book title
In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Prince Tevra by
his own family, Najlah and Barkus are assigned to his protection.
While playing bodyguard to a measly human is far beneath Najlah's
lethal skills, he can't deny he's intrigued by the man whose blood is
now sunk into his very bones, a man who proves to have magic
literally carved into his skin.00
Rather than back down in the face of failure, Prince Tevra's family
only turns more ruthless, willing to pay any price to obtain the war
and bloodshed they're so desperately seeking. But they didn't count
on facing a dragon born in a volcano, a wolf forged in snow and ice,
or Tevra himself, who has plenty to say about the family who ordered
him stabbed to death in his own bed.
Royal Fire
Heart of Fire 2
By Megan Derr
Published by Megan Derr
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for
the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Samantha M. Derr
Cover designed by Maria Christine Pagtalunan
Artscandare Book Cover Design
This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and
incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition November 2022
Copyright © 2022 by Megan Derr
Printed in the United States of America
ROYAL FIRE
HEART OF FIRE 2
MEGAN DERR
He's too vulnerable in his current rooms. Even if they were
intending to move Prince Tevra to new quarters, well away from the
ones where he'd nearly been stabbed to death in his bed, the
security in the palace was abysmal. The way Their Majesties and his
brother had nearly been assassinated—Their Majesties twice now in
a matter of days—said that plainly enough. If he was the royal guard,
he'd resign in shame and humiliation at how bad he was at his job.
Thankfully for everyone, Najlah was not bad at his job, and he
would protect Tevra at all costs, just as he'd been ordered.
First, though, Tevra needed to be moved somewhere far
safer. As safe as the stupid palace got, anyway, with all its open
walkways and countless doors and absurdly large windows that were
always open or easily broken.
Barkus cast him an amused look. "Somehow I'm not surprised
that's the conclusion you've reached."
What is that supposed to mean?
Barkus only laughed, and his thoughts were not remotely
helpful, kept cagey and elusive.
Najlah had the distinct feeling he was missing something, and
he didn't remotely like it. He growled and hissed, shifted restlessly in
his flames. If you're just going to be annoying, go away.
I'm saying you like him, or at least find him intriguing. Of
course you'd want him close. It's the way you are. Not so different
than a wolf.
No, not so different than a wolf. If he'd learned anything, it
was that for all Tahjili were fire and Lukos were ice, they had a great
deal in common.
Najlah slithered out of the flames, shaking off ash and
embers, and crawled across the room to where Barkus was
sprawled out on a low, wide settee reading a book—one of the very,
very few that existed about Tahjil and got nearly everything right.
"Do you really go swimming in lava? I can't imagine it, rock so
hot it melts into essentially liquid fire."
Eyes swirling green with amusement, Najlah rumbled and
replied, No, we don't swim in it. Lava is too thick for that. It would be
like swimming in that sticky stuff you dump on your breakfast cakes
but worse. Usually we simply run across it. Some of the horned
brutes have fallen into it a few times, but unless it's shallow and they
can quickly climb out again, it's likely to kill them. Even we have
limits.
"What's the hottest you can tolerate?"
It doesn't get any hotter than crawling into a volcano and
running across lava. Even other dragons can't do that; it's exclusive
to the black scales, we who live in and around the volcanoes. How
much cold can you tolerate?
"I can swim in freezing water for several minutes as a wolf. So
I guess the opposite of your lava, after a fashion."
Najlah growled and rose up enough to lick him—face, neck,
the bit of chest bared by the shirt Barkus hadn't bothered to lace
properly yet. His eyes swirled from green to red, and in short order
he had Barkus bent over the back of the settee gasping and panting,
begging for more with every hard thrust. Najlah obeyed, leaving
marks with tooth and claws, snarling and growling as his own climax
took him.
When they were finished, he sprawled out on the floor, leaving
Barkus to the settee.
Far, far in the back of his thoughts, he could feel the
amusement of the other wolves living in the palace.
He could also smell his brother, likely coming to pester him
about something, even though he'd already said Najlah's official
protection duties would begin in the morning. At the moment, there
were so many healers and guards with Tevra, Najlah wasn't really
needed.
Growling, he went and dumped himself in the bath, scrubbing
off quickly and climbing out right as Ajith arrived, eyes swirling with
smug amusement like always. "I might have known you'd be lying
about like the useless spotted lizard you are."
"Stop being annoying and tell me what you want."
"Your charge is inviting the two of you to dinner. He was about
to send a servant, but I was coming this way anyway and said I'd do
it."
