Page 9

Dragus sniffs the air slightly, a seductive grin forming.

“She is scared of us,” he tells Matitus, making him sniff the air in the room.

Dragus stands, strutting over to me and I take a step back only to bump into Matitus who had moved with blinding speed to stop me from running for the door. I feel both their chests press into me, both overly warm. I can smell the masculine scent on their skin, a fire and smokey scent like burnt sandalwood, strong but I also found it rather appealing. They were that close.

They smelled alike, with only slight differences between them—a reminder they were two different species.

Without thinking, I inhale their scent, leaning toward Dragus. A trance. A pull I don’t understand.

Heat radiates from his body, sinking into mine, my breath catching in my throat.

My eyes snap open. I jolt back, startled.

Fear grips me as my heart stutters. I almost touched him.

“You don’t need to fear us, little one,” Matitus says in my ear, his voice deep and gravelly as I feel his warm breath on my neck making me shiver. He inhales deeply, a groan leaving his lips.

“Doesn’t she smell divine, Dragus?” he says, lifting his head. I look at Dragus with what I know to be a gaze full of fear.

He leans in, pressing his lips to my neck, inhaling deeply. I freeze, every instinct screaming to run.

I squirm, trying to shake off the sensation crawling over my skin, settling too low. They’re both gorgeous—tall, dark, and dangerously built—that doesn’t ease the fear coiling in my gut. They could tear me apart in an instant, and I’d be powerless to stop them.

I try to slip between them, Matitus grips my hip, his fist tightening around my shirt. Dragus trails a finger down my neck, stopping just above my breast before circling my nipple over the fabric.

I go rigid. Panic surges through me.

He pinches it between his fingers, a sharp jolt of pain making me cry out.

“So responsive, and we’ve barely touched her,” he murmurs, his lips inches from mine. His voice is silk-wrapped sin.

I swallow hard. Matitus chuckles, stepping back, his warmth vanishing from my skin.

Heart pounding, I snatch up the basket and bolt from the room—away from their touch, away from their hungry eyes.

I take the basket back to the cleaning closet and walk fast to the kitchen, only to notice Lilith is no longer there. Walking over to the woman with red hair and freckles I ask her.

“The little girl who was with me. Where did she go?”

“The guards came and took her; her mother has been looking for her,” she tells me. I nod, relieved knowing she is safer out there than in here with these monsters.

I exit the kitchen and head to the small room where I slept last night. Walking in, I see a small, dark object sitting atop the bed. It is the book I was looking at earlier in the library. Matitus’s deep voice behind me makes me jump.

“If you want to read that you should also read this,” he says, holding another book out toward me as he steps in the room. I take the book from him and look at it. It’s a book on Dragons and mates. I stare up at him.

“Read them. I know Fae have their own stories of the past, what if they aren’t correct? What if your ancestors lied?” he says.

“Fae can’t lie,” I whisper, not understanding what he means.

“They can and did long ago. Your kind blames the Dragons for the wars and the blood spilled, yet what they took from us far outweighs anything we could have ever done to any of you,” he tells me, and I feel anger build up at his words bursting out of me.

“What have the Fae taken from us? You species killed my kind off,” I tell him incredulously. The nerve he has saying what we did was worse, when they killed every one of my kind.

“Your kind aren’t the only ones forced into extinction, Elora; my kind is nearly extinct as well because of what they did.”

“And what is that?” I dare to ask, not liking the way he talks about Fae.

“Read the books and you will find out,” he says, walking out, shutting the door behind him.