I may not be a white-gold queen.My dragons and my brothers clustered closer around Auren, a wall of green and silver. A flutter of wings and two other gold dragons settled down into the courtyard.But weare queens of Nevermere and we will never allow you to control us.
“Understood, my queen.”
When Marcus bowed low, so did everyone else, allowing me the opportunity to sweep Fern up into my arms. Her yelp caught my attention, but her pleased smile was exactly what I needed.
“You and Auren are free to go wherever you want now,” I said. “Want to leave this place together?”
“I couldn’t think of anything I want more,” she replied.
Chapter 63
Lance
Gods, I was home.
After a small but heated discussion, the wing had agreed to stop at least for a while at Dragon Rest. While Kael was adamant the safest place was his family estate, the promise of a warm bed and a hot bath less than an hour from the city won the day. As I slid from Viridian’s back, I found my head was still spinning. The general was this fixture in my life, good or bad, and now… I shook my head, ready to deal with the future, not the past, when Viridian went walking off.
Where are you going, lad?I asked.Viridian?
“So you’ve decided to show your face, have you?”
The sharp voice had me turning around to see Billy and Harley standing there, arms crossed.
“Been a while, Lance.” Harley looked me up and down, frowning when he saw my corp uniform. “I can see why.”
“No, you can’t.” I moved, holding out a hand to help Fern down because something inside me couldn’t settle until I was touching her. They watched my arm curl around my girl’s waist,then pull her into my side. “Fern, this is Harley and Billy. Jenkins?—”
“Is still out in the forest.” Billy’s chin jerked up. “Not that you’d know.” He peered past the two of us. “Found yourself a queen dragon after all, did ya?”
“If you mean Viridian found his mate…” My dragon returned to the fold, holding something in his foreclaws.What do you have there, lad?
For you, my queen.
A flash of something bright, I caught that as he offered the gem to Auren, and I wondered how she would respond. After what she’d been though, surely the queen dragon would prefer a nice side of beef, not?—
“That’s a nice bit if citrine.” Dain said so little it was still a shock hearing him speak. He craned his neck to look at it. “Carved in the shape of an eye, by the look of it.”
The answer is in the earth, Viridian said, yet again, but it was only now that statement made sense.
“Probably from the cave we found,” Harley said.
“What cave?”
He looked at Billy, nudging him in the ribs.
“Now Lance cares about what’s happening at Dragon Rest.” I ignored the dig, staring the two of them down. “We were digging down to try to find somewhere warm enough to create hatching sands. The dragons found the entrance to a cave a few days ago, something you’d know if you bothered to come by.”
“Show us.” Kael strode over, staring my childhood friends down. “Show us where this cave is.”
“Who the hell—?” Harley spluttered.
“Kael.” I stabbed my finger in his direction. “Lorien, Dain, and Fern, now, please show us this cave.”
I hadn’t slept, was looking forward to falling into bed as soon as I could, preferably with Fern beside me, but the exhaustion fell away as my friends led us over to the excavation site. Viridian had returned to it and the other dragons joined him. Billy and Harley’s beasts ambled over and suddenly soil wasgoing flying through the air in massive plumes, to reveal a very familiar entrance.
“That’s just like the tomb entrance,” Fern said. “The archway. The carvings.”
“Can it be a lot less terrifying?” Lorien sighed. “After the day I’ve had, I would very much like not to feel like I’m drowning when I go into the very dark cave.”
