Honorbound Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Also by Chelsea M. Campbell

  Dedication

  1 TO DO WITH WHAT YOU WILL

  2 A PRINCE OF HAWTHORNE CLAN

  3 WARM DESPITE THE COLD

  4 WEDDINGS ARE PROBABLY OVERRATED

  5 AFTERWARD VIOLENCED UPON

  6 JUST BECAUSE I’M A ST. GEORGE DOESN’T MEAN I’M A MURDERER

  7 SUSPICIOUS QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT GET US KILLED

  8 HERE’S YOUR PROOF

  9 SOME HEIR YOU ARE

  10 I HATE TO IMAGINE WHERE ELSE HE’S GOT SCALES

  11 YOU’LL NEVER MAKE PRINCESSES OUT OF ROTTEN POTATOES

  12 THE PARTS YOU NORMALLY KEEP HIDDEN

  13 PLENTY OF PEOPLE SNOOP THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE’S STUFF AND GET AWAY WITH IT

  14 DON’T ASK FOR SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT

  15 THAT OR HE HAS A HORSE HIDDEN SOMEWHERE

  16 NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

  17 EVERYDAY SERIAL KILLER

  18 ONE MEASLY HUMAN

  19 AT LEAST THERE ARE NO MURDERERS THERE

  20 PRINCESS MYSTERIES ISN’T FUN ANYMORE

  21 THERE ISN’T MORE THAN THAT

  22 WE’LL BE ENEMIES

  23 GET IN HIS WAY

  24 THERE’S A REASON I’M A WANTED CRIMINAL

  25 A VICIOUS MONSTER

  26 HE IS NO MAN

  27 DON’T THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE RIGHT MEANS YOU WEREN’T BEING STUPID

  28 EVERY PART OF YOU

  Author's Note

  Also by Chelsea M. Campbell

  About the Author

  1st edition published by Golden City Publishing, 2019

  Copyright © 2019 Chelsea M. Campbell

  www.chelseamcampbell.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  Cover art by Fiona Jayde

  fionajaydemedia.com

  ALSO BY CHELSEA M. CAMPBELL

  Dragonbound

  Dragonbound

  Honorbound

  Renegade X

  The Rise of Renegade X

  The Trials of Renegade X

  The Haunting of Renegade X

  The Betrayal of Renegade X

  The Torment of Renegade X

  The Phobia of Renegade X

  Fire & Chasm

  Starlight

  Growing Up Dead

  Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye

  Join the newsletter! Sign up for random updates and new release notifications at www.chelseamcampbell.com

  For Milo.

  You were a good kitty.

  1

  TO DO WITH WHAT YOU WILL

  Amelrik grins at me. “I’ll race you to the top of the cliff.”

  “Are you kidding?” I tug my wool hat closer down around my ears. “It’s freezing out here.” Besides the hat, I’ve also got on mittens, two shirts, a thick coat, and a cloak over top of everything else. Though the cloak was Amelrik’s idea. He said it was for extra warmth, but it’s also bright red, and I think its real purpose is to keep the other dragons from accidentally stomping on me. Or lighting me on fire.

  Tonight’s Flame Night, one of the major dragon holidays, and as far as I can tell, it involves going outside and breathing fire at the sky. Not that either of us can actually do that. Amelrik said it represents hope and light in the darkness of winter. I asked him if there were at least going to be gifts exchanged, and he said no, but that there’d be a barbecue later, which is good enough for me.

  The moonlight reflects off his short, messy black hair. He used to have a dyed red streak in the front over his forehead, but since we’ve been back at Hawthorne clan, he’s let it grow out. He reaches for my mittened hand with his bare one. “The view up there’s amazing.”

  “It’ll be icy.”

  “It’ll be fine. I’ve been up there before during the festival.”

  “Years ago. And you’re probably remembering it wrong. I bet any time you went up there, it wasn’t this cold.”

  He shrugs. “It’s not really that cold now.”

  “Easy for you to say.” He never gets cold—none of the dragons do, even in human form—and he’s not even wearing a coat.

