Having been summoned in a dream-state vision, Princess Gaia Percy stroked the course, honey-colored mane of her steady mount and kicked the mare in the flanks to increase its pace to a canter. She had been riding since nearly 3:00 A.M., trying to reach Forest Dragon to catch up with Prince Dario Dragona.

She still couldn’t believe she was crazy enough to attempt it…

To set out on her own with little more than her cloak, a canteen, and a prayer.

It was true—she also had a rudimentary map and a surefooted mare from the stables, one that had traveled this path a hundred times prior, and the mare knew the route instinctively. Or at least, Princess Gaia had been promised by a stable-hand that the horse would not veer from the path.

She sighed, even as she drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders.

How had this come to pass?

Why had Prince Dario reached out to Gaia, rather than his mother or his father—rather than his cousins or his stewards? Why had he chosen to enter Gaia’s dreams and call to the princess in her sleep?

How had he known she would come?

The mare stumbled on a divot in the trail, but quickly regained her footing—and Gaia had to catch her breath: Her ill-advised, impulsive journey left no room for error or injury. She was trusting the fates to protect her. “Prince Dario,” she whispered into the dew-drenched air, imagining his stunning blue eyes and that harshly masculine demeanor that always seemed to make her shiver, “what is going on?”

All she knew was that she had awakened from slumber after seeing the prince’s chiseled features in her dream, and she had seen them as clearly as one might see their hand before their face: in stark, vivid detail. And in those groggy moments of drifting—between sleep, dreams, and waking—she had also heard the prince’s voice as clear as a monastic bell: “Come to me, Gaia. I’m in need of your assistance. I’m in need of your company and your comfort. Ride due west to the trail that intersects Forest Dragon, and I will meet you where the two paths converge. Alas, there is much happening in secrecy, and I do not know who to trust. You are new to the Realm, and your heart is pure. Come to me, sweet princess. Please. Come to me, Gaia.”

Normally, Gaia would never have responded to such an entreaty, to a voice she heard while neither awake nor asleep, but something about this situation was different. She felt it in her bones. Something strange and awful and foreboding was happening with Prince Dario Dragona, though she couldn’t pinpoint how she knew. And while it didn’t completely make sense—why he would reach out to a stranger, and to Princess Gaia, no less—she had her own motivations for answering the dragon’s summons.

Gaia had been able to think of nothing—and no one—else, since her youthful maiden’s blunder, since she had acted like a child, mired in ignorance and steeped in innocence. She had wanted another chance to explore the possibility of…acquainting herself with Prince Dario’s heart.

She wanted to win his trust and his friendship, if nothing else.

And what better way to do it than to respond as a confidante and a loyal subject…than to respond to the male as a woman, not a child.

A woman who was certain and brave and decisive.

Prince Dante was away from the castle, and Mistress Cassidy could not have cared less—the Sklavos Ahavi had been dazed, distant, and lost in a stupor ever since the previous afternoon. She would hardly notice Princess Gaia’s absence.

Tightening her hold around the reins, Gaia raised her chin and stood a bit in the stirrups, relieving some strain from her back. She could tell from the topography she’d seen on the map, as well as the cast of the mid-morning sun, that she was getting ever closer to Forest Dragon…

Ever closer to Prince Dario Dragona.

* * *

Damian Dragona, in the body of Prince Dario, pulled back on his horse’s reins as he came to a bend in the road and recognized an unusually tall grouping of linden trees bunched together in the shape of an uneven star. Ah yes, they were drawing nigh to the two fallen logs that denoted a fork in the road, the area where the trail from Castle Warlochia intersected with the road to Castle Dragon. If all transpired as planned, Princess Gaia would arrive at the intersection with near-perfect timing.

He snickered, even as he stirred restlessly atop his mount.

Young virgins were so damn gullible.

Having access to Prince Dario’s vivid memories, Damian had recognized at once that Princess Gaia Percy, King Thaon’s daughter, was one of the most beautiful—and nubile—women he had ever seen. Beyond that, her body was ripe for the plucking, restless with untapped carnal energy, and she could hardly breathe in Prince Dario’s presence, just waiting to let all that vivacity out. Having found Kristof Nocturne’s fleshly services wanting, at best, Damian had made a shrewd, impulsive, and purely selfish decision: He had forced Kristof Nocturne to use his considerable powers as a warlock to enter Princess Gaia’s dream, to call to the innocent female like a beckoning lover, lost in the night…to entreat her to his bed.

Okay, well, he hadn’t exactly entreated her to his bed…

But he had beckoned her to Forest Dragon and away from Castle Warlochia.

He stared at the path ahead of him and snarled; then he eyed his riding companions and replaced the snarl with a smile. Eliaz Griswold was keeping up easily. Kristof, on the other hand, seemed a little slow, but perhaps he was a bit sore in his seat.

Oh, well…

Chuckling inwardly, Prince Damian considered the journey ahead of them—they still had over eight hours to go before they’d reach Castle Dragon, but then all good things come to those who wait. “And some good things come sooner than others,” he mused aloud. Why make use of a piteous man, or even a half-copper whore, when one could ravage one of the most beautiful women in all of the Realm? Hell, it didn’t look like Dario had ever used her, and Castle Warlochia was far, far closer to Forest Dragon than Castle Umbras. The female wouldn’t even have to press her horse.

And as for Prince Damian?

He wouldn’t have to quit riding to take advantage of the princess.

He could always settle her in his lap and spin her around to face him.

The prince sat up straighter on his mount and ushered the horse forward with a lean: His sex was rapidly growing hard with need. It was time to catch up to the naive female.