Ensnared (Sea Dragons of Amber Bay Book 2) Read online

  “But—” I think frantically. “I don’t even know if that’s possible! How would you bring tourists in?”

  The poor people wouldn’t even be able to find the village, let alone step inside.

  “It can be done,” he says. “There’s a village in Norway with this kind of protection. It was created so people can pass through it in the company of anyone who lives inside it.”

  I sit back, unnerved. It would be a massive piece of magic, a working so complex, I’d never even heard of anything on that scale. If a witch really completed such a spell, she’d have been famous among our kind.

  “Well, do you know who created the protection?” I ask. “If she can talk me through it, tell me how she did it, I might…”

  But Aiden is shaking his head. “The witch is dead.”

  Oh. “Did the spell kill her?”

  It’s a possibility. Most witches aren’t powerful—or stupid—enough to create spells of such magnitude, but you hear horror stories. Of conjurings gone wrong. Of witches getting depleted from their lack of knowledge.

  “No,” he replies.

  And that’s all I’m getting from him. I sigh. Great. I have no idea how this will work, but I want to try. If it’s been done before, it can be done again. Still, there’s one question I need to ask.

  “Why does this village need that kind of protection?” I spread my arms, confused. “You’re already living in the middle of nowhere. It’s as remote as you can possibly get without moving to the moon.”

  He shrugs. “It’s complicated.”

  Gods, he’s annoying.

  Then it hits me. My hands fly to my mouth. I finally know what’s going on.

  “You’re criminals,” I mumble.

  It’s the only explanation. But where does that leave me?

  Aiden’s eyebrows snap down. “What?”

  “You’re criminals,” I repeat. “Oh my gods, I’ve heard of this type of place. You come here to lie low and escape the law.”

  I have no idea what to do. They brought me here—I’ve seen their fucking faces. I’d be able to identify them in a police lineup, no problem. So when he says I’m not going anywhere, does he really mean…?

  Aiden is silent. He doesn’t deny it immediately, which just proves that I’m right. He’s staring at me with disbelief etched on his face.

  Yeah, that’s right, I figured you out.

  I get up and inch away from him. We’re in the kitchen, so I could get a knife from the drawer… I curse myself for being such a useless witch—if I was better, I could shoot a fireball at him and fry him on the spot.

  “Skye,” he growls. “Calm down.”

  I reach behind me and find a drawer handle. Slowly, so slowly, I pull it open without looking down, and reach inside. My fingers find cold metal… It’s a fork. Frustrated, I glance down and rummage around for something useful.

  Aiden gets up and closes in on me. I yelp and grab a random item, flinging it at him. He ducks, and the butter knife misses him by a foot.

  “Skye!”

  His voice is a command, and some rational part of me wants to obey, but my lizard brain is freaking the fuck out. I snatch another object and swing back my arm to throw it at him, but he’s right in front of me and captures me by the wrist to stop me.

  I squeak. Then knee him in the balls.

  It’s an instinctual reaction to having a stronger, larger man in my personal space. Aiden groans and doubles over, letting me go. I scramble across the room and brandish my weapon at him.

  The wooden spoon trembles from how hard I’m shaking. “Stay away from me!”

  Princess Penny wakes up and lets out several angry barks. I tell her to heel—I have no idea what Aiden will do. I fumble for the doorknob behind me because I don’t want to turn my back on him.

  Aiden straightens, braced on the kitchen counter, and lifts a hand. “Will you please stop freaking out? We’re not fucking criminals. Fuck.”

  The last word is a groan, and he breathes through his nose, his eyes screwed shut. Some of my panic ebbs away. I lower the wooden spoon, which is a ridiculous weapon in any case.

  “You’re not?” I ask, my voice small.

  He shakes his head.

  “Oh.” But still… “Isn’t that what a criminal would say?”

  He drags himself over to a chair and collapses on it. Then he looks at me, and I suddenly realize he’s tired. The bruises on his face are so stark, that’s all I noticed at first, but he’s exhausted. Had he stayed up all night with Jack?