  There’s a flash of orange light across the lake as one of the dragons breathes flames, then another not too far from us. It’s beautiful. It’s probably even more beautiful from the top of the cliff, but I kind of like all my bones the way they are—that is, not broken—and climbing the probably icy hill to get there sounds like a bad idea right now.

  “I’ll keep you warm,” Amelrik says. He slides his hands inside my coat and pulls me closer to him. Then he leans down and kisses me.

  We shouldn’t. We really shouldn’t. But it’s dark. Maybe no one will notice. Even though the stars are out, the moon is bright, and dragons have crazy good night vision anyway. Maybe no one in Hawthorne clan will notice their prince making out with a St. George like he means it. Like I’m not just his human concubine—a term I’m not too fond of, by the way—but someone he actually cares about. And maybe they won’t notice that kissing him like this makes me melt inside, or that neither of us can ever seem to keep our hands off of each other, and…

  I pull away, even though it’s the last thing I want to do. “We can’t.”

  “No one’s looking.” He reaches for me again.

  Right as a couple of draclings go running by. An adult dragon isn’t far behind them. It quickly glances over at us before sighing and hurrying after them.

  “Everyone’s looking,” I whisper.

  “Then let them. I don’t care anymore.” He kisses my neck.

  I shiver, and for once tonight, it’s not from the cold. “Amelrik, we can’t…”

  “We can’t what? Be happy? It’s been six months, Virginia. We’ve both been careless. You know we have. There’s no way the whole clan doesn’t know I’m in love with you by now.”

  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing him say that. “I keep waiting for something bad to happen.”

  “But it hasn’t. It’s not going to.”

  “But your father—”

  “If he was going to punish us, he would have already. And…” Amelrik sticks his hands in his pockets. He takes a deep breath. “You’re sure you won’t come up to the cliff with me?”

  “You can go. I’ll wait down here.”

  “That’s not… That wasn’t the point. I… Virginia, I want to be with you.”

  “Okay, then stay here.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” He has something in his fist, which he holds out to me. His hand shakes as he opens his fingers, revealing a set of maple seeds. They look like a pair of tiny brown wings. He glances down at them, then up at me.

  “Huh. Me and Celeste used to play with those when we were kids.”

  “Virginia, I’m giving these to you. To do with what you will.”

  “Um, okay?” That doesn’t explain why he’s acting so weird. I take the pair of seeds from him and snap them apart. Then I toss them both into the air and watch them spin. “I guess throwing these off the cliff would have been pretty neat.”

  Amelrik’s gaping at me. He stares at the seeds in horror as they flutter to the ground.

  And now I’m almost certain I screwed up some Flame Night ritual I had no idea about. But he said I could do whatever I wanted with them, and what are maple seeds for, if not for throwing?

  He’s still staring at me when two dragons come running toward us. Firelight catches the red patches under their black wings, and steam blows from the
ir nostrils. I think it’s Odilia, Amelrik’s cousin, and her boyfriend, Osric, but I’m not a hundred percent sure until they change into human form. I thought I’d get used to the sounds of bones crunching and flesh tearing whenever they transform, but it still makes me feel kind of sick. They’re both completely naked—dragons don’t bother wearing clothes, though at least Amelrik does—but even then, they don’t seem to care how cold it is.

  Odilia’s cheeks are flushed, and she’s a little out of breath. “Hey, cousin. We’ve been looking for you guys for—” She stops when she notices the maple seeds on the ground. Her eyes go wide and she gasps.

  Osric raises his eyebrows at me. “Harsh.”

  Okay, I have no idea what I’ve done, but I’m getting the impression that it was something really terrible. “Amelrik, I—”

  Odilia interrupts me with a snort. “Well, at least she had the sense to say no. I don’t know what you were thinking.”

  Amelrik snaps something at her in Vairlin, their native language.

  She glares at him, says something back, and then they start arguing.

  I’ve been learning some Vairlin over the past few months, but my vocabulary is still pretty limited, and they’re talking way too fast for me to catch anything, anyway. I stand next to Osric and whisper, “What’s going on?”