"Since when do you come here to do anything but bother
me?”
"I'm heading for the frost gardens to pick berries. This way
takes a little longer, but it's usually quieter."
"How adorable, the brute is fetching treats for his bitch."
Ajith bared his teeth. "Mock me all you like. Pretty soon you'll
be bringing a human treats."
"Never."
Ajith's eyes were brilliant green with hints of turquoise, a soft
rumble in his chest further proclaiming his amusement. "I'm going to
enjoy being right."
Najlah made a note to take him down a notch later. Horned
brutes were impossible, especially when their bitches were
expecting, like they had anything to do with the matter past some
rutting. He growled, claws twitching, but refrained. This was not the
time nor place to knock some of the smugness out of his brother.
"Speaking of His Highness, he is not safe enough where he is."
"That's why you'll be there."
"No. I want him moved here, to my hall. It's quiet, as you said,
and he can't remain in the place where he was already attacked
once."
Barkus's amusement rolled throu
gh his mind as he finished
his own bath and climbed out to get dressed. As delightful as he
looked, though, more fucking would have to wait.
Ajith snorted, but he looked even more amused than Barkus.
"Trying to build your own den, little hornless?"
Najlah snarled, flexing his claws. "I will turn you into food for
starving kits, you worthless bag of bones and meat. Cease with your
mockery. Go away if you have nothing useful left to say."
Ajith's eyes just swirled a brighter green than ever, with
touches of turquoise for fondness. "I'm going, I'm going. I'll pass on
your request about His Highness. Shall I tell him you'll join him for
dinner as well?"
"Of course."
"See you later, then."
Ajith departed, leaving Najlah cranky and confused. "Why
does it feel like everyone knows something I don't?"
"You're intrigued by Tevra, at least as intrigued as you were
by me when we met. Not something anyone expected, given he's
entirely human."
Najlah started to deny that, because honestly, it was such a
stupid accusation. He didn't care about weak, stupid humans who
snapped and crunched as easily as firebirds.
That being said, Tevra had some hornless brute toothiness to
him, and Najlah could not ignore that.
Fine, he groused, as Barkus's laughter filled his mind. Wait,
when is this dinner we're going to? That obnoxious fool I call brother
didn't specify.
"I'll send someone to figure it out," Barkus replied, and Najlah
could feel it as he sent a request to one of the other wolves, who
replied happily, clearly pleased to have something to do. "What shall
we do for now?"
"The grounds. I want to explore them, for all it requires going
out in the stupid snow."
Barkus grinned and shifted, and moments later they were
headed outside, into the wretched cold, kept warm and safe by the
warmth of the pack bond.
The snow was exactly as miserable as he'd known it would
be, but anything was better than the way he and Barkus had gotten
trapped in freezing cold caves for days, with no idea where exactly
they were or when they'd find their way out.
He growled crankily as they prowled the castle lands. Well,
the immediate lands, anyway. The palace was on hundreds of acres,
and included farms, forests, orchards, and more. It was practically a
city, even though the royal city was only minutes away by horse or
carriage, and even fewer minutes by dragon. Especially for his
showoff brother with wings almost as big as his ego.
You're in a mood, Barkus said with an amused chuff. Didn't
work out all that energy in the bedroom?
I'm not rutting in the snow, so get that thought right out of your
head.
Barkus just lolled his tongue and let the thoughts remain, an
idle, delightful distraction from all the cold, wet misery around them.
It's nice out here. Not as cold as the mountains, and still a long way
from summer and its wretched heat.
Heat? You think your summers are hot?
Not all of us live in lands of fire, demon.
Najlah hissed and flicked out his forked tongue at that. It
would always be equal parts amusing and aggravating that people
looked at him and thought demon long before dragon. Even though
demons were silly human nonsense and dragons very real.
He froze as he caught the barest hint of an out of place scent.
Beside him, Barkus growled as he caught it too. Najlah growled
inquisitively.
It's called stardust, or at least that's what we call it on the
Shide. Made from night-blooming star flowers, it's used for all kinds
of things. Smoked in mild doses, it can leave you feeling a little bit
like being drunk. In higher concentrations it can be used to knock
people out or dope them enough to be manipulated. It can also be
used as a poison, though that requires adding other components. On
its own you'd have to take more than anyone could ingest in a single
sitting. Barkus growled thoughtfully. It's fairly common on the Shide,
and on the other side of the mountain, but not down here.
Najlah flicked his tongue out to taste it again, get a better
sense of it so he'd remember it in the future. Strange thing to be in
the middle of a field of snow and ice.
