Soul of Smoke (16 page)

Blankets rustled behind Kai. She spun around.

“The heck?” Juli pushed herself up, her normally sleek chin-length hair sticking up in fluffy blond tufts.

Kai crouched in front of her. Despite everything, a slow grin spread across her face. Juli squinted dark, sleepy eyes at Kai. A few seconds passed, then her eyes widened, and she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Kai and pitching them to the floor.

“You’re alive!” Juli whispered fiercely, squeezing Kai until she could barely breathe. “I knew you were. I
knew
it.”

“I won’t be for long if you don’t get off me.” Kai laughed, pushing at her friend.

Juli sat up and put a hand to her head, frowning. “Kai, your parents are going insane! Your mom hasn’t eaten in days. Where have you been?” She lifted her gaze and looked around, taking in the cave, then Rhys, Ffion and Ashem. Her frown deepened, and she pushed her hands through her hair, trying to smooth it down. She glanced at Kai, then back at the dragons. “Who are you people and what do you want?”

Kai cleared her throat. Seeing Juli in this place was bizarre. “Juli, this is Ashem, Ffion...and Rhys. Can you stand?”

Juli nodded. Kai stood and pulled her to her feet.

“That doesn’t tell me what they want with us.” She shifted her gaze over Kai’s shoulder, and Kai knew she was eyeballing Rhys. Seeming to dismiss him, Juli turned back to Ashem.

“What will it take to get us home?”

Ashem raised expressive dark brows at her. “You, nothing. You’ll leave soon enough. Kai is staying.”

Juli raised her eyebrows right back. When she spoke, her voice was cool and business-like, though her stance was reminiscent of a cat with its fur standing on end. “I don’t think so.”

Kai put a hand on Juli’s arm. “Don’t bother. Let’s talk.” She looked around. There really wasn’t anywhere private in the caves. “We can go down to the library.”

“Do you need paper and something to write with?” Ffion asked, her ice-blue eyes soft with concern. Kai hesitated then nodded. It wouldn’t hurt to keep up the act.

“Come on.” She had Juli help her grab a pile of bedding and they dragged a mattress through the kitchen and down the tunnel. Kai breathed a quiet sigh of relief when she left the heaviness of Rhys’s presence behind.

Safely in the library, Kai curled up on the thin mattress and watched Juli take in their surroundings with the epic sense of two worlds colliding. Her friend’s mental process visible as she categorized and labeled everything in the room. From her frown, she obviously found the accommodations lacking.

“Why are we in a library in a cave? And where is this cave located? And why have you been kidnapped by a clearly unstable man with interpersonal issues?”

Kai blew hair out of her face. “I don’t know. Still in the Rockies I think, but north. As for why...um...remember that girl we found?”

Juli nodded.

Kai felt her fingers twitch and stopped them before they could give her away. She had to be careful with her words. Juli could usually tell when she was lying. “Well, she woke up after you guys left. It turned out she’d been attacked. Uh...” Kai wasn’t quite sure how to relate the rest of the story without including dragons. “She was worried that the same people might attack her brother—the red-headed guy, Rhys—and her friends, so I helped her back to her campsite. And then they
did
get attacked, but got away, and brought me here with them because the...uh...bad guys were still around. Now they want me to stay.”

Juli eyed her. “Your story is full of holes. Also, you aren’t staying. How did you get here? How did
I
get here?”

“I imagine they flew you here.”

Juli’s brows furrowed. “Why would they waste money to fly me here?”

Stilling the urge to click her carabiners, Kai said, “I don’t think money is an issue for them.”
Or that flying costs them anything.

“Then why do they live in a cave?” Distaste obvious in her voice, Juli ran a finger over a stone bookshelf and frowned at the glass sphere sitting on the table. “Hm.” Her eyes went to the bright, white fires lighting the ceiling. “Are those...fires? Where’s the smoke? What does it use for fuel?”

