“Would it matter if she was?”
“If the Dark have her, you should just forget her. Humans never last long.”
“I never said she was human.”
Shara took a hasty step back. “Fae? You’re looking for a Fae? But Dragon Kings hate all Fae.”
“Who told you that? Your family? We despise the Dark. The Light … we’ve come to work with on occasion.” She didn’t need to know it was a very rare occasion and only with Rhi.
“It doesn’t matter. Whoever the Dark takes is never the same, even if you do find her.”
Kiril glanced around the darkened room. He walked to a leather chair and sat, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing his ankles. “Did you know that during the Fae Wars the Dark took two Dragon Kings? At different times, of course.”
“I suppose they escaped as well? Are you telling me we don’t know how to hold a Dragon King?”
“The Dark did … things to my brethren. One completely lost his mind and attacked us, which is what the Dark wanted. He had to be killed. The other King knew what was happening to him, but he couldna stop it. He came to us and begged to be killed before he could harm one of us.”
Shara sipped her whisky before she said, “You lost two Kings and I lost seven siblings.”
“And the Light the Dark took?”
“The Dark take the Light and the Light take the Dark.”
Kiril let his gaze drift down her body. How he itched to have her long legs wrapped around him. Things would be so much easier if he didn’t desire her as he did, but there wasn’t a switch he could flip to turn off his body’s reaction. The more he tried to ignore the growing desire, the more it raged uncontrollably within him.
He gave himself a mental shake and returned to their conversation. “What’s the plan, then? Will the Dark storm in here and try to capture me?”
Shara walked around the room, her hand skimming along the backs of the chairs. “No.”
“No?” Kiril set aside his glass on the table next to him and silently rose to his feet. He followed her as if a string tied them together. “What then?”
“You don’t really want to know.”
Kiril spun her around so hard that her glass flew from her hand and landed upon a rug, spilling the whisky but not breaking the crystal. “Tell me,” he demanded in a soft, deadly voice.
“My job is to seduce you.” She held her stance for a heartbeat before she retreated, taking two steps back.
He tracked her until she was once more in the entryway. The shadows darkened everything, and yet the smallest sliver of moonlight found her, illuminating her in a pale blue glow.
No longer could he deny what he wanted. Perhaps it was her confession. Maybe it was because he hadn’t taken to the skies in weeks. Whatever it was, all he knew was that he had to have her or go up in flames.
“Then seduce me.”
That halted her. She held her ground as he drew closer. He bit back a smile when he saw the pulse at her throat beat erratically. She wasn’t immune to him. It was a victory, though a small one. She was as dangerous as her mission, perhaps more so. And yet it didn’t matter. There was no turning back for him. He knew it with a calmness that he had only felt once before—when he had taken over as King to his dragons.
He looked into her eyes, hating that her glamour prevented him from seeing her as he wanted because of the faint but unmistakable flicker of her magic. “First, drop the glamour.”
Her lips lifted slightly in the corners. The shimmer he had seen around her, indicating the glamour, vanished.
“Better,” he stated.
His cock swelled. Her beauty was so astonishing that it held him dumbstruck, immobile to do anything but drink in her splendor.
She tugged at the silver lock of her hair. “This? And these?” she asked as she pointed to her red eyes. “This is better?”
“Aye, lass.” For once, he wasn’t going to lie to himself or to her.
Her gaze lowered for a moment, and the next second she closed the small space between them and laid her hands upon his chest.
Kiril had to stop himself from grabbing her. His breath came faster, his blood pounding in his ears. Saying he wanted her didn’t come close to describing the utter craving, the absolute necessity that hounded him, drove him to claim her. There was no running away from it or denying it. She had gotten into his blood, and he would have a taste of her if it were the last thing he did.
Shara knew she was walking on dangerous ground. It wasn’t Kiril she feared, but her own reaction to him. He sent her careening toward desire and passion at a speed that was bound to destroy one of them.
And he would be the one left standing when it was all over.