  “You threw the seeds on the ground.”

  “It was fun.”

  “Wow. Harsh is one thing, but that’s just cruel.”

  “Okay, I get it. I did something wrong.”

  He shrugs. “It was your decision to make.”

  “What decision? They’re seeds.”

  He holds up a finger to correct me. “They’re a pair of seeds. They grow into the same tree. I mean, not really. But symbolically they do.”

  Amelrik and Odilia are still arguing. It looks pretty heated, and I know it has something to do with me.

  “Okay,” I say to Osric, “but what does that have to do with Flame Night?”

  “Uh, nothing, other than that it’s one of the most romantic nights of the year?” He says that like it’s obvious. Like you’d have to be a complete and total idiot not to know that. “Look around. It’s dark, the stars are out, the flames are glowing—”

  “I get it,” I say, my frustration rising. “It’s romantic. But what the hell does that have to do with some stupid seeds?!”

  My voice comes out way louder than I meant it to. Amelrik and Odilia shut up, instantly dropping their argument, and everyone stares at me.

  My heart beats faster. I’ve screwed up again, but I have no idea what to say to make it right.

  Osric takes pity on me. Or maybe he finally gets that I really don’t know any of this stuff. “He asked you to marry him.”

  “He what?!” I look at Amelrik. “You what?!”

  Amelrik swallows. His eyes meet mine, and he glances away real quick, then back at me. “I love you, Virginia. And I wanted us to… I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But…” His gaze falls to the seeds on the ground. Hurt flashes across his face, and his shoulders deflate a little. “If you don’t want the same thing, then—”

  “Of course I want it!” I scramble to pick up the seeds. It’s too hard to get a grip on them with my mittens on, so I take them off. I press the seeds into Amelrik’s hand. “Ask me again.”

  He sucks in a breath. He glances over at Odilia, who’s shaking her head.

  “I didn’t know,” I tell him. “So ask me again.”

  “They’re already broken.”

  “Pretend they’re not. Get some glue if you have to!”

  That makes him smile. “Virginia, I… These are for you. To do with what you will.” He holds out the seeds again.

  Relief floods over me. The boy I love asking me to marry him on apparently the most romantic night of the year cannot end with me accidentally throwing it in his face. “How do I say yes?”

  “Take the seeds,” he whispers.

  I do, only this time, I hold onto them.

  “Then you break them in two, which you already did. And then either you throw them to the wind, letting it tear apart your love—”

  “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “—or you keep half, and you give back the other half, so your love can grow together. But that’s only if you want to,” he adds, as if there’s any question.

  I clutch one of the seeds. I put the other one in his hand. “I love you, Amelrik. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too.”

  He smiles. I wrap my arms around him, and he kisses me. It’s a deep, long-lasting kiss.

  Odilia clears her throat.

  We break apart, but we’re both grinning at each other.

  “Congratulations,” Odilia says. “Do you want pork or chicken served at your funeral?”

  Amelrik glares at her. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll talk to him.”

  He must mean his father, the king of Hawthorne clan.

  “You’ll talk to him, and he’ll skewer you. Both of you.” She looks at me when she says that.

  “Cedric’s his heir, not me.”

  Cedric’s Odilia’s brother. He’s been away doing field research, studying humans, the whole time I’ve been here, so we’ve never met. But the whole clan’s been preparing for his upcoming wedding to Rosalind, the princess of Oak clan, for months, and he’s supposed to be back any day now.

  “You think he’ll care about that?” Odilia asks.

  Osric puts a hand on her arm. “Come on, Odilia. It’s Flame Night. Plan their wedding today, their funeral tomorrow.”

  “You’re such a romantic,” she says, rolling her eyes at him.

  He grins. “We should get going. Godwin’s father’s in charge of lighting the last bonfire, and he said we could be part of it if we get there in time.”

