He yanked them on and I turned my back on him. Didn’t need to see any of that. I’d had my fill of his naked body over the years in more ways than one. I bumped into Maks and he caught me by the arms, steadying me as if he understood. But he didn’t, and that was okay too.
“Let’s go,” I said. He dropped his hands, confusion cutting across his face for just a flash.
“Yeah, listen to her, human. She’ll get you killed faster than if you were here by yourself.”
Maks’s back stiffened. I turned and smiled at Steve. “Good luck getting the jewel, asshole. We’re out of here before the wolves bring back any friends.” Maks nodded, catching my drift. The White Wolf was the first guardian for the Witch. We did not want to tangle with him, and for all we knew, the wolves would report back to him and lead him straight to us. That was a distinct possibility.
Steve, though, was too dumb to see the connection. “I can handle wolves, hell, Kiara could have handled them. But not you, not you, Zam. You’re too much of a fucking pussy to be able to save anyone. Darcy is going to get shipped off to Marsum, your human there is going to die, and I doubt even your shit luck will get you out of this one alive.”
I kept moving, my mouth clamped shut, taking the lead much to the chagrin of my inner cat. She didn’t want me to be bossy, she wanted to rub up against Maks and let him be the boss. Maks had slammed me into the ground, held me there, and proven he was stronger. I shook off the need to submit. I refused to be like the rest of my kind. Like Kiara, mincing and mewling at the men who could tackle them to the ground.
Nope, that was not me. Not me and I wasn’t going to let that kind of stupidity rule my life, not even for those baby blues. I looked at Maks and he lifted an eyebrow.
“We’re good,” I said. “I just had to get over a case of the dumbs.”
His lips twitched. “Even though I’m just a human?”
“You light a good fire, and cook a mean stew. I’ll give that to you, though you need to work on keeping rare rabbit down.” I was not going to admit within earshot of Steve that he’d caught me off guard. That because he was a human, I’d not thought him a threat, and in another context, it could have meant my life.
“You know, the next time we fight, I’m not going to go easy on you,” he said.
I could have strangled him. “Next time wolves come to eat you, I won’t come running back.”
“Touché,” he said softly. “Then are we agreed to work together? Properly?”
Lila bobbed her head, hanging out the side of my hood, and I slowly followed. “Partners. Darcy needs us both.”
“STOP.” The voice was Steve’s and I cringed, knowing already what he was going to say. “What the fuck are you doing with a dragon?”
“She’s a guide. I’ve paid her to help us,” I said. Yeah, this was not going to go well. Ish’s rules were embedded in my mind.
Don’t befriend the enemy. No matter what. They will use you.
Lila flew above me and she bobbed her head, her eyes wide. I knew Steve was out for himself and he finally showed his true colors to someone other than me. I had my back to him. “We need a guide to get through here, and maybe she’ll help us with our next trip.” I didn’t want to say out loud that as soon as the dragons were done making babies, we’d be back here searching for their jewel too. But with my back to Steve, Kiara and Maks, I missed the first part of what happened next.
“Steve, what are you doing?” Maks said and then there was a thud. I spun in my seat to see Maks fall to the ground and Steve leap into Batman’s saddle. My ex stared hard at me and lifted something into the air.
A flare gun. The same one my brother had been working on in his workshop.
“Don’t you dare!” I reached for the flail. If he didn’t put the gun down, I’d take him out. Funny how I was afraid of Maks beating me, but with Steve . . . I’d fight him to the literal death if I had to in order to prove myself. I would never submit to him.
He smiled as he pulled the trigger, the flare shot into the sky and burst open in a shower of sparkles. “Leave the human,” he said, “or die with him. I don’t care which. You’re about as useless as him anyway.”
Kiara’s horse danced under her and she smiled and blew me a kiss as she turned away. Oh, I’d like to smack that saucy grin right off her stupid face, give her some scars so she wouldn’t be so fucking smug. Smart, she was the smart one.
It hit me then who had set us up, who had let the Ice Witch know we were coming.
Kiara.
Darcy and I were both ex-lovers of her new mate. What better way to rid him of any temptation but to have us killed?
Batman bucked once under Steve and I just stared at him. The words he’d spoken finally sunk in, those words that shouldn’t have hurt after this long apart, after all he’d done to try and leave me behind, they cut into me like claws tearing at my flesh.
Shocked, I sat there.
I shook my head to throw the immobility away. Steve took off at full speed on Batman, Kiara and her horse tight beside him. I made myself speak, forcing myself past that hurt.
“Maks, come on, we’ve got to get the hell out of here. That flare is going to bring down the heavy on us.” I moved my foot out of the stirrup so he could use it. I didn’t have to prompt him more than that.
He was up and behind me in the saddle, his arms around my waist and then we were off. Balder might have been carrying far more weight than he was used to but he gave it his all, going as fast as he could, breathing hard as he worked to keep up the speed. Maks hung onto me, his body warm and solid, that musky scent of his curling around me. Another time I might have let myself enjoy it a little. The smell, that is.
“Lila, tell me we can hide somewhere,” I called up to her.
Behind us came the snap of branches and trees, the roar of a dragon drawing close once more.
“I’ve not been this far north; your best chance is to run hard for the border. And hope the White Wolf does not wait for you there.”
“We’re too heavy,” Maks said. “Either you leave me behind or you shift.”
Shift, to my useless house cat form.
This was no time for arguing. I nodded and did the only thing I could to help as he’d suggested. I shifted down to my house cat form, grimacing as I went. On four legs, I turned and looked up at him. “Take my spot, Maks,” I said. He seemed shocked that I could speak in my cat form, but he slid forward and took the reins without hesitation.
Balder redoubled his speed with the reduction in weight. I hopped up and sat on Maks’s shoulder, digging into his thick coat with my tiny claws so I could watch behind us. The motion of Balder galloping rocked me back and forth, but that didn’t change what I was seeing behind us.
The dragon that burst out of the trees was brown, like the earth, his scales a multitude of the same shades of color over and over, highlighted in the sparkling light of the still-dying flare. His head whipped around until he caught sight of us. And then he let out a roar, a call for his other buddies to come see what he found. There was an answering roar farther away and more tree crashing that set my heart pumping harder. The only upside I could see was that his wings were small, so he wasn’t a flier.
I crawled over Maks’ shoulder and down onto Balder’s rump and dug my claws in. He burst forward in an attempt to get away from me. I backed up, pricking him with each step as I let out a long low hiss.
“What are you doing?” Maks yelled as Balder grunted under us.
“Hurrying him up,” I said. I knew Balder’s drives and that a hiss was about as close as I could get to the oversized snake that had tried to eat him a few years ago. Fear drove him now, more than anything else.
“If you can get to cover, Prince can’t smell. He hunts by sight alone,” Lila called down to us. “Assuming you don’t make it to the border, that is.”
Maks urged Balder faster—though it really wasn’t needed now that I’d done my part—and all I could do was hang on for my life. I hated it. Hated not being able to do anything while those around me had their lives on the line. Because I could always slip away, my size saving me. But I didn’t want to do that, not again.