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  There was a beat of apprehension from Etyran, and Draconis gave her a questioning look.

  “Oh, you’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do?” Etyran questioned.

  Faedra pushed herself away from the wall and strode towards the end of the corridor. “We need to get into the hall to execute our plan. What does it matter how we get in there?”

  Etyran hung his invisible head and patted Draconis on the shoulder. “I tell ya, mate. That girl is going to be the death of me.”

  “She wears the title well, that is for sure.” Draconis replied, as the two walked to catch up and rounded the corner after the Custodian.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “Hello, boys, remember me?” Faedra announced upon rounding the corner and was now standing in plain sight.

  The redcaps all turned their heads in one fluid motion, and for a split second seemed to stare at her in astonishment.

  She felt Draconis and Etyran standing either side of her. “Take me to your leader.” With a smirk, she gave Etyran a sideways glance even though she couldn’t see him. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  Etyran groaned, and she could sense he was shaking his head in disbelief.

  A second later she and Draconis were grabbed roughly by grotesque sinuous hands on either arm and were being dragged down the corridor towards the great hall.

  Please let everyone still be alive. They entered the great hall and Faedra’s heart swelled. Everyone she loved was still alive and well.

  The instant Faen saw her, he made a step in her direction but was shoved back hard by the redcap standing guard over him. Jocelyn also had her own redcap but she seemed unharmed. She gave Faedra a warm smile but didn’t move. Savu was still holding her dad captive, and Vivianna and a redcap were guarding the king.

  “Faedra, what are you doing here. I got you to safety. Why would you…?” Faen exclaimed before being cut off by Savu.

  “Silence, Guardian, there is nothing you can do for her now. Looks like you’ll be out of a job in just a few moments.” Savu sneered at Faen, then gave a satisfied smile when the redcap guarding him poked Faen in the chest with the end of his axe-like weapon to silence him.

  “And you, Brother. I would say this was a pleasant surprise but I would be lying. I might have known you would be involved in this. You always were a meddlesome son of a…”

  “Now, now, little brother. There is no need for name calling.” Draconis responded, cool as a cucumber. Savu glared at his elder twin with murderous intent.

  “Let everyone go and you can have the amulet.” Faedra spoke, regaining Savu and Vivianna’s attention. She saw Faen struggle to get to her again, only to be manhandled into submission. Faedra tried not to retaliate. For the plan to work Savu and Vivianna had to believe that her captors subdued her.

  “It is a little too late for that, my dear. You had your chance. I do not have to let anyone go, not now I have you restrained. And I can take the amulet from you, just like taking candy from a baby.”

  Faedra put on an act of struggling against the creatures that restrained her, causing Savu to widen his malicious grin. Good, she needed to keep his attention on her and Draconis.

  “Vivianna, you know what to do. Unfortunately, it seems I am unable to have that particular pleasure but I am sure you will enjoy yourself. Consider it my gift to you. At least it will not be a total loss for me. My brother has kindly saved me the trouble of going to him.

  Vivianna picked up her sword and sauntered towards Faedra, malice plastered all over her face.

  “Savu, you chicken-livered runt. I should have dealt with you when I had the chance.” Draconis taunted.

  “Oh, silence, Brother. I will deal with you in a few moments when I have the amulet. Vivianna get on with it.”

  Faedra locked gazes with Vivianna, as she stalked with the grace of a cat towards her.

  “You always were a sniveling little brat.” Draconis spat.

  Savu glared at his brother and fury boiled within him. Faedra could feel it, and she prayed his temper was as short as Draconis described to her earlier that day.

  Keep going, Draconis, you’ve nearly got him.

  Vivianna stalked closer, taunting Faedra with a slow swing of her sword.

  “Mother hated you, she told me how much she favored me over you, how she wished you’d never been born.” Draconis taunted.

  “Enough!” Savu screamed, causing Vivianna to stop her stalking and turn to look at her partner-in-crime. “I may not be able to kill the girl but I will have no trouble with you.”

