Dash agreed, especially given what was ahead of them. “Then we better get on the march before their spy warns them, and they have time to route us.”
Tanis was gatheringthe last of her belongings from their bedroom when she felt the air behind her stir. She turned, half-expecting it to be Dash.
Instead, the Tenmaru queen stood there in all her fierce glory. And it was glorious. The queen was absolutely stunning in her beauty.
Tanis swallowed hard. Not from fear, but there was an air about the queen that let everyone know she was not to be trifled with. Naomi’s powers caused the hair on the back of Tanis’s arms to stand on end. Those powers literally charged the air around them.
“Majesty,” she said, curtsying. “To what do I owe this honor?”
Naomi cocked her head as she studied Tanis with those eerie blue, deepset eyes. “You’re a dragon.” Not question. Just a mere statement of fact.
Even so, Tanis felt the need to confirm it. “I am.”
Without another word, Naomi closed the distance between them and took a handful of her red hair. The queen wrapped her hand in it and held Tanis’s hair in her fist. It wasn’t painful, but it was firm. “You love him.”
Tanis wasn’t sure what to say. Again, it wasn’t a question. The queen seemed to like to speak in short, direct sentences with her beautiful, lilting accent.
And still, the queen held her hair. “Have you any idea the nightmare of your fate?”
Tanis didn’t like the sound of that, and she wasn’t quite certain what Naomi was talking about. “I don’t know... what fate?”
“To love outside your species.”
Sadness choked her at a reminder she didn’t need. One that haunted her constantly. “Of course, I do.”
Shaking her head, the queen released her finally. “You think so, but no you don’t. You have no idea what you’ll face. What your children will have to endure.” She swept a look over Tanis that made her feel as if she were lacking something.
Then, she waved her hand. “This will not do.”
Tanis was aghast. Was she insulting her?What did I do to make her hate me?“Beg pardon?”
Without answering, the queen snapped her fingers, and in an instant Tanis’s clothes were changed to Tenmaru armor. She even had a tiger skin cape that matched the queen’s.
Naomi nodded in approval. “Much better. That befits royalty.”
Befuddled by the unexpected gift and why the queen would give her such, Tanis offered her a tentative smile. “Thank you, Majesty.”
She inclined her head to Tanis. “No weapon of any kind will penetrate that armor. Continue to protect Deciel and there will be many more gifts for you.”
Then, she vanished in a cloud of dark smoke.
Stunned over the encounter, Tanis stood there, half-expecting this to be a dream.
Why would the Tenmaru queen give her such a thing?
For that matter, why was protecting Dash important to the queen of oni and yokai?
A sudden, horrible suspicion went through her.I better be wrong.
But nothing else made sense.
She quickly finished packing, then went to find her errant... whatever he was. Boyfriend. Irritant. She stopped short of calling him a lover because that just didn’t feel right to her. She’d thought they had a deeper connection than that. At least it felt deeper to her.
But what if he didn’t feel the same?
Dash was standing beside Ryper when she found him. Ryper’s gaze danced over new armor as the color faded from his face. He nudged Dash who looked at him until Ryper jerked his chin in her direction.
Only then did Dash turn toward her. He duplicated Ryper’s actions of scanning her armor and paling greatly.
