Mate Of A Dragon Villain (Skeleton Key) (11 page)

“Come.”

She took it, letting him lead her down the hall, sounds of water and dripping seeming so far away, and so close at the same time.

“Would you be able to tell me how it was you fell from the sky?”

Amanda wet her lips. “I wish I knew.”

“A spell of some sort?”

Amanda thought about the key. “I guess…that’s really the only explanation for it. One minute I was home. The next, it was windy, there was no floor beneath my feet, and I didn’t know which way was up or down. Then you caught me.”

Hargreave’s smile widened. His chest might’ve puffed out a little, too.

“If I said I wanted to go back home, would you let me?”

He deflated almost immediately.

Amanda realized this was her final test for him. How he reacted—if he caged her like some sort of harem girl, she would know this feeling, this warmth she felt for him, was nothing more than a product of the world she was inhabiting. Fake.

Hargreave didn’t say anything for the longest time. Not a good start.

When he did speak, he didn’t look at her, and his neck and jaw were both tight. “Go home?”

“Yes, go home. I don’t live here. This isn’t my world.”

“It could be.” He looked imploringly at her.

Amanda bit her lip. She had to look away from him, from the hope in his eyes.

Hargreave looked away, too. Amanda could tell because she didn’t feel his eyes on her anymore.

At least he didn’t remind her of the injured warriors, or throw their fight and sacrifice in her face. Amanda wasn’t sure what she would’ve done if Hargreave had done that to her.

She already didn’t like the idea of what it would mean for those warriors if she left. It would mean Hargreave had risked their lives for nothing. Some of them would’ve lost limbs for nothing.

Would they ever respect Hargreave again after that? Would they follow him? Would they protect him?

Yeah, Amanda was definitely glad Hargreave didn’t say anything about them because already her own mind was guilting her enough.

Hargreave suddenly stopped at a hole in the wall. His smile returned to his face. “Here is it.”

Amanda frowned. Hargreave stepped through the hole. It was almost wide enough to be a doorway in a hobbit hole from one of those movies, but it looked a lot less inviting.

“What happened here?”

Some of the stone blocks that made up the wall itself were ruined and smashed, the others seemed to be just hanging, despite the damage.

“Fireball. I got angry one night and blasted a hole in the rock. I didn’t expect to do this much damage, however.”

“Wait, you did this?”

“I did, and built the stairs and the balcony. Come, I will show you what Eldric’s father had been searching for when he razed my home.”

That didn’t sound like a happy memory, but Hargreave kept right on smiling, as if he knew some amazing secret and loved how Eldric, and his father, hadn’t known it.

Hargreave held out his hand again. Amanda didn’t need the help to get down a couple of steps, but she took it anyway. There was something nice about being treated like a lady, and the more she let it happen, the easier it was to fall into the role.

Amanda stepped down the stairs, lifting her skirts with her free hand enough so that she wouldn’t trip.

“You really need to stop acting like a gentleman.”

Hargreave cocked his head to the side a little, his smile turning confused. “Why is that?”

“You’re making it too hard to resist you.”

Hargreave got that proud, puffy-chested look again. God, why did he have to be exactly her type?

Amanda stepped onto the balcony, realized it was wet, almost like it had rained down here. There were puddles on the stone, and everything in front of her was dark. It almost looked like she was standing at the mouth of a cave. More dripping noises sounded, solidifying the impression.

“What did you want to show me again?”

“This.”

Hargreave eagerly pulled her forward. The balcony did have stone railings around it, though nothing that looked anywhere remotely as fine or intricate as the stone work at Eldric’s castle, or even the stone work on the part of Hargreave’s castle that was still above water. Still, it was there, except for in one spot in the middle, and when Hargreave brought her to the edge, Amanda looked into what appeared to be black oil, her wiggling reflection staring back at her.

No. Not oil. This was ocean water. Hargreave was showing her the edge of the water in his castle.

A cold chill worked its way up Amanda’s spine, fear gripping her as she realized how close to the water she really was.

“Don’t be frightened. I won’t hurt you.”

“I know.” Amanda believed him. He didn’t need to comfort her or assure her that he wouldn’t push her in or something. She already figured as much. “It just freaks me out that we’re so close. Isn’t this dangerous? Isn’t the water, like, eating away at the rock?”

