Mate Of A Dragon Villain (Skeleton Key) (4 page)

Now she was left standing there by the window, wishing he was brighter so she could see him flying away. So she could see if he would come back.

S
tupid
. Stupid and foolish of him to have left her there like that. Of course she would think him a monster. Why would he be insulted by such a thing? He’d done monstrous things, but he was not a monster. It did not come close in comparison to what Eldric and his father had done, and he’d left her there, no warning of what to expect. No nothing. He wanted to go back, to fly to his woman and explain, but he couldn’t. From his landing place, far enough in the distance that he wouldn’t be easily seen spying on the castle, he could see that someone had come to take her from her holding cell. His eyes were good, so he could see it even from his perch so far away, and even through a window small enough to be a nuisance to arrows.

Now he was forced to watch and wait for the right time. If Eldric hurt his queen, just one hair on her head, Hargreave would rain down hell on him, no matter the cost.

He thought of his mother, nailed to that cross, her body rotting, and he couldn’t stand the idea of something like that happening to the woman with the blue-tipped hair. Hargreave clenched his fists, his body itching for war. He was jumping out of his skin. Something needed to be done. He readied his spear, spread his wings, and took to the skies once more.

* * *

E
ldric had called for her
. Almost immediately after Hargreave left her, the door opened again, and for the third time, that annoyed-looking hulk of a man came into her room. He sighed, half rolled his eyes, and announced the king wanted to see her before he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her so roughly out of there that her feet barely touched the stone floor.

“Hey!” Amanda struggled, but she couldn’t exactly fight against him. He was too strong. She might as well have been a five-year-old pulling against a parent’s hand, and when they got out into the hallway, there were other guards waiting to escort her.

Eldric couldn’t really think she was so dangerous, could he?

She tried not to look back at all the men behind her, with their huge muscles and sharp weapons, tried not to feel their eyes glaring into the back of her head. Some of them were muttering amongst each other.

“Where did she come from?”

“Whore of the enemy.”

“Hargreave’s little bitch.”

She was going insane. People in the world she’d written about were insulting her and calling her nasty names. That wasn’t normal. None of this was the least bit normal.

Then Amanda realized where they had to be going. She expected to be brought to the throne room. She was going to see it with her own eyes. The excitement of being able to see that place for herself—the tall, stone, arched ceiling, the sweeping blue banners, and the gold trimmed dragons and griffins, took away her fears and worries about her mental health for a moment.

She wasn’t taken to the throne room. Amanda had only ever imagined this castle in her head as she’d been writing in the details, but while some things felt different than she’d imagined them, she was pretty sure they weren’t going to the throne room.

The halls would have opened up, become wider, and there would have been way more people than what she was seeing. There was a distinct feeling of more comfort around her. A carpet had suddenly appeared after they’d gone up another flight of chilly stone stairs, which was welcome on her cold feet, and the torches had slowly become electric lights, but they were definitely not close to the throne room.

Also, the people she did see weren’t just castle maids and apprentices. The maids wore white this time, with white little caps on their heads.

There was extra security around one door in particular, and Amanda heard murmured voices before they made it there.

When she and her guards rounded the corner, Amanda’s eyes flew wide at what she saw.

Alger was in bed, propped up, his wings stretched out on either side of him and held up with stands and pillows, while nurses gently dabbed a cream into the cuts and slits, trying to encourage healing so he might one day be able to fly again.

Eldric was beside him, and his hand was on Alger’s cheek, barely touching because of the long, jagged cut, but the way his fingertips grazed against the unblemished part of his skin was telling. The king’s eyes stared intently down at the man in a way that was more than just brotherly affection.

A
lot
more.

Alger stared at Eldric with a similar expression on his face, his mouth slightly red and plump. They looked like they’d just been kissing.

Holy hell. When she’d been writing them, Amanda sure as hell hadn’t pictured this.

Amanda’s guard cleared his throat. “Sire, here she is.”

Eldric barely glanced away from Alger, then he stood straight and faced her. He didn’t step away from Alger’s side. He didn’t so much as put a foot of distance between them, as if that was his place. Right there.

Amanda’s guard didn’t sound so shocked to see his king cheating on his queen. Amanda hadn’t written this in at all. Eldric was supposed to love and adore Jane. They were
meant
for each other. They were supposed to be soul mates. Why was he looking at Alger like that?

Holy shit. Had that been why she’d had such a hard time with this series? Because all this time she’d been writing with M/M characters and didn’t realize it? King Eldric was gay this whole time and he’d been in love with his best friend from childhood and…

That actually sounded like a better, more compelling story than what she’d written for him.
Fuck
.

Oh, right. Eldric was staring at her, arms crossed and looking not too impressed.

Amanda tensed. “Uh, you wanted to see me?”

It felt like a fist punched her in the back, shooting her forward. Amanda barely caught herself from falling over.

“Hey!” she snapped at the man behind her.

“I barely touched you, and show some respect for His Majesty.”

Dickhead.

“Sir Garrison, please no more of that,” Alger said.

With one last glare at her, Garrison backed off.

“Sir Garrison was merely doing his duty,” said the soft voice of an older man in the room.

Amanda hadn’t noticed him before. She’d been too caught up in Eldric and Alger. He wore fine clothes, mostly white robes with blue shields and swords and dragons sewn into them.

He also looked like he was over a hundred years old.

That had to be Udolf, Eldric’s adviser and the best friend of his father. Amanda felt better already now that he was in the room. He might be sticking up for the guy that had shoved her, but Amanda had written him to be fair and good. Before Jane, he was the one who kept Eldric from losing himself to the rage and anger of war.

