Dragon said. His voice was rich and deep, and carried the unmistakable note of someone accustomed to being obeyed.

  “I don’t enjoy being left waiting, Kaden,” Rhys said.

  The Dragon frowned. “I am not at your beck and call, Aethling. I was preoccupied. I came when Mariana sent word.”

  Rhys looked like he was going to snap back and then thought better of it. “In any case, yes. She carries the spark. Small, but it is there.”

  “You’ve leashed her,” the Dragon said in a flat tone. “Release her.”

  “She’s troublesome,” Rhys warned. I glared at the back of his head.

  “This slip of a girl?” The Dragon snorted. “I can handle my property without tying their wrists, even if you cannot, Rhys.”

  “Enough!” I shouted, my anger flaring back in full force. “Your property? Yeah, no. I’m not his property, I’m not your property, and the only reason I’m doing anything you say at all is because this jerk tied me up with these stupid glowing band thingies.” I shook my hands at them. “You’ve all talked over me, threatened me, dismissed me, and passed me back and forth between supernatural super-jerks since I got here. I don’t care if any of you are royalty, I don’t care about whatever this stupid spark is, and I don’t care if you’re hallucinations or not—do what you want with me, but I’m done standing here and quietly taking your crap, okay? It’s been a pretty bad day for me. And one way or another, I’m getting back to my family.”

  I stood there staring them down, my chest heaving and my heart hammering away, but I was secretly thrilled that I’d found the nerve to finally give them a piece of my mind. Rhys blinked at me. Valeria’s mouth hung open. Even the Dragon’s eyes registered surprise.

  Then he rose from his crystal throne and swept down the steps. He loomed over me, a full head taller than I was. His smell once again filled my nostrils, exotic and heady, and up this close I could feel the heat radiating off his body. I held his gold-flecked gaze defiantly, trying not to let my sudden burst of fear show. Rhys said the dragon had a temper. Rhys said the Dragon would burn me. But doubt nestled in my heart. His eyes were surprisingly gentle—compassionate even. He looked almost regretful, but that couldn’t possibly be right.

  And then he seized my wrists. His eyes glowed with intense, crimson light, the heat from his body intensified, and the Dragon began to burn.

  Kaden

  I summoned my magic, feeling the familiar heat unfurl in my chest and spread through my limbs like a flash, and lashed out with a small tongue of flame to slice through Rhys’s enchanted cuffs. The girl’s leash dissolved in the space of a second, all trace of the arcane magic fading into the ether now that I’d broken the binding. I hated how Rhys insisted on hobbling his new humans like this, but then, I’d always disliked the Aethling ways of dealing with humans—they treated them like they were some kind of pet, instead of self-sufficient beings in their own right.

  My spell had only been a little touch of heat, certainly not enough to burn the girl, but she snatched her hands away and rubbed her wrists furiously, glaring at me like I’d tried to kill her. There was no understanding these human women.

  Her outburst a moment ago had been fascinating. When Rhys had marched her in, I’d assumed she’d be just another frightened victim of the Eldritch, as miserable and lost as any pour soul that wound up in our lands unintentionally. Most of the time the humans spoke little and cried much when new to the Ether-Realm. But this girl had real fire in her. It took courage to speak so brazenly to your captors like she had. I liked her immediately.

  She straightened under my gaze and pushed her shoulders back, staring at me defiantly.

  “Tell me your name,” I said.

  The girl hesitated, wariness flashing through her eyes, but then said, “Ella. Ella Denton.”

  And Mariana said that this girl had the spark. Unlucky for her. A pang of regret twisted in my stomach and guilt settled down onto my shoulders like a leaden shawl. I almost wished I didn’t like her. It’d be easier if she seemed cruel, or cowardly, or had even a hint of darkness in her nature. But I could see the aura radiating from her while I held my sorcery at the ready, and it showed none of those things. She glowed with a fierce golden light that spoke of her goodness and her bravery, and there were also purplish hints of loneliness and tragedy at the edges. I wondered what had happened to her to be so touched by sorrow at so young an age.

  But no. This was the problem. I must not be too curious, I must not engage this time. No good can come of it. I released my sorcery and her aura winked out.

