Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) Read online

  Dianthe had expected that as well. Living as they did next to Nochtbend, it was perfectly logical the sprites would fear vampires. And considering she’d just told them that Paragon was trying to annex the other four kingdoms, could she ever expect them to trust a dragon? Knowing she’d never have enough breath to convince them otherwise, she quickly agreed to their demands.

  Instantly, the sprites freed Sabrina, and at Dianthe’s urging, Tobias carried the vampire to the surface. Dianthe met them there, gasping for breath. Tobias adjusted Sabrina in his arms, and she spewed lake water over his shoulder.

  “Fucking sprites.” She picked a piece of seaweed out of her fangs.

  “They’ll only give the orb to me,” Dianthe explained. “You two have to go to shore. I’ll be there soon.”

  “Sylas isn’t going to like you going down there alone,” Tobias said.

  “Sylas doesn’t have a choice. If he tries coming after me, make sure he knows that he might be jeopardizing our mission. I promised the sprites no vampires or dragons in exchange for their help. Don’t let him complicate the matter.”

  Tobias scowled, but Sabrina grabbed him by the jaw. “Get me out of here. This is how it’s got to go.”

  Dianthe was thankful for the backup.

  He frowned but seemed resolved. “This isn’t going to be pretty. Make it quick, Dianthe. You have no idea what this is going to do to him.”

  What was that supposed to mean? It wasn’t as though she was asking him to hold Sylas’s foot to a flame simply to keep his dragon from jeopardizing their mission. Whatever he was implying, it didn’t matter—he spread his wings and lifted from the water with Sabrina in his arms.

  Dianthe took three deep breaths and dove. The sprites, thank the goddess, made good on their word. Together, they removed the mud and vegetation covering the orb and then pried the sphere from the bottom of the lake. It was hard work and her lungs screamed in protest, hungry for oxygen.

  Finally the green crystal was in her hands. She kicked for the surface, even using her wings to help her, but the orb weighed her down and slowed her progress. Dark spots swam in her vision. Her lungs burned. If she didn’t reach the surface soon, the need for air would drive her insane. She fought her body’s instinct to inhale while she was still underwater. Almost there.

  It was too far. She couldn’t make it. Until slender hands landed on her waist and pushed.

  “She needs help.” Sylas lunged toward the water’s edge. “Can’t you see she’s taking too long to surface?”

  Tobias grabbed his brother by the shoulders and held him in place. “You can’t, brother. She negotiated with the water sprites. They don’t trust vampires or dragons. They agreed to give the orb to her and her alone. If you go after her now, you’ll ruin everything.”

  “Can’t you see they mean to drown her? They want to keep the orb for themselves. Let me go. I must rescue her.”

  Tobias wrapped his arms around Sylas’s chest from behind, locking down his wings. “No. Give her plan a chance. It hasn’t been that long.”

  “I need to help my mate!” This time the words came from someplace deep and feral within him. His growl echoed over the water, the light from his eyes reflecting red off the lake. His dragon had come to the surface, his deepest self pining for his mate.

  “Shhh,” Tobias said. “She’s going to be okay. Dianthe is a smart woman with good instincts. Give her one more minute. Just one more minute.”

  Although he had no doubt that his brother had the best of intentions, Sylas could hear a note of concern in the other man’s voice. By this point, Tobias had to be wondering how long the average fairy could hold her breath underwater. Truthfully, although he was married to her, he wasn’t sure the answer to that question. It wasn’t something that came up in regular conversation. All he knew was that she had been under for what felt like an eternity, and waiting, thinking about her without oxygen, was pure torture.

  Seconds ticked by. The water taunted him with its smooth surface. Where was she? What was happening? He struggled against his brother’s hold, then felt something warm and wet trace down his cheek. Angrily, he wiped the tear away. Damn it, Dianthe. He willed her to come to the surface.

