When we had some peace, I moved to a chair across from them, needing a little fucking space after the assault.
“Are you sure?” Nyx asked when we all settled in.
“Do you want to explain to the King why there’s a dragon out there, not required to serve?”I challenged.
They exchanged a glance and had clearly talked about this without me.
“What don't I know?”
“We might have fibbed.” Jaxus pulled a face.
“How exactly?” I’m not sure I even wanted to know.
Nyx cleared his throat. “You tell him.”
“No way—this is on you. You told the King.” Jaxus shook his head and held up his hands.
“You came up with it!” Nyx grumbled before turning back to me. “We convinced him you’d been working for us for months, and that’s why you were helping us bring the princesses back.”
“Okay, that’s not so bad. What exactly did you say?”
“You have to understand, he was pretty mad when he learned we left the future queen behind in an ambush. I tried to explain that there were only two dragons, and we were all separated, and it’s just how things worked out.” Nyx rubbed the back of his neck. “We told him you were undercover working with us so we could use your connections and that you were gathering intel on Octavian since you were also from the Volcano Kingdom.”
I blinked. “Excuse me.”
“You left us with no choice! We had to give him something. Plus, we thought you were dead. We didn’t think it would come back and bite us in the arse!” Nyx snapped.
“I did say it was going to come back and bite us in the arse, actually,” Jaxus muttered.
“Shut it.”
“And now how are you going to explain me flying back in here?”
“We haven’t a clue.” Nyx deflated and turned to Jaxus. “Any ideas?”
“Don’t look at me. I already came up with the undercover shit.” Jaxus crossed his ankle over his knee.
“I had to have a way to explain away some of this. It’s suspicious to keep having dragons appear.” Nyx rubbed his temple. He looked better than he had a year ago, but the stress aged him. He had flecks of gray in his dark hair.
I thought about it for a few minutes. “Could you come up with something about me being blocked like Zaria and Kol?”
“Oh!” Nyx jumped to his feet and began to pace. “That might work. We’d need Kiera…”
“Wait, you want the King to believe you were blocked from your dragon and didn’t know what you were?”
“No, that wouldn’t work. He’d never buy that.”
“It could work. Kiera may even be able to get her Gran on board. Gran would come up with some Forest Kingdom nonsense, and the King wouldn’t know which way was up when she finished with him. What Gran says is fact.”
“Excellent. Let’s get Gran on it then.” Nyx stopped and turned towards me. “Are you absolutely sure you want to stay?”
“What other choice do I have? By morning, the entire palace will be talking about the new dragon.” And I didn’t know howI could leave her. I was already a mess knowing she was alone with him as we spoke.
“He’s right, it’s already out there.” Jaxus agreed.
“Do you think there’s any way they’ll allow her to be my ryder?” I asked.
They exchanged another glance.
