Passion Ignites (11 page)

How shocking and strange to learn humans weren't the only intelligent beings on the planet. It scared the shit out of her to the point that she wasn't sure she could ever walk the streets alone again.

Nothing would ever be the same for her. She could never look at a person again without wondering if they were human, and she couldn't even think about dating.

Perhaps Thorn was right. She should go home.

 

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

Rhi stood atop a mountain looking at Dreagan. She was far enough away that none of the Dragon Kings would know she was there.

No matter how hard she tried, she always found herself back in Scotland. It was pathetic. Her King would never love her again.

It was something she told herself almost daily, but then she would remember the heart-stopping passion, the way he placed kisses over her body as if he were worshipping her, and the way he had once smiled whenever she walked into a room.

Those thoughts used to make her cry for the longing in her heart to have all of it again. But, oddly, there were no tears this time. Just … sorrow to have lost something so precious.

A love of the ages.

That's what he had called it. Rhi had been too wrapped up in the desire and him to fully comprehend everything. It wasn't until he turned his back on her that it hit her.

“
Rhi? Can you hear me? Where are you?
”

She had heard Henry's summons for weeks now. He was handsome, and a wonderful kisser, but he was mortal. She had known it was wrong to kiss him. Rhi told herself she needed to feel something, but she was only going to hurt Henry.

It would've been better had she just told him the truth. Yet, she didn't want to wound him as she had been hurt. So she left.

Now he called to her daily.

“Forget about me, Henry,” she said. “I'll only ruin things for you.”

Rhi had been jumping from place to place in the hopes of finding some sort of peace and contentment. But it wasn't to be had.

She refused to return to Usaeil's court. The Queen of the Light had taken a Dragon King to her bed. Rhi had a suspicion that it was Con, but she couldn't prove it. Yet.

The fact that Usaeil had done everything in her power to break Rhi and her King apart was like a splinter she couldn't get out. It stung viciously that Usaeil would now have a relationship with a King.

Rhi also couldn't go to Dreagan anymore. How could she after she had refused to aid Warrick and Darcy? Rhi still didn't understand why she hadn't rushed to help as she always had.

Already she had gone to Ulrik too many times. And Balladyn … The Dark wanted her. He pursued her relentlessly, and what worried her was that she enjoyed it. It felt good to have someone want her so desperately.

Then there were his kisses.

It would be so easy to give in to Balladyn. He would shield her as her King had once done. Balladyn loved her. How had she not seen it before?

Rhi shook her head viciously and turned her back on Dreagan. She was so confused. She didn't know what to do anymore or where to turn.

Then she thought of the one place she could go, the one person who she knew would always be there for her.

In a blink, she teleported from the mountain to a cabin deep in the forest. She had taken only two steps to the porch when the door opened and Phelan appeared.

The Warrior's smile dimmed when he saw her. “Grab the whisky,” he said over his shoulder to his wife and Druid, Aisley.

Phelan didn't say another word. He opened his arms and Rhi walked into them, burying her head in his chest. He held her tightly, rubbing his hands up and down her back.

“Do you want to talk?” he asked softly.

She shook her head. It felt good to be able to lean on someone. Phelan was the only one who didn't want something from her. He was the only one she could show weakness to and know he would never use it against her.

“It's been weeks, Rhi,” the immortal Highlander said. “I've been worried.”

Rhi still remembered the first time she had spoken to Phelan. As a Warrior, a man with a primeval god inside him, he had been torn about his feelings for Aisley.

Phelan's blood could heal anyone of any ailment. The only thing he couldn't do was bring someone back from the dead. He hadn't known why his blood had such power.

But Rhi had.

She had watched him for centuries before she finally told him that he was a prince of the Fae. His ancestor had bedded a Light Fae, who happened to be the queen's brother, which is how his blood was able to cure anything but death. He was of royal blood on both sides of his family, with his mortal side being the rulers of Saxony.

From the first time she and Phelan had spoken, there had been a bond that developed quick and strong. She had no more family, so she considered him a brother, and Aisley a sister.