“Bit by bit, it will, but that will be hundreds of years from now. More than enough time to move every brick, and every gold coin, to rebuild my home where it can stand tall again.”

Amanda frowned. “Every gold coin?”

Hargreave shrugged. “I might actually keep them down there. Edward Gladstone tried for all the years I was imprisoned to get at the riches he destroyed my home for, but it was the waters that kept him away. Too much of a coward to go for a swim and see for himself that everything he wanted was only a few feet away.”

It took Amanda a couple of seconds before she put together what Hargreave meant by that. “Down there? You’re saying your gold is all down there?”

“The entire royal treasure.” Hargreave nodded. “My family never had vaults or intricate traps. It was always kept in the throne room. Had Edward and his bastard spawn ever bothered to conduct themselves properly, they might have known that much. I will show you.”

Hargreave stared down into the water, red eyes intense even before they started to glow. When he opened his mouth, Amanda realized where that glow was coming from. Orange and red flames flicked at the back of his throat. His expression was almost angry right before he opened his lips wider and spat the fireball into the water.

It splashed Amanda a little, but that wasn’t why she jumped. The heat of it was intense, and her heart pounded. “Christ, I can’t believe I ever kissed that mouth.”

Not that she thought he would ever kill her with a fiery kiss, but now the visual was in her head.

Hargreave laughed. “Apologies, but you must look.”

He pointed, and Amanda looked.

Her brows shot up. Instead of immediately going out, as fires were supposed to do when they met water, the fireball Hargreave breathed and spat into the water was still glowing, burning hot in the water. Bubbles rose up quickly over the spot where it had been tossed into the water.

And just like normal fire, it also lit up everything around it, giving Amanda a watery look into Hargreave’s past as she stared down into his old throne room.

Amanda didn’t see any signs of a throne. Maybe it had been made of wood, because there was no kingly looking chair down there now, but there were piles and piles of glittering yellow, red, and silver treasures. Amanda couldn’t make out height very well with the water and fire distorting everything, but she was willing to bet some of those piles were taller than she was.

And right there, sitting smack in the middle of one of those pyramid piles, was a familiar looking object she would recognize despite the water and the fire. The skull almost seemed to wink at her with the way its image swerved and swayed in the water.

“The skeleton key!”

A
manda clutched
Hargreave’s arm so tightly, shouted so suddenly, that Hargreave would have had to look to be sure there were no intruders or attackers coming for them, but no. She pointed to the water, and Hargreave realized what she’d said.

“Skeleton key?”

“The key that brought me here. It’s right there!”

She pointed again, her expression and body language excited, eager, and desperate. She had eyes for only what she was looking at in the water, and Hargreave’s curiosity flared.

He had to grab hold of the back of Amanda’s gown to keep her from falling into the water. He pulled her back and had a look himself.

Everything appeared to be the same as he’d left it. He didn’t see anything that was different.

“Are you certain you are seeing what you think you’re seeing?”

Amanda came to stand beside him, pushing against his shoulder, holding tightly to his arm as she practically leaned her entire body over the edge of the balcony. Hargreave quickly grabbed her shoulders when she leaned a little too far.

“I’m telling you, it’s right there. See that glowing silver looking thing? It’s small and sitting on the top of that big pile of gold.”

“Normally, when I bring a woman here, they are not excited for a single jewel, but all of it.”

Amanda blinked, straightened, and looked up at him. “How many girls have you brought here?”

Hargreave scratched the back of his neck, realizing he had been caught in a sensitive issue. “Only one that matters.”

Amanda grinned at him, then smacked his shoulder. “Nice save, but can we seriously get back to the skeleton key?”

Hargreave had himself another look. “I think I see what you speak of,” he said, just before the flames from his fire went out, leaving the throne room black and dark once more.

“It’s your money, you must remember having something like that in your treasure room, right?”

Hargreave shook his head. “There are many jewels down there. You should be shocked at how few of them I recognize at all when I see them. One of the few I would know on sight was the crown I was going to go down there to give you.”

Amanda shook her head. “You don’t have to bring me a crown. Just that key.”

Hargreave’s chest ached. It felt as painful as though Edward had come back from the grave and stabbed his bony, skeletal hand through the flesh of Hargreave’s stomach before moving upwards, beneath his rib cage, and then grabbed and squeezed at his heart.

“What’s the matter? Hey.” Amanda touched his cheeks and neck, pulling him out of his dour thoughts, but it was not enough.

