“Olinara,” I said with respect.
She gave a soft purring laugh. “Koarthandris. It’s been a long time.” The invitation in her voice was clear. I took pride in the fact that I’d never indulged in her advances. That wouldn’t change now.
As I reached her, she played with the collar of her robe, a silken thing, mostly transparent — like the woman wearing it — slowly pulling it across one breast. She made the gesture seem absentminded, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t.
“I’m not interested,” I stated, voice flat. “Please take me to Izzy.”
“She’s arguing with her shifter. She’ll be a moment.” Olinara bit her plump lip and pouted. She was over two-hundred-years-old but didn’t look a day over nineteen. Her gaze raked over me. I was naked, a side effect of shifting into my dragon form and back. “I wouldn’t need long.”
No, she wouldn’t.
But I wasn’t interested.
“Take. Me. To. Izzy. Please.” My tone brokered no argument.
She pouted more, then sighed and gathered her robe around her, before flouncing back inside. This was the enigma which was Olinara: shecould bea distinguished woman, or she could be a petulant tease — as she was now — acting one tenth her age.
This was going to be a long visit.
As I followed her, my keen senses picked up raised voices. Well before I saw Izzy, I heard her.
“…andwhenwe get back to Veilblood Academy — whichwill bein two days, if not sooner —youwill tell Myel that you’d planned to have someone break his bond with me and that you’ve never cared for him as much as he thinks you do!” Izzy’s voice was adamant.
I sighed, recalling she was mate-bonded to the small shifter. That was a complication I hadn’t foreseen. If Saldrea found out, she’d kill Myel in an instant, or worse, capture and torture him to death for fun, knowing it would hurt Izzy. And she would find out. Now that Saldrea was even more furious with Izzy, she’d be doing everything in her power to dig into Izzy’s life. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’d put out a sizable reward for any information on her nemesis. After that all it would take is one slip-up by Myel or Izzy and someone would know, someone who wished to receive that reward and please the tempestuous princess.
“You’re being unreasonable,” Safir said, voice more level, calm. Olinara and I were still a ways off and I barely heard him. What I did hear was the clap of flesh-on-flesh and a soft grunt.
“You must like being slapped,” Izzy fumed. “Maybe…someday… in somedistantfuture where you’veearnedthe right to speak freely to me and advise me, I’ll let you tell me I’m being unreasonable. But right now, unreasonable or not, you donotget to say anything of the sort! Do. You. Understand?”
The only reasonable response would be a quick yes.
“Your Majesty, I?—”
I hadn’t known Izzy long, but even I knew talking back was a bad idea.
“DO! YOU! UNDERSTAND!” The power in her voice radiated out to me and poured over me and through me. Wow… Izzy would far surpass Saldrea in potency and ability once she was fully trained. Her raw power now was… indescribable.
Olinara and I had come in sight of the two, and I watched as the dominance in Izzy’s voice pushed Safir to his knees.
He bowed from there.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Olinara and I stopped at the arched entrance to the vast living room in which Izzy and Safir fought orhadfought. It was done now. Izzy was livid, flushed crimson with fury, arms straight with fists balled at her sides as she stared down at the shifter. Skies above! She was magnificent!
There was something about a powerful woman who could put people in their place without physical violence or bullying. And Izzy was exactly that. I didn’t doubt that Safir had brought this tirade on himself. From everything I’d seen and heard about Izzy she wasn’t a cruel person. She could have beaten the shifter to a pulp. Even without knowing her elven abilities, she’d still have elven strength, yet the only mark on the man was a red spot where she’d slapped him. Saldrea would have done so much worse.
My hand rose to touch the still weeping wound on my cheek where Saldrea had carved her mark into me and made it so it would never quite heal.Thatwas brutality. Izzy’s wrath was a righteous rage.
And that’s when it hit me…
Izzy was perfect for me.
The thought struck me like an elven sucker punch. I didn’t want it to be true, but it was. For the longest time, I’d had no interest in women because my ideal woman simply wasn’t possible. I desired someone who was kind and gracious and witty, soft when she wished to be, but also hard and determined, strong in her convictions. That alone washard enough to find, but my additional requirement was a woman who was physically sturdy enough to take my ratheraggressivepassion in bed. Something only a dragon or an elf could do. And no dragon or elf I knew had the requisite softness and graciousness and kindness.
But Izzy, raised in the human world, had all of thatandwas an elf, sturdy of form.
She was perfect.
