Where have you taken her? Lucian demanded, throwing his thoughts at Tytus as he roared his anger.
Tytus didn’t answer, his eyes still glazed, even with Leonidas’s healing.
Lucian knelt next to him, breathing dragonfire in his face to get his attention. Tytus whipped his head back and forth, unsuccessfully trying to avoid the flames’ scorching burn. Leonidas scowled at him, not least because some of the plasma spilled on his hand still on Tytus’s neck, but he didn’t complain.
If she dies, you die. Lucian sent the thought to Tytus. Tell me now, and if she lives, I’ll let you continue to breathe a while longer.
Tytus coughed and squinted at Lucian. The fae have her.
Lucian rocked back and glanced at Leonidas.
His brother’s eyes were wide. Zephan? But why—
The treaty. But Lucian scowled. It didn’t make sense.
Leonidas’s eyes drew to slits and dragonfire leaked from his mouth. He can’t kill her.
The hell he can’t. There are demons loose in Seattle.
That doesn’t mean he’s forsaken the treaty, his brother argued.
I can’t take that chance. Lucian leaped up, spread his wings, and soared out of the giant hole he made in the roof of the House of Drakkon.
If Zephan had Arabella, there was only one way to reach her—he would have to travel to the Winter Court. Never mind that a dragon bearing the blood of Summer Court fae hadn’t broached the realm in ten-thousand years…
There was nothing in the mortal or immortal realms which could stop him.
An impossible thing had just happened.
One moment, Arabella was standing in the lair of the black dragon who had kidnapped her; the next, she was standing in a room that seemed made of brilliant, glowing ice. The one thing that remained constant between the two rooms was the cool, soft hand holding hers. A man—no, a fae—who had rescued her from a dragon bent on hurting her. Probably killing her. Only this man with the pointed ears, wispy black hair, and ice-clear eyes was looking her over with just as much lascivious intent.
She dropped his hand. “What just happened?” she asked, looking around her. The walls were translucent, but she couldn’t see past them. They stretched overhead, a dozen stories tall, like she stood at the bottom of a very deep well made of light. The room itself was round, and the walls were wavy, with shadows and crevices that could be hiding a dozen passageways. The floor was likewise made of some kind of glass. There were only two pieces of furniture in the expansive room that made her think it was a room at all, and not some great cavern—a vast white bed, angular and strange, and giant, flat silver screen embedded in the wall above it.
She shivered in the cool air and dragged her gaze back to the fae who had rescued her… although she suspected her kidnapping had been his plan all along.
“Being human, I expect you to know very little about the immortal world.” A hint of a smile played at the corner of his lips. He was beautiful but in a cold and cruel way. “We traveled here by way of a doorway. Not an ordinary one, to be sure, but normal transportation for a man with my powers.”
She swallowed. “Why am I here?”
His almost colorless eyes glittered, reflecting the softly glowing light that bounced all around the room. His bedroom… or at least a room with a bed in it. He stepped closer and reached for her hand again. She almost pulled it away, but if he could whisk her around the world using magic alone to wherever this place was, there wasn’t much use in physically fighting against him.
“You’re here because you’ve charmed your way into Lucian Smoke’s bed.” He upturned her hand and softly stroked her palm with the fingertips of his other hand. “So delicate and fragile. I can understand the allure.” Then he looked up and lifted his hand to her face, cupping her cheek and running a thumb across her lips.
She gasped as they warmed under his touch, flushing pleasure through her as if the brushing of his thumb was the most erotic of kisses.
He smirked. “If you think a dragon’s bed is filled with pleasure, it’s only because you haven’t been in mine.” He leaned closer, close enough to kiss her, but he held back.
Her heart stuttered, and an embarrassing heat flooded between her legs. How could she feel attracted to this man who had basically kidnapped her? But her body was betraying her… and her mind seemed just as intoxicated by his commanding presence.
“I can taste every pleasure you’ve ever had, my sweet, innocent little human.” He was whispering now, his lips nearly brushing hers. “Your dragon’s most seductive powers come from the fae blood in his veins.” The heat had blossomed and flowed up her body. “Just think what a full-blooded fae prince could do for you. To you.”