“You said that key would take you from here. Do you want to leave?”

Amanda’s hands left his skin, as though the question had shocked. Her arms came around herself as she looked into the dark water, though it was impossible for her to still be able to see the key she desired. “I don’t belong here, Hargreave. I need to go home. I need…I need to make sure I’m not crazy.” Those pretty grey eyes with the blue rings around them flicked to Hargreave. She held his stare. “I’m sorry.”

It was the apology that punched him in the stomach. She meant to leave him. His mate meant to walk away from him.

He could keep her. The evil thought flitted through his head for a brief second. What could she do if he chose not to get the key for her? He could go down there, take the key, and push it deeper into the waters where human lungs wouldn’t be able to retrieve it. She would have to stay here, with him and his men.

“Hargreave?”

Hargreave sighed. It was a lucky thing he hadn’t dressed in any finery when he’d come out of here and gone to see his mate. It made it easy enough for him to doff his cloak and dive into the water. Producing the fire he needed to see was a simple matter, warming his face while his legs and feet stayed chilled by the water.

The pile of coins and jewels Amanda had pointed to were deeper down than they’d looked. It was always something Hargreave had to get used to whenever he dove in here. He needed his wings again to push him along, to get to where he needed to go before his lungs burst.

This particular pile of coins, jewels, and other finery was not as large as it had looked from above, but he found the key easily enough. It was just sitting there.

He’d never noticed it before.

He took it, felt the weight of it, even in the cold depths, fifty feet beneath the surface of the water.

It was warm in his palm, and through the weight of the water all around him, he heard something call to him.

At first, he thought it was the key, but realized too late that it was Amanda.

* * *

A
manda watched Hargreave from above
. She stayed bent over the opening in the balcony, her hands on her knees.

Did he have it? Was he holding it? Was it even the skeleton key at all?

Amanda hoped it was. She needed to know if she was really trapped here or not.

But the look on Hargreave’s face when she said she wanted to leave…he’d looked crushed.

There had to be a way around this. There had to be something she could figure out so she could have both. Maybe she could go home and—

A hard grip in her hair yanked her back. Amanda released a sharp yelp before another hand cupped her mouth. “No words out of you, miss. Udolf wants to know what’s so special about you.”

What
? Oh God, what the hell was going on? Did Udolf keep spies in Hargreave’s castle?

The man leaned over the side of the water and looked down. He shook his head. “Down there all along, was it? Not too far off. We can still pluck the gold out of there if we want, and you’re going to answer some questions.”

The man who held her, whoever he was, was big. He felt bigger than Hargreave, and maybe even bigger than Eldric, and the thought of being questioned by him, and whatever it meant that could possibly come with that, didn’t sound the least bit good, so she panicked even more than she already had been when he started backing up towards the doorway.

Amanda kicked and struggled, but it wasn’t until she got a lucky shot in at his balls that he doubled over, wheezing. Not about to question her good luck, Amanda bit his hand, forcing him to let her go. He did. Thank God, he let her go, but he quickly recovered, and his round, scarred face was bright red and angry.

If he caught her, he might not care about questioning her anymore.

“Come here!”

Amanda tried to duck around him, to get to the door, but she couldn’t do it. Her dress really was slowing her down, made for too much material for him to grab onto. She didn’t dare get near him. That left the water when he chased her. She jumped in. The problem was he did, too.

“Hargreave! Hargreave! Help!”

She flailed, kicking her legs and trying to win away, pushing herself along with her arms and hands, but she didn’t seem to get far. Her legs easily got tangled in her skirts, and the big man caught her, dunking her head before letting her come back up for air.

“No!”

“Shut up!”

She suddenly went back under, struggling as her attacker held tightly to her hair. She didn’t have the chance to take in a proper breath and some of it went down the wrong tube. She was choking! She was drowning!

Without warning, her attacker released her. Amanda tried kicking and pushing her way to the surface, but her skirts prevented that again. She couldn’t see. It was too dark and her lungs burned as panic stopped her from thinking about anything else but how painful it was to not be able to breathe, to open her mouth and suck back all the water in the throne room when her instinct was to cough out the water in her lungs already.

Something grabbed her around the waist. She grabbed it back as she burst through the water.

