Riot barely pauses at my side before he stalks away toward the beach, but Anarchy snatches that moment to sigh down at him.
“Oh, brother,” she murmurs, shaking her head. “Your heart is doomed to break.”
When he disappears along the path, the woman rises to her feet.
“My name is Kaito Miku,” she says. “I’m Ryuji’s sister. I would appreciate if you’d keep your distance.”
I don’t deny her request, stepping back from the path so she can pass us by without any hint of interference.
But then she pauses, peers in the direction Riot disappeared, and asks, “Who was that?”
Anarchy makes a sequence of sounds I can’t follow and I can only guess it’s Riot’s dark elf name. When she finishes speaking, she grins at me and speaks in a barely disguised whisper. “Let’s see if she caught that.”
“Nihi…kah… sun…” Miku’s attempt doesn’t come close to matching even half of the quick sounds Anarchy made, but she tries.
“Riot,” I say, firmly. “His name is Riot.”
In the distance, I can hear voices coming closer.
It’s time to get out of here before all hell breaks loose again.
I hurry with Anarchy into the open, keeping my distance from Miku, who plows across the beach toward Ryuji.
“Everything okay?” Lucian asks when we reach him.
“Fine,” I say, taking a deep breath. “For now.”
Anarchy sidles up to Lucian with a soft, “Areyouokay?” She looks him over while catching her bottom lip between her teeth. “Any wounds I need to tend to?”
Yesterday, he would have frozen as surely as Miku froze when Riot snarled at her. Today, Lucian gives Anarchy a lazy smile. “Sadly, no.”
With a little smile, I return my attention to the dragons farther down the beach and the discussion I’m about to have.
We may have knocked out as many as ten of the original fifteen dragon shifters, but it appears that more have arrived, many of them now standing outside the training hall as I predicted while others take care of their wounded.
However, only Ryuji—and now Miku—stand on the porch, so it looks like only the two of them will be heading inside.
I make a quick decision. “It looks like I can only take one of you inside the hall with me and it’s better if I don’t look menacing. I’ll take one of the panthers and that’s all.” I quickly bend to Strife. “Will you come with me?”
He hisses up at me, as if he’s insulted.
“Of course you look menacing,” I croon, nudging my face against his. “But they’re more likely to underestimate you. Especially if you behave yourself, yes?”
At that, his hissing stops and he returns my nudge.
When I rise, the others have wrinkled brows, especially the keeper.
“I need you all outside, watching the other dragons and ensuring they don’t encroach on my discussion with Ryuji,” I say firmly, despite the fact that I’d prefer my family to be standing directly at my back. “An ambush is the last thing I need.”
The keeper doesn’t nod. Nothing I could say would make him happy. But he doesn’t protest, either.
I take a deep breath. “Time to drink tea.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It’s unsettlingly quiet around the training hall, where the dragons keep guard, and even quieter within it.
While Miku disappears into the kitchen, presumably to boil water, Ryuji kneels on the mat flooring, his focus briefly flickering to the damaged floor at the far end of the room.