  All at once, she burst out of the water as if someone had thrown her. From across the lake, he heard her gasp, her wings fluttering, lifting and holding her in the air. Tobias let him go and he burst out of his grip, his wings snapping out. He soared over the lake, swept her into his arms, and carried her and the orb to land. A lungful of water sprayed from her mouth, and he bent her in half and pounded her back with the heel of his hand.

  “Hades, tell me you’re all right, Dianthe!” At Tobias’s prodding, he tossed the orb at his brother. Like he cared about the key right now. Compared to his mate’s health, it was entirely inconsequential.

  After a long bout of coughing, she leaned back into his arms and blinked up at him. Her hand rose to rest on his cheek where she wiped his tears away with her thumb. “I’m okay, Sylas,” she said softly. “Everything is okay.”

  He stood, lifting her into his embrace, and buried his face in her neck, her wet hair soaking his shirt. “Thank the Mountain.” He kissed her neck, her ear, her cheek.

  “Sylas…”

  Carefully he set her on her feet and cupped her face in both hands. Her lips were close. Her lavender-and-honey scent invaded his lungs and brought him a modicum of peace. She was here. She was all right. He leaned in a fraction of an inch, captured her mouth with his own.

  “Mmmm.” Her fingers dug into his hair, her lips parting, welcoming him in.

  The kiss was desperate, claiming. He teased her lips, nipped at her throat. All he wanted to do was find a place in the darkness to be inside her. Goddess, he wanted her. Wanted her like he’d never wanted anything. The idea that they were sharing a single tent with Tobias and Sabrina suddenly disappointed him beyond measure.

  He brushed her wet hair back from her face. Her hungry gaze raked over him. The magnetic draw between them ratcheted up a notch.

  She shivered in his arms.

  He paused, pulled back. “You’re cold. We need to start a fire.”

  “I’m fine.” Her hand snaked to the back of his head again. “Stay close. You’ll keep me warm.”

  But he could feel she was soaked. Goddess, she’d barely been breathing a moment ago, and he was all over her like an animal. “We need a fire now,” he called to his brother. “She’s going to catch her death.”

  “I’m on it,” Tobias called from the other side of the tent. “Sabrina’s gathering wood.”

  “I’ve had your tooth. I can’t catch my death.” Dianthe suddenly sounded perturbed. She lifted onto her tiptoes, pressing into him.

  “We should get you out of these wet clothes. Make you something hot to drink.”

  Dianthe took a step back, her hands fisting. “I said I’m not cold.” As she backed away from him, she crossed her arms, huddling in on herself in direct opposition to her words.

  “You certainly look cold to me,” he said pointedly.

  “I’m going to get changed.” She shook her head and marched toward the tent.

  Totally confused, Sylas massaged the bridge of his nose. Why was she so angry? What the hell had just happened?

  Chapter Fourteen

  That obsessive, pigheaded man! Dianthe avoided Sylas for the rest of the evening, eating her ration in relative silence. After all they’d been through: losing their home, Eleanor’s attack. After being at each other’s throats for days… He’d spoiled a perfect, passionate moment with his overbearing need to protect her. Oh, she’d been mated to a dragon long enough to accept that his instincts were difficult for him to deny. No way did she expect to break him of the instinct to keep her safe, nor would she want to. But lately he wasn’t just being protective, he was being demeaning, overlooking her strengths and contributions and demoting her to a damsel in distress over and over again. She couldn’t take it anymore.

  He’d never ev
en congratulated her for recovering the orb or for saving Tobias and Sabrina from the sprites. He’d been so obsessed with her safety, he’d even interrupted a romantic encounter! He would rather cocoon her in a blanket and feed her tea next to the fire like some ancient and decrepit grandmother than make love to her. If he could, he’d enclose her in a magic bubble and carry her back to Aeaea where she’d float like a balloon at his side for all eternity.

  Ugh, it made her furious. She’d more than proved herself a powerful ally to the rebellion, and all she wanted was for him to acknowledge that. She wanted his trust and his respect. She wanted to be treated how she treated him, like an equal.