  At last.

  Savu held out his hands and threw a stream of intense flame at his brother. Faedra sent a sharp jolt of electricity down either arm causing her captors to let go with shock and surprise. She jumped in front of Savu and was stunned by the split second of searing agony that ripped through her body. Then the familiar door in her mind opened up and her body took over.

  “No!” Savu screamed when he realized what was happening. But there was nothing he could do. Faedra had locked onto his energy and was sucking it into her body as fast as it would let her.

  Vivianna stood in stunned disbelief, looking from Faedra to Savu and back again.

  The redcaps murmured to one another and seemed disoriented now that their master was incapacitated.

  “Don’t just stand there, you idiot,” Savu shrieked at Vivianna, snapping her out of her shock. “Kill the girl!”

  Vivianna held her sword up and moved closer to Faedra, not seeing that Faen was overpowering his now confused guard. He moved so fast Faedra couldn’t track his movements and, in the next second, he had removed Vivianna’s sword from her grip and had her hands held firmly behind her back. She struggled against him, to no avail, and could do nothing else but glare at her half-sister in disgust.

  Seeing that Vivianna was no longer a threat, Faedra concentrated on her part of the plan. She could feel her body fighting. It was fighting to keep control of the immense power she was absorbing and hanging onto consciousness by a thread. She had to beat him. If she could suck all his energy from him, he would die. She had to hang on; there was no other choice.

  She could hear a shrieking somewhere in the distance. Though her vision was becoming blurry with a red haze, she could make out a figure at the end of the stream of fire writhing about in what looked like agony. As her legs started to give way, a pair of hands reached around to hold her up. There was only one other person in the room who could withstand the heat of dragon-fire. Draconis.

  “Not long now, little one.” She heard the whisper in her ear. “You are nearly there, just hold on a few more seconds.”

  “I-I don’t think I can.”

  “Yes, you can, Faedra. The safety of the seven realms rests with you. Don’t give up now.”

  Faedra felt her consciousness slipping through her fingers. Oddly, she couldn’t feel the intense heat that was being thrown across the room. Her body felt warm but not unbearably so, but there was a roar so loud inside her head she could hardly hear herself think. She wondered where all this energy was being stored, but her body seemed to know what it was doing, so she concentrated on staying alive.

  Everyone else in the hall, including the redcaps, was now shielding their eyes and faces with lifted arms, still trying to catch a glimpse of the spectacle unfolding before them. The intense heat was now pushing them back further and further away from her, shock visible on most of their faces. Only Draconis remained, holding her steady. She sought out Faen, she needed to see her Guardian. He was still restraining her sister, but he was looking at her with a myriad of emotions visible in his expression. She gave him a weak smile, which he returned.

  After what seemed like hours, but was only mere moments, there was one last shriek of agony. Then silence. The roar stopped, the fire stopped, her body collapsed, and she felt herself being scooped up. Unconsciousness was now just a hairbreadth away. Vision blurred, she looked up at Draconis.

  “I’ve got you,
little one,” Draconis whispered in her ear.

  “Did our plan work?”

  “Yes.”

  She offered him a weak smile before blackness took over and she slumped against his shoulder.

  Faen shoved Vivianna into the grasp of one of the king’s guards. “Hold her and do not let her go!” he demanded.

  The guard nodded his understanding and, even as Vivianna glared at her new captor and wriggled in disgust, the guard just clamped down even harder.

  “Let me go, you moron,” Vivianna shrieked, in an attempt to intimidate the guard.

  The guard looked over at the king who gave him a very stern shake of his head.

  “I work for your father, not you. Right now he seems to want you restrained.” The guard told her with obvious glee in his voice.

  The king looked toward his other daughter being held by Draconis. He could see the worry in the dragon’s eyes but took a quick detour on his way to her.

