Immortal Coil (13 page)

I thought we were talking about your ass?

Don’t avoid the question.

Fine.
If she wanted to know, he’d tell her.
One of the side-effects of my people’s… condition is magic. The magic, or rather energy, is everywhere, and it’s particularly in our spirits.

You mean your people’s spirits are magic?

Yours is, too, but not to the same extent. We call it spirit magic. But what you have that we don’t is a connection to an external magic, earth magic.

Earth magic?

The ability to do things like
create
gates, or make lightning or fire. It’s dormant in you, and only about twenty percent of you have the connection, but our spirit magic can waken it.

So I could do anything I wanted?

At the moment he really wished she could. They wouldn’t be in this predicament if he could cast spells like a true sorcerer.
No. We can’t cast spells, only true sorcerers can. Usually we can only do one or two things, and often that second thing is being able to open a gate between dimensions.
He checked the connection within her but it remained
thready
, as if she could only access her earth magic when desperate.
Your connection is still developing and I wouldn’t consider it reliable.

So no making a magical gate and getting the hell out of here.

No.

Lovely.

As soon as I take care of business here, we’ll leave.

Promises, promises.
She pushed away from the arch and stepped into the darkness of the corridor. A hand seized her and shoved her against the wall. Her head hit the stone and lights danced across her vision.

Grey pressed his massive weight against her, his muscled arm on her chest, his face close to hers. “Who the hell are you?” His voice was low, a hiss that wouldn’t carry.

She struggled to breathe. “Excuse me?”

“You’re not Hunter.”

Hunter felt
Anaea
freeze, a deer caught in headlights. He couldn’t let her reveal herself. That would
endangered
both her and Grey and he needed to keep them safe.

Don’t let him know you’re not me.
But as soon as he told her that, he knew Grey would have figured everything out during the fight. They’d fought side by side for hundreds of years. Hunter should have finished off Welkin without a scratch. The fact that he had to impale himself on Welkin’s sword was a sure giveaway. Hunter could only hope no one else, particularly Regis, had noticed.

“What are you talking about?”
Anaea
asked.

Good. Now shove him aside.

How am I supposed to manage that? He’s twice my size.

Before he could answer, she rammed her heel onto Grey’s foot and shoved him back. Grey stumbled but regained his balance. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to his chest.

“I know you’re not Hunter. That was the most pathetic fight I’ve ever seen.” Grey grasped her chin with his free hand and forced her to look at him. “Is he in there?”

Anaea’s
heart pounded and Hunter could feel her struggling with her answer.

Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.

Suddenly she deflated and nodded.

Shit.

Grey released her and crossed his arms. He glanced at the arches to the arena and over at the stairwell. “Let me talk to him.”

“If I could do that do you think I would have
dueled
some guy to the death?”

What the hell are you doing?

You know he wouldn’t believe me, so I’m just cutting to the chase.

You don’t know how dangerous this is.
It was bad enough he had put
Anaea
at risk, but now Grey could be accused of being an accomplice.

“This is one big mess,” Grey said.

She snorted. “You’re telling me.”

“But Hunter is in there? It’s the only way you’re managing to pull off his aura.”

“Yeah.”

It bothered Hunter that she didn’t sound happy at the thought. Of course, would he be happy if he had to share his body with some strange man?

Tell him it’s temporary.

“Hunter says it’s temporary,”
Anaea
said.

“I see. Why don’t you just let him out for a minute and we’ll fix things.”

She put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. Hunter was sure she looked the warrior that he thought she was: proud, strong, and covered in blood.

Grey ran a hand over his head.
“Right.
Yeah. What’s the exact problem with that?”

“I don’t know. We tried to switch earlier and couldn’t.”

Grey hissed a curse. Yep, he’d figured it out.
Anaea
had a stronger will than Hunter, which was almost unheard of in the dragon world. It meant it wasn’t just
Anaea
who would fall to the soul sickness, but Hunter as well, and, according to all he’d heard, her strength of will was terrifyingly similar to the Greek sorcerers who’d used Egyptian magic to cast the Great Scourge. The only thing he could do was hope that when her soul and earth
magics
fully awakened they would be at the usual human level. Regardless, any dragon
who
remembered that terrible day and discovered her would see her as a threat that had to be eliminated.

“This is not a problem,” Grey said, although Hunter could tell from the subtle undertones in his voice that he thought it was a disaster.

“Tell me another lie. Hunter knows you know something, I just haven’t figured out what that is.”

“Excuse me?”

There’s nothing wrong,
Hunter said.

Bullshit. You were just thinking this was a disaster.

Aside from the fact that it is.

“All right.
We have to get you out of Court.” Grey grabbed her wrist.

Not until after the rebirthing ceremony.

She jerked free from his grip. “Not until after some ceremony.”

“Damn. I’d forgotten about that. Okay, well, you just stay in Hunter’s room until the ceremony and I’ll—”

He might as well say it,
Hunter said.

“Say what?”

