“Yes, there were,” Alistair protests. “It’s?—”
A low rumbling sound comes from somewhere close by.
“That!” Alistair exclaims.
“Ah.” Understanding blows across Lyra’s face, and she grins before lifting her shoulders in a casual shrug. “Nothing a good banging can’t solve.”
Alistair blinks, looking startled. “Wait, what?”
“Banging. You know, on the pipes.” That absolutely villainous grin remains on her mouth as she motions towards the water pipes on the wall, which rumble faintly again. Then she cocks her head, her orange eyes glittering in the firelight as she wiggles her eyebrows. “But hey, I’m always down for all kinds of banging.”
“Subtle,” Draven coughs under his breath.
Lyra shoots him a flat look. Alistair snatches up a mug and quickly hides behind an unnaturally long gulp of ale. On Lyra’s other side, Galen presses his lips together to stifle a laugh.
“Subtlety is for the weak,” Lyra declares, holding up a finger in the air. “My grandma always says that subtlety is a waste of time when you could have—” Her eyes suddenly light up, and she abruptly stops speaking in the middle of the sentence. Then she raises her voice and yells across the crowd. “You made it!”
We all turn to look in the direction she is yelling.
Five male dragon shifters have just walked in through the door. All of them are wearing casual pants and shirts rather than armor, but they’re all incredibly muscular and move with unmistakable confidence. Lyra jumps up onto the wooden bench she was sitting on and begins waving to draw their attention since they didn’t hear her shout over the loud laughter and chatter around us.
“That would be Lyra’s five older brothers,” Draven announces with poorly hidden amusement.
Alistair goes pale as a sheet.
“You know, I told Finlay I would come and find him,” Galen suddenly says. “To, uhm… discuss stuff.”
A knowing grin betrays his lie as he quickly grabs his mug and disappears while Draven and I get to our feet as well.
“And I was going to show Selena that thing,” Draven says, and begins walking away from the table.
“Draven,” Alistair blurts out, grabbing his wrist before he and I can get away. Panic pulses across his entire face as he casts us a pleading look while Lyra continues waving to her brothers, who start towards us. “Wait. Don’t leave. Please. I swear I won’t call youbossy pantsfor an entire month. Please stay.”
Draven effortlessly pulls his wrist from Alistair’s grip and gives him a glittering smile that is positively villainous. “Good luck, charmer.”
“No, wait. Don’t?—”
We start slinking away.
“Draven,” Alistair growls under his breath, before casting another panicked glance at Lyra’s brothers. “You bastard, I will get you back for this.”
Turning so that he’s walking backwards, Draven shoots Alistair a grin full of challenge while nodding in the direction of Lyra’s brothers. “If you survive this, you know where to find me.”
“Draven. No, wait. I… Please. Don’t.” Alistair casts several panicked looks towards the five muscular dragon shifters who have almost reached the table now. Then he shoots me a desperate look while pleading, “Selena?”
I just laugh and wink at him.
“Oh Goddess help me,” I hear Alistair press out as he turns back towards the menacing guys heading straight for him.
Draven and I disappear out another door right as Lyra jumps down from the bench and throws her arms out as if to embrace all five of her brothers at the same time. They, however, have their sharp eyes fixed on Alistair.
“Oh, he’s so dead,” Draven says with a chuckle as we leave the packed gathering hall behind.
Cool night air washes over us as we start across the open square and towards Draven’s home. The murmur of cheerful voices grows fainter behind us as we move away from the celebration.
I almost feel a little bad for leaving Alistair to face the death squad alone. But I’m hoping that it will finally shake him out of that weird limbo he’s in. He obviously likes Lyra. It’s clear for everyone to see. All he needs to do is to actually admit it to her. And I really hope he does. I lost months with Draven just because I was too stubborn and terrified of my own emotions to admit it. I don’t want Alistair to make the same mistake.
Draven doesn’t lead us towards those grand doors and the throne room that we have now desecrated several times. Instead,he takes us around the building and towards that private side door we entered through earlier.
