She slipped her tiny fingers into his, and they padded toward her room. “What was your bad dream about?”
“I don’t remember.” No way was Marius telling a—What was she in earth years?—seven-year-old child about his dreams. He seriously needed to start locking his door. He’d never forgive himself if he accidentally hurt her.
“I saw a monster.” Charlie’s slippers scuffed across the floor.
“You could see what was happening in my head and hear me scream?”
She nodded.
“Does that happen to you often?” Marius asked.
“No. One time with Aunt Avery, but her dream was pretty. Sunshine and blue sky.”
Marius sighed. “Great,” he mumbled. He’d have to tell Gabriel about this. Charlie clearly had some psychic abilities he and Raven weren’t aware of. “I’m sorry my dream scared you, Charlie, but it was just a dream. Nothing real. If it happens again, try to push it out of your mind.”
She stopped in front of her room and giggled. “It doesn’t scare me, Uncle Marius. You killed that monster. Killed it dead. You would never let it get me.”
He kissed her on her head, noticing how his hair, now completely lacking color, almost matched hers, although her eyes were blue while his were a pale silver. And her perfectly smooth and unmarked skin was a warm golden tone, not pale and covered in symbols as his own.
He gave her his most assuring smile. “I would never let anything get you, Charlie. Not on purpose. But I’m afraid if I’m having a bad dream, I might bump into you on accident and knock you down. I’d be asleep and not know you were there.”
Her young face grew serious. “I’ll send my zappy through you from far away.”
That made him smile. “Good idea. Okay, Princess, into bed.” He lifted her into the plush four-poster and pulled the frothy pink blanket over her. She tucked her teddy bear under her chin and closed her eyes.
“Uncle Marius?” she said before he could leave.
“Yes?”
“Mommy says that bad dreams happen when something isn’t going right in your life and your brain is trying to work it out.”
“Hmm. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Maybe if you fight the monsters in your real life, you won’t have to fight them in your dreams.”
He studied the little girl and then placed a kiss on her temple. “Good night, Charlie.”
Chapter Two
“Fifty on Validar in the second match.” Harlow slid her dragmars through the slot under the window to the bookie. She’d counted out the silver coins carefully before placing her bet, leaving enough in her purse to make it home if the unexpected happened. The bookie counted her wager and acknowledged its correctness with a quick nod before scribbling the bet in his ledger. He handed her a receipt.
“You do know that Validar is on the board at twenty-to-one odds?” Adradys, doormaker to Paragon and previously her father’s biggest business rival, stood in line behind her, wearing a vilt suit in a dark sapphire blue that matched the ring on his finger. Although he was around her age and extremely wealthy, Harlow rarely interacted with the man. Adradys was not an ugly dragon. In fact, his tall, lean stature was pleasing to many women, as was his eye for fashion. It was just that Harlow was not one of those women. To her, he’d always seemed a bit fastidious and high-maintenance. Not to mention, Harlow had always found his personality unbearably pretentious and self-aggrandizing.
“Oh?” she asked vaguely.
Raising his chin, he added, “Validar lost his last three matches, Harlow. You might as well have thrown those fifty dragmars into the volcano. Does your father know you’re here? Do you even understand how betting works?” He chuckled haughtily. “If you’d like, I can explain it to you.”
Harlow plastered a smile onto her face. Adradys wasn’t a regular at the pits. He couldn’t possibly know that she’d been attending matches since she was a young girl or that since the new king and queen of Paragon had stripped her father of his business license—punishment for his support of Empress Eleanor—her gambling habit was what was keeping clothes on their backs and food on their table. He also was clearly unaware that Validar had lost the past three matches because he was nursing an injury that hadn’t healed correctly.
Aside from beheading, there was no way to reliably kill a dragon. But immortality was not without its problems. Dragons healed swiftly. So swiftly, in fact, that a broken bone would knit back together in a matter of minutes. The problem was that four matches ago, Validar’s leg had been broken by Drakkar, who’d remained standing on his thigh while the bone mended. Because the fracture healed while the bone was misaligned, he’d been fighting with an uneven gait the past three matches.
But Harlow happened to know he’d recently visited a healer in Rogos who had reset the leg and healed it properly. Validar was back to his old self, which meant he most certainly would win this match. But that didn’t mean Harlow couldn’t benefit from some sparring of her own.
She fluttered her lashes and stroked the long, caramel-colored hair that waved against her shoulder. Harlow was a patient dragon. As much as it would please her to unleash her tongue on the man, Adradys was a piece on the social playing board of Paragon. Given her family’s current position, she couldn’t risk alienating him. He could still be of use. “Would you care to sit together, Adradys? Perhaps you could offer me a few pointers.”
“It would be my pleasure.” He placed his bet on Validar’s opponent, Mayhem, and then offered her his arm. She took it and strolled with him to his private box overlooking the arena. Normally she’d be in the standing-room-only section. What a stroke of luck!
“How is business?” she asked casually. A man like Adradys would want to talk about himself, and she wanted to please him. She had a favor to ask, actually, and buttering him up first seemed to be a good idea, especially since he was about to lose a great deal of money on his bet.
