Page 4 of When Ashes Fall

While I’d never encountered Cozameal in the harem—he’d gone through his Needing before I arrived there—I did recognize one of the faces in his following. A cruel bastard who’d enjoyed making the women scream.

The day casters aligned themselves with the sun, but they were far from warm and every bit as vicious and insatiable as the night casters. I didn’t know what they did with their more sinister urges once they left the harem, as they never returned.

From the top of his tall, bay steed, Cozameal stared at me. Like the other casters, he also couldn’t hide the hunger in his crystal green eyes as they skimmed me. His black hair flowed freely to his shoulders as his attention shifted from me to Briar. His brow furrowed before clearing.

“How nice of you to dress for us,” Alwin drawled in the refined accent of the elves.

Alwin’s black hair hung over his shoulder in a waist-length braid that revealed his pointed ears. His white shirt highlighted the deep brown of his skin; his black eyes shone with intelligence and amusement as he surveyed me.

The king of the elves had arrived with Devnair and three others. Devnair’s lips twitched toward a smile before he suppressed it. I sensed his uneasiness as his gaze shifted from me to Briar and back again.

Devnair wasn’t stupid; I’d freed him from the vines holding him prisoner in the harem, a feat only I’d ever accomplished. He understood they had to tread carefully here, and he didn’t even know about the shadow dragon. Unless it became necessary, the dragon would lie in wait for a sign it was needed.

“If I’d known you were coming, I would have gladly arrived clothed, but you didn’t give me time to prepare,” I replied.

Cozameal licked his lips, crossed his arms over his pommel, and leaned forward on the saddle. “So, you stroll around nude all the time?”

“How I stroll around is no concern of yours.”

His eyes sparkled with amusement before he released a bark of laughter. “Too true, my shifter friend, too true.”

I bit back the words to tell him that he was no friend of mine, but I wouldn’t let him bait me into a response. He’d purposely used that word to rile me, and I wouldn’t give the prick the response he sought.

“Is there somewhere we can talk, Seth?” Alwin inquired.

I rankled at the name I’d forsaken.

CHAPTER THREE

Knox

“He goes by Knox now,” Devnair said.

“Excuse me?” Alwin inquired.

“He prefers to be called Knox now.”

“Is that true?” Alwin asked me.

“It is,” I confirmed.

“How interesting,” Marina murmured.

“The one who knocks,” Zarmen said in the guttural accent of the cyclops.

“I see you’ve heard of me,” I said to the king of the cyclops.

“I have. I’ve never witnessed it, but I hear you’re quite a draw when you enter the cage, but you only go in for sorcerers and sorceresses. You never leave them alive.”

I smiled grimly as my attention shifted to Marina. “No, I don’t.”

Some of the malicious amusement faded from her eyes as her jaw set and she glanced toward Briar. The beast stirred, and I stopped myself from taking an instinctive step to the side to block Marina’s view of her daughter.

Marina would feed on that response and try to find a new way to destroy us if she believed I still cared for her daughter.

With a flick of her wrist, Marina brushed a curl off her shoulder. The blood-red rose on her wrist flashed when she did so, and my skin prickled as I recalled how her roses burned my flesh.

She’d intertwined more roses throughout her hair. She always wore at least one of the flowers in her hair, but there were at least a dozen there now.