“A new body.
I need to arrange for a new body for Hunter.”

“And how do you go about doing that?” she asked.

If it was a legitimate request, Tobias, the Court’s Chamberlain, would call up the drakes positioned in the half-dozen Medical Examiner offices and hospitals scattered over the world, to see if someone had something appropriate—appropriate being the correct gender, with a fully matured body, that no human had claimed. This, however, wasn’t legitimate and would likely be a raid on a body bank for a learning hospital or a body farm. The farm was definitely less desirable since the state of the bodies usually required a lot more healing. Either way, Hunter could only pray Grey wouldn’t go into the gory details.

“Well—”

The Jester’s insane giggling echoed down the stairwell. Hunter was never so happy for the annoying human’s interruption. But the tread of half a dozen pairs of feet shattered his joy. Regis, and his entourage,
were
coming. Grey
froze,
his eyes wide.

Regis can’t know,
Hunter said, hoping he’d infused his thoughts with enough urgency.

Anaea
nodded. “He can’t know.”

“No. He can’t.” Grey’s eyes remained wide.

“Then stop looking terrified.”

Mother of All, she was fabulous. Why couldn’t he have met her sooner? And yet, if he had, in his other body, she would still be dying.

“What a fabulous
wasu
tahazu
. You finally played one up to entertain me,” Regis said as he appeared around the curve of the stairwell. He stopped on the steps, towering above them, with his followers gathered behind him. How typical. Hunter had displayed his strength, yet again, and Regis was using petty tricks to remind him of his power. As if Hunter needed someone to stand at the top of a stairs and talk down to him to reinforce who was in control.

“We will feast in an hour. You better hurry up and report to Tobias.”

“Now?”
Grey asked.

Regis pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow.

“He’s covered in blood.”

“Are you still sworn into the Handmaiden’s service, silver drake?”

Drake?
Anaea
asked.
I thought his name was Grey?
She froze,
then
started to tremble. Realization dawned on her. It billowed into a panic that threatened to envelope Hunter’s consciousness. He had to stop it, now.

It’s a term of endearment.
Shit, of all the stupid things to say. But he had to say something. Perhaps she wouldn’t completely figure it out, but she was too smart for that and he’d let too much slip—like that dragon roar back in the hotel room.

Grey squared his shoulders. “I serve the Handmaiden until she releases me from duty.”

Baby, bunny, snuggle-
umpkins
.
Those are terms of endearment. But drake—!

Not.
Now.
A growl escaped and
Anaea’s
heart pounded faster. Hunter forced calm into himself and his voice.
Regis can’t know about you. Please.

Anaea
shoved her fear back with a force of will that made Hunter shudder. If she could do that with her emotions, no wonder he couldn’t regain control of their body.

“Pity.
When she tires of you it’ll be fun to see how long you last... in the arena, of course.” But
Regis’s
tone gave away his disappointment that Grey had to be reborn instead of permanently eliminated.
“Fine.
Dress for dinner then report.”

Anaea
drew breath to speak. Even terrified of what Hunter had let slip he could feel her intention to stand up for Grey.
Which would get them all reborn.

Don’t say a word. Just bow.

She hesitated for a heartbeat, thankfully not long enough for Regis to notice from his perch on the stairwell,
then
she dropped to one knee and bowed her head.

The Jester giggled again. If Hunter had a body he’d shiver. That laugh was like nails on a chalkboard.

“I’ll send appropriate clothing to your suite,” Regis said over his shoulder as he left.

He can’t just make threats like that. The bastard thinks he’s in charge.

He is.
Unfortunately.
The Mother of All only knew why the Handmaiden continued to support his claim to the throne. But given that she was the most powerful dragon among them, no one was going to publicly oppose him. Privately, games Hunter didn’t want to know about or participate in were being played. Some to win
Regis’s
favor,
others to undermine his tenuous control over dragon-kind.

But—

He could sense his distaste for Regis coloring
Anaea’s
opinion of the Prince.
Not that Regis hadn’t been his usual malevolent self.
Anyone who had a mind of his own quickly learned that Regis got off on games, particularly the painful kind.
It’s complicated.

Nothing is ever that complicated.

But it was. And, regardless of politics, dragons still needed to protect themselves. Perhaps draconian-styled laws and leadership were
necessary,
although Hunter was loathe to agree with that. He sighed.
He’s my Prince. I must obey.

She bit back a huff.
You should really think about a democracy.

We tried a democracy. It didn’t work. Our culture is old. The strong lead and the weak follow. If you don’t like something, become strong enough to lead.

Why doesn’t that surprise
me.

* * *

Anaea
rose from the bow. Her gut ached and she really just wanted a hot shower and a long sleep. Why did she have to give a report and then go to some stupid dinner?

“We can manage this.” Grey brushed nonexistent dirt from his knees. “Hunter doesn’t say much. Tell Tobias you’ll write something up, then just sit and eat.”

Is that true?

She felt Hunter shrug.
I’m usually not around Court enough. Not quite my place.