  “Do you really think that?” he asks, his voice low. “Did anyone do anything to give you that impression?”

  I open my mouth and close it again. Then I shake my head just a tiny bit.

  “We value privacy above all,” he continues. “Is that so hard to understand? I know everyone wants to be on Instagram and whatever, but is it really so unbelievable that some people just prefer the solitude?”

  “No,” I admit. Heat spreads from my neck to my face. “No, I get that.”

  Wow, I’m an idiot. I just kneed an innocent man in the balls and called him a criminal, when all he wants is not to be on social media all day. I mean, living out here in Alaska is pretty extreme, and I’m still not sure why they need that grade of protection, but he’s right. I haven’t felt uncomfortable here at all. In fact, with my police record, I’m probably the worst criminal of the lot.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

  He grimaces. “That was a good move back there.”

  I pick up the butter knife and return it to the drawer along with the wooden spoon. Then I take the chair opposite Aiden’s and sink into it. Princess Penny trots to me, and I pick her up, needing comfort right now. She sniffs at the outdoor gear still piled on the table between us, then curls up in my lap.

  I lean forward and catch Aiden’s gaze. “I’m really, really sorry for…” I wave in the direction of his crotch. “You know.”

  The corner of his mouth ticks up. “I’ll live.”

  With a sigh, I reach forward and gather the papers scattered on the table. Then I rummage through my backpack to find a pen. If he can remain calm after I attacked him for no reason, I can act like a professional and figure out how to best help Aiden and this entire village of really nice people.

  I initial all the pages of the contract and scrawl my signature on the dotted line.

  Four

  Jack

  I wake up to find pale light streaming through the window. The sky outside is overcast, so I have no idea what time it is. My mouth tastes terrible, and my eyes are grainy with sleep. I stir, trying to remember what I have to do today. Then I realize I’m not alone in bed.

  Fully dressed and lying on his stomach, Ty breathes softly in his sleep. The pillow half conceals his face, and his black hair is disheveled. I peer down at him, at his short black eyelashes and lips that are softly parted, and feel a stirring in my mind.

  What happened yesterday? I don’t remember Ty crashing in my room… Despite my fuzzy head, I don’t think I’m hungover. Besides, it would take a whole vat of bourbon to get hammered enough to pass out like that. Sea dragons aren’t exactly immune to alcohol, but normal quantities don’t—

  A flash of memory slaps me in the face.

  Ty, naked on the beach, his body pressing mine against cold rock.

  My body heats up, and I shake my head to clear it. Wow. So did that really happen or did I have some fantastically realistic dreams?

  My dick stirs and alerts me to how badly I need to use the toilet. I ease myself from bed and shuffle to the bathroom. I’m only wearing my boxers, but it’s warm in the room, which is why I don’t bother with clothes. My balance is wonky, so I put out a hand to trail it on the wall. This isn’t like me. I don’t remember the last time I had the flu, but maybe I’m coming down with something. It’s rare, but it could happen.

  I use the toilet and brush my teeth, then splash cold water on my face. By the time I return to the room, I’m feeling halfw
ay awake. That’s certainly an improvement. My stomach growls with hunger. Maybe I could make Ty breakfast for a change. He’s always feeding everyone, and if he’s so tired he crashed in my bed, still clothed, he clearly needs a break.

  I find him sitting up in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “You’re awake!”

  With a lunge, he hugs me, and I lose my balance from his weight slamming into me. We stumble back, and I crack my head on the wall.

  “Ow.”

  Ty releases me instantly. “Oh, shit, sorry. Here.” He pulls my hand and leads me back to bed. “You shouldn’t be up. Why didn’t you wake me? You could have fallen in the bathroom.”

  “Uh.” I sit, but I’m getting more and more confused. “Relax, I’m fine.” My stomach rumbles again, and I put a hand over it. “Hungry, though. Do you think we have any of those sausages left?”