“Can I help in any way?”

She smiled at Phelan's words, finding tears gathering in her eyes. “You already are.”

Rhi shared almost everything with Phelan. The one thing he didn't know was who her Dragon King lover was. Because if he did … Phelan would go after him.

She stepped out of Phelan's arms and wiped away the tears that had fallen. With as much of a smile as she could muster in place, she met his blue gray gaze.

“Tell me his name,” Phelan said tightly. “Tell me who the bastard is so I can knock some sense into him.”

“I would love to see that.”

“I'd do it for you.”

Rhi sniffed, feeling better than she had in days. “I worried you'd be angry with me.”

Phelan's gaze turned troubled as he led her inside the house. He ushered her to the two sofas where Aisley already sat with three glasses of whisky.

“Rhi,” Aisley said and stood. She rushed to hug her.

It had taken Rhi the longest time to become comfortable with the affection Phelan and Aisley showed her. Until Rhi realized they were like family, and it was all right for her to love them as she did.

Phelan's frown made Rhi uneasy as she accepted the whisky and sat beside Aisley. “You are angry.”

“Nay,” Phelan said. “I'm worried.”

“Why didn't you show up?” Aisley asked. “Did someone detain you?”

It was there, the out Rhi could use to cover her ass. They knew she was a Queen's Guard and was called away for duties all over. She could lie and everything could go back to the way it was.

But she couldn't lie. Not just because she would feel unimaginable pain—a trait she inherited from her mother—but because they were family.

“No.” The word hung heavy in the air. “I wanted to. I intended to. Then … I couldn't.”

Phelan set his untouched whisky on the coffee table between them and leaned forward. “Was it because Ulrik was there?”

They had no idea how she had helped him and how he had held her. They didn't have a clue of the shared kiss or how she found herself going to Ulrik again and again. And they wouldn't. “No.”

“I don't understand.” Aisley's troubled fawn-colored eyes looked from her to Phelan and back again.

Rhi swirled the amber liquid in her glass. “I don't really either. The one thing I do know is that ever since I was taken by the Dark and held by the Chains of Mordare, I feel … darkness within me.”

“Nay,” Phelan stated loudly. “You're no' Dark, Rhi.”

She smiled at him. “I didn't say I was. I said I felt a darkness within.”

“Fight it.”

“Phelan,” Aisley admonished. She looked at Rhi and asked, “Is it too strong to fight?”

Rhi shrugged. “Not exactly. It's more that I'm not sure I want to fight it.”

“I can't lose you,” Phelan said.

Rhi couldn't look into his eyes. She dropped her gaze.

Aisley's hand covered hers. “You might not have been in Edinburgh to fight the Dark, but you sent us to help. You didn't have to do that. You're fighting the darkness, Rhi. All you have to do is not give in.”

That was easier said than done. If she took Balladyn's offer, she knew the darkness would claim her quickly. She who'd vowed to never become Dark.

“What can we do to help?” Phelan asked.

Rhi looked up at him. “You're doing it. This is the only place I can come and be able to be myself.”

Phelan sat back with a sigh. “I've no' told the other Warriors yet, but a war has begun.”

What? How could she not have known? “When?”

“In Edinburgh with Warrick and Darcy.” Phelan ran a hand down his face. “There's much that has happened, Rhi. Ulrik stabbed Darcy.”

Rhi shook her head, not able to process the information.

“We used our magic,” Aisley said of the Druids. “Until Con could get there and heal Darcy.”

Rhi tossed back the whisky. She set aside her empty glass and got to her feet to pace. Unable to process what they told her about Ulrik, she focused on what she could think about. “The first Fae Wars were horrendous. I lost my brother in that war. That was ages ago before there were so many mortals on this realm. We were able to hide the battles. We won't be able to hide them now.”

“We?” Phelan asked. “You'll fight with the Kings?”

She halted and turned her head to him. There hadn't been any other thought. “Of course.”

“So will the Warriors and Druids,” Aisley said.