His mind filled with images of people smoking cigarettes,
carelessly tossing the remains to the ground.
Growling again, tongue flicking over and over as he tried to
lock onto the scent, Najlah prowled around on the hunt.
He found it a few minutes later, a small burnt end that had
melted through some snow and then been covered up again by the
wind. He snapped it up, absorbing every scent and flavor it offered.
Disgusting. But there was enough of the human who'd smoked it for
Najlah to recognize the bastard when he found him.
I can't believe you just ate that thing.
I've eaten far worse by choice. Like lava beetles, for one.
Their shells were notoriously hard to crunch through and the meat
had a horribly bitter taste when you did finally manage it. Najlah liked
them anyway. Especially combined with firebirds, which were on the
sweeter end of things. He growled and flicked his tongue out. Your
ass, for two.
Ha, ha, ha. Barkus lunged close and nipped his back leg,
eliciting a growl and brief tussle before they got back to work.
Najlah was considering whether or not to go into the city when
an unmistakable roar rolled through the air, his brother ordering him
to get his tail back home now. Ugh. What did he want this time? It
wasn't time for the dinner, was it?
Not quite. We've got just under an hour, and I know it doesn't
take you that long to dress. You barely get dressed at all.
You try wearing all those stupid clothes with all their stupid
layers when you look like me.
Barkus snorted. Your brother manages it, and he has wings.
Horned brutes are admired for their obedience, not their
intelligence. Najlah preened at the laughter that got him. I suppose I
should see what he wants. He set his feet and roared a reply. He
wasn't nearly as loud, but Ajith would hear him anyway.
Then it was back through the snow they trudged, to the
service courtyard where deliveries were made all day, every day:
foodstuffs, furniture, candles and other day to day miscellany… it
was probably one of the busiest places in the whole palace, always
on the edge of devolving into chaos. Najlah loved it, especially when
he could easily steal from the meat deliveries. When it was fresh and
unmarred by things like spices and cooking and still carried a hint of
the blood that had been recently drained from it.
Sometimes I think you'd enjoy me more as dinner than as
lover.
Lovers are burned, not eaten. Only enemies are eaten. I'm
rude, not disrespectful. Najlah turned to flick his tongue out, eyes
swirling a brilliant red-orange.
You're both.
Najlah didn't reply, but his eyes shifted to the green of
amus
ement, and Barkus's pleasure rolled through the bond.
As they stepped inside, sadly without contraband snacks,
Ajith was waiting for them in the main hallway. "It's about time you
showed up."
"When will it be time for you to stop nagging me?"
"When you stop being a brat."
Najlah hissed. "Why were you bellowing?"
"We found bodies. Come and take a look at them."
Najlah hissed again, but this time it was all menace, none of
the affection and amusement he used with his brother and Barkus.
Bodies? Of who? They'd killed or imprisoned all the assassins, and
surely if they'd killed someone before they'd tried for Tevra and Their
Majesties, the bodies would have been found long before now.
Ajith huffed impatiently when he asked. "If we knew, I'd have
told you. Now come on and take a look for yourself, see what you
see. We'll go from there."
"Fine." Growling his dissatisfaction at the way the pile of
questions continued to grow, while the pile of answers remained all
but barren, Najlah and Barkus followed Ajith through the palace to
the dungeons and catacombs below.
The room they stopped in smelled of death and astringent
cleaners that burned Najlah's nose and stung his eyes. He growled.
Why did they keep the dead piled up this way? It was unhealthy,
dangerous.
Looks like they're all victims of suspicious deaths and
examined thoroughly for clues before being sent off for proper burial.
Back home, bodies were burned in some places, in others left
for the elements and carrion feeders to attend to. Here, they were
buried in the ground to return to the earth, often with a tree or some
other plant to commemorate.
"This way," Ajith said, and led him down the long, grisly room
to the very end, where three bodies were set on high, narrow tables
of the sort butchers used. Fitting.
"I don't smell blood from open wounds. How did they die?"
An imperious woman dressed in the livery of the guard, but
with an apron covered in blood and other fluids over it, stepped
forward. "If you're wondering about the cause of death, we don't
know. There's no signs of… well, anything on the bodies. It's like
they were fine one moment and fell over dead the next."
Magic, Barkus said. That reeks of Gormestian magic. Hang
on. He shifted, shook himself, and said, "That sounds like
Gormestian magic. I've never seen it, but I've heard of it. They can
put symbols on people that are basically a death curse. They