Mate Of A Dragon Villain (Skeleton Key) (7 page)

“
H
it them again
,” Hargreave commanded. “Keep them busy.”

“Yes, sire,” said a younger dragon, a loyal man who had also lost everything to Edward and his spawn before the old shit died and left his simpering bastard on the throne.

So many of Hargreave’s men were here, on this side of the castle. Hargreave’s heart thrummed heavily in his chest at the thought of rushing in there, the last place he would ever want to be caught.

He knew what would happen if he was found, so he did not ask any of his men to follow him. Many had volunteered. They wanted their leader, but they didn’t want him risking his life for a woman, mate or no mate.

He went anyway, trusting his men to keep the enemy occupied so he could get inside and take what belonged to him.

It felt crippling not to fly. Hargreave hated that. He’d spent years of his life unable to fly, and every time he was forced to go without, it felt like he was wandering around without his legs.

He stayed close to the shrubs and trees, ducking quickly when the foliage opened up and made for less cover.

No one shot at him with an arrow or a pistol. No guards called out and none of Eldric’s dragons swooped down on him with their spears.

He was almost there. The servants’ entrance.

Hargreave was no fool. Regardless of the chaos he’d created, he expected some men to still be stationed there. Not as many as before. These were well-guarded spaces. Almost protected as fiercely as the front gates.

He wouldn’t be using the doors, however.

This was how he’d escaped from Edward. The water well was where he needed to go.

A man in steel armor and the blue sigils of Eldric spotted him. Hargreave launched his blade, catching the man in the throat before he could cry out for reinforcements.

Shit. Sloppy. He’d hoped to not be spotted when he rushed to the well, but it was too late. Someone would eventually notice the body, even among the chaos, but there was nothing to be done for it now.

He jumped into the well. It was narrower than he recalled it being as a child. Hargreave hissed and winced as his elbows and shoulders caught against the rocks as he fell down, down, down. The burn and the sudden pain were fleeting, then nothing at all when his feet struck the cold of the water.

The space was smaller and the water colder. Lovely.

But the hole was still there. It was tiny, but he could still just barely keep his head above water as he swam through. It reached his lips, forcing him to breathe through his nose.

This was to be his grand plan when he one day made his final attack on Eldric. Hargreave only had to plan how to get his army through here, to use this secret entrance to his advantage.

With his woman in this castle, there was no longer any chance for that, but he would gladly give up this secret passage to get her safely out before Eldric could destroy her like he’d destroyed Hargreave.

Just a little farther now. He could see torchlight at the end of this tunnel.

* * *

A
manda nearly tripped
over the rug in the middle of the floor when Jane tossed her into the room. She barely caught herself, though she heard the sound of the lock sliding into place.

“Hey!” Amanda slammed her fists into the door until it hurt. She didn’t know why she bothered trying to open it—of course it didn’t budge.

She kicked it, which turned out to be a huge mistake because then she was in more pain than anything and bouncing up and down on her one good foot until her whole leg stopped throbbing in pain.

Then she wanted to pull her hair out. She almost did.

She might have smashed something in her rage just to release some of that pent up hostility, if only there was something in the room for her to break.

Amanda couldn’t even break the mirror. It wouldn’t shatter.

She knew this because she’d tried to break it her first night here.

Now she was trapped in here when there was an attack happening on the castle? Amanda went to the slim window and tried to see out of it. She couldn’t see a thing except the direction all the guards outside seemed to be running in. They looked like they were getting ready for war.

Amanda didn’t want to be in this castle when there was a war of any kind going on.

What if it wasn’t Hargreave?

What if it
was
?

She groaned and pressed her forehead onto the cool stone. “You stupid skeleton key.
Why did you bring me here
?”

Amanda yelled those last words just so she could scream. It was dangerous here. She wasn’t supposed to be here. If that was Hargreave out there trying to get her out of this place…he could be captured and killed.

No. He was smarter than that. Amanda had written him to be level-headed. He wouldn’t attack the castle.

But she hadn’t created these people. Amanda knew that now. Not only were too many things different, but this place was too real. Amanda wasn’t a goddess and she hadn’t made these people appear out of her imagination. They were real, and Hargreave might very well be out there. He could be in the castle.

Her door banged. Or something had banged into it, causing Amanda to gasp and spin around. Her heart pulsed heavily in her throat as she heard the metal key enter the lock, and the bolt slid free.

The door pushed inward, and Amanda’s knees almost turned to liquid. She had to catch herself on the windowsill at the sight of Hargreave in the doorway.

“No way. No way are you here after I just thought you wouldn’t be.”

He walked briskly into the room, his back straight, as if he had every right to be here, and had no reason to be afraid. He wore the blue and white colors of the guards who worked in the castle, and Amanda’s breath caught when he stopped in front of her. His presence made her gasp and her stomach quiver as something inside her yanked her to him.

“What—”

“We must be gone from here. Now.” Hargreave grabbed her by the arm, his hold tight, almost painful as he dragged her to the door.

She didn’t fight him. She walked quickly at his pace. “How did you get in here?” Then she smelled something foul enough to make her nose cringe, and suddenly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

Actually, no, she did want to know.

Amanda couldn’t figure out how to get out in the time she’d been living in the castle, and yet, somehow, Hargreave was right here.

He didn’t answer, his face serious as he glanced around the halls.

Amanda took note once more of the colors he wore. There were no red stains on the uniform, but she shuddered to think of where he might’ve gotten it.

