The Warrior King (Inferno Rising) by Owen, Abigail (online e book reading txt) 📗

already hating the idea forming in his head, one that had a lot to do with strategy Meira had already gotten him to agree to. “If you’re going inside Everest on a rescue mission for this woman, you need all the clans behind you that you can get.”

Every protective instinct bucked against the suggestion, reactions so complicated he couldn’t untangle them. His job was to keep her safe, dammit. But this was Meira. He might not like the way her need to help those around her led her straight to trouble, but he was beginning to understand that the beauty of her soul was her heart. She had to protect the world. He had to protect her. Not even a choice.

He looked at Meira, who regarded him with an emotion he couldn’t quite pin down. Something uncomfortably close to gratitude. Not the emotion he wanted from her, but maybe the one he’d have to settle for.

“What’s the plan?” She put the question to Samael, not turning her gaze away.

“Like you said. If Gorgon is alive, the most likely place is—”

“Everest,” she supplied.

He nodded.

“Damn,” Skylar said. “I seriously didn’t want to go back there any time soon.”

“I think this time it’s my turn,” Meira said.

Samael scowled at the words, but his dragon rumbled a different concern, not at the specific words, but the way she slurred them.

“No,” Skylar snapped.

“Mama trained me, too, Sky,” Meira said with a frown of concentration. She was also starting to sway on her feet. “I can get in and out easier. Move from room to room faster. You know I’m right.”

“Meira?” Samael held a hand out to steady her, and the image in the mirror started to flicker. “That’s it. I’m calling it,” he said. “Shut it down.”

She blinked at him with eyes turning heavier by the second. “We’ll call again later,” she said, not turning her gaze away from his. Then the flames shut off, the mirror cutting off whatever protest Skylar was about to make.

She’d listened to him. Not even a question. Samael had to keep himself from scooping her up and running off with her. “What next?” he asked.

“Sleep,” she murmured, visibly drooping. “Definitely sleep.”

Chapter Nine

Meira blinked herself awake to a pitch-black room. No window. No source of light. Nothing.

The all-too-familiar sensation of having no idea where she was kicked her heart rate up. Meira jackknifed to sitting and frantically felt around her to figure out her situation. A bed. She was in a bed with sheets, pillows, and a soft blanket. That couldn’t be bad, right?

A soft click sounded an instant before a light turned on to her right. Meira blinked then forced her eyes to focus on the man sitting on the floor in the corner of what appeared to be a cave bedroom.

“Sam?”

As soon as the name left her lips, protectiveness gathered around her like another blanket. His protectiveness toward her, she realized. Like he’d taken the walls he put around himself and built them up around her instead. He got up and sat on the bed beside her, dark eyes searching. “It’s me. You’re safe.”

She blew out a low breath as her body relaxed into the knowledge that he was here. Watching over her.

He supported me. Without question. About going to Everest to rescue that other phoenix. He hadn’t been happy, more resigned. But also…accepting. She’d felt it, even as she’d been focused on keeping her powers running. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“Not giving you more warning that I was running out of juice—”

He shook his head at her. A gentle remonstration for him. She’d expected flat-lipped irritation. “You don’t have to be brave and do everything yourself all the time, you know.”

Meira wrinkled her nose. “I’m not brave. My sisters are, but I have to fake it.”

Samael leaned closer. “I’ll tell you a secret.”

She waited, casting her gaze over his harsh features, trying to make sense of the emotions surrounding her.

“We all have to fake being brave,” he said.

Meira gave an indelicate snort. “Some more than others.”

Rather than laugh at her, though his lips twitched, Samael reached out and tweaked a curl. “I think you’re brave.”

“You think I’m reckless.”

He shrugged. “Maybe if more people were your kind of reckless, the world would be a…kinder…place.”

Whoa. Where was this coming from?

He grinned, his face lighting up and stealing the air from her lungs. “Even if it gives me a daily heart attack.”

Meira chuckled, relaxing into the way his emotions cossetted her. No longer screaming, though a tension rode the edges. Worry. Fear. Something else.

“Would it help to know that I won’t leave you?”

Until this was all over, he must’ve meant. Except her heart took off at the thought of him watching over her always.

She gazed into his dark eyes—not fathomless or cold, but warm, reaching inside her.

Except Samael didn’t get to be that person for her. She’d made promises. Plans that affected many more than herself. And Samael was loyal to his king.

“Meira?” he asked, voice turning low and rumbly.

Oh gods. Had her longing reflected in her eyes? Had she given away her secret wishes, dreams she’d held close, tucked into dark spaces inside her where they couldn’t make her ache for things? Impossible things.

She cleared her throat. “What time is it?”

He gave her a narrow-eyed, searching look, then sat back, pulling his emotions back inside himself, leaving her cold. “Evening. Back to using up all your…juice. In case it happens again, how does that work? I didn’t even know it was a possibility.”

She plucked at the blanket. A patchwork quilt, she could now see in the dim light. “It’s a bit like dragon fire. I mean, I think of my power like a tank that I use up, so I knew I didn’t have an unlimited supply. Unfortunately, it turns out my powers cutting out on me is a lot like the way alcohol affects me. I skip the getting-drunk feeling and go straight from nicely buzzed to puking. I honestly didn’t know I was that drained until