Artistic Vision

Had he known all along that dragons literally mated for life?

There. She’d found him, found the source of his pain. They’d taken him to an abandoned farm, the dilapidated house and barn ghosts of what the Dunne farm was. She swooped down toward the barn, his scent strongest there. She could hear low, murmuring voices, both familiar, both surprising. It was what she didn’t hear that terrified her.

Two beings breathed. Two. And neither of them was her mate.

Akane blew, fire erupting from her throat, engulfing the dry wood of the barn with her fury. Flames shot into the sky, a beacon to those who followed her.

Two figures ran out of the burning barn. Where was her mate?

Akane swooped down, her rage burning hotter than the fire behind her. On silent wings she glided, claws extended, intent on ripping, on shredding.

One of the running figures glanced back and, shrieking, shoved the other down. Akane got a glimpse of silver eyes and rumpled blonde hair. She chose to ignore the one who’d been shoved down, intent on capturing a Malmayne between her claws. She grabbed the female, making sure her claws dug into the woman’s sides before beginning her ascent.

The Sidhe female screamed and struggled, but it only served to dig Akane’s claws in deeper. Blood dripped down Constance’s sides and legs, the wounds deep. “Let me go!”

Akane laughed. “You took my mate.”

“He’s still alive! He—he’s in the barn!”

Akane looked, listened beneath the roaring of her flames, but no heartbeat could be detected. No breath stirred. “You lie. He’s not in there.” He couldn’t be. If he was inside then… No. She couldn’t think like that.

No heartbeat, no breath meant no life, and that was something Akane couldn’t accept.

“No! Hobart’s poison put him in a coma. We didn’t want him fi—fighting us.”

Akane clenched her hands, ignoring the female’s shrieks. “Why?”

“Transport,” the female gasped. “We needed to take him away.”

“To?”

“I can’t say!” The female gasped as Akane loosened her grip. She grabbed hold of Akane’s arms. “No! Please!”

Akane looked down. She’d taken the female high, high enough that simply letting go would be enough to kill. “Why should I let you live?”

The female was sobbing. “Please don’t.”

“Tell me who you were bringing him to.”

“No! He’ll kill me.”

Akane let go.

The female screamed, barely holding on to Akane’s arms. “I’ll tell, I’ll tell!”

Akane grabbed her again and headed toward the burning barn. “Who?”

The female told her a name that almost had Akane drop her, this time in shock.

Robin followed Leo out of the house in a foul mood. The Sidhe’s odd bond with his land had at least given them a heads’ up, but if Leo was correct then the man waiting for them was not one to be trifled with.

But then again, neither was Robin, and he’d danced with this one before.

“Ho, Bres.” Beside him, Leo jumped. It was rare that the leader of the redcaps came from his shadowy lair. The Fomorian was one of the oldest, and last, of his kind, and ruled the redcaps with an iron fist. He’d once been king of the Tuatha De and forced them to act as slaves to the Fomorian rulers. Now he ruled the most brutal thugs in the fae world.

Somehow he’d wound up with the beauty of both his Fomorian father and his Tuatha De mother, making him one of the most exquisite-looking people to ever walk the earth. Very few could resist his charm when he chose to employ it. Even fewer wished to incur his wrath. He was vicious to those who crossed him in any way.

Robin was not impressed.

Bres, his fair head bared in the moonlight, bowed. “Ho, Pan.”

Robin barely managed not to roll his eyes. It had been years since any called him that, false though it was. It was lucky for him that Pan had been amused to be associated with the Hob, finding Robin’s antics entertaining. So few of the Greek gods had that sense of fun Robin so prized that he’d been honored that Pan allowed the falsehood to stand, despite Robin’s objections.

To this day he lit incense in Pan’s honor.

Despite the god’s amusement, it wouldn’t do to be pretentious. The gods, even Pan, were capricious, and had a way of making their displeasure known in fascinating, albeit painful, ways. Allowing the falsehood to stand would be bad on a molecular level. As always, Robin objected. “I prefer Hob. Robin if you’re feeling friendly, but we both know you aren’t, yes?”

Bres merely smiled. “Give me the boy behind you, Hob.”

“That you may take him to your bitch-queen? I think not.” Robin would kill Leo himself rather than subject the Sidhe to the tender mercies of Titannia, even knowing sweet Ruby’s life would also end. She’d want it that way, rather than a mate who’d been a plaything for the Dark Queen. The bitch always broke her toys.

Leo shuddered, and if Bres thought for one moment it was from fear he was sorely mistaken. Leo had just linked fully with the earth, using it to enhance his power a thousand-fold. The power raced through Robin’s own, Leo’s connection a shock and a strange pleasure to one who was also of the earth. One by one the redcaps behind Bres began to disappear, sinking down silently ’til nothing was left, not even a twitching nose. Leo had to be using his Sidhe ability to cloud the redcaps’ minds, else they’d be shrieking up a storm. It explained the glazed look in the Sidhe’s eyes when Robin dared glance at him.

“You know how this will end, Pan.” Bres waved his hands languidly. “I’m sorry, Hob. My men have already secured the girl, and another has secured the boy’s brother. Give him to me, and once we have what we wish we will fade away.”

Robin watched without looking as another redcap disappeared into the earth. “My king desires otherwise.”

At the mention of Oberon, Bres flinched, but it was quickly hidden. “I have no quarrel with him or you, but I must obey my queen.”

Robin spread his hands, his nails curling into talons. “Then we are at an impasse.”

Another redcap disappeared.

“Ruby is safe. He’s bluffing. He doesn’t have her.”

Robin tried not to flinch as Leo’s words echoed in his head. The boy was strong on his land; very few could breach Robin’s mental barriers. He found himself more and more impressed with the Dunnes every time he played with them.

“Good. Now get out of my head.”

Leo’s silent chuckle echoed in his head, but Robin decided to let it pass. The boy deserved his brief moment of triumph, for things were about to get ugly.

Bres was going to attack, and he was far more dangerous than any redcap could ever hope to be.

“You fucking bitch.”

The female shivered, her legs curled up as high as they could go. They were over the burning barn now, the heat blistering to Sidhe flesh. “Please don’t kill me.”

Akane growled and flung Constance away from the burning barn, ignoring the female’s cries. Her mate was in the barn, unconscious, possibly dead. His scent wafted to her on the embers, fresh but subtly wrong. She let forth a keening cry, listening for an answer.

None came.

Akane entered the barn, her senses alert to any movement. She hadn’t seen the male who had accompanied the female when she’d flown back down. Where he was she didn’t know, nor did she care so long as he was far from her mate.

Near the back, toward what used to be the tack room, she found him. He was strapped to a table, his jaw slack, his eyes glittering in the firelight under half-closed lids. Black tendrils, ones she’d seen before, were