Read Online Dragons Among Them (Kingdoms of Fire and Ice) by Kyra Jacobs - Free Book Online Page A

bedroom encounters, no testing those theories.
    Though no one said she couldn’t revisit the fantasy once she was back home. Alone.
    Home.
    Addie closed her eyes and tried to picture it, but the only image that came to mind was the one she worked so hard to forget. The house where she’d grown up, her tiny, second-story room. Her desk, scattered with charcoal pencils and watercolor chalks. Her sketch pads. Her camera. The sound of her good-for-nothing father, snoring in his worn recliner the level below…
    “Forgive me for intruding on your moment of solitude, my lady, but there are questions I must ask of you before we reach the wall. May I?”
    With a start, she opened her eyes. Zayne stood before her, his hand open toward the space beside her. As much as she wanted to protect her heart, she found it impossible to turn away her lone ally. “I don’t know about forgiving you, but seeing as you’ve already killed my quiet, you might as well go on and ask me your questions. Sire. ”
    He looked down in attempt to hide his smirk and eased onto the log beside her. “Very well, then. How much contact did you have with the people of Forath prior to my arrival on Friday?”
    “I already told you, I didn’t see or talk to anyone. I was out on a jog, trying to clear my head before work tomorrow, well, today , when this car came right for me and I dove off the road to keep from getting hit.” She shook her head. “God, I hope they let me reschedule this shoot.”
    “But, my lady, how did you get so deep into their lands without the aid of another?”
    “Are you saying you don’t think I can take care of myself out here?”
    He leveled her a flat look. “So says the woman I found in a clearing about to be torn limb from limb by a pack of wolves, trying to fend them off with nothing but magic as she hobbled on one foot.”
    “Magic?” Addie rolled her eyes. “That wasn’t magic, it was a can of pepper spray. You can buy it from any convenience store back home. And I’ll have you know it was working quite well until I ran out.”
    “That would explain why the wolves were milling around the other side of the clearing. Tell me, how long were you in the woods prior to my arrival?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”
    “Impossible.”
    Addie threw her hands up. “That’s what I keep telling you all, but no one’s listening. I have no idea how I got there, but suddenly there I was!”
    Zayne stood and began pacing along the stream’s edge, hands clasped behind his back. “There has to be a logical explanation for all this. Have you any memory prior to being trapped by the wolves? Perhaps the fright caused some sort of amnesia?”
    “No way, I remember everything leading up to that car coming at me. My name’s Adelaide Miller, I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I graduated from Carroll High School. My mailing address is 8725 Spring Forest Drive, which is actually my cousin’s place, and one I’m seldom at as I spend most of my time traveling from job to paying job. My last gig before this one was in Des Moines, Iowa, shooting for a local—”
    “Enough,” he barked and stopped to rub his temples.
    This was the first he’d been short-tempered with her since their spat last night, and it definitely wasn’t her favorite side of the prince. She peered around him at the rest of the group, who were all a short distance off. Only Brom seemed to be paying them any attention. He scowled as her gaze caught his and looked away. With a sigh, Addie rose to her feet and came to stand before the prince.
    “I’m sorry I don’t have the answers you’d hoped for, but I am telling you the truth. You have to believe me.”
    Zayne regarded her in silence, his topaz gaze scrutinizing. After a moment, he raised a hand to cup her cheek. Addie felt her body come alive at his touch, so much softer than any of the contact they’d shared thus far.
    “I wish to believe you, my lady.” His