“What’s worse than a human?”
“A beast it seems I can never escape.”
Tanis swallowed at the anger in his voice. What awful thing was after them? “Should we run?”
“Won’t do any good. It would only catch us.” He slowed down so that the shadow could rush toward them.
She frowned as she saw…
“Is that a hobgoblin?”
The second she asked the question, it transformed into a lovely blond woman in the prime of her youth. She strode toward them with a cocky swagger.
Dash let out another long, exaggerated sigh. “Thought I left you behind to take care of things. What are you doing here, Halla?”
“Following you and your new passenger. Should I ask where you found your lady?”
“She’s as much a lady as you are.”
Halla opened her mouth to speak, but Dash cut her off. “She’s a dragon I ran into after I left you with orders to stay put. And to keep an eye on things.”
She stopped dead in her tracks to stare at them. “Dragon, you say?”
“Fire-breathing. Scaly... dragon.”
Tanis frowned at his unflattering description of her. “Not sure I like the scaly part.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Do you not have scales?”
“Not at the moment, and they’re not scaly scales.” They were quite lovely, in her opinion. Almost identical to her mother’s. Though not quite as pretty as her mother’s had been.
“But theyarescales,” Dash said decisively.
Well, yes. Technically.
Tanis rolled her eyes at him. Which felt entirely different as a human than a dragon. She felt like she was wearing an ill-fitting suit. Too tight and restrictive.
“I like my scales,” she said under her breath.
“Well, since she’s not human...” Wings sprang out of the hobgoblin’s back as she shrank in size. “No need in wearing out me legs. I’m getting too old for this, and you need to stop traveling so fast. You’re making it bloody hard to keep up with you and find you every time you give us the slip.”
“Told you to stay home, didn’t I?”
“Bah!” Halla flew so that she hovered beside Tanis’s arm. “Why would I do that? Other than to bring you tales about how incompetent Kronnel is in your stead. Which he is, just so you know. Bloody boring, too.”
“You should have stayed home,” he repeated yet again. “Keeping an eye on Kronnel while I’m gone might be helpful.”
Halla made a rude noise. “When have I ever been helpful to you? Me job’s to harass and make you think twice.”
“Point taken. I think twice about killing you every time you’re near.”
This time the hobgoblin laughed at Dash’s surly tone. “That’s what your father used to say.”
“And here I thought all of his animus was saved up for me alone.”
Tanis didn’t speak as she realized the unicorn had said something she was rather sure he hadn’t meant to in front of her.
Something confirmed by the clearing of Halla’s throat to catch Dash’s attention. “Methinks you’ve forgotten the bit of baggage on your back, me lord.”