Rhi looked from one to the other. “No. You mustn't. The Dark are insidious. Many of the Druids from MacLeod Castle have children. No amount of Druid magic or the fact that the castle is hidden from mortals will stop the Dark.”

Aisley's face paled, but she lifted her chin. “This is our world, Rhi. We have magic. We can't just stand by in this war.”

“We willna,” Phelan said as he got to his feet. “I'm a Warrior. My god demands I join this fight.”

Rhi shook her head in frustration. “Why didn't you call to me? Why didn't you tell me before now?”

“Because you've no' been yourself,” Phelan said softly. “You needed time.”

“Tell me everything,” she demanded as she once more took her seat.

As Phelan studied her, Rhi felt someone else's gaze on her. Her unseen follower. Everywhere she went, he was there. Without a doubt he was Fae. Light or Dark, she wasn't sure. To be able to remain veiled as long as he did, she suspected he was Dark.

Had Balladyn sent him? As soon as the question emerged, she pushed it aside. Balladyn wouldn't want anyone but himself to know what she did. It wouldn't be the king of the Dark, Taraeth. He had bigger things to concern himself with—like bringing down the Kings.

It wasn't Usaeil. The queen of the Light might be agitated with her, but she would never send a Dark after Rhi.

“Constantine has sent pairs of Kings all over England and Scotland to battle the Dark,” Phelan said. “They've invaded Edinburgh, Inverness, London, and all the biggest cities. Even Ryder is being sent out to Glasgow.”

Aisley nodded as he spoke. “Phelan and I were about to go to Dreagan to see if we could help. The Kings are stretched tight.”

Just what the Dark wanted. Rhi had known another war would come eventually, but she hadn't expected it this soon. “Is the Light helping?”

“No' that I know,” Phelan said.

“Well I know one that is,” Rhi said as she got to her feet.

If Usaeil was too focused on her Dragon King lover to think of their people, then Rhi would do it for her.

Phelan's frown was filled with worry and apprehension. “Rhi, what are you thinking?”

“I'm a Queen's Guard. I can call the army in if I see they're needed. And I see they're needed.”

 

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Lexi woke from dozing again. The light was dimming from the day. It didn't seem fair that she was beginning to feel better as the hours slipped through her fingers like sands in an hourglass.

She had dreamed of the Dark Fae, of glowing red eyes, and evil so cloying it suffocated her. She had also dreamed of desire, but it wasn't the Dark she saw. It was Thorn.

Lexi glanced around the studio. She heard him in the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar, but she couldn't see him.

“A pity,” she whispered.

Because if Thorn looked good
in
clothes, she couldn't imagine what he looked like
out
of them. It made her smile just thinking about such a fine body. That is, if she could look away from his eyes. The man's gaze drew her in like a bee to nectar.

And once she looked into his sensual dark brown eyes, she was a goner. Completely, utterly lost. She had always heard of people who seemed to have old souls. Until Thorn, she hadn't understood what that meant.

Thorn might dress as if he were part of the modern times, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen—and been part of—so very much more.

She shifted on the bed. Her gaze was drawn to the wardrobe and the door that stood open with the mirror. That mirror showed directly inside the bathroom to Thorn.

Lexi's mouth parted as she let her gaze run over such a specimen. He faced the sink, shaving. It wasn't his thick sinew and two percent fat. It wasn't the way his shoulders tapered to a narrow waist or how the muscles bulged in his arms when he moved.

It was the tattoo.

She had never understood people's need to mark themselves with permanent ink. Though she could appreciate good art, not once had she seen a tat that remotely appealed to her.

Why then couldn't she take her eyes off the dragon? It covered Thorn's chest in a curious mixture of black and red ink. The dragon was in a standing position with its head turned to the side and lifted upward as if looking at Thorn. Its mouth was open on a roar, making the dragon appear fierce and vengeful. Its wings were spread wide like it wanted to take flight.

With such a huge tat, Lexi expected to find more of them on Thorn's body, and unless they were on his legs, hidden by his jeans, there were no more.