Kim Knox - Emergence

“So you picked me up and kept me occupied. Nice.”

I pushed past him and padded into the long rectangle of the dressing room. Mirrors reflected me back, the reddening of my skin from the hot water and the flushed pink of my cheeks from the desire I had to seriously harm Kaden Rhodes. A door of the wardrobe slid open at my touch, the first of drawers it hid easing towards me. I pulled out underwear, and the drawer closed.

I wriggled my way into my underwear and dropped my towel to the carpeted floor. The rail held the last of my clean clothes, the ones I’d bothered to unpack, anyway. I’d wanted to make a good impression on the envoy…and that idiotic fact made me laugh as I took the smooth skirt from its hanger.

“Did your father teach you nothing?”

I looked up from buttoning the skirt over my hip. If he was going to be shitty, then so was I. “Such as?”

Kaden blew out a quiet breath. “This isn’t a game.”

“Then what the hell is it?” I yanked out the black silk top, shook the towel free from my hair and pulled the top over my head. “You knew exactly who I was.”

“Your breakfast is waiting.” He strode into the sitting room with obviously no plan to discuss anything about what we’d done. My gut cramped. And I thought my morning had been a disaster at Kaden’s leaving me without a word. Yes, his still being in my suite was so much worse.

I wiped a hand over my eyes, denying that they burned. He hadn’t hurt me. Pulling in a deep, calming breath, I straightened my shoulders. So what if I’d had sex with him? I’d enjoyed it. And so what if it wouldn’t happen again? Even if Kaden had fallen to his feet and professed undying love, Lord Sinon would never allow the relationship and it would cost us our lives to defy him.

I rolled those thoughts over and over in my head, willing them to sink in. It didn’t help that Kaden had opened the long expanse of glass that looked out onto the wide, wooden terrace. A sharp breeze from the river whipped through the room, ruffling his hair as he leaned against the open frame, a mug in his hand and his profile gilded with sunlight. He was beautiful…and power flowed from him. This man was a menial to the First Dragon? How impossibly powerful was Lord Sinon if a man like Kaden called him master?

That unnerving question forced me to sit at the table and pour myself a steaming cup of tea. I stirred in a thick run of milk. Sipping it, I let its heat ease the tight ache in my chest. Yes, I’d be a fool to antagonize such a powerful dragon. My gaze fixed on the man at the window. Almost-whispers in my mind and a rise of warmth that had nothing to do with the tea in my hand told me my gryphon stirred. She watched Kaden and gloried in him. To her, the defiance would be worth it.

I willed my gaze away and focused on the arrangement of dishes, food that forced my stomach to knot. But he hadn’t declared anything. I was a project to be kept occupied. Nothing more. No, Kaden Rhodes wasn’t worth losing my life over. And that knowledge hurt a lot more than it should.

“Are you finished?” Kaden’s gaze flicked over the food I’d picked at. “You’re expected by noon. You should eat more.”

I sank back into the soft padding of the chair, and a brief burst of laughter escaped me. “I didn’t know you were so concerned about my wellbeing.”

He gripped the back of a chair, his fingers pressing hard into the pale leather. “The First Dragon will put you to work this afternoon. You have to be ready.”

I stared at him, the disbelief shocking me out of my animosity. “This afternoon?”

“You’re a means to an end. The more gryphons he has working for him, the more residual mythoi power his seals can convert for use by the humans.” A wry smile pulled at his mouth and it didn’t reflect in his eyes. “You’re a half-breed. That fact means he already despises you.”

“Way to make me feel welcome.”

“Lord Sinon suffers the diluting of other mythoi, but gryphons?” He snagged a small strawberry from the platter of fruit and pointed it at me before he bit into it. “Interbreeding with gryphons dilutes their abilities. If a gryphon hybrid can’t find power, then they’re useless.”

Hybrid. The word resonated in me and kicked at my memory. Yes, he’d used it about himself. A lowly hybrid. Connections seared in my brain, and I stared at him.

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

“You’re part gryphon.” His features hardened, as seemed to be the case when I asked him anything that could be seen as personal. “You’re part gryphon and you can’t find power. So, what? The First Dragon dresses you up in smart suits and sends you out as his errand boy?”

He threw the half-eaten strawberry back into the dish, but then he stilled, the sudden flare of anger dying away just as quickly as it had appeared. His mouth thinned. “My rank within his organization has nothing to do with you.”