Only then did she cough and gag. Wind snapped and the feeling of falling was there as Hargreave landed with her on the balcony, putting her on her knees.

He slapped her on the back, forcing the water out of her lungs. “Gods, sweet, are you…did he…I’ll kill him again!”

Hargreave made as if to jump back into the water, but Amanda grabbed for his legs. “No.”

Hargreave didn’t move. Amanda shivered and sputtered for breath. Air never tasted cleaner, or better, now that she had it. She couldn’t have been in the water more than two minutes, but it had felt like an eternity.

“Stay here. Don’t go back in.”

Hargreave came down to his knees, putting his hands around her, holding her, warming her up. “I’m sorry. I did not know we were being followed.”

Amanda looked into the water. She saw the body floating in the blackness. The water around him looked especially black. It was probably blood, and Amanda had to look away from it when her stomach churned.

“I…I want to go home!”

Hargreave held her. If he said anything, she definitely didn’t hear it because the only noise Amanda was aware of was the sound of her own panicked breathing.

Amanda didn’t know there was another potential threat in the room with her until Hargreave stood up slowly. Amanda stared up at him, wondering why he was leaving, taking his comforting body heat with him, when she looked at the doorway and spotted another man. Another tall, broad dragon warrior blocking the exit.

Amanda shivered.

Romance novels weren’t fun when they were happening in real life. All the danger and excitement she’d written about suddenly didn’t seem to exciting or amazing.

If she ever got out of this, she was going to start writing contemporary billionaire romances. That seemed like a better world to get sucked into instead of one where everyone was constantly trying to kill everyone else.

“How many traitors are in my castle?”

The warrior pulled a hefty-looking blade from his hip. “Enough.”

Hargreave growled, a noise so low and threatening it was enough to make Amanda squeak as she clutched at his leg.

Brave heroine she most definitely was not.

Until Hargreave bent down and dropped something in front of her.

The skeleton key. Amanda stared at it, hardly able to believe it was finally in front of her.

The warrior chuckled. “Don’t think that one will be doing anything with a weapon.”

It wasn’t a weapon. It was her way out of here.

“You and I can try to kill each other, but if you have any honor, you will let the woman leave.”

“I have decent enough honor, but the woman will be staying. Udolf wants to know where she came from, and what she’s doing here.”

Hargreave growled again.

All Amanda could think of was how much she wanted to rip that old man’s head off.

Of course he would be the creepy voice behind all this. He was probably the one who had started this war between Hargreave’s and Eldric’s family. It’s how Amanda would have written it. The evil, aging advisor who was constantly whispering into the ears of higher men. That made sense.

Hargreave sighed, looked down at Amanda, something soft and aching in his expression, before he roared and charged at the man in front of him.

Amanda froze, watching as the two men crashed together. She hadn’t seen the attack coming, had thought there would be some more back and forth talking between them, but they just jumped into the fight.

Amanda was forced to act, to move and scramble out of the way when both men nearly fell onto her as they fought to kill each other.

The room was suddenly brighter as Hargreave’s eyes and mouth glowed with the fires that lived inside him. A long red line split down his face, starting at the left side of his forehead, and moving at an angle before finishing at his right cheek. Blood tricked from it. He’d been cut.

“Go!”

Hargreave didn’t take his eyes away from his opponent, and it took Amanda a half second to realize he was talking to her.

Heart pounding, Amanda did as she was told before that other man could realize what was happening. She spun around and flew through the doorway, turning her head just enough to see him reaching out for her before Hargreave grabbed him, black scales forming along his body, claws punching through where his fingernails should have been. He went for the warrior’s throat.

Amanda turned away before she could see the blood, but she heard the screams.

Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
It wasn’t any of her business anymore. She just needed to find a door. Any door, and hope to God that it worked, that there wasn’t some special door she had to find on top of finding this stupid key.

She found a door, one not too far away. It looked old, the hinges rusted to a bright orange color, and the wood seemed decrepit and dead, like it was about to fall apart.

But the key fit into the lock, and it turned when she turned it. Amanda heard the sound of the locking mechanism giving, and immediately after that, something she definitely shouldn’t have heard all the way down here.

People. She heard people, and smelled the exhaust from cars.

Amanda sucked back a deep breath, putting her palm on the door, feeling heat there. Not the same kind of heat that flowed through the castle. This felt like heat from sunlight.

And home. That’s what it felt like. She was so close.