And then the world seemed to…stop.
Time shuddered around me, the guard’s outstretched hand hanging in the air. A strange electricity crackled against my skin and brushed the hair on my arms. The sensation of water flowed across my back. Gasping, I whirled to face the shelf, certain a new enemy had somehow sneaked inside this room. One who could wield magic. The prince’s mage?
But there was nothing before me but the shelves. And the skulls.
Frowning, I reached out to touch the wall behind the skulls. My fingers went straight through. The wood surrounding my hands melted like paint.
What the hell was going on?
Was this some sort of hidden door?
Another passageway! The gods bless this creepy-ass library.
I had no idea what the hell I’d find on the other side, but it had to be better than this. And I wasn’t about to wait around to see what would happen when this weird time-warp thing ended.
With a deep breath, I plunged through the wall.
Sunlight blinded me. The scent of rain and leaves burned away the cloying scent of dust and fear. Leaves crunched beneath my feet. I blinked, trying to make sense of where I was. All around me, trees loomed into a cerulean sky and a carpet of moss spread across the stones beneath my boots. The buzz of insects were a cacophony of terror. I was clearly outside in some sort of forest. Had I travelled here?
All my life I’d been taught to fear magic. My father was a big fan of logic, and magic just doesn’t make sense. It didn’t help that the royal family employed the cruelest mages they could find. The things they were capable of would make murderers turn in their graves.
Some feasted on blood. The blood of innocents and children. Magic wasn’t native to the human lands, so mages had to dig into the darkest sources to weave the power they craved. And so I’d been taught to fear it always.
But I wasn’t in the habit of always doing what I was told.
I drifted forward, still clutching the second skull I’d grabbed, wonder in my heart. In the distance, birds chirped out a melody that sounded like an ancient song. The tree’s massive leaves drooped from a recent rain. Warm humid air caressed my skin, such a relief from the cold and brittle winds of my homeland’s winter.
Sighing, I closed my eyes and breathed it all in. Where was I? Hell if I knew. Should I be scared? Probably. But I hadn’t felt this calm in days. All the tension in my shoulders had loosened the second I’d stepped through that wall. Wherever I was, it was far away from the Kingdom of Eretia, the prince, his mages, and a terrifying life spent trapped in a dungeon cell with nothing to keep me company but the torture.
I might not know how I was going to survive in this forest, but it didn’t matter. I’d figure it out. It couldn’t be worse than home.
But then a low, dangerous growl sent shivers down my spine. “Who the hell are you?”
2
Aradia
My heart rattled like thunder. A man whispered out of the shadows, pointing a gold-tipped spear right at my chest. No. I swallowed hard. This wasn’t a man. Nothing about the creature who loomed before me could be human.
Silver streaks cut through midnight hair that brushed against the steel armor on his broad shoulders. His hooded red eyes burned through me like twin flames in the midst of a storm. A leather tunic that barely covered his chest revealed the taut ridges of his lean and muscular body. He was shaped like a man, but there was enough magic in the Kingdom of Eretia for me to see that his form was nothing more than a mask.
A very terrifying and handsome mask.
“Answer me.” With narrowed eyes, he stalked forward. The tip of the spear brushed the skin between my breasts. “Who are you? How are you here?” His eyes narrowed even more. “Are you from Pira?”
“What?” I blinked and glanced over my shoulder. The portal—or whatever it was—still shimmered faintly behind me. Clearly, I’d made a terrible mistake. I thought I’d escaped to a world without men and weapons, but I’d only walked right into another one.
“Answer me,” he bellowed. “Or I will believe the worst and kill you on the spot.”
“That seems drastic.” I swallowed hard. “Look, I don’t know what Pira is or where I am or what is even happening. My name is Aradia, and a second ago, I was in a library. Sorry if I’ve trespassed on your land, but I didn’t intend to. Please don’t kill me.”
His spear lowered an inch. “You were in a library? Where?”
“Eretia.”
He frowned. “You’re human?”
“Is that really such a surprise?” I risked a glance around, even if it meant taking my eyes off this man and his spear. There were very few benefits of being a smuggler’s daughter. One of them was understanding how enemies worked. If he wanted to kill me, he wouldn’t be talking to me. He would have already slammed his weapon into my chest.
“Humans don’t tend to waltz through portals into Inishfall.”
“Inishfall,” I said, trying out the name. I’d never heard of this place before, and I’d studied the maps of the world ten times over. Of course, that shouldn’t have surprised me. I’d arrived here through a portal. How could one draw that kind of thing on parchment?
“Hmm. You seem suspiciously calm for a human girl who has just mistakenly ended up in a strange realm, and who is now facing off against an armed male.” He lifted the spear once more. “How did you get here?”
“I told you. I walked through a wall in a library.” I shrugged, flicking my eyes down at the gold tip. “And you aren’t the worst thing I’ve faced off against.”
Well, that was probably a lie. Father’s smuggling friends could be pretty terrifying at times, but they were all human, and therefore, mortal. Stavros was fast, powerful, and determined as hell. But he was also mortal. The mages were the worst of them all, but again, mortal. Plus, they didn’t have the physical strength to do more than swat at a fly.
I didn’t know what this male was, but he was like no one else I had met before. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Power rippled from his muscular body in waves, and his eyes were pure fire. I had an inkling he could burn me to a crisp, if he wanted to.
His lips twisted into a wicked grin. “Really? I am Yuto Cirillo, the Lord of Dragons.”
I blinked. The Lord of Dragons? Did he say…dragons? Like the fire-breathing monsters of myth? Okay, so maybe I’d been closer to the truth than I’d thought. Maybe he really could burn me to a crisp.
“Um…”
“See?” He straightened a little at the dumbfounded look on my face. He was clearly enjoying this. The asshole. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
He was right about that. I didn’t. And I also didn’t want to find out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go back the way I’d come, and I couldn’t move forward either. His pesky spear was stopping me.
“You know what? Fine. I don’t know what you’re capable of. Happy?” I hugged my skull tighter. “Now, can you please let me go?”
“Absolutely not.” This time, he lowered the spear so that the end now pointed at the mossy ground rather than my heart. But that didn’t make me feel much better because he quickly closed the distance between us. Now, he was so close that I could smell the musky scent of him: fire and ash mixed with the grounding aroma of the earth. He towered over me with the dangerous curve of his body, as if he were a lion ready to pounce. I swallowed hard and fought the urge to stumble back through the portal.