“How the hell could she be a plant? It’s not like they knew we were coming tonight.”
Jed said, “If she’s a plant, then we have a leak because the only ones who knew about our plans were the soldiers here tonight and Garrick. No one else had details or anything, not even my father.”
Roman nodded. “Fair enough. She just seemed suspicious to me, but I suppose I’m being paranoid.”
Jed grunted. “We can always compel her and ask if she’s telling the truth. There’s no way for anyone to lie to me when they’re under my compulsion.”
“That’s a great idea. You should do that when we get back.”
I didn’t like the thought of compelling a person like that, but I also didn’t want someone leading us or anyone else into a trap with false information. So needs must, I supposed, but I didn’t really feel good about it.
Phaeron sighed from the middle row beside Beshiro. “But that’s a worry for later. Right now, we need to go back to the safe house and get some rest.”
“That’s definitely an order. Everyone needs to sleep,” Tan said before yawning and making us all chuckle.
That sounded like a fine plan to me.
Chapter Ten
Roman
Aloud knock on my bedroom door made me sigh, but I still said, “Come in.”
I wasn’t even a little bit surprised to find Oakley standing there, looking like a very pissed-off dragon. I knew they’d be angry with me before I’d even hung up the phone. Fuck.
“What the hell, Roman?”
“I’m following orders.”
They rolled their eyes. “Psh. Like you ever take orders from my dad that you don’t agree with.”
“He’s the king.”
“Oh my Mother of Scales. Donoteven think about pulling that bullshit excuse with me. He treats you like an equal, and you do the same.”
I ran a hand over my face. “He wants to see you.”
“We finally have a lead to follow up on, and you want us to go home? After all the work we’ve put into this, you’re ready to just give up now? What the actual fuck, Roman?”
“Oakley, listen to me. All I agreed to was going home to check in, okay? We’re still going to follow up with everything that Lilura Periculum girl gave us. We just have to check in with your father first. Plus, it’ll give us a chance to interview her again ourselves before we go traipsing into something we’re not prepared for. We need to refill our spells and potions anyway. I want to resupply with vendors we know instead of buying from complete strangers.” Something we’d had to do on numerous occasions while out in the field.
They looked like they wanted to argue, but I knew they agreed with me about getting our spells and potions from trusted witches—they were just as aware as I was that some of the things we’d bought out on the job weren’t as high quality. “It’s just a check-in?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
They let out a small huff, then stepped to the side so they could lean against the wall, their hands tucked behind their back. “I’m not ready to stop this investigation. We need to find the person in charge of this fucking trafficking ring. We need to take them out and stop this from happening to more innocent people.”
I stared at them for a long moment before it hit me why they’d been so… insistent—and sometimes, intense—about this case. They’d been kidnapped themself, hadn’t they? They’d been taken from their father and raised by an unloving woman in a cult that did horrible things to them.
As far as I knew, Oakley had never shared all that’d happened to them as a child with anyone, but I’d seen clues here and there. Not to mention that there were a few pieces of armor, shields, and weapons made from Oakley’s scales… scales that hadn’t naturally been shed.
Typically, in order to make dragonscale armor, shields, and swords, an adult dragon—well into their thirties or far older—would shed a scale or two a month for a few years in order to collect enough to make even one piece.
The fact that so many pieces existed from Oakley’s dragon scales—from before they were twenty-five, when they’d come home to us—meant someone had… skinned them while they were in dragon form and stole their scales to create the weapons and armor.
If their mother and her cult had been willing to do that, who knew what else they’d done to the poor dragon?
There were signs from Oak’s behavior as well. Flinches they tried to hide, nerves when someone was angry. Things most people wouldn’t notice, but I did from spending so much time with them… and because I always noticed everything about my Oakley.
