Then again, they were looking for a lone black unicorn. Or a handsome king. Not an inconspicuous traveler with a woman by his side.
Well, he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
Okay, he wasn’t inconspicuous at all. He was an ominously handsome traveler.
However, they were a couple. No one expected the hated High King of the Thirteen Kingdoms to be dragging a bumpkin like her around with him. And why would he, given his lethal reputation? He should have been traveling with an armed escort or a noble snobby lady.
“Should we ride out of town?” she asked.
“No. That could draw too much attention.” Dash said those words to her, but he really wanted a horse, or to use his magick to get them out of here as quickly as possible. He just couldn’t risk it.
Changing into a unicorn would definitely draw unwanted attention. Sadly, there was only one unicorn with a black horn in existence.
And he was it. They were already lucky no one had remembered seeing him come into town as a unicorn with Halla. That had been an act of utter stupidity, and he wouldn’t make it again.
Although... he could use his powers to disguise the horn or remove it while he was in equine form, but that would cost him in terms of his powers and physical strength, and if he had to fight his way out of here, he couldn’t afford to be weakened. If he bought two horses, that could raise questions from a nosy stable attendant who could become a witness later for someone to question.
Or a body they’d have to hide.
No, best to walk out of town nonchalantly with the crowd and pray no one noticed them.
But the real question was who had placed that bounty on his head? Only Ryper and two unicorns, Kronnel and Keryna, knew he’d left his palace to go after Renata. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone else.
Which meant one of them must have betrayed him with that poster.
He knew for a fact it wasn’t Ryper. If Ryper had wanted the throne, he would have cut his throat long ago and taken it. For that matter, Ryper had his own throne he was entitled to that he could take.
But the man held no interest in power.
Not to mention, Ryper didn’t play games, and he had no ambition to rule anyone other than himself. In truth, he didn’t know what Ryper valued. It wasn’t money. Wasn’t power.
Ryper was a mystery to everyone.
Which left only two others. His second-in-command or Renata’s best friend. Or the two of them working together.
Why was he even surprised that they’d done this? Betrayal always came from within, otherwise it wouldn’t be betrayal.
Fucking, powerhungry roaches, making a play for his throne the minute his back was turned. As if they could keep the peace he’d maintained this last decade. The only reason he could sustain it was because he was immortal and powerful.
Even so...
Look what happened the first time he left his throne room. One of his advisors or Renata’s had called out the dogs on him, thinking they could bring him down and take his place.
They might. If he didn’t get back to his army and quell this uprising, they could succeed.
But it wouldn’t last. The other kingdoms would go back to warring, and everything he’d accomplished could end.
Damn it all.
And where was Ryper in all this? He knew to stay behind and keep Dash’s absence from the others. Obviously, he was as reliable as Halla.
Never trust an assassin.
They had a nasty tendency to vanish when they were needed.
Dash sighed as he tried to figure all this out, and a bad feeling went through him.
The dragon patted him on his back.