“Touched a nerve?” I wiped my mouth and hands on a linen napkin, folding it before I put it beside my plate. I gave him a short smile and rose from the table. “You’re right. Nothing about you has anything to do with me.”

I turned back towards the bedroom, intent on making myself look more presentable. I had only a few hours before I had to stand before Lord Sinon. Not stand. Kneel. I winced. Yes, a dragon liked to ensure his power over his minions was obvious at all times.

That had been one thing my father had drilled into me. He’d been a chef in Lord Sinon’s country home and learned firsthand the ways of the most senior mythoi. Stupidly, he’d caught the eye of one of the gryphons-and taken it much further than he ever should. I was the disgraced result, presented to him when I was only a few hours old.

Had Kaden had the same upbringing? Farmed out to the offending parent and then brought back to the loving arms of his mythoi family. I snorted. Who Kaden was, what he was, didn’t have anything to do with me. That was a fact I had to plant firmly at the front of my brain.

I ran my fingers through my damp hair, pulling at loose tangles. The dryer was in the dressing room, the small, windowless room an escape from him. Blasts of hot air whipped my hair. The hotel offered all manner of attendants, ones I’d taken advantage of before I went out the previous night, but that didn’t feel right now. I wasn’t primping myself to lure a man to my bed. That mission had already been a resounding success.

Kaden strode across the bedroom and sat on the long, silk-covered bench at the end of the bed. He rested his forearms on his thighs and stared at me, his gaze unreadable.

My head tilted, and I stepped away from the dryer. “Have to watch my every move?”

“Something like that.” He rubbed his palms together, the sound softly rasping. “I’ve been instructed to tell you what’s expected of you as a gryphon in Lord Sinon’s service.”

I wagged my brush at him before attacking the dried tangles. “I will be farmed out. I know my fate, Kaden.”

“And what you don’t do is talk out of turn.” A muscle jumped in his jaw, and the morning sunlight burned over him, throwing his face into angered shadow. “What did your father teach you? He knew this day was coming.”

My fingers tightened around the handle, and the brush stopped in my hair. “My father knew you all too well.”

“Then he deliberately ignored your welfare.”

I gritted my teeth. Was he trying to goad me? I yanked the brush from my hair and breathed past the anger balling in my gut. Well, I tried. It didn’t work. Kaden was projecting onto me, projecting his life, not mine. “Who abandoned you, Kaden? Who didn’t protect you from Lord Sinon?”

He blinked, his face suddenly frozen, and I hated the words that anger made me say. Damn it. I had to face the fact that he had hurt me and I wanted to lash out at him. Letting out a heavy breath, I turned to the mirror built into the wall. I stared into my makeup bag, not seeing the various tubes and bottles. A low curse escaped me, and I pulled out a bottle of moisturiser and twisted the top free. “What do you have to tell me?”

Silence followed my question, and I glanced in the mirror to see if Kaden had stormed from the room. He hadn’t. He still sat on the bench, his gaze fixed on me. I should’ve known better. Kaden didn’t rage for long. He straightened and stretched out his long legs. “All right, if we look at it another way. What do you know?”

“About?”

“Jaime…”

My name was almost a rough growl, and memory gripped me. His mouth, wet and hot, slipping over my throat, the sensitive line of my collarbone, murmuring my name with heated promise, listing in breathtaking detail what he and his mythoi had planned for me next. I sucked in a breath, wanting to deny the heat coiling low in my belly. My fingers tightened around the bottle I held, and I willed my heart to calm. “I…” I stopped, swallowed and forced strength and normality into my voice. “He told me stories.”

I pressed a white spot of moisturiser into my palm, dipped a finger into it and started to work it into my forehead, cheek and chin. Focusing on my skin eased the heat from my flesh. I had to ignore my reaction. Kaden was right. I had to learn how to behave-I winced at the word-in the presence of Lord Sinon. I met his gaze in the mirror. “How much do you know?”

“About you?”

The soft question had my nipples peaking. I held down a curse. This was worse than the wild riot of anger. I fought it. “Me. My father. My mother.”

“Your father was a human chef in the Hall of the Gryphons for six months. A young gryphon found him…pretty…and sported with him. You were the result.” Kaden let out a long sigh, and his head tilted. “You were four hours old when he took charge of you. Tiny, with a shock of thick golden hair.” A thin smile lifted his mouth. “Did I miss anything?”