The shape of the dragon suddenly vanished, replaced by a very nude Kiril in human form. Still, Shara remained where she was.
“He dared to harm you.” Kiril’s words, harsh and rough, filled the cellar.
Shara gave an absent shake of her head. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“He. Hurt. You.”
His words were clipped and filled with rage. That’s when Shara noticed that his hands were fisted by his sides. She rose to her feet, unmindful of her sore backside, and walked down the steps.
She didn’t stop until she stood before him and placed her hands on his face. “I’m all right.”
“How did you find me?”
“I saw the door. A door, mind you, that I’ve never seen before.”
“You shouldna have seen it at all. I used dragon magic to hide it. Fae can no’ see dragon magic.”
Her arms fell to her sides as she shrugged. “I can’t explain it. One minute it looked like a wall, and the next I saw a door. I let Balladyn believe you were somewhere else, and after he brought me to his fortress I came here.”
“You were able to use your magic to leave the fortress?”
Shara twisted her lips in a rueful smile. “Not exactly. I tried, but apparently Balladyn has spelled it so no one can just appear in his home. I was able to use the doorway to my parents’ home. I snuck through when a guard wasn’t looking. Once I was back on this realm, I teleported here.”
“You’re risking a lot.”
“I had to know if you were down here.”
One side of his lips lifted in a grin. “Did you now? If you wanted to see me in dragon form, all you had to do was ask.”
Shara rolled her eyes, even as she smiled in pleasure. “I can’t believe you’re teasing at a time like this.”
“There’s always going to be something going on.” Kiril glanced at the door. “Good idea to tell him I was in dragon form, but it willna keep him away for long. Or keep him from returning to his fortress for you.”
“I’ll return there. With you.” She melted against him when he drew her into his arms.
“I doona want you anywhere near him again.”
She closed her eyes and savored being with him again. “I must return. If I don’t, he’ll come looking for me.”
“No’ if he’s coming after me.”
Shara leaned back and looked into his shamrock green eyes. She knew what he was about to ask. “I won’t fit in at Dreagan.”
“And you do here?” he asked, frustration clouding his face. “Shara, you may have been born into a Dark family, but you are no’ a Dark Fae.”
“Look at my eyes. Look at the silver in my hair. I’m a Dark Fae. Nothing is going to change that. We’re the most hated beings on this realm.”
“You’ll be safe at Dreagan. They willna harm you.”
“I wasn’t harmed in my parents’ home when I was locked away for hundreds of years either. Being ignored and scorned can be worse than any kind of torture.”
Kiril released her and began to pace. Shara knew the situation was dire, but she couldn’t stop looking at his splendid body. Her gaze stopped on his chest with his dragon tattoo, and she jerked because she would swear on her life that she had just seen the dragon move.
“You plan to remain here?” Kiril asked.
She pulled her eyes up from his chest and belatedly realized he had asked a question. “I’ve not thought about it.”
“Unless we kill Taraeth and Balladyn and you rule the Dark, they’ll relentlessly search for you.”
Shara suddenly had a plan, one that she wouldn’t share with Kiril. It wasn’t to punish him, but to set him free—from her. He was honorable enough that he would continue to try to help her, which would only put him right back in the predicament he was in.
“Let’s think of that once we have Rhi.”
Kiril walked around her to the stairs where a set of clothes was neatly folded. He grabbed the pair of dark denim and slid first one leg and then the other on before he fastened them.
“You should go somewhere safe while I go into the fortress alone,” he said as he pulled a solid black shirt over his head.
Shara was shaking her head before he even finished. “As I told you before, you’ll never get past the guards at my house.”
“Watch me,” he said with a smile.
After all she had seen him do, Shara believed him. If only she could transport him from one location to another in a blink as she did herself, but she wasn’t a powerful enough Fae to pull that off. “I believe you, but I also know that Balladyn will need distracting. Let me do that.”
“Nay,” he said, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.
And maybe she had. “It’ll work. Besides, I got away from him just now. I can do it again. How else will you get around his compound?”
Kiril shook his head. “I doona like the idea of you going back to him.”