“I’m so sorry. But we did have a really nice time.” Raine is still holding Mary’s arm.
“Where’s your sister?” Mary asks.
“Oh, the bodyguards took her back to the inn,” Raine says.
“Good, good.” The proprietor is still giving me the eye. We follow her into the bar.
Raine picks up two purses and a light blue bag. I find a pen and matchbook on the bar top and write down a number on the inside. “Call Leopold. He will take care of any damages. And if you know the owner of the red coupe outside, give this number to them too.”
“I think that belonged to the other dragons. I heard some locals talking about how they saw them drive up in it. Do you want me to give the number to them? I don’t want them back in my pub.” She glares at me. She most definitely doesn’t want me back in her pub, either.
“Well, don’t give the number to them, then.”
“You think I’m daft? I don’t want problems with anyone. And I’m not taking a side. But if need be, I’ll be going with those up at Cloud Rift.” Mary inclines her head.
“I appreciate that.”
“Thank you for not burning down my business.” Mary gives a single nod. From beneath the counter, she takes three clean bar rags and hands them to me.
I look from her to the rags, then back to her.
“To keep the chafing down,” she explains.
Raine laughs, and it echoes in the empty pub. I can’t help but join in.
We head out through the front door.
“Whoa.” Raine’s eyes bulge. “This is a lot of damage.”
I survey the area. The Firested car, a fence, some bushes, some flattened flowers. “It could have been a lot worse.” My dragon is pushing at me to get Raine out of here, but also to shift and turn their car as flat and flexible as a crepe.
My skin itches to get her out of here. I open the car door for Raine. From the boot I grab a pair of jogging pants,tossing the rags inside before slamming it shut. And then we’re on the way up the mountain.
Raine carefully studies her knees. “You doing okay?”
I’m doing my best not to speed. My attention’s split between the road, Raine, and the sky. Evander’s too far away to hear. He’ll take care of them. It’s not a real battle; we don’t have real battles on this side of theThessari. Our dragons are more powerful at home, and the Earthbound have a treaty, one that has to stay in place or the humans won’t have much of a planet left. “I’m good.” Smoke puffs from my nose, declaring me a liar. I don’t care. “Are you?”
“Yes... No. Why did you have secret bodyguards on me? You could have told me, ‘when you go into town, we want you to be protected.’ Those guys, the big ones?—”
I scoff. Because the Firested dragon shifters are a lot smaller than me. In my peripheral, Raine’s glaring at me. “Continue please.” I turn the corner out of the village and start up the mountain.
“Who are they?”
“Firested, one of the five clans and a longtime enemy of Crest Wing.” There’s no point holding back now. We’ve told her more than any other candidate. It’s like we can’t keep things from her. I don’twantto keep things from her. “They’re up to something. We normally keep our battles out of the human realm, but lately Firested has been doing crazy things. Coming to our village... I don’t know if they found out about you or just scented us on you. But yes, I wouldn’t put it past them to take you.”
“But why?”
Fuck, this definitely isn’t a conversation I want to have with her right now. “Because our mate will be the next queen of Crest Wing.” If she can survive the challenge.
48
RAINE
Queen. Queen.
A laugh bubbles up inside me until I have to let it out. I can’t be queen. That settles it; I’m really not their mate. There’s no way. A part of me thought maybe—there’s this strange pull to each of them—but queen? Nope.
“Raine,” Roark says, his deep tone filling the car.
