Mentored in Fire by K.F. Breene

Sixteen

“We got dragons.”Penny pointed at the sky from within her bush, just at the edges of a large weeping willow in one of the rest spots. She didn’t necessarily need to be in a bush, but just in case her invisibility spell wasn’t working, she wanted to take extra precautions. That spell worked for almost every type of demon, except for the crazy-powerful ones, and neither she nor Emery could figure out why. It would take Reagan to patch the hole.

They’d left the demon sex club, thankfully, after staying for nearly a week and having way too much dirty sex in too many positions. They’d even done it in public a few times! She’d given herself to Emery, over and over, completely sober. Drunk on ecstasy. On his body. On the forwardness of the place and the beings in it. It had been sexy and dirty and taboo and fun and oh my God what would her mother say…

The number of times they’d gone at it with Darius in the room…

She shuddered, feeling her face redden. Darius hadn’t seemed to notice, and obviously vampires did that kind of stuff around each other all the time, but still…she was mortified if she thought about it for too long.

The drink must’ve had lasting effects. That was what she was blaming it on, anyway. Certainly not the allure of getting the green light to let it all hang out…

“There’s three…” Penny squinted into the azure sky, the colors changing depending on the area. It was like always living in a painting. “And two are bigger than I’ve seen yet. They must be important.”

Emery scooted to the edges of the tree line and looked up.

Darius didn’t move, crouched near the base of the tree, thinking. He was going over every possible route to the next sect, a violence one. Back when the whole place wasn’t looking for them, they’d planned on taking a fairly straightforward route. That option was no longer afforded to them. Darius’s demon guide had met them at the lust sect and point-blank told them there was nothing it could do. Their cover had thoroughly been blown with the stunt at the entrance, and Lucifer’s minions were turning every sect inside out, starting with the more political ones, trying to find them. It had given Darius’s spells back and walked away.

Darius wasn’t giving up, though. He’d chosen to target a sect that wanted more magical leverage in the Underworld. Right now they weren’t political, so they would be among the last searched (Penny still didn’t understand that bit), but they could be politically incentivized, or so Darius claimed. He had a plan laid out to get them refuge for a few days while he worked out how to get into the inner kingdom, and then what to do once they got in.

They just had to get to the violence sect he’d chosen. At present, he was thinking it would be two or three days.

The good—or weird—news was that they weren’t the only ones that Lucifer was tearing the Underworld apart looking for. A group of vampires had apparently snuck in while the fog was down. Vlad, almost certainly, and surprise, surprise, he hadn’t been caught either. Two masters at strategy, but what was Vlad’s game?

Undermining Lucifer, probably. Laying the groundwork for when the elves were defeated.

“That’s not the same patrol,” Emery whispered, pulling back. His shoulders tensed as he retreated a bit more. His voice dropped and took on a hard edge. “You’ll want to have a look, Darius.”

Goosebumps spread across Penny’s skin, and she shrank down farther into her bush. It was highly uncomfortable, but better that than to suffer whatever horrors Lucifer had in store for them. Darius’s contact had said that the Great Master intended to make a public spectacle of them.

Three dragons rode overhead. The two big ones were much bigger than the typical patrol dragons, so large they nearly blotted out the sky. One had glittering black scales and the other was a metallic blue-gray, both regal in their carriage, as if they knew their riders were important people. Behind them soared a smaller pastel-pink dragon, like a little duckling. The way they lazily soared, the big ones hardly flapping their great, veined wings and the smaller one keeping pace a respectable distance back, it didn’t look like they were in any sort of hurry. Actually, it looked more like a joy ride.

Her throat lodged in her chest and magic coalesced around her.

“Penny,” Emery said in warning.

A human face came over the shoulder of the majestic blue-gray dragon, and Penny thought she might be sick. A familiar face, flying low enough that Penny was positive it was Reagan. It had to be. They hadn’t seen anyone even remotely matching her description the entire time they’d been down here. Even the ones who tried to look human often failed in some way.

All the breath left her lungs. Tears of relief filled her eyes. Reagan was okay. She was safe, as long as she held on to that great beast. She was riding a dragon!

