Everlasting Bad Boys. Cynthia Eden

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      Violet eyes stared at him. “She’s sold her. To old Tinig.”

      Sitting up, Ailean growled, “The Lightning dragons? She’s sold her to the Lightning dragons?” Their greatest enemies and some of the most dangerous warriors.

      “Tinig has nineteen sons.” Like the humans of that desolate place, those in the Northlands bred few females. Instead they stole them from wherever they could find them. “Adienna sent word she had a female to sell. He was reluctant when he heard she was no great beauty, but when he found out Shalin could read and write, he doubled his offer, and they settled on a price.”

      “And you’re telling me Shalin is all right with this?” If so, then he needed to speak with her. He wouldn’t allow her to leave her people over this ridiculous situation.

      But Arranz shook his head. “Shalin does not know, brother. But I have a lover in the court. She told me all this. She’s always liked Shalin and thinks this is unfair.”

      “Of course this is unfair!”

      “Then you best get up. The Lightnings are coming for her. I’ve heard they near Kyffin as we speak.”

      Ailean tossed off his bedcovers, rage singing through his veins. “How could Adienna do this? Shalin is her friend.”

      “That beast has no friends. I warned you, brother. I warned you not to involve yourself with her.”

      “I know. I know. Don’t you think I know?” he said, yet again, as he temporarily dragged on leather leggings so he wouldn’t walk through his castle naked. The humans always seemed so flustered by that. “It was barely one night. And trust me, it was not up to my usual standards, because I couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

      “You bruised that mighty ego of hers. If you’d crawled back to her on your knees, this wouldn’t be a problem. But you ignored her like you do all the rest.”

      “I don’t ignore the rest. I ignore her because she makes my skin crawl.”

      Together the brothers strode from Ailean’s bedchamber and down the hall. As they made it to the top of the stairs, the second oldest of the brothers rushed up. “There you are. Have you heard?”

      “Aye.”

      Bideven shook his head. “What did you do to that poor dragoness?”

      “Nothing.”

      Bideven had always been the meddlesome worrier of the three, which was why they sometimes called him “Biddy”—which he hated.

      “I don’t understand all this,” Ailean continued. “It was a kiss.”

      “A kiss in front of everybody in Kyffin, including one of Adienna’s spies. Seems she’s had Shalin watched for years. She’s been sure you two were lovers, but she’d had no proof—until you kissed her.”

      “And, brother,” Bideven added, “you seem to forget that rumors have swirled around you and Shalin since the morning after you lay with the princess.”

      “Rumors? What rumors?”

      Arranz shook his head. “How do you remain so oblivious to all that is around you?”

      “Skill.”

      “The rumor,” Bedevin continued, “that you left the princess’s bed to track down Shalin.”

      “I didn’t track her down. I stumbled upon her when I was making my escape.”

      “And that she threw an ax at your head to protect her innocence.”

      “That’s not what happened. Although I must admit, the rumors are much more interesting.”

      As was their custom since they were young, Ailean grabbed hold of one brother, Bideven, in this instance, while the other deftly turned and opened one of the windows carved into the stone wall.

      “Ailean! Don’t you—”

      Using both hands, Ailean chucked his older brother out the window.

      Bideven didn’t hit the ground below—for once—and instead shifted midair. “Bastard!” he snarled while hovering outside the window they’d chucked him through.

      “You need to learn to be prepared at all times,” Ailean stated simply before Arranz closed the window.

      “Whatever the truth, Ailean, your princess believes much differently.”

      The brothers quickly walked down the stairs, heading toward the Great Hall and the courtyard.

      “She’s not my anything, so I wish you’d both stop saying it.”

      They made it out into the front courtyard. The two suns hung low and bright as the wintertime inched toward them.

      “You know if you interfere, Ailean, you risk the wrath of the royals.”

      Ailean shrugged as he easily stepped out of the way of Bideven’s swinging tail. “I don’t care. It’s like father used to say: it’s one thing to fuck up your own life—”

      And with a smile the brothers finished the words together, “—but shit all to fuck up another.”

      Shalin, sitting in a field no more than several hundred paces outside Kyffin with her back comfortably resting against a large tree, studied closely the parchments she’d brought with her. Deciphering ancient text remained one of her top skills and one she was woefully behind on. Lately she’d found herself easily distracted with thoughts of a kiss so blindingly intense, she often couldn’t focus for hours.

      Now, however, she’d begun to get back into the swing of things. She had no choice. Ailean had not returned for her and that was best. Time with him would only get her killed. So she threw herself into her work, hoping she’d eventually forget all about him.

      So completely lost in the moment, she didn’t know she wasn’t alone until she heard a low voice say, “You read?”

      She looked up and saw three males in front of her. They all wore black capes, the hoods pulled over their heads. Shalin’s nose twitched. They were dragons in human form. Fully dressed.

      Her nose twitched again—but not dragons of Dark Plains.

      She forced a smile, trying to remain calm. “Aye.”

      “That is a skill we value, dragoness.” The tallest of the three crouched in front of her. She could now see his face and he was…beautiful. She’d always heard the Northland dragons were anything but. They lived in a hard, brutal land and their faces, their bodies, showed that clearly. This dragon bore scars, but nothing that detracted from the natural beauty his body possessed.

      But Shalin was no fool. Although the tenuous treaty had been agreed upon at the end of the last war, the North dragons were still considered dangerous enemies of Shalin’s people and had been for hundreds of centuries. They had no overall ruling body and instead lived in kin-related fiefdoms. Again, just like the Northland humans. And, СКАЧАТЬ