“Alger wanted to thank you himself,” Eldric said, glancing at Udolf. “And so did I.”

Amanda looked Alger over, noted his wounds, and his wings. “You’re looking pretty good, considering it’s only been a couple of hours. I’m glad you’re all right.”

She meant it. It was a miracle he was awake at all, not to mention sitting up, but as for everything else, he still looked bruised and ripped up. Landing against all those rocks had done a number on him.

Alger smiled softly, then winced, and put his mouth back in a neutral position. “You saved my life. Why did you do that?”

She felt like a squirrel looking at the tire of a car that was about to run her over. “What?”

Eldric reached down and touched Alger’s shoulder. Again, not some graphic show of affection, but what it was spoke volumes.

“Alger tells me that when he wasn’t breathing, he still felt as though he was trapped in his body, like a living death. He said he felt you come to him, and he felt the way you put air into his lungs and brought his heart back to life. Had it not been for him, I would have continued to think of you as just another enemy of Alzriandra.”

“I would still warn caution on that,” Udolf said softly.

“I’m not an enemy of your country,” Amanda said, shaking her head quickly and trying not to glance at the guards who were still behind her.

She was starting to rethink her opinion of Udolf, especially with the way he kept looking at her like she might be getting ready to spring.

“Then explain to me why it was that Hargreave, this country’s greatest threat and enemy, was defending you so viciously. You were in his arms in the sky,” Eldric said.

Amanda was silent, though her heart slammed around in her ears. She thought about the skeleton key, how it seemed to have brought her here, but the fact that she didn’t have it to give any form of evidence over what happened put her in a pretty bad spot. What the hell was she supposed to say to all this?

“Your silence does not help you,” Eldric said. Alger reached a bandaged hand out and touched Eldric’s wrist. They glanced at each other, then back at her. Eldric sighed and rolled his eyes. “An explanation would be welcome, my lady.”

He was clearly being polite only for Alger’s sake, and in that moment, Amanda wasn’t too bothered by it. She’d take any good luck she could get.

Amanda sucked in a deep breath and sent a prayer for courage as she explained to all the men in the room. Sort of. “I think this is real. Because ever since I came here, I’ve been thrown around, and cold, and kind of miserable about everything, so I don’t think I’m hallucinating. I think what happened in my room was real, too, so I think I should tell you.”

Eldric’s brows lifted. Udolf’s eyes, which had been squinty behind tiny spectacles ever since she walked in, also opened wide.

That certainly wasn’t the answer he’d expected out of her, if that look was anything to go by.

Amanda clutched at her hands, just because she needed something to hold onto. “I found a skeleton key made of glass in my desk, and I opened a door in my office with it, and then I was falling through the sky, like this place sucked me in. Hargreave caught me. I don’t…I thought I knew everything there was to know about everyone here, but then I see…” She trailed off. It probably wasn’t a good idea to talk anymore about what she’d seen regarding Alger and Eldric. Eldric might take her shock as a giant insult. “Anyway, I don’t know why he did what he did, but he kissed me.” The memory of that kiss made her mouth tingle pleasantly, and her heart ached over how close he’d been a half an hour ago.

She pushed the idea away. Thinking like that might get her killed with these people.

She’d
written
Hargreave. She knew what he was and why these people hated him so much. She didn’t want to be caught blushing at the thought of kissing him.

“He might think you his mate,” Alger suggested, shifting in his bed, then grunting painfully.

“What are the chances of that?” Eldric scoffed, though he righted the pillows behind Alger as the man moved to a more comfortable position. “A woman who falls from the sky and she just so happens to be the mate of my enemy? And I assume you also have no knowledge of the crimes he has committed against my people?”

Eldric waited for her to deny it, but Amanda couldn’t deny it because she’d written those things.

Except, she hadn’t written in this thing with Eldric and Alger. What else could she be wrong about?

“My lady?” Udolf prompted gently.

“I…I know you’ve been at war with each other for a long time.” That seemed like the absolute safest thing she could say on the subject. If she so much as mentioned it might have been because Eldric’s father has razed Hargreave’s land, he would just get defensive, probably also throw her back into that cold, damp cell, and she didn’t want to go there.

Eldric snorted. “Yes, he’s killed and stolen enough to make the rivers run red with blood. He is a villain.”

Alger turned his eyes up to Eldric. Something in his expression looked as though he wanted to speak, but he kept quiet.

Amanda hadn’t written the carnage as being that bad. It was bad, but rivers weren’t exactly running red. Not in her books.

She couldn’t tell if Eldric was purposely being dramatic, or if he was being serious. Not knowing was dangerous.

“I’m sorry to hear all that.”

Eldric’s blue eyes remained hard as he looked Amanda up and down, like he didn’t know what to do with her.

That made her heart beat faster in her ears. She’d known he was an imposing man, strong for his people, tall and well built, but seeing him in the flesh like this, knowing he could destroy her life, or end it, if he thought for one second she might secretly be aligned with his enemy, made her quiver.

And almost pee her pants.

It was Alger who spoke, his voice calm. “If she is the mate of Hargreave, could we not keep her here?”

“Here?” Eldric looked down at his friend—lover? “What good would come from…”

He trailed off, and something seemed to light up behind his eyes. He and Alger looked at each other, and they seemed to come to an understanding before looking back at Amanda.

It looked like they wanted to keep her after all. There was no way she was going to like this.