No, instead, Val had to keep charging onward, his mind elsewhere as he tried to get his sister to settle in while also introducing her to the new realities of her life. Realities that she wasn’t exactly sure she fully agreed with because her life had once been so simple, and now she had duties and stuff like that? In the back of her mind, she was still the same girl from Tennessee, the same one who had waited tables and done just about everything that people had expected of her. He expected her to somehow turn that off like a switch? Especially now thathe expected her to go out and meet the people so she could learn what the Opal dragon house was like.
“None of that matters, Ashley. There’s always been dragons out there. Today your life changes. Something you’ll like considering the conditions you’ve been forced to live with,” Val shuddered in disgust as they walked around the inner part of the castle and Ashley frowned.
Ashley thought of his statement as a slight, knowing that he probably didn’t mean to offend her but that it was only second nature for him. Regardless of what Val said, it was more than evident that he looked down on her. He probably would look down on her for the rest of her life, so long as she was with him.
“All of this is beside the point. Today, you’re meant to meet the castle staff, and our royal court.” Val paused and looked over at her with a disapproving purse of his lips. “And we really must do something about your wardrobe. That frock the chambermaid brought you won’t do. We have a surprise guest showing up tonight. Your mate will be among the guests at the banquet I’m hosting.”
“My mate?” She blinked in astonishment at the statement. “This is the mate you chose for me, the one you talked about yesterday? When I’m supposed to have a fated mate?”
“Well, naturally, the broken wing on your back means someone has the other half. But that doesn’t matter. It’s important that you do your best to leave a good impression on your mate-to-come regardless of whether or not he will be your mate for long. His kingdom is one that we seek to make alliances with, and if we are to take over the majority of the new world,” Val said, making her skin crawl.
“What do you mean he won’t be my mate for long? What do you have planned for him?” Ashley waited for an answer, but Val waved this set of questions off too. Ashley thought, again, that her brother was one big walking red flag waving in the breeze.
Ashley had been grossed out by her brother more than once since meeting him, but if he meant to murder the man he wed her to, he wasn’t a very nice man at all. Not that she was convinced he was nice to begin with, but sometimes, he reminded her quite clearly that he wasn’t to be trusted.
Since she’d arrived, he’d become far stiffer and more formal with her. He obviously relished his role as the king and master of the Opal house and today, he’d introduced her to the servants first. Ashley might be from the back of beyond, but she wasn’t stupid. She just wasn’t sure if he thought she wasn’t worthy of introducing to the nobles and ‘important’ people, or if he wanted to rub it in the servants’ noses that she was above them. She’d caught more than one servant glaring at him when his back was turned. They weren’t as fond of him as he thought.
Were the servants still loyal to their father, even now that he was…gone?
Val was certainly a strange man, but from what she’d gathered about their father, he was much worse. He’d had her tossed out, after all, how good could he be?
She continued to follow along beside him, and they soon came to a hall lined with portraits. “I suppose this is our family?”
“Of course it is, sister.” Val reached to straighten on the gilded frames, exposing the skin on his wrist and showcasing his greatest secret.
Small, raised cursive decorated the back of Val’s hand, scars from a previous life. Ashley couldn’t make out exactly what they said, but she could guess. “What is that?”
“What?” Val followed her gaze and turned red before he pulled his shirt cuff down over his wrist to hide the scars. “Nothing, one of father’s many punishments. I wasn’t a very good little boy.”
Ashley blanched, wondering how exactly the scars were made, but Val seemed so upset by them that she didn’t dare pry.Her father, whoever he was, had undoubtedly hurt his son to teach him a lesson.
Ned hadn’t exactly been lenient with her as she grew up, but he also hadn’t been cruel either. Did that mean she could trust Val, though, simply because he’d been treated cruelly as he grew up? She wanted to, even if that decision came back to bite her in the ass.
It didn’t help when their walk led them to Jack.
“Jack Tracey,” Val said with no small amount of venom, making Ashley wonder why he employed him if he hated him so much?
Wow, you two are so…friendly,” Ashley said. “I would think you’d be more grateful since he found me, Val.”
Val glared at her, but another man approached them and Val’s whole demeanor became somehow darker. But Ashley barely noticed that because she knew this man.
Elliot.
A young man with red hair and green eyes that she’d met in a totally different world. She’d served him at the diner a couple of times. Which meant he’d been sent out to find her, but hadn’t turned her in. That fact made him her new favorite person. No wonder Val was so angry with him.
Ashley smiled at him, enjoying the amusement in his eyes as he sank down in a bow.
“He’s a treacherous thing,” Val warned as he ushered Ashley away from the man. “I pray that you’re never caught alone with him. He’s a scoundrel who’s taken the precious virginity of far too many young women. I won’t let my sister be his next victim.”
“Oh, so I’m supposed to be a virgin now?” Ashley muttered to herself. She wouldn’t confirm or deny it, let him think whatever he wanted to. Her sexual history was none of his business.
Instead of arguing how archaic the notion of virginity was, she allowed herself to look over her shoulder at Elliot. She sawthe way he leaned over to Jack and murmured in his ear, a glint in his eyes that spoke of mischief. Something more was brewing in the castle. She just didn’t know what.
“You’ll meet much better people than them tonight at the banquet,” Val informed her, his voice making clear one thing: there was no option to say no or make an excuse not to go. Not that Ashley would have said no, she was too curious.
“It’s a tradition that the royal houses dragon families welcome new births and arrivals with a large, ceremonial dinner in which we eat with our staff, though not all of them are fortunate enough to be actual dragons like you and me,” Val said. “Aat the ceremony, you will get to see the workers again, and meet all of the nobles, dear sister. The whole house must know what I am planning to do and that this news spreads amongst us first before it gets out to the other dragons because soon you will be forced to meet the other families.”
The other families...Ashley hadn’t thought much about them yet. Who were they? What were they like? She didn’t know, but she knew she had to learn as much as she could to survive in this place. Val wouldn’t have kidnapped her if he didn’t need her, and he’d already made it plain he planned to use her to build bridges with another dragon family, but which one? And did that glint she sometimes saw in his eye, a glint of greed when he looked her way, mean he was getting far more than an alliance out of this? She’d have to watch him, even if all she wanted to do right now was look away from him.
