“How is this not an enemy attack?” Baldur asked.
Without warning, Ryper and Halla appeared by his side. “Is that who I?—”
“Yes, it is,” he said, cutting his brother off. It was exactly who Ryper thought.
Halla tsked then laughed.
“There’s an army at my gate.” Baldur crossed the bailey to stand in front of Dash. “Why should I stand down?”
Dash brushed his hands through his hair to smooth it. “They’re on our side.”
Baldur snorted in denial. “They’re demons, oni... yokai! How in the Thirteen Kingdoms do you figure such beasts are on our side?”
Dash exchanged a grimace with Ryper. This was going to be an awkward explanation. And really, it was one he didn’t even want to begin.
So instead, he asked Baldur the only pertinent question. “Who leads that army?”
“I do, of course.” A smooth, deeply accented voice spoke from his left side.
Dash cursed at the unexpected appearance of his mother. She was so close to him that he jumped just as he normally did whenever Ryper snuck up on him. “I hate it when you do that.”Couldn’t anyone in his family make some noise when they moved?
She tsked. Which made Dash acutely aware of how many eyes were watching them.
But then Makkuro Naomi was a hard creature to miss. Taller than most females, she stood almost even in height to him and Ryper. And did so with a commanding presence that let everyone there know she wasn’t just a queen.
She was a fierce, ruthless warrior who’d never been defeated in battle. Her long black hair was coiled beneath her orange and gold kabuto. What was easy to miss was the fact that the golden horns coming out from the sides of her helmet weren’t decoration.
They were all hers. Along with those vibrant swirling blue eyes that appeared like a piercing summer sky with moving clouds. Because her irises were milky white, most assumed her to be blind.
That was their mistake. Ever vigilant, she was acutely aware of every heartbeat. And those eyes missed absolutely no detail no matter how small.
Even though she was dressed in armor reminiscent of a tiger’s lethal body that came with a tiger skin cape, she was still the epitome of feminine grace and beauty.
As was befitting the empress of the Tenmaru—the kingdom of demons, oni, yokai and tengu. They possessed some of the strongest magick in all the world. As well as some of the most feared warriors.
When Naomi marched that army outside of her kingdom, most surrendered immediately. His father had been the rare exception. Which was why she’d resorted to trickery to defeat the unicorn race.
In the end, her plans had backfired.
Dash suspected it was a meeting of mutual lethality. His mother had met the only creature more barbaric and ruthless than she. If ever there had been two creatures who should never have spawned, it was his parents.
What the hell had the universe been thinking when it brought those two together?
Had his father not already had a wife, he was sure they would have united forces and ruled all the known realms. To this day, he had no idea how Renata’s mother had survived. It would have been completely in character for either or both of his parents to murder her for their ambitions.
Yet neither had done so, and no one knew why.
“Your Majesty.” Baldur bowed before her.
She didn’t return the gesture. Instead, she stared at the elfin king as if he were something staining the bottom of her shoe.
Hinrik cleared his throat. “Does she not speak our language?” he asked Dash.
Naomi curled her lips. “Tell the insects that I don’t speak to those beneath me.”
Those words caused an eruption of activity.
Naomi held her hand up and immediately froze everyone in the bailey, except Dash, Ryper and her.
