The oni might have a dragon-eating species... the centaurs didn’t.
Marthen cocked his head as if he heard something.
Tanis glanced to Ryper to see if this was normal. The expression on Ryper’s face said that it wasn’t.
“What is it?” Ryper asked.
The words had barely left his lips before a dark-skinned human woman came toward them with a man she was holding by the scruff of his neck. Tanis had no idea who she or the nasty man was, but the woman carried herself as a veteran warrior.
She threw the man forward to land at Ryper’s feet. “This maggot is begging to see a queen or king.”
While Tanis wouldn’t have called him a maggot per se, there was something creepy about the man with greasy hair and an unkempt beard. Tanis actually wanted to step away from him for his stench.
Until he pulled something out of the folds of his tattered cape, and she saw what it was.
A golden unicorn horn.
Renata’s.
“Is one of you in charge?” he asked.
Before anyone could speak, Tanis had him on the ground and had wrenched the horn from his hand. “How did you get this?”
Ryper picked her up and removed her foot from the man’s throat. “He can’t answer if you kill him.”
She wanted to fight Ryper’s fierce hold but knew better than to try. “Put me down, Ryper. I mean it.”
“I would obey her, were I you,” Shadow Dash said. “She had me on my arse a few times.”
Ryper only hesitated for a moment before he set her back on her feet. “Sorry.”
Tanis went for the man again. He’d pushed himself up but was still coughing and wheezing.
Before she could reach him, the maggot moved to hide behind Dove.
Dove arched a brow. “I’m not going to protect you from her. So, you might want to come out and answer her questions.”
“Is she going to hit me again?”
“Probably. If you don’t step out from behind him and answer my questions, I definitely will.”
He came around Dove cautiously. “My partner took it back from the queen.”
“When?” Tanis asked.
“After she stabbed the High King and the Oni queen vanished with him. Queen Meara was laughing and distracted, bragging on how she was going to take the throne. While she wasn’t looking, Bink grabbed it from the ground, and ran off with it. He handed it to me and told me to hold onto it until he came back.”
Tanis frowned. “Why did he steal the horn from her?”
He shrugged. “She double crossed us. Seemed only fair we take back what’s ours.”
This time, it was Ryper who grabbed him up and shook him like a dog with a rag toy. “You killed my sister for that wand, you son of a bitch! It wasneveryours!”
Utter silence descended as everyone present heard Ryper’s furious declaration over his relationship with Renata.
Even Dove looked at the Shadow Dash behind her and mouthed the words,he’s your brother?
Too late, Ryper realized what he’d said. “Um...”