  The moment she’d finished her dinner, she’d excused herself and gone to bed, hoping that sleep would improve her mood. When she woke early the next morning, Sylas was wrapped around her like a blanket, the entire length of his lean, well-muscled body spooning her from behind. The position made it exceedingly difficult to remember why she’d been cross with him. Not that it particularly surprised her. For the sake of efficiency, they were crowded in a tent with a four-person occupancy, their sleeping bag less than a foot away from Tobias’s, who was, at the moment, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead. What else did she expect? This wasn’t a camping trip. They’d had to travel light. Only the necessities.

  Still, if she stayed this close to those hard abs and his delicious smoky anise scent, she’d be tempted to pick up where they left off last night. This wasn’t the time or the place. Slowly and carefully she extracted herself from Sylas’s arms and tiptoed between the sleeping dragons. Pulling on her cloak, she slipped out the tent flap.

  Sabrina had kept watch last night. The orb at her side gave off a strange, mystical glow. She turned to greet Dianthe, and her eyes betrayed her growing fatigue. Already, light streamed over Solaris Field. She supposed as a vampire, Sabrina would usually be in bed by now.

  “I’m up,” Dianthe said. “You can sleep if you want. It’s barely dawn. Maybe you can get a few hours in before we leave.”

  “I’ll do that.” Sabrina moved for the door of the tent but paused and turned to her. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you thank you last night. It was a brave thing that you did. If you hadn’t addressed the sprites, I fear blood would have been shed. It might have been mine.”

  “It was the least I could do,” Dianthe said automatically.

  “No.” Sabrina shook her head. “You could have done nothing or sent Sylas in after us. You were brave. You told me you fear the dark.”

  She looked down at her feet. “Well, I’d forgotten this lake was populated by sprites. I should have warned you.”

  The tall redhead moved closer to her. Sabrina’s gaze was intense, and she carried herself with the long-limbed grace of royalty. Dianthe knew instantly that she never wanted to cross the vampire. One of her pale hands came to rest on Dianthe’s shoulder.

  “I am thankful that you are the brave, strong woman you are. It’s difficult to stand up to one’s mate, especially when one is married to a dragon. I know better than anyone. But it’s clear Colin was right. We need you on this mission. You’ve already made a difference. Never forget that.” Sabrina slipped inside the tent, leaving Dianthe alone to process the unexpected compliment.

  She sat next to the orb by the fire and stared at the border of Nochtbend. None of them knew what to expect when they crossed into the kingdom of the vampires. What she needed was a vision. She needed to see what was ahead for them.

  A seer could not control what she saw or when she saw it, but sometimes they could open a window to their mind in a way that invited a vision in. She thought of it like sprinkling birdseed in a cage and leaving the door open so the bird could fly in. It had been days since she’d had a vision. The trauma of the fire and her deteriorating relationship with Sylas had her tied up in knots.

  It was time to loosen those strings. Her family needed her. The mission needed her. She couldn’t let Sylas or anyone else get in the way of what she’d promised she’d do. She owed Everfield that much.

  Pushing all thoughts from her mind, she closed her eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath. “You can do this,” she whispered to herself. Her mind relaxed. The door opened. And she waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  The vision started as a cramp low in her abdomen that rolled up through her stomach and stole the breath from her lungs before flooding into her head. Her lashes fluttered against the temporary blindness that accompanied her second sight. She tipped her head back. A rush of color and sound zoomed in—the Obsidian Guard, dressed in their red-and-black uniforms, trudged through the remains of the Empyrean Wood. Goddess no! They were back en masse. Why did they have shovels? Why were they digging in the ash? By Hades, there were hundreds of them.

  “What are we looking for?” one soldier asked another.

  “We don’t know, only that we need to find it before the rebels do.”

  “That’s it? We’re just going to dig up the entire forest looking for something?”

  The man shook his head. “The seer told her it was in a metal box, buried in the ash. Keep digging and keep an eye out for a group of four fairies. Our spies have spotted four known rebels in Everfield. They’ll be after the same thing.”