  “All right. But you.” She points a finger at Amelrik. She looks pissed at him, but then her anger falls away, and she just looks worried. “Don’t get yourself killed, okay? We’d miss you.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m his only son. He’s not going to…” Amelrik trails off, maybe not so confident about what his father would or wouldn’t do. “Just go enjoy the holiday. Light a bonfire for me.”

  “Will do,” Osric says.

  Amelrik gives Odilia a quick hug, and then she and Osric change back into dragon form before leaping into the air and taking off across the lake.

  “I really didn’t know,” I tell Amelrik, putting my arms around him and pulling him close. I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and feeling his warmth.

  He kisses the top of my head. “It’s okay. I just assumed… I mean, I spent time with humans, but I never saw anyone propose, and the seeds just make sense.”

  Right. “Odilia’s got a point, though. About your father.” Even if he hasn’t said anything about us obviously being in love, there’s no way he’s going to be okay with his son marrying a human, and especially not a St. George.

  “I’ll talk to him first thing in the morning. We both will.”

  “I just really, really want this to happen. To get to marry you.”

  “Me, too.” He hugs me tight against him. “Don’t worry, Virginia. It’ll all work out. You’ll see.”

  Except I can’t help thinking about those seeds landing on the ground, our love scattering in the wind. But I push that thought away. I close my eyes and lean into him, breathing in his scent, wanting to remember this moment forever.

  2

  A PRINCE OF HAWTHORNE CLAN

  Amelrik wasn’t kidding when he said we were going to see his father first thing in the morning. It’s so early, we don’t even go to the court, but to the king’s bedroom. Maybe he just can’t wait to marry me, or maybe he wants to get this over with before he loses his nerve. I’d like to think it’s more the first one, but I can’t blame him if it’s the second—his father’s kind of terrifying.

  The king’s in dragon form, lounging on a giant round mattress. It looks kind of like a do
g bed, to be honest, but Amelrik got really offended when I told him that before. Not about the king’s bed, of course, since I’ve never been in here, but about Odilia’s. He got even more offended when I told him I thought dragons didn’t even have mattresses, but that they slept on giant piles of gold. I mean, I know Amelrik sleeps in a normal bed—rectangular, with a frame and everything—but he’s always in human form. I assumed the other dragons had nests. Made of metal. Which, as soon as I said it out loud, did sound kind of stupid.

  The king’s room isn’t as big as I thought it would be, though it’s still a lot bigger than Amelrik’s. The whole cavern’s lavishly decorated, with fancy rugs on the floor and elaborate tapestries hanging from the walls. I can’t help noticing that several of the tapestries depict scenes of dragons destroying human cities—like, razing them to the ground—and one of them seems to be of a paladin in chains. Which is a great backdrop for, you know, asking him if we can be together.

  The king’s reading something when we come in. It looks like a letter. It’s small—well, human-sized—and whatever it says, it seems to be pissing him off.

  “Father—” Amelrik starts to say, right as the king finishes reading the letter and crushes it in his talons.

  “What?” the king snaps. He looks over at us, his eyes narrowing to slits when he sees me.

  I swallow. Maybe coming here was a bad idea.

  Amelrik moves to stand in front of me, blocking me from his father’s view. “I…”

  “You have the nerve to bring your St. George whore into my personal chambers?!”

  Crap. This wasn’t just a bad idea—it was a horrible one. I consider just backing out of the room and pretending I was never here, but Amelrik takes my hand and holds onto it, though he keeps his eyes on his father, not backing down.

  “Don’t call her that.” His voice is low but defiant.

  “First Cedric has the gall to refuse to come home—refuse! As if he has a choice!—and then you bring her in here.” He snorts. The sound echoes and reverberates off the cave walls, though it’s at least dampened some by all the tapestries. But that doesn’t stop my legs from getting all wobbly or my knees from feeling like they’re going to give way. “I don’t know what’s wrong with your generation. Thinking you can do whatever you want. Cedric has responsibilities here. And so do you,” he adds, giving Amelrik a pointed look. Then he sighs. “Well? Out with it. Presumably you had a reason for coming here so early in the morning, accompanied by your—”