“Don’t growl,” Fin told him in a brighter voice than Maddox had heard from him in a while. “I dare you to want to pull away from her in a hurry.”
Fuck. You.
The focused thought landed well, because Fin threw his head back, laughing. “Yeah, yeah.” It took them a moment to stand, but Fiona was now pantsless, not that she seemed to care. The tail of her shirt just barely covered her ass. Lifting his head, Maddox swept the huge chamber. The room had definitely heated, the rock had blackened—scorched from his fire—and the bodies were all unmoving. Nothing was going to see her ass.
Satisfied, he waited until Fin at least closed his pants and was fully on his feet and ready to defend her before Maddox focused and let his scales slip away as his body compacted. Then he stood on two legs and barely had time to brace before Fiona launched herself into his arms.
The feel of her slick heat against his bare cock was a welcome sensation as she wrapped her arms and legs around him. The sting of contact on his recently changed skin sent sparks raking over his nerves, but he ignored every one of them because the press of her breasts to his chest, the heat of her legs around him, and the fact she fisted his hair in one hand before she nuzzled a kiss to his throat made him groan.
He wanted to kiss her properly, but she had rules and he could respect that. Grinding against her, he slid a hand down to cup her ass and keep her steady.
“Outside, Beautiful. You too, Maddox.” Fin slapped him on the back, and Maddox hissed at him with a scowl. The druid just gave him an unrepentant grin.
“Not yet,” Fiona argued, and then wiggled out of his arms. He didn’t let her go far, snaking a hand to her hip and yanking her back to him. Touching her settled his beast, and neither of them would be settled until they had her hell and gone from this place.
Fin swung around to look at her, but like Maddox, he scanned the room and kept a wary eye out. They were alone right now, but this reprieve wouldn’t last.
“Kitten,” Maddox said, and his voice came out rough and rocky. After weeks in his dragon’s form, he hadn’t had occasion to speak. Her sudden smile at him and the softening around her eyes had him dismissing the concern almost immediately. “We need to go.”
“Someone hurt him,” she said, the husky tone of hers wrapping around him like a caress. “I’m going to kill them.”
Fin’s grin was both savage and satisfied. Maddox didn’t blame him. The possessiveness radiating from her was not something he’d realized he needed or craved. Yet he soaked in every dramatic ounce of it.
“They don’t matter, Beautiful,” Fin told her and caught one of her hands. “Getting you out of here and taking what we know back to Alfred does.”
“Then you two go,” she instructed, recalcitrance etched into every stubborn inch of her gorgeous face. Even her eyes flashed, and for a split second, her skin began to glow. “I’ll find them and gut them all. No one treats you like that.”
Lifting her hand, Fin examined her arm and then slanted a look at Maddox. Are you seeing this?
He gave a slight nod. Fiona glowed. She’d burned the warden, and that sense of vicious vengeance in him unfurled. Hopefully, it stung the bastard for a long time. But even holding her, Maddox felt nothing beyond her.
Magic?
But Fin shook his head.
Fiona started to pull away again, but Maddox tightened his arms. “Kitten, they will wait. Unless Fin needs his vengeance now.”
His brother snorted, then cupped her face. “I’m fine, Beautiful. And I’d much rather be with you than here a minute longer.” Besides, they had information for Alfred and Rogue. It was better to get back.
A scoffing sound of protest fell from her lips, and Maddox pressed his mouth close to her ear. “Kitten, I need to get you out of here. I need you naked and wrapped around me for a few hours. Then I need to just feel you with me. More than all of that, I need you safe from this place. You have us, now take us home?”
It might have been fighting dirty, but some of the objection went out of her and she stole a look upward. “I’m coming back after them later.”
“And I’ll help.” It was a promise.
“What the hell,” Fin said before kissing her palm. “Field trip.” Then, linking his fingers with hers, he nodded to Maddox. For the most part, Maddox didn’t give a damn that he was naked or that his cock jutted out full and hard, as eager to be in her as he was. Still, he was more concerned about her lack of covering, not that either of them would let anything touch her.
Still, he should probably not have toasted all of the bodies. Outside, the cold air slapped against him and filled his lungs with something less charred. Fiona let out a laugh and glanced at him again. Speckled with streaks of blood, soot, and sweat, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“I had to break in,” she joked. “I’m afraid I wasn’t subtle about it.”
The magical wards pushed back against them, slowing them a step, but Fiona strode ahead, holding each of their hands in hers, and the pop of the magic fizzling out and away had Maddox raising his brows.
Yes, he could push through most magical fields and Fin could weave an opening into them, but Fiona had just erased it like it wasn’t there.
Not erased. Recoiled. It literally didn’t want to touch her.
He nodded to Fin. What the hell did that mean though?
And outside, under a night dark sky with no moon, Fiona’s skin did more than just radiate light. It pulsed with health, vitality, and a shimmer that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than ethereal.
Suddenly, being out and in the open took on a new level of threat, and the urgency to get her to the keep and out of sight redoubled. As if reading his mind—and knowing Fin, he probably was—Fin picked up the pace. They had to get past the gates, then he could whirl them away.
The hum of the prison spells vibrated against his back, just as a scent he’d hoped to never smell again rushed him with the breeze. Digging his heels in, Maddox hauled Fiona—and by extension, Fin—backward and tucked her behind him.
“Stay, Kitten,” he growled when she started to move around him. Fin boxed her in though, pressing her right up to Maddox’s back.
He didn’t have time to appreciate the fact that she settled her hands against his back or that she didn’t struggle. Not when the forest just behind the edge of the barrier had gone preternaturally silent. No birds. No insects. No ground creatures. Not even the leaves stirred.
One crunch of leaves. A deliberate foot being placed to alert them to the new arrival. “Do you require assistance?” Cyril inquired. “Or clothing?”
Of all the fuckers, it had to be him. Of the Seven, Cyril held the most animosity toward Alfred. They had never been friends. Diametrically opposed in every way. Leanly built and tall, there was nothing soft about the man. He was a razor sharp weapon, and even the most casual of slips could leave a person sliced and bleeding.
Maddox studied the member of the Seven as he strolled out from behind the trees like he was just out for a casual walk. Dressed in a bespoke suit, he looked more like he was on his way to a board meeting than a hike in the woods.
Wait…the smells were off for the woods. There was car exhaust and the stink of humanity on the breeze. The portal to the prison must be in a city somewhere. That explained the suit.