  “I am Kaden Kolrath, the Dragon of Alkazar,” I told her. “And you are now under my personal protection.”

  Her mouth tightened. “Because I’m your property?”

  “All who reside in Alkazar are under my protection,” I replied, trying to assuage her. “And because you are my property. Rest assured that no further harm will befall you.” I thought she should be grateful that I laid claim to her. Better that she was my property than Rhys’s, wasn’t it?

  She grumbled under her breath but offered no further response, crossing her arms beneath her shapely chest. I found myself watching her every little movement intently, drinking in her presence. I blinked. You’re doing it again. Why are you so enamored of this strange girl? I didn’t have an answer. It wasn’t just her spark, which would naturally attract any creature of the Ether-Realm, but there was something more about this Ella Denton—I stepped even closer to her, catching a faint whiff of her scent. Rhys’s sorcery had doused her in a flowery perfume, pleasant enough, but underneath it she smelled warm, inviting, and almost familiar somehow.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Have we ever met before?” I asked.

  “Um, no. I think I’d remember some kind of dragon prince with weird gold-flecked eyes.”

  “Gold-flecked eyes are common among my kind,” I said. “And I feel as though I’d remember you too.”

  She didn’t have a response for that, and I realized that we were mere inches apart. Rhys and Valeria considered me curiously, their thoughts inscrutable. I straightened and stepped back a respectful distance from Ella. Whatever this peculiar attraction was, it needed to end now. I must feel nothing toward her.

  Instead I addressed the Aethlings. “How strong is her spark, Rhys?”

  “It’s actually quite weak,” the Aethling prince said. “She’s young and not fully awakened to her gift. The previous three girls were all older and stronger at the outset. I almost didn’t bother bringing this one to you. If you’d prefer to wait until another comes along, I’d be happy to take her back.”

  Ella glanced sharply at Rhys, and I could guess how she felt about that idea.

  “It’s been several years since we found someone with the spark at all,” Valeria pointed out. “And the need is greater than ever before. Unless there’s a specific reason you’d prefer that it not be her, Kaden…” Valeria trailed off, the unspoken question hanging in the air.

  I searched for a response and came up empty. I was so tired of this. Every one of these humans who had come and gone weighed upon me, and I could already tell that my strange affinity for this girl would make things that much harder this time. I’d just met her, but I already felt fiercely protective of her, and not just because I was attracted to her. I saw something of myself in her, I suppose. More than in any of the others who’d come before her.

/>   If it had been Valeria who had brought her to me, I might have given her back to spare the both of us. There was still some time. It was possible that we’d find another, and it was far better for Ella that she be the handmaiden to a princess than face the eventual fate that awaited her in my service. But I could see the way that Rhys leered at her, and my blood boiled at the thought of handing her back to him. I chafed at the idea of allowing him to try to break such a beautiful spirit for sport. Sometimes my allies seemed as savage as our enemies.

  Ella had watched our discussion with keen interest, and I wondered what thoughts flitted through her head upon hearing such things. If she was frightened, she showed no outward sign of it. Her eyes shined with curiosity below a veneer of smoldering anger.

  “Even the weakest spark can be fanned to a raging inferno,” I said. “The Watch-Fire grows ever dimmer, and there is no other. I claim her as my own by Dragon’s Right, as laid forth in the covenant.”

  Rhys inclined his head, though he failed to hide his annoyed expression. “As you wish, Kaden.”

  He strode out of the throne room without another word, making his feelings as clear as if he’d delivered a speech. I stared after him, struggling with my own desire to chase him down and throttle him. The covenant was no more my doing than his, and I liked invoking it far less than he imagined. It was a necessity of the times in which we lived. My hand curled into a fist, and I forced it to uncurl slowly. Perhaps one day the Ether-Realm could be as it had in the time of our fathers. But that day would never come unless we survived long enough to see it.

  Valeria came to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Easy, friend,” she said. “Remember who our enemies are. I assure you that they will not forget.”

  She cast one final glance at Ella and left the chamber just as her brother had, skirts swishing beneath her. When she’d vanished under the high archway, I stood alone in my throne room with the girl.