Kai rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know, Jules. Don’t ask.” Kai tried to keep her voice light. She was glad, at least, that Juli was having a very Juli-like reaction. No panicking, no freaking out, just disdain for their kidnappers and common-sense questions. “All I can tell you is that these people won’t let me leave.”

“Why? You helped them. You said they have money. What could they possibly want from you?”

To marry one of their soldiers and make lots of dragon babies.
Kai’s heart twisted a little, and she found herself wishing she could tell Juli about Rhys. If he had been a normal guy—

Juli snorted. “So what’s the plan?”

Kai smiled. She’d missed Juli. She explained about the two-hundred foot cliff and how she’d gathered supplies.

Juli nodded. “No map?”

“No. I don’t have a clue where we are, but I think our best bet will be to head south.”

“Aw, being here has given you the ability to think! That’s nice.” Juli gave her a saccharine smile.

“I hate you.” Kai couldn’t keep an enormous smile off her face.

“Here.” Juli grabbed the paper and pen Ffion had delivered and thrust them at Kai. She pulled a map out of her own bag, which Ffion had tucked in with Juli for the flight. The map was covered in violent little red X’s. After examining it for a moment, they decided they were beyond anything it showed.

They sat at the table. “Draw me a map of the caves so I can get an idea of the layout. Where are the supplies? And the food?”

Kai scratched her forehead with the back of the pen and started a rough sketch. Juli leaned over her. “Your proportions are off.”

“
Your
proportions are off,” Kai muttered. She drummed the pen on the paper as she studied the map. “The sleeping room is here.” She labeled it. “Except Rhys sleeps here...” She drew a short tunnel and labeled the extra room.

“How many of them are there?” Juli asked.

“Rooms?” Kai asked, distracted.

“People.”

“Oh. Um, six. Ashem, Ffion and Rhys you’ve met. There’s also Deryn, the girl we found at the bottom of the cliff, and Griffith, Ffion’s heart—husband. And Cadoc...” Her chest constricted. “Or, there was Cadoc. He’s gone.”

“Gone?”

Kai looked up. “Yeah. He fl—ran away. He was my friend.”

Juli narrowed her eyes. “That’s called Stockholm Syndrome, Kai. These people kidnapped us. They are not your friends. If they were, they wouldn’t try to keep you here instead of taking you home.”

Kai shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We’re leaving. Tonight, if we can.”

“Fine.” Juli threw her hands in the air. “I’ll drop it because I am awesome and we have things to do. Show me that map again.”

Kai pulled out the paper, and they talked until they had something resembling a working plan.

Chapter Seventeen

A Beetle in Her Head

Rhys came out of the sleeping room to hear voices echoing through the main cavern. Surprised, he saw Deryn lurking outside the door to the kitchen, out of sight of whoever was inside. The voices got louder. It sounded like Ffion and Griffith.

He ducked close to Deryn’s ear. “What are you doing?”

“Quiet!” she hissed, making shushing motions. “These two haven’t had a row like this in a century!”

Rhys frowned walked into the kitchen despite Deryn’s protests. Griffith was standing with his back to them, his arms crossed over his chest. Beyond him, Ffion was pacing, shouting, and waving her arms, her hair even wilder than usual, wavy bronze tendrils escaping from her braids. “We swore! I swore. We’re staying.”

“Things have changed,” Griffith rumbled.

“No, they have not!” Ffion shot back.

“I’ve worried enough, Ffion. I could barely focus on my duty before. Now—”

Ffion whipped around, her mouth open to say something. She saw Rhys, and her lips snapped together. Griffith cut off at the same time, turning to face Rhys. Deryn made an exasperated noise from the door.

“What’s going on?” Rhys kept his voice casual.

“Nothing.” Ffion glared. “A disagreement.”

“About leaving.” Deryn said. “Why would you leave?”

Griffith looked at Ffion. She shook her head.

Rhys considered them. “Deryn, will you give us a minute?”