  “Take her below, I’ll deal with her later,” he told the guard restraining the princess. He gave Vivianna a fleeting look that held disappointment, betrayal, and a myriad other emotions before turning and striding towards the young girl who just saved all their lives.

  By the time the king got there, Faen had already reached the others who were now surrounding Faedra and Draconis.

  “Don’t!” Draconis said as Faen reached out to touch his charge.

  He pulled his hand back with a jerk of surprise and a look to match. It was then that he absorbed the emotion in the dragon’s eyes. Something was wrong, very wrong.

  Grave faces looked first down at her then up at Draconis.

  “She’s too hot. If any of you were to touch her, she could sear the flesh straight from your bones. Her body is fighting to absorb all that energy.

  Faedra’s skin was bright red, as if she’d been sunbathing all day without applying any sunscreen.

  “We need to find somewhere cold enough to cool her off, but there is no guarantee she will survive this. Only time will tell.”

  “There is nowhere that cold in Azran,” the king said gravely.

  “I have an idea,” Faen said. “It will require the use of both the ruby and emerald staffs, with your permission, Draconis.”

  “Of course, Guardian. I have grown quite attached to this young lady. She has the heart of a dragon, anything I possess you may use if you think you can help her.”

  ****

  “You are in love with her, are you not, Guardian?”

  Faen’s throat constricted as the words fell from the king’s mouth. He’d been dreading this moment from the first time he stared up into the tear soaked eyes of the little girl with red curls that tumbled around her shoulders and down her back. He longed for a devil-may-care response to the king who was standing beside him, looking down at the lifeless body of his daughter, but was betrayed by a strangled croak instead.

  “Sire?” He closed his eyes, horrified by the knowledge that his voice gave him away.

  The king brought his gaze up from his daughter and turned to look at her Guardian. Faen knew he’d been discovered and the respect he held for the king forced him to meet his gaze, to suffer the consequences he was about to be dealt.

  “I used to look at her mother exactly the same way,” the king mused. “Does she feel the same way about you?”

  Faen swallowed hard but didn’t look away. “Yes, Sire, I believe she does.”

  “Hmm, like mother like daughter. Only in this case, she will age at about the same rate you will. Well, young man, it looks as though I am going to have to bend the rules this one time.”

  Faen’s heart pounded, he hardly dared breathe. “Sire?”

  “I want my daughter to be happy. Kernunnos only knows where I went wrong with the first one, and I do not want to make the same mistake twice. I cannot lose another daughter. If you are the man to make her happy, as well as the one to keep her safe, then so be it. You have my blessing.”

  Faen’s jaw dropped. There wasn’t much in life that shocked him, but the king had rendered him speechless.

  The king gave him a wistful smile. “You are welcome, young man. Now, I must take my leave and send my replacement. Azran will not run itself forever. Inform me if there are any changes in her condition.”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  Faen bowed his head as the king rapped the emerald staff on the floor and disappeared.

  He sat in the chair next to where Faedra was sleeping, elated over what the king just said, and took hold of her hand. He rubbed his thumb idly over the back of her hand, amazed at the warmth her bare skin was emitting in the frigid cold of the cavern. His heart was singing until a movement in his hand turned that singing to pounding instead.

  Faedra broke free from the deadest sleep she’d ever experienced and cracked her eyes open little by little. Her vision was blurry at first but within in moments she began to focus. The ceiling above her was craggy rock, she looked to one side and saw more craggy rock. She shifted her gaze in the other direction and looked up into the eyes of her Guardian. His face lit up with the brightest smile she’d ever seen. He was sitting beside her wearing clothes that one would wear in Antarctica.

  “Welcome back,” he whispered.

  Her throat felt as dry as the Sahara Desert but she managed to croak, “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Three weeks, two days, sixteen hours, and twenty four minutes,” Faen replied, then added, “your time.”

  She could feel the cold hard rock beneath her and started to push herself up onto her elbows so she could take a better look around. Her body protested at the movement and she winced.