“Did you kill anyone to get in here?” she asked, swallowing hard, that feeling of needing to be near him, to be close to him, suddenly not so strong now that she realized he might’ve had to end a few lives to get in here.

“A guard outside and two in the dungeons. That’s all.”

The wave of relief at such a small number of casualties was instantly chased away by guilt as Hargreave yanked her through the halls. Any number of lives was too many, war or no war, and more people would probably die because he was going to war with Eldric right now.

“Down this way. Come,” Hargreave said.

“That way’s the dungeon!”

“It is,” Hargreave agreed, and Amanda saw no choice. It seemed counterintuitive to go deep into the basement area of any building in order to get out of it, but if he knew a way that she didn’t, she was all for it.

They got down two levels, into the dark where there was no electricity and only a handful of torches to light the way, when a small voice called out to her.

“My lady!”

Amanda’s heart sank as Hargreave pulled his spear from the holster at his hip. One click of a button and it was at full size, and he held it menacingly as Olga came rushing down the stairs in her plain cream dress.

The tiny knife in her hand was pathetic.

Amanda grabbed Hargreave’s arm. “Don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt her.”

“I wouldn’t,” Hargreave said, pulling away from Amanda, a look on his face that spoke to his disgust that she could think he would do such a thing.

Olga trembled from her spot on the higher ground. The little knife looked like nothing at all as she pointed it at Hargreave.

“Release her.”

Even her voice didn’t sound all that impressive, though Amanda appreciated the effort, even as she was terrified for the girl’s life.

Hargreave smiled, a menacing-looking thing as he leaned his spear against the wall and held out his hands. “There. I am unarmed,” he said.

He had to have more weapons on him. “Olga, run.”

She didn’t move, even as Hargreave approached her, like an animal stalking prey.

“You would do well to put that down, sweet. You could hurt yourself.”

Olga looked at Amanda, and Amanda realized how much she liked the girl, how she didn’t want this for her, didn’t want her to die because Hargreave didn’t want witnesses.

Maybe it was something in Amanda’s eyes that made Olga turn and try to flee, but she was too slow as Hargreave rushed up the stone steps two at a time and caught her around the waist.

“No!” Amanda rushed up after them, but it was too late.

Hargreave grabbed Olga’s wrist, slamming it against the wall until she dropped it. She didn’t put up much of a fight. She was nothing compared to him, and when Amanda made it up to them, her stupid, worthless dress slowing her down, Hargreave was already in the middle of threatening the poor girl, his hand clamped over her mouth and jaw.

“Now, you will be silent. I’d hate myself to have to hurt a woman, but I will do it if necessary, understand?”

Olga nodded quickly, eyes so wide Amanda could see the whites all the way around them, as well as the tears that had caught in her eyelashes.

“Good,” Hargreave said, grabbing the back of her neck and pushing her to Amanda. “Let’s go.”

Olga ran into Amanda’s arms, weeping, and Amanda held her tightly, looking down at her, and up at Hargreave. “You…you’re not going to…”

She didn’t have to finish. Hargreave seemed to know what she was about to suggest because he once again got that disgusted look on his face.

“I’m not Eldric. I’m not monster. Is that what they made you think of me?”

“I…” Amanda shook her head, looking away from his eyes, at the hurt in them, and the disappointment that she hadn’t seen anything good in him, despite the strange feeling that pulled her to him.

She couldn’t say anything to him. Not really. How could she when she’d thought he would slit Olga’s throat with her own knife? Eldric couldn’t be blamed for that since everything Amanda thought of Hargreave came from everything she’d ever written about him.

Hargreave called Eldric a monster. What had he done to make Hargreave think such a thing?

Hargreave’s shoulders slumped. He walked by her, not taking her arm this time. “We need to hurry.”

That wasn’t right. She couldn’t let him walk away like that. She reached out and snatched his hand before he could get far. “I’m sorry.”

He stopped, glancing back at her.

She wasn’t sure what it was she saw in his eyes, but it was better than what had been there before.

And Olga was suddenly much more silent than she’d been a minute ago.

Hargreave squeezed her hand, pulling her, and Olga, down deeper into the dungeon, deeper than even Amanda had been.

“Where are all the guards?” she asked.

“Pulled away to battle,” Hargreave answered as they came to a door. “This is where water is brought to prisoners. It was cleaner when I came through. They used to use it to dispose of waste.”

Amanda didn’t think she wanted to know what kind of waste he was talking about, but when Hargreave opened the door, an amazing sight met her.

Three of Eldric’s guards were in here. One was awake, the other two were unconscious. All were tied up, and one was not wearing the blue and white cloak of the castle guards.

Hargreave had spared them? Really?

“This was why it took me so long to get to you,” Hargreave said, lightly kicking the boot of the guard who was awake and glaring.

“You said you killed some people?”

“I did,” Hargreave answered, not sounding happy about it. “I hid them in the other rooms we passed.”

If he’d killed those men but spared these ones, it meant he couldn’t be the villain Amanda thought he was. He only killed when there was no choice, right?

It still didn’t change the fact that people were losing their lives because of this. Because Hargreave had come here for Amanda.

They’d died because of Amanda.

Her strange trust for him, that desire that was deep in her chest to be near him and follow him wherever he went, multiplied now that she had some real evidence that he wasn’t a monster, but her guilt soared as well. She shouldn’t be feeling this for him. She shouldn’t feel safer with him than she felt inside these castle walls.

It didn’t change one neon bright fact. Wherever he went, she was prepared to follow.

Even when he pointed at the dark, cold-looking body of water at the edge of the stone flooring.