“I can’t figure out if I am incredibly jealous or incredibly relieved.” She wiped her face, shaking the bush. Reagan’s face disappeared, and then the underside of the dragon passed over them, metallic purple and really super pretty. The pink one came next, but no one looked over the side. Penny hoped it was Cahal, looking out for Reagan, being her support system and making sure she kept her head.

As the dragons continued on, Penny could just make out the back of the black-haired man atop the black dragon. Her gaze lingered on him for just a moment before returning to Reagan. Her pose was easy and effortless, her hands braced on her legs or hips as she checked out the landscape below. For all the world, she looked just as regal as the dragons. As the man beside her. Like she was checking out her kingdom.

The wide shoulders of the human-looking man behind her had to belong to Cahal, sure as rain. His pose was somewhat awkward, as though he wasn’t quite comfortable. As though he wasn’t having the time of his life even though he was riding on a mother-dunking dragon.

Was Penny projecting all of this? This seemed crazy. Reagan out for a joy ride, calm and pliant, even though she was basically a prisoner down here? Cahal troubled and tense, even though he was with her? That guy was never troubled. He just minded his business and waited for any unpleasantness to go away.

She had to be projecting.

Darius was at the edge of the trees now, watching them go. Penny turned to him with the question on her lips, asking what he saw with his superior vision.

She felt the blood drain from her face.

Pain flared in the vampire’s eyes as his expression melted into one of obvious fear.

Her heart beat faster. “What is it?” she asked.

“We gotta go.” Emery quickly stuffed his things into his backpack. They’d intended to stay here awhile, since rest stops had rules. Mind your business. No fighting. No canoodling. Demons went out of their way not to notice other demons. With the various types of sects, it was a necessary rule to keep the peace.

“Why?” Penny asked, needing an explanation for the sudden lead weighing down her gut. Her temperamental third eye throbbed with danger. “What’s the matter?”

“That was Lucifer, right?” Emery asked Darius.

“Yes,” Darius replied, staring after them. He pulled back, his eyes downcast, worry etched in every line on his face. “He is showing her the empire, and he trusts her enough to allow her and her…helper to ride dragons, without any kind of additional escort. He trusts that she is not a flight risk. Cahal’s body language suggested that he disapproves of the situation. He’s lost ground. His opinion no longer matters to her, or Lucifer wouldn’t let him be there at all.”

Penny crawled out of the bush and into the canopy beneath the tree, a little too exposed for her taste, but they were leaving anyway. She packed up her backpack.

“Okay,” she said, uncomfortable pressure on her chest, “but Reagan is just pretending. Of course she is. She knows the timeline. Never bullshit a bullshitter.” Tears clouded her vision. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “She always says that. Remember, Emery? In the Flush? She’d know how to get one over on anyone. Even Lucifer. She’s a survivor. She respects Cahal. She would never hurt him.”

“No, but she would push him away, maybe tell him to get us to safety.” Darius’s face transformed back to its usual granite, empty of emotion. He was locking all the fear inside. “She isn’t lost yet. He is still with her. As long as he is still with her, there’s hope. We have precious little time.”

Penny stood, ready to go, feeling the urgency even as her brain recoiled. “I can’t believe it.” Anger flash-boiled her blood. “I won’t believe it. She would never give up her freedom to stay down here. She only did it on the island because she loves Darius, and that we all knew that wasn’t going to last forever.”

“It doesn’t look like she is giving up her freedom,” Emery said softly, directing Penny after Darius.

“No. Lucifer is allowing her a nice, long leash.” Darius started out of the rest area at a quick pace. “So long that it probably doesn’t feel like a leash at all. He’ll have spies everywhere, posed as assistants. As friends. He is winning. We must hurry if we want even the slimmest of chance to…take her back.”

The question rose in Penny’s mind even though she would have preferred to keep it trapped in her subconscious.

What if Reagan didn’t want to be taken away? What if she was truly happy down here, with her remaining parent and a royal family line? She was a princess. She probably had a huge house and unimaginable riches. She wouldn’t need Darius’s money. Darius’s people. She’d have her own. Should they really ask her to trade all of that if she didn’t want to? Could they?