  “Where am I?”

  Torches burned on the walls of what looked like a cavern. Her eyes scanned the room to see a couple of beds with heavyweight bedding and a small fire burning in one corner, far enough away that she couldn’t feel any warmth from it.

  “The Arctic Circle,” Faen replied.

  “The Arctic Circle? What on earth am I doing here? Come to think of it why am I not freezing to death? I’m wearing next to nothing.” Then she looked down and noticed that the hand holding hers was ungloved, even in the freezing temperature. But she felt cozy and warm.

  “After you absorbed all of Savu’s energy, we had to get you to the coldest place we could think of or you probably would have died. Your body was burning up and we had to cool you down quickly. For the first couple of weeks you warmed this whole cavern and we didn’t need all these clothes. Draconis would take you outside for hours at a time to lay you in the ice. Last week we noticed it getting colder and colder in here and that was when we grew to hope you were getting better.”

  “Who’s we?”

  “Everyone. Your dads, both of them, Jocelyn, Etyran, my mother and father, and Draconis. We’ve been taking it in shifts, especially since it started getting cold. Draconis loaned us the ruby and emerald staffs. We keep the ruby staff here and go back and forth with the emerald staff.”

  Faedra sat up with a start, the memories of what happened in the great hall slamming back into her brain with ferocious intent. “My dad, is he okay?”

  Faen smiled. “He is fine. Everyone is fine… thanks to you.”

  “What about Vivianna? What happened to her?”

  “She is locked below Azran castle. The king stripped her of all power and employed the strongest ward caster in all of the seven realms. The walls and door to her cell are now covered with the most powerful containment wards ever created. I do not think she will be getting out any time soon.”

  “Are you sure?” Faedra asked, unconvinced.

  “As sure as any of us can be. To all intents and purposes, she is little more than a mortal now and you killed her most powerful ally.”

  “Well, I’ll not be letting my guard down for a while. As long as that woman is alive, I can’t trust that we’ve not seen the last of her.”

  “I am sure your father will do everything in his power to keep her contained.” Faen said, smoothi
ng his hand over Faedra’s hair. It had started to fly around her head with static electricity.

  “Speaking of your father, the real one that is, he was just here. He knows about us.”

  Faedra’s eyes grew wide with concern. “He does? How? He can’t take you away from me. I won’t let him.”

  Faen brought his hand around to caress her cheek. “Do not worry. He gave us his blessing.”

  “He did?”

  “Said he did not want to make another mistake and lose another daughter.” He leaned in closer to her face. “So, I guess that means I can do this as often as I like now.” His whisper fanned over her face, warm and sweet.

  “Do what?”

  Faen gave her a smug mischievous smile. “This,” he said before covering her mouth with his own.

  As he deepened their kiss, the fire in the corner roared to life sending flames high enough to lick at the ceiling of the cavern. Startled, Faedra and Faen broke from their embrace to gape at the towering inferno.

  The out of control flames were dangerously close to setting the bedding and furniture alight.

  “What the…? How?” Faen said, standing up and drawing his sword, looking all around the cavern for an intruder.

  Faedra put her hand on his arm. “Don’t worry, I think I know,” she said, before closing her eyes and concentrating. A moment later the flames subsided until they were crackling as before in the fire pit.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Faedra said, despondent. “Looks like I’m not going to be able to enjoy a simple kiss for a while. Not only do I have to worry about electrocuting you, now I have to worry about burning you alive and setting our house on fire.” She huffed out a sigh.

  Faen looked down at her and offered his hand.

  Faedra took it and eased herself up off the stone with his help. He placed both of her arms around his neck.

  “I am willing to take that risk if you are.” He gave her a boyish grin that would have melted her in a previous state.

  Now she would be the one doing the melting. She matched his smile with one of her own and her heart soared. Of course, this incredible man would always be at her side no matter what; why would she even have doubted it? She hugged him for all she was worth.