“No.” She settled on the table. Rhys locked eyes with her and waited.

“Fine!” Deryn gave an overly nonchalant shrug and headed out of the kitchen. “I’ll find out sooner or later.”

Rhys waited, listening to her footsteps. They paused just out of sight. “Keep going!”

He heard a sigh, then she crossed into view and walked out onto the ledge.

Griffith and Ffion stood side by side, their unified front not at all diminished by their difference in size. “Listen,” Rhys said uncomfortably, “whatever is between you is personal, but if you’re thinking of leaving, especially after Cadoc...”

“Ffion is—” Griffith began.

“Fine,” she cut him off. “I’m fine.” She grabbed a bowl of food from the counter and marched out of the kitchen.

Griffith’s gaze followed her, his head turning to track her through the solid rock wall. For three hundred years Rhys had wondered what it would be like to live half-inside someone else like that. He couldn’t imagine having that with Kai.

“Ffion says if I tell you what’s going on, she’ll strangle me in my sleep,” Griffith said, his voice flat. “Give me time. You’ll know eventually.”

“If she’s sick...”

Griffith’s dark green eyes were inscrutable. “She isn’t.” He took his own food and left.

“That was odd.”

Rhys rolled his eyes skyward and sighed before turning to Deryn. She leaned in the doorway, pulling her long, straight hair into a ponytail.

Rhys ran a hand through his hair. “Did you hear anything else while you were eavesdropping?”

Deryn shrugged. “No. Ffion’s got a beetle in her head over something. You’re the one who interrupted them before it got good.”

Rhys shook his head. It was hard to keep problems personal in a vee. Griffith and Ffion deserved whatever privacy they could find. He put his hands on either side of Deryn’s head and rubbed hard, mussing her smooth hair. “Stop sticking your nose in things that aren’t your business, Aderyn, or someday you’ll regret it.”

Deryn made a face. “Don’t call me that. That’s what
she
called me.”

Rhys sighed and sank down on a fat brown cushion next to the table. “
She
called Seren and me by our full names, and we still use them.”

Deryn snorted. “
She
hardly saw either of you. I’m the one she betrayed.”

“Mother is gone. Don’t waste your energy hating the dead.”

Deryn glared at him, folding her arms. “Speaking of dead, I could strangle Kai.”

A protective instinct welled up inside Rhys, catching him off guard, and he had to clamp down on it. His voice came out rough. “It’s not her fault.”

“It’s her fault you’re suffering. I should’ve let you bond her. In fact, I think you should. Now.”

“No. You did the right thing. Maybe Mother wouldn’t have broken the heartswearing if Father had tried—” agitated, Rhys ran a hand through his hair, mussing it and smoothing it down, “—if he’d been more kind.”

Deryn snorted. “Mother never cared about Father. Trust me.” She took a slender dagger out of her boot and began to clean her fingernails. “What do you think Seren will say about your Wingless mate?”

Rhys gave her a flat look. “She’ll support it. She’s a romantic. She’ll support anything if she thinks it makes me happy. I’m far more worried about the Council.”

Deryn waved an airy hand. “Sunder the Council, or at least the Councilmembers I don’t like. Seren would be on my side, by the way. She’d tell you to kiss the girl now.”

“Seren doesn’t know the first thing about heartswearing,” Rhys growled.

Deryn sighed. “You know, I used to be so smug that I can inherit the mantle and she can’t, that I would heartswear someday and she wouldn’t. Now I’d trade with her. Especially if I could figure out how she keeps pulling off her little excursions.”

“Excursions,” Rhys spat. “We’re at
war
. Owain is as rabid to get his hands on her as he is to kill us. If he caught her—”

“She’s the Seeress, Rhys. Sacred. He’d use her for her visions, not kill her.”

