Taevis barely glances my way, instead choosing to look scrutinizingly at Daegan.
“And then you exposed our well-kept secret, all for some sentimental trinket of a spoiled princess?”
“You know nothing about her,” Daegan replies in a deadly, cold voice. “Don’t speak of her that way in front of me. She’s done more for me than you know. For all of us. And they knew of our secret long before that. Since the day they messed up and took me prisoner. Took Elysande prisoner.”
The leader of the dragons finally loses his temper, slamming his fist onto the table, and I jump.
Daegan places a calming hand over mine.
“I don’t care what the reasoning was. We’ve kept the secret of our only remaining abilities between the dragons for a thousand years!”
I can see the temper and anger Daegan spoke of when he told me how his father treated him when he was growing up. He’s so much different from my father with how he expresses himself on the outside, but inside, I fear they may be similar.
“We would all be dead right now,” Daegan responds flatly.
His father shakes his head, placing it in his hands. “How many did you kill?” he asks.
“Hundreds.”
This seems to mollify him a little.
“And how many more do you estimate there are?”
Daegan shrugs. “It’s hard to say. They kept sending them in waves. During our travels we heard they were building up an army and even trying to recruit other species, but I cannot guess what the full number might be.”
Taevis begrudgingly glances at me as if it pains him, and asks, “What do you think? You’d have a better idea of the size. What’s your population? How many of them are capable of fighting? Of being recruited?”
I return his gaze with a plain expression and my shoulders held high. I’m on their side and I want him to know that, but I will not cower. “Thousands could be in their military. Maybe five or six thousand, plus whoever else he can convince to join him.”
“No one is fucking joining him,” Raef scoffs. “Well, except for a few sylocs, apparently.”
Taevis glances his way. “Don’t underestimate what their power will do to sway others. Some people simply want to be on what they believe to be the winning side, which they have been for a long, long time.”
“Well, we’re exposed now. Might as well show them what badasses we really are.” I stifle a laugh, because of course Raef would talk to the unofficial king of the dragons in the same casual way he does everyone else.
He simply raises an eyebrow at Raef before returning his gaze back to his son. Before he speaks again, an older male on his left with unkempt gray hair and a scowl leans in and speaks quietly in his ear. It takes a moment, and it leaves the large open chamber silent and tense as we all wait.
When he looks our way again, his expression is flat. “Good job for taking out a few hundred of their troops.” He looks at Daegan and Raef, skipping over me. “However, if there are thousands more, we need to be ready for an attack. We’ve been busy ourselves while you’ve been traipsing all over the continent...”
My face heats with anger at his accusation. How dare he sit there and act like Daegan was off gallivanting around for the fun of it when he was imprisoned, tortured, and beaten. I hate him. Not quite as much as I hate my own father, but still. It’s there. I can’t forget the marks he left on Daegan, the ones that were for training purposes. Now is not the time, though. They’ve shifted to talking about preparing for battle, which means we’ll probably have to sneak around and keep our own mission—which is much more important to the big picture—a secret. It’s going to be tricky.
They talk a little more about battle strategy, with Taevis casting several spiteful glances my way, but Daegan refuses to let me leave his side, so he doesn’t have much choice.
“Oh,” Raef interjects as they’re wrapping up the discussion. “We learned something pretty useful.”
“You did,” Daegan says.
“Kezra and me, actually.”
“Who in the curses is Kezra?” Daegan’s father asks.
As if she’d been waiting this whole time for the perfect moment to make a dramatic entrance, Kezra emerges out of nowhere, sparkling gold trails streaming behind her and complementing the golden hues in the walls.
“I am, of course.” She does a small curtsy in the air. “Queen Kezra of the Westland fairies.”
Daegan’s father’s jaw drops a noticeable amount. The two males on either side of him look equally surprised.
“A fairy?” He asks with quiet surprise.