  He stares at me, then sits heavily beside me and buries his face in his hands. His shoulders shake, his entire body trembling.

  “Ty?”

  I place a tentative hand on his shoulder, and he sort of leans in, collapsing against me with all his weight. I put my arms around him and hold him tight, alarm surging through me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He’s laughing, I realize a moment later. Laughing so hard, tears are streaming down his cheeks.

  “Sausages,” he gasps.

  I shake him a little because I’m pretty sure he’s in shock. I’ve never seen him act like that. “What’s going on?”

  “You nearly died, and now you want sausages?” He instantly sobers up, his laughter cutting off, and stares into my face. “Are you serious?”

  I gape at him. “What?”

  He grabs my face between his palms and brings his forehead to mine. “I was so fucking worried.”

  I take his hands and gently lower them to my lap. I don’t let go, though, and this newfound intimacy leaves a warm glow in my chest. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “Do you know what day it is?” Before I can answer, he continues, “You’ve been out for almost three days, Jack. Unresponsive. Out cold. If you hadn’t woken up today, we’d have had to put you on an IV, or you’d have dehydrated.”

  “What?”

  He heaves a sigh. “You don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “Skye? What we did on the beach? With the full moon and all?”

  As soon as he says the words, another puzzle piece is loosened from the fog in my head. Skye, sitting on the beach, a fire burning beside her. She looked like a goddess in the moonlight, and we fell on her like hungry beasts.

  “Oh yeah, that was hot.” I grin at him. “Where is she? We could have a repeat of that. Just, you know, in a bed, maybe.”

  There’s a part of me that wants to go find her, breakfast be damned. But I still don’t understand what he’s saying about the IV and the three days, so I stay put.

  Ty’s expression darkens. My smile fades, because this isn’t the face of a happy man who’d just had the hottest sex of his life.

  “Talk to me, man. Is Skye okay? Did anything happen to her?”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. She’s a witch.”

  Holy fuck. My hackles rise, and a deep instinct of fear flares inside my gut. Witches exist, we all know that, but they’re a distant threat we don’t talk about a lot. As kids, parents threatened that a witch would come for us if we didn’t make our beds or eat our roe or whatever, but I’d never heard of anyone actually meeting a real-life witch.

  “Nah,” I say. “She can’t be.”

  He doesn’t crack a smile, though. “You climaxed, and she erupted in flames. Then you passed out for three days. We couldn’t wake you. She did something to you. Sucked up your energy or whatever the fuck witches do.”

  I search for signs that this is just a bad joke. Maybe he’s filming me, and Maya will jump from behind the door any second now, yelling, ‘Ha, got you, sucker!’ It’s exactly what my sister would do to make fun of me. But she doesn’t. And Ty’s not smiling, either.

  “Flames?” I repeat dumbly, because that’s what my brain snags on.

  “Yeah. They were white and huge.”

  Crazy. This is completely and absolutely crazy.

  “But…she’s Skye,” I try to explain helplessly. “She’s a computer programmer.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he says. “Aiden knew she was a witch before inviting her here.”

  “He what?”

  Ty gets up and strides to the door. He throws it open and bellows down the corridor, “Aiden? Jack woke up. Get your ass up here.” He turns to me and adds, “He can explain himself.”

  Fat raindrops pelt down on the roof above my room. Fall has come, and the first freeze is coming up fast. I wonder whether Skye is ready for the Alaskan winter. Then running footsteps announce our friend’s arrival. A moment later, I’m enveloped in a tight hug, and Aiden exhales against my neck.

  “Oh gods, I’m happy to see you awake.”

  I pat his back, and he releases me. I laugh nervously. “I’m fine.”

  Aiden’s face is mottled with bruises, and I squint, searching my broken memory to work out where his injuries came from.

  “How are you feeling?” he asks.

  “I’m fine. But Ty told me about Skye. That she’s…”

  “A witch, yeah.”

  Aiden blows out a breath and sits beside me. Ty, who is now leaning on the wall opposite the bed, gives me a look that says, ‘Told you.’

