I was meant to be returning in triumph, finally bringing my nest mates to visit my family.
This was my moment of victory.
My eyes are red-rimmed, but I straighten my shoulders. I push my hair away from my face.
“Run to the tombs,” I bellow over the panicked screams. I push every bit of mesmerism and command into the order as I can. “Hide there. You will be safe. Your King will protect you.”
I have brought this disaster and destruction upon my people. I shan’t allow this night to also end in their deaths.
My shoulders slump with relief, when the crowd calms and begins to sprint toward the gleaming, lotus carved tomb. It is the sacred heart of the village. The spirits of our ancestors are alive there.
Thousands of generations of my family rest in this place. But the dragons are disturbing them tonight.
“Atticus.” Furious, I tip my head up to the sky. “You barbaric coward; I am aking. You will have your head sliced from your foul body for breaking the peace treaty. Yet I shall show mercy. This is your one chance to leave.Now.”
Atticus doesn’t retreat.
Even if Atticus is acting alone, someone from the Shadow Court must have told him the timings for my arrival.
Was it Aurelius?
Maximinus?
Another traitor in the court who is secretly working against this peace and their king?
When a ruby dragon swoops too close to Shadow, she rears back to snarl and claw at the enemy. My mates tumble from her back.
I growl, and my fangs pulse in agony.
I stagger, drawn to the Omega wolf as I have been from the moment that I saw her kneeling like a pet.
I ache for her.
Hurt for her.
Die inside for her.
I have for three years, and it feels like I will lose what is left of my sanity if I don’t touch Freya and smell her pheromones, but I don’t dare let her touch me at the same time.
I am overwhelmed.
When the pretty fae instantly shields Freya with his wings, sweeping them around like blades, my eyes widen.
As flames dance across the night, glowing in Dove’s lavender eyes behind his mask, he is transformed into a warrior.
Why did he try to hide this side to himself?
He must have been a member of the featherglass, before Maximinus turned the rebels into pets.
On the Void, I never believed that my best friend would become the type of tyrant king who treated his enemies in the same way that Maximinus always has done.
As Tarquin did.
But then, do I truly know Aurelius at all?
When the ruby dragon swoops lower again, Dove directs his ravens, almost like he has the Power as well, to attack the Omega dragon rider. They viciously peck the Omega’s head and shoulders.
His screams are like music.
