“Is that what I think it is?” Gideon asked.
“Yeah.” Aric’s voice was grim. “What the hell does the Ancient want with a shitload of Red Dragon?”
CHAPTER 32
“On your feet,” barked the largest of two big Atlantean guards who’d barged into Darion’s cell the next day. “Her Majesty wants to see you.”
He took his time standing up. “Here I was just about to get a little shut-eye,” he said, with a sardonic smile.
The soldiers glowered, shoving him out the door ahead of them. They had no idea that his boredom was an act. If they had come to get him just a minute sooner, they would have found his cell vacant and their prisoner on the loose somewhere inside the palace.
Since Selene had ordered him back to his cell, he’d been making good use of his time. The light she had been holding around the door to lock him inside was fading even more after their encounter in her garden.
Darion had used the opportunity to slip out and explore where he could. It wasn’t easy avoiding detection from the various attendants and guards, but even his limited reconnaissance had given him a decent understanding of the palace layout and the purposes of its various chambers and public rooms.
What he hadn’t yet been able to discern, however, was the location of the crystal.
The soldiers marched him down from the east tower and across to the larger, main tower that contained the throne room and Selene’s court. She wasn’t inside the expansive space, but her voice filtered out, along with someone else’s, from the adjacent solar.
“It’s been too many days, Your Grace. I suggest we send a second search party to the area.”
“I’m just as concerned as you are, Seb. Something’s not right. But if anything has happened to Taebris or his team, sending more men will only put them at risk as well.”
Sebathiel started to argue further, but one of the guards cleared his throat and Selene’s adviser stiffened at the interruption. He looked at Darion with the same disapproval he might give a flea-bitten mongrel standing in the queen’s presence.
With a courtly bow to her, Sebathiel then strode out of the solar on a current of contempt, his long robes billowing in his wake.
Darion smirked. “He doesn’t like me much,” he said, his gaze rooted on Selene.
It was next to impossible for him to notice anything else at all when she was in the room. Breathtaking as always, today she was resplendent in a pale blue gown and her shimmery hair loose around her shoulders and arms. But there were shadows in her eyes, Darion noticed.
Her conversation with Sebathiel obviously had her pensive, even worried, but her face seemed to carry a weariness too. She seemed on the verge of exhaustion, despite her regal poise.
A flick of her hand dismissed the guards. Once they had gone, she regarded Darion with a carefully schooled stare.
“Seb doesn’t like anything that threatens the realm.”
“Or that threatens you,” Darion added.
She gave a mild nod. “That’s what makes him my most valuable adviser. Sebathiel has lasted longer in that post than anyone else because he would do anything to protect the realm, and his queen, from any threat.”
“Is that how you see me too? A threat to the realm? A threat to you? I thought we were moving past all of that yesterday but you seem to have other thoughts.”
He studied her face, noting the hint of color that flushed her cheeks, the way she struggled to hold his stare now.
She drew in a shallow breath, her voice just above a whisper. “What happened yesterday was a mistake.”
“Didn’t feel like one to me.” Despite her insistence, he spotted the lie in her gaze and in the anxious way she licked her lips.
His body responded instantly, making the urge to close the distance and pull her into his arms nearly overwhelming. He stayed put, though not without effort.
He could still feel her in all of his senses--the sweet taste of her, the velvet softness of her skin, her hair, her sex. Her scent still lived inside his head, as did the husky sound of the hot demand that had boiled out of her while he’d been buried to the hilt inside her body.
All of those things were the truth. Not her abrupt determination to deny it.
He shook his head. “I don’t believe yesterday felt like a mistake to you, either.”
She frowned. “I didn’t send for you to talk about any of that. I’ve decided to move you out of the east tower, into the main palace.”
