Idiots, did Kiara really want to be on foot the rest of the way?
It was hard not to grab them and shake them until their teeth rattled. I stared through the rain to see a horse galloping straight for me. “Easy, easy, buddy. . . ” I trailed off as he slid to a stop, his dark coat slicked with sweat, steam rolling off him while the rain sluiced across his body and all around us.
“Batman?” I whispered his name as I slid a hand up slowly. He breathed into my palm and bunted me. When I reached for his dangling reins, he pulled back a step and flicked his head.
“I am not following you out in this,” I said. “You’re insane.”
He snorted and bobbed his head again. The mud squelched between my toes, turning my feet into ice blocks. I had to make a decision.
Did I care enough about Maks to make sure he was at least okay? Even if that meant walking right into a Jinn’s encampment? The very thought took my breath away.
Maks as a Jinn didn’t frighten me, as foolish as that was. Maybe because I knew him. I knew his laugh and knew even if he was inherently a bad Jinn, he’d not even tried to kill me. And I’d given him plenty of opportunities where he could have, and no one would have been the wiser. And I’d known him before as he’d masqueraded as a human. I couldn’t seem to not see him as that man no matter how hard I tried.
The taste of his mouth, the feel of his skin on mine, the safety in his arms, those sensations caught me off guard. I turned away from Batman, my heart pounding with the memory of Maks and me in his lap. Of his body warming me after my fall into the river.
Of him calling me back from the brink of death.
“I need my boots first,” I said. Batman snorted as if he understood.
I walked through the door and went directly to the fire and wiped my feet off on some of Kiara’s clothes while she spluttered and tried to snatch them away from me. Without a word, I pulled on the rest of my clothes, boots, cloak, and weapons. I was out of my mind. There was no other reason for me to do something like this—to attempt a rescue of one Jinn from his Jinn buddies. But that wasn’t stopping me.
“Lila, you with me?” I turned to her as I settled the flail on my back.
“Where are you going?” She flew up to my eye level, the wind from her wings blowing my hair back.
“There’s someone stuck in the mud.”
She grinned and nodded. “The course of true love never did run smooth. I’m with you.” She flew to my shoulder and settled, and I shifted my balance to accommodate her as if I’d been doing it my whole life.
“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” I said. “And it’s not love.”
I turned, and Kiara stood in my path. “No, you are not going after Maks, and you have the sapphire,” she said with her hands on her hips.
Well, fuck a duck, I had half-forgotten about the jewel.
“You are not in charge here, Kiara. And if he’s really being held against his will, he’s their enemy, the same as us, so he needs our help. I’m going to check it out. I won’t bring him back if he’s with them. And the sapphire is no different from the dragon’s gemstone. It will only make Ish meaner and give her more strength. We don’t need that right now.”
She put an arm out as if to block me and a crackle of tension rolled between us, thick like the air before a lightning strike.
I pushed into her arm. “This is not complicated,” I said softly. “I am the stronger shifter here. Not you.”
She let out a long growl, and I locked eyes with her, knowing that to even look away for a split second would be considered a sign of submission. Instead, I pushed my body into hers until our noses touched. I might not have the low growl she did, but nobody outstared me.
The seconds ticked, and I leaned into her farther. “I do not want to hurt you, but if you make me, I will put you in your place.”
Her eyelashes fluttered, and her growl softened until it was nothing. She looked away and dropped her arm. “I had to try.”
“Actually, no, you didn’t.” I pushed her gently out of my way. “I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
That’s what I said, but already I knew I wasn’t coming back for her or Marcel. They were dead weight and I needed to move fast. The gorcs would come for me. They were hunting my name, not Kiara’s. I stepped into the rain and made my way to where the horses had been tied. With all their gear on, and only water to drink.
Anger snapped through me and I softly apologized to both Balder and Lacey, giving them each a couple of the camel fat balls of oats. It was the best I could do. I untied Balder and jumped onto the saddle.
Lila clung to me. “You aren’t coming back for them, are you?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”
Dead weight. . . those words would come back to haunt me. I just didn’t know it in that moment.
Chapter 10
I held tightly to Batman’s reins so I didn’t lose him in the rain as we galloped through the splattering mud and wet. We were running out of night, and that did not work in our favor.
Because if Maks did need a rescue, then we needed the cover of darkness to do it. I broke out in a cold sweat just thinking about facing Jinn.
“What made you change your mind about the toad?” Lila asked, and I grinned. Toad, that was what she’d taken to calling him at one point after one of her favorite Shakespearean insults.
“If he really is against them, we could use a Jinn on our side. Besides, the gorcs are on my ass, and my brother went into Dragon’s Ground to look for a healer.”
“Oh.” Just that, nothing else. Because she knew better than I did just how fucking stupid and dangerous it was for anyone to trespass into the Dragon’s Ground. Even to find a legendary healer, there was no acceptable reason the dragons allowed for anyone to come into their territory.
It seemed, though, that luck was not on our side, and the sun began to rise before Batman took us all the way to wherever he’d gotten loose. Assuming he was taking us back to Maks.
Assuming Maks really was in trouble.
The sky wasn’t bright exactly, but the jet-black of the night faded a little. I wished the rain would’ve faded with it.
Lila hopped off my shoulder and made her way to the pommel of the saddle where she perched. “You mean to go into the Dragon’s Ground then, don’t you?”
“If that’s where my brother is.” I nodded. “I’m hoping he hasn’t gotten that far.” But if he hadn’t, it could mean Steve had found him first. I clamped down on the growl that wanted to roll up my throat. Steve had better not have put his hands on Bryce.
Lila’s jaw worked side to side and a deep frown creased her brows. “You want the dragon’s jewel too, don’t you?”
I sighed and looked down at her. “Yes and no. Steve and Darcy are going in after it as we speak. I don’t want Ish to have it, Lila. She’s. . . not stable. I think that something within the giant’s stone that we brought back has made her mean. Like the giants are mean. I don’t understand why, but it is the only thing that makes sense to me.” I realized as I spoke that my thoughts had been circling around this conclusion for days.
Lila’s eyelids fluttered. “Then the stone from the dragons will not help that. It will make her more suspicious, meaner, quicker to anger and she will turn into a true hoarder. Like the dragons.”
I just stared. “You know all this? How?”
“I always knew. I just couldn’t really tell you before. But I’m free of my bindings now so I can explain a bit more. Or at least explain what I know. The stones and jewels that the emperor’s son handed out before the emperor was put to sleep, they carry some of the traits of the creatures who’ve owned them for so long. A weak heart could never carry a stone without feeling the effects.” She reached up and tapped the sapphire through my shirt. “You wear this with no effect that I’ve seen. You’ve got the true heart of a lion, Zam. Not that I’m surprised.”
I would have blushed if I hadn’t been so fucking cold. “Thanks, Lila.”
She shrugged. “It’s the truth. And I think the stones are partly what make the dragons such bastards, to be honest.” Her violet eyes caught the light from the sun and seemed to be jewels of their own. “Dragons weren’t always this bad, Zam. We were heroes once too. There are stories about the dragons of old. Of their great deeds and battles to save others.”