Free Return to Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart Page B

sandalwood?
    His voice husked with a deep-throated, rumbling
purr. “I must admit surprise that you loved the last Shadow sent to kill you.
Did you know that your love disrupted years of planning? Yet love him you did,
and even more shocking, he died to save you when he should have buried his
white assassin’s blade in your heart.”
    Sorrow pierced through her. She tried to
stifle the gasp of pain, but he heard. Averting his face, he whispered, “I
actually began to consider…dare I say hope…that you might…love me again, too.”
    Such yearning filled his voice. Another
memory, this one as ancient as the curse upon this land, flashed through her
mind.
    She
held him clutched to her breast, wings beating the air, but she couldn’t stop
their tumbling spiral from the sky. Down, down, they fell toward their doom.
    He
whispered, “ Release me. Save yourself.”
    “Never,
my love.”
    A tear trickled down her cheek. Holding
his breath, he reverently licked the fluid from her scales. She lowered her
head and rubbed along his cheek and down his long neck. “What happened to us?”
    “Love happened to us. Great love turned
to hatred and jealousy.” The black dragon hissed bitterly. “ He never wanted you to love anyone but
him.”
    She snorted, shaking her head. “Not my
Khul. He’s never been jealous.”
    “I don’t speak of your horse king, but
of your Fire, your Red. He won’t like me at all, brightheart. He never does.
Perhaps I should save us both the trouble and simply kill you now.”
    She bit him gently, gripping his
vulnerable throat in her jaws. “You are welcome to try.”
    He rumbled with pleasure, but raked his
claws up her flank to the vulnerable spot beneath her foreleg. A well-placed
spear planted there would find its way to her heart. “I could kill you now.”
    “But you won’t,” she whispered, staring
down into his liquid ink eyes.
    “I suppose not.” He breathed out a long,
drawn-out breath and licked his jaws. “But it’s been so very long since I
tasted your blood. Your scent…torments me. It’s never been safe for us to be
together.”
    Before she could answer, he flipped her
over so hard the stars blurred and the ground shook. Talons dug into her, one
clawed foot at her throat, one of his rear feet planted on her abdomen. In a
heartbeat, he could eviscerate her or rip out her throat. Her breathing
quickened at the thought, but she didn’t fight him. There was no need.
    All she had to do was let her heart
glow, a symbol of her love.
    Releasing a chuckling hiss of pain, he
withdrew. Shadows enfolded him, his wings slithering along the ground in a dry
rustle. At the edge of her glowing nimbus, he paused. “The coming darkness is
not my doing. Even I would spare you that pain.”
    Dread tightened her chest. She scrambled
to her feet. “What do you mean?”
    His voice echoed in the distance. “Your
own Most Beloved Red calls him home to the Clouds. I take no part in this sorrow.”
    “Who?” Her heart hammered so loudly she
barely heard the flap of his wings. He didn’t answer, but she knew. Screaming,
she leaped into the air. “Rhaekhar!”
    Streaking through the night as a shining
white dragon, she knew exactly where to go. The Tenth Camp nestled in the green
cradle atop Vulkar’s Mountain. Horses whinnied in terror and galloped from her
approach. Ignoring them, she landed beside the strange tree that had become
their meeting place.
    “Gregar!”
    Waiting for the Shadowed Blood who’d
died to keep her safe, she stared at the tree he’d called the kae'sangral .
Something was wrong with it. Red leaves fluttered one by one to the ground,
plopping like drops of blood, while the black leaves shriveled in her shining
light. She took a step closer, and brittle leaves crunched beneath her claws.
    Not leaves, beads. Red beads, the sign
of a Death Rider’s honor, a mark executed in Vulkar’s name.
    Fury and fear pulsed within her, a
spreading lake of darkness. She raked the