  I focus on Aiden instead. “Want to tell me what happened?”

  He clasps his hands and leans his elbows on his knees. “She’s really a witch. And I invited her here so she could put up a protection barrier like the kind the Norwegian clan has around their island.” His foot taps on the floor, a nervous gesture that’s his tell. “I didn’t think she’d be this…complicated.”

  I process that for a minute. “So you mean you let us both get involved with her without telling us what she is?”

  It’s hard to wrap my head around this. I knew Aiden was hiding secrets, but not something of this magnitude. If the villagers found out…

  “Wait, is she safe?” I ask. Then a horrible thought occurs to me. “She’s still here, right? You didn’t—?”

  He scowls at me. “Didn’t what, exactly?”

  I don’t want to finish that thought. But if a witch was seen as a threat to the clan, most sea dragons would vote for a swift and quiet execution. My stomach roils at the thought, and I’m no longer hungry. If anything happened to her…

  “She’s okay, right?”

  Ty lets out a disgusted snort. “Yeah. She’s okay. She’s still here, too.”

  I turn to him. “What’s your problem?”

  “She lied to us. So did he.” Ty nods at Aiden.

  “Fuck.” This is a mess.

  “She’s our employee now,” Aiden says. “There’s a lot of work to be done if we want to make sure the clan is safe from humans and witches alike. I don’t want some careless tourist to fly his drone into the village or whatever and I need to know that everyone is protected from the witches. It’s only a matter of time before someone sniffs out that we still exist.”

  “And you thought the best way to do that was bring a witch into our clan?” Ty scoffs.

  It’s a fair question.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” I ask.

  “I wanted to keep her safe. I thought the two of you would react like most dragons would. I guess I was right.” Aiden glowers at Ty.

  My best friend grunts and storms out of the room. I can’t go after him, not until I know what Aiden plans to do with Skye.

  I glance at his profile. “What’s going to happen now?”

  “Skye has signed the contract,” he says, his face tight with tension.

  I wonder what happened during that conversation to put that grimace on his face.

  “How did she take the news that we were dragons?” I ask.

  It’s what’s been eating at me f
or weeks now. Lying to her has been terrible, and I can’t say I’m sorry that our secrets are out in the open now. Am I happy that she’s a witch? Not particularly. But maybe it’s better that she’s not human—at least she understands what it means to hide in plain sight, to live among humans and be forced to pretend. Now, there will be no pretense left.

  I notice then that Aiden has fallen silent. “Aiden?”

  He doesn’t respond.

  “Oh shit,” I groan. “You haven’t told her?”

  He shakes his head.

  “But why? If anyone understands the need for secrecy, it’s witches. They’ve been living in hiding for centuries. They know exactly what will happen if humans find out about us.”

  “Don’t be a fool. You know perfectly well why witches can’t find out about us. I can’t risk her mentioning us to her sister or grandmother.”

  “But she’s estranged from her entire family!”

  I blurt the words, then think about it. Did she make that part up?

  I hate that I’m now questioning everything she ever told me because of this single bit of new information about her.

  “Family ties might win if her coven members decide they forgive her,” Aiden insists. “We can’t tell her. The entire clan is at stake. The entire dragonkind.”

  Fuck me, he’s right. There’s more than just our clan to think about. The Norwegians were nearly decimated during World War II, and the witches then led attacks against German and Welsh dragons as well. The Chinese clans had been in hiding for even longer, so no one knows exactly how many sea dragons still exist in the world.

  But that means I’ll have to keep lying to her. Again and again.

  “Are you saying we can’t ever tell her?” I ask. “What if she decides to stay forever?”

  We can’t all keep hiding from her indefinitely. If nothing else, one of the kids might shift in front of her, and the secret will be up. That would be a terrible way to find out.

  Aiden’s shoulders slump, whether from exhaustion or defeat, I don’t know, but he suddenly seems younger. He’s just two years my senior, and he’s my friend, not just my boss and clan leader.