  Dianthe snapped back into the present, her heart pounding. Frantically she looked around her, then toward the Empyrean Wood. She saw a flash of red moving among the charred tree trunks. A guardsman. Oh dear goddess, they were already here!

  “Wake up. Wake up!” she whispered loudly, her head poked inside the tent. She grabbed Sylas’s toes and shook.

  “Dianthe? What’s going on?” he mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

  “We need to go. We need to leave now.” She remembered that she’d left the orb unguarded and ducked out of the tent to return to her post, gathering it into her arms. The fire was still smoldering, and she kicked dirt to smother it. She prayed the guards wouldn’t see the smoke.

  Sylas followed her from the tent. “What’s going on?”

  “We have to leave. Pack quickly. Tell Tobias and Sabrina.”

  “They’re already dressing. What’s happened? What did you see?”

  “The Obsidian Guard is here in Everfield. They’re digging in the Empyrean Wood, digging up the ash. They’re looking for a metal box that they think holds something four rebels want.” She pointed toward the forest.

  Sylas narrowed his eyes, clearly spotting the uniforms among the trees. “They’re much too close for comfort.”

  “I know.” She frowned. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He hastened into the tent and emerged moments later with their two packs. She took one and slung it onto her back. The faintest green glow shone through the zipper on the side of his bag. Good, he’d packed the orb.

  “How do they know?” Tobias broke down the tent at record speed and stuffed it into his pack while Sabrina snored on the ground beside him.

  “Mother had spies watching Aeaea. Whoever it was likely saw the four of us arrive in port,” Sylas said.

  Dianthe frowned. “One of the guards in my vision said that the seer was very specific—a metal box under the ash. They must be talking about Aborella. What other seer has ever helped Eleanor?”

  “But it doesn’t make any sense.” Tobias donned both his and Sabrina’s packs and then lifted her into his arms. “There is no metal box, is there?”

  Sylas shook his head. “No. No one in the rebellion is looking for anything in the ash. We didn’t keep a single thing of importance in our Everfield home.”

  Dianthe shrugged. “I can’t explain it. Nothing in my vision explains it.”

  “Maybe Aborella misinterpreted a vision about the orbs. You did retrieve the orb from a type of dark prison. Maybe she envisioned it as a box and the water as ash.”

  “It’s possible. The Empyrean Wood is crawling with guards. I propose we thank the stars that she got it wrong and make for Grimtwist.”

  “Agreed.�
� They hiked the short distance to the Nochtbend border and paused outside the line of dark, twisting trees that demarcated the edge of the Grimtwist Forest. Mist curled off the forest floor and crept across the ground toward their toes. The dense canopy of leaves blocked out all light, making it impossible to see far into its unwelcoming interior. Dianthe gulped. As if she hadn’t had enough chilling darkness the night before.

  Dianthe had never been to Nochtbend—it wasn’t exactly a vacation destination—but she had heard stories. The vampires lived belowground during the day, only coming topside to hunt at night. It was said that vicious monsters of unimaginable size roamed their lands, put in place by the master vampire himself to protect the kingdom. Master Demidicus had ruled Nochtbend for centuries from an underground palace called Nightfall. She’d heard horrific stories about the things that went on in that palace. It was said that prisoners of all species were kept alive in cold, dark cells, only to be periodically drained of their blood to feed the vampires. She suppressed a shiver.

  “Any idea where the second orb might be?” Tobias asked.

  They were all still standing at the border, staring into the woods. No one seemed overly motivated to take the next step. Dianthe knew he meant the question for her.

  She shook her head. “I tried. The vision didn’t come to me. Sometimes I can’t force it.”

  Sabrina rubbed her face and yawned. “Where does the master of the largest coven in this kingdom live?”

  “There is only one coven and only one master. Master Demidicus,” Dianthe said. “And he lives in Nightfall. It’s a subterranean palace along the northern border.”

  “Take me there. He’ll have the orb,” Sabrina said with absolute certainty before snuggling into Tobias’s chest and closing her eyes again.