“She’s our
sister
, not a holy relic
.
”

“And sneaking off is the only freedom she gets.” Deryn slipped the knife back into her boot and shoved a finger at Rhys’s chest. “You can’t have it both ways. Either she’s the sacred Seeress or she’s a woman who needs to stretch her sundering wings every once in a while. She can look out for herself.” Deryn put up her hands, forestalling Rhys’s argument. “I didn’t come here to talk about your brotherly overprotection issues.” Her face softened. “Please consider bonding Kai. Today. Now.”

“I won’t force her until I have to.” Ancients willing, Kai would come around on her own. Though now that Ashem and Ffion had kidnapped her friend, there seemed to be less chance of that than ever.

Rhys rubbed his chest and wondered how long it would be before he wore holes in all his shirts.

“How long until you ‘have to’?” Deryn asked.

Rhys ran his fingers over a knot in the ancient, gray wood of the table. “Until we leave for Eryri.”

Deryn sighed. “You’re a noble idiot.”

Rhys laughed without humor. “I don’t want to be sworn to a woman who hates me. That isn’t noble, it’s selfish.”

“Hmm.” She quirked an eyebrow at him. “What are you going to do about Morwenna?”

“Oh, Blood of the Ancients.” Rhys rubbed his face. “That ended years ago. It was...she only wanted comfort.”

Deryn let out a low whistle. “Scales. You are as dense as a pack of humans at a fair.”

Rhys dropped his hands and glared at her. “What should I have done? Iain was dead. She was falling apart. It was a mistake.”

“You should’ve let Ashem dismiss her from the vee. She’s not stable. When she finds out you’re heartsworn...” Deryn made an exploding gesture with her hands. “She
hates
humans. It’s going to be near impossible for her not to destroy Kai on sight.”

Rhys clamped down his protective instincts again, but not before the wallfires flared. “Do you have any suggestions?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Deryn shook her head and thumped Rhys on the shoulder. “Nope. Good luck,
fy mrawd
.”

Ashem came into the kitchen. Glass clinked as he extracted a bottle of black liquid and a dropper from a pocket.

Rhys ran a hand through his hair and stood. “The sleeping draught?”

Ashem nodded. “Ancients, I didn’t think I’d have to make this sundering poison ever again.” He drew an infinitesimal amount of liquid into the glass tube then closed the bottle and put it back in his pocket.

Rhys and Deryn exchanged looks. “You’ve made it before?”

Ashem grimaced. “For your father. When his heartswearing was broken. Lay down before you take it. This will knock you out so fast you won’t make it to your bed.”

Rhys frowned. “Aren’t you leaving the bottle?”

“Too much is deadly.” Ashem avoided his gaze.

It took Rhys a moment to discern his meaning. “I’m not going to off myself, Ashem.”

“I won’t trust you with anything toxic until you’re heartsworn.” Ashem hesitated. “How much longer will you wait? This is not natural.”

“Exactly!” Deryn waved her hands in the air.

Rhys ignored his sister. “Until we fly for Eryri.”

“You’ll still have to force her,” Ashem said, his voice dry. “If it were me, I would’ve kissed her the first night. This is ridiculous.”

Rhys took the glass dropper from Ashem. “
Diolch.
Lucky for Kai, I’m not you.”

Ashem gave him a mirthless smile. “
Croeso.
Both of you should get some sleep.”

Rhys said goodnight to Deryn and Ashem and made his way to his little room, where he sat heavily on his bed.

You’ll still have to force her.

He grimaced. Unless a miracle occurred, they were right. He saw Kai’s face from earlier that day. The fear that had paled her cheeks and widened her eyes as he’d pulled her back from the ledge. He could tell Deryn his motivations were utterly selfish until the sun exploded, but in truth, he hated the thought of seeing that look on Kai’s face again. The thought of holding her down and forcing a kiss against her lips while she cried or screamed or tried to escape made him ill.

