Burned by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,45

troll blood that ran through his veins. As if the hint of crimson in his eyes didn’t give away his mixed heritage.

“Ah. At last.” The male smiled, revealing his razor-sharp teeth. “I’ve been waiting for you a very long time, my dear.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Baine crouched behind the large boulder on top of the mountain and gazed down at the castle directly below him.

When he’d followed Tayla’s portal, he’d expected to end up in her house. She’d been annoyingly anxious to return to the cramped building to see to the necessary repairs. Wasn’t that why she said she needed to leave his arms?

Instead they were perched in…Baine tilted back his head and sniffed the air.

Norway?

Shit.

“This is the assassins’ lair?” he growled.

Char crouched beside him, peering down at the recently repaired ruins.

“Yes.”

Baine scowled. There was only one reason she could have come to this place. To rescue that ridiculous gargoyle. Or her even more ridiculous father.

But how could she have known…

Abruptly Baine recalled the odd prickles on his neck. He’d dismissed them way too easily.

Now he realized the tricky imp must have created a portal to spy on him. Then when she’d overheard Char revealing that her father and the gargoyle had been captured, she’d come here to…

Well, he wasn’t sure. But he would bet his entire hoard that it included risking her beautiful neck.

“Damn,” he muttered as smoke curled from his nostril, flames dancing around his feet.

Suddenly the crisp air was steamy hot.

Char turned so he could study Baine with an unwavering gaze. “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

His hands grasped the boulder, his thoughts becoming increasingly distracted as his primitive beast desperately tried to catch the scent of his female.

Where was she? Had she already entered the castle?

“Twenty-five years ago, I bartered my father for Tayla.”

Char arched a brow. “Yeah, I remember. You’ve been in a pissy mood ever since then.”

Baine ignored the insult.

“I returned to my lair to collect the payment as well as to prepare the harem,” he explained in distracted tones.

“Prepare the harem?” Char predictably probed. “What does that mean?”

Baine scowled, his attention never leaving the castle. “None of your damned business,” he snapped, not about to reveal that he’d had the entire harem cleaned to make sure there were no traces of other women.

Char made a sound that could have been a choked laugh. “Okay.”

Baine ignored the younger male’s amusement, too busy counting the various guards he could detect walking the ramparts.

“When I came back, my father didn’t bother to tell me the female had disappeared,” he continued, turning his attention to the layers of magic that shimmered like a dome over the crumbling inner courtyard. “Not until I’d handed over the payment.”

“Typical of Synge,” Char growled.

“Exactly.” At the time he’d been furious. And not because his father had screwed him out of a fortune. He couldn’t believe the fascinating female had slipped from his grasp. And it was that anger that’d blinded him to the obvious. “I assumed she managed to escape through the portal the trolls used to return to this world. But now…”

He allowed his words to trail away, his entire body quivering as he caught the distant scent of burnt lemons.

Tayla.

And she wasn’t happy.

“You think she created a portal of her own,” Char breathed in astonishment.

Baine shrugged. Under normal circumstances, he would be as stunned as Char by Tayla’s outrageous skill. But these weren’t normal circumstances.

Not when he was consumed by his frenzied need to get her out of the castle and back to his lair.

“She must have,” he said with a shrug.

“Amazing,” Char breathed.

“Not amazing.” He at last turned his head to glare at his companion. “Dangerous.”

Char gave a lift of his brows. “Why dangerous?”

“Clearly my father realized that Tayla possessed the ability to slip in and out of his lair unnoticed.” Baine shuddered. Just saying the words was enough to make his gut clench with dread.

Char grimaced. “Oh.”

“Exactly.” Baine nodded toward the castle below them. “And since Skragg has been hunting her, I assume he must have suspected her talent as well.”

“That would explain the overwhelming interest in a mere imp,” Char murmured.

“Yes. The trolls want to use her to sneak into a dragon’s hoard.” The boulder abruptly shattered beneath the force of Baine’s tight grip. “And my father wants her dead.”

“Damn.” Char looked genuinely outraged. No surprise he’d already fallen beneath Tayla’s sweet charm. “What’s the plan?”

Baine shook his head, struggling to think clearly.

“I go in and get her,” he said, his voice thickening