Stop.
He had so much more he needed to focus on. Someone had his sister’s horn and with it, they could do all manner of damage. Not the least of which was kill him.
If he died...
The dragon would have a lot more to worry about than just her brother’s skull. All he’d fought and bled for...
It would be for nothing. Chaos would return and it would own the world once more.
Maybe that was the only point of his life. To hold chaos off for just one more day.
Do not fail.
The price of failure was too high for all of them. But particularly for the innocents like their dragon.
He glanced back at Halla. “Did anyone follow you when you left the palace?”
“Not that I know.”
Not that she knew. Lovely. “You haven’t seenhimfollowing you?”
She laughed. “Does anyone ever see Ryper?”
Not unless he wanted them to. Damn it. He should have been named Shadow with the way he blended into the darkness and traveled without sound. Although, given the fact he’d been an assassin for most of his life, Ryper was probably the most fitting name for him, and Dash had always wondered if it was the name his mother had bestowed on the boy or one he’d chosen.
The one time he’d asked that question, Ryper had just stared at him and said nothing.
He was good at that, too.
Noncommittal to the bitter end.
“Besides, Ryper told me to keep me eyes on you, Sire.”
Of course, he did. Ryper worried as much as a nursemaid.
“He also told me that he was going where he was most needed.”
Dash scowled as he tried to figure out where that might be. “What does that mean?”
She shrugged. “It’s Ryper. Could mean anything. But he was insistent that I watch your back, Sire, as he was sure something bad was coming.”
That sounded about right. And it sounded like Ryper’s normal paranoia. Which tragically had a way of coming true.
Dash let out a tired sigh. He’d acted rashly and he knew it. Leaving his lands had been a bad idea, and Ryper would be the first to lecture him on the stupidity of it. But this was somethinghe dared not trust to anyone else. No one could know about his sister.
Most of all, they couldn’t know about her missing wand.
Just a few more days and they’d be in Auderley. He’d have Renata’s wand back. The dragon would get her skull.
And he’d put the darkness to rest before it devoured them all.
Chapter 5
Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Bink cast a disgusted smirk toward the human he was beginning to wish he’d never met. “You’re supposed to be a dragon slayer, Fort. Act like you have a set of balls between your legs.”
Instead, the whiny, shriveled human rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. Just under average height for a male, he had a bloated face and boorish features more akin to an ogre than human. Bink had known the moment Fort had shown up with a dragon’s head that he hadn’t won it by honest means.