Rhys snarled and pounded his mattress with his fist. No matter what he did, he lost. Ancients, he needed to get out of this cave. He needed to fly. Frustration, pain and unfulfilled desire churned inside him, building into an inferno that made his hands prickle with unreleased heat. Desperate for oblivion, he lay down and squeezed the sleeping draught onto his tongue. A bitter taste filled his mouth. His limbs grew heavy, and his arm dropped to one side. In seconds, the room narrowed to a point of light, then went dark.

The drug didn’t take away his pain, but it did put him too far out of his skull to care.

* * *

Ashem paced the ledge, trying to rein in barely-suppressed fury. He smashed one booted foot into a stone protruding from the uneven ground and stumbled. With a shout of rage, he pulled up the head-sized rock from the ground and hurled it over the edge. It shattered against the ground below, pieces skittering and scattering out of sight.

It didn’t bring Cadoc back. It didn’t stop Rhys being an idiot.

He bit back another shout. The last thing he needed to do was make it easier for Owain to find them.

Keep them safe
,
chief.

He broadened his mind, pushing his mental powers as far as they could go. Nothing. “Cadoc you sundering, scalebrained idiot! Blood of the Ancients, where are you?”

Keep them safe.
Ayen had said the same. He was supposed to keep them
all
safe. Iain. Cadoc. Rhys. Who would be next? He pressed his hands to his head. Stars, he needed to contact Eryri and make sure Evan and Morwenna were on their way back. And get the others drilling again tomorrow. And come up with a plan to get the infernal Juliet King home. Ancients,
and
he had to assign someone Cadoc’s watch tonight. He couldn’t forget that. He couldn’t forget any of it.

Ashem let out a frustrated snarl and turned to go inside. It was too sundering cold. He might have grown up in Wales as a ward of Ayen’s court, but the need for dry, sunbaked heat ran deep in his blood.

The fires in the hall had dimmed. Without Cadoc to renew the spell, they’d run out by tomorrow night. He’d have to ask Rhys to do it, and it would take a lot of magic. It galled him to no end that heartswearing, which was supposed to strengthen Rhys, had weakened him instead. A kiss wouldn’t end it; once they got back to Eryri, they’d have a whole new set of problems
.

Rage scorched his insides. For a sundering millennium he’d held this vee together. It couldn’t fall apart now.

The
shush-shush
of bare feet against stone brought him to a halt outside the kitchen. Everyone else was asleep, or so he’d thought. He strode into the room, ready to shout at whatever unfortunate he found.

Someone bent with their head in the cooling shelves. Female, from the sweet curve of her hips. He felt something he hadn’t in several hundred years.

Attraction. Strong attraction.

No
,
dammit!
She was, quite literally, the last person he wanted to see.

Juliet King.

She straightened and pushed pale gold hair behind her ears. Stubborn and icy as hell, she didn’t have Ffion’s hourglass shape, but neither was her body as boyish as Kai’s. Instead, she fell magnificently into the middle. Ashem silently cursed again. “Juliet.”

She spun, holding a blunt eating knife in front of her. In her hand, it looked surprisingly menacing.

He raised an eyebrow. “Ah, I see you’ve gotten hold of a deadly weapon. We should guard you more closely.” He could almost see her mentally shuffling through her memories. Her dark eyes narrowed.

“You,” she snarled. “Mr. ‘We don’t have time for this.’ At least the girl was sorry. You didn’t even care.”

He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels, shrugging. For good measure, he smiled.

Her expression darkened and she turned her entire body toward him. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well, aren’t you going to apologize?” she snapped.

He laughed. “For what? Telling you your friend is alive? Reuniting you? On the contrary, Ms. King—you are welcome.”

Her face reddened. She turned her back to him, violently cutting chunks from the smoked venison they’d had for dinner. He noticed a small sack of beans next to her on the counter.

Why would she...
Ah
,
they’re planning an escape.
He almost laughed.

Juliet King grabbed a bowl of cooked rice from the cooling shelves and stuck the meat on top. He watched her in silence.