Page 57 of Dragon Heir

We’re standing alone in a clearing, but his jaw is rigid and his expression troubled. They’re a deep purple in this light, filled with a depth of emotion I never expected.

“Either tell me, or I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He works his jaw back and forth, his eyes still welling with sadness.

“Fine. I’ll ask Pax. He’ll tell me.” I turn and walk toward the tree line.

Sinetar’s voice is low and solemn behind me. “Her Majesty the Queen has given you away to the Sun King.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sinetar

Vynessa gapes at me, the morning light igniting her red hair. I didn’t want to tell her. I thought I could get her far away from here before revealing the queen’s betrayal, but I found myself incapable of keeping it from her.

“No,” she says, slowly shaking her head and backing away. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Unfortunately, it does,” I say, and my bitterness must show in my tone because her brow furrows.

“How did this happen?” she cries.

I blow out a breath. “I’ll explain everything, but we need to get going. True is waiting for us in the forest. This is his plan.”

A flicker of movement in the trees catches my eye, but when I turn, there’s nothing but sparkling snow. Since his dragon form is white as snow, and I know a thing or two about camouflage myself, I’m not worried about him not showing. My only concern is that little ginger-haired creep, Bradley.

I should have killed him. I knew I’d regret the mercy, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill another dragon, even one as suspect as him. Dragon lives are sacred, and spilling our own blood is an act of war.

“Anything else I should know right now?” Vynessa asks as we step under the cover of the pine boughs. Frosty needles crunch under our boots. There’s only a thin layer of snow in this area of the woods, likely because of the southern exposure to the sun, but the ground is crisp with ice.

“You could choose to shift to human form without your skins,” I say, trying to ease her mood with a grin.

She’s not buying it. “So I’d come back naked.”

“To be fair, you’re nearly there on your top half already,” I say, gesturing to the top that covers her delicious golden nipples and not much more. My mouth waters at the thought of tasting them, sucking them until she whimpered for me to do the same to her cunt.

“Your weapons are now part of you,” I say, adjusting my cock inside my own leathers. “It will cause physical and mental anguish to be separated from them. Just as you’ve never seen myself, True, or Paxton without ours since we’ve returned to court.”

“What about out in the human world?”

“That was very uncomfortable for us,” I admit. “Especially True. I have great powers of disguise, so I was able to have mine about me, though you didn’t see them. Paxton’s powers include transformation, so he was able to have his about him in another form, likely a pocketblade or another small trinket he’s carried with him since childhood.”

She nods thoughtfully. “He always carried one.”

“It’s both part of your magic and, when you’re in dragon form, part of your body. They form your dragon weapons as well—teeth, talons, horns or scales for some dragons. The weapons choose you. That’s why we put you in the dark to choose. That way, you can’t be influenced by what they look like, and they can’t be influenced by your desires. They are very receptive to their dragon masters, so any slight preference you have for or against one can ruin your relationship with your destined weapon.”

“You couldn’t have told me this before shoving me into a dark room? I thought you were trying to kill me.”

“It’s a strengthening ceremony called Atgeir. It also forces your first change. You should have started changing long ago, but from what I understand, the queen put measures in place to prevent that. As soon as we arrived here, I petitioned for you to go through Atgeir. The queen kept putting me off.”

Vynessa glances over her shoulder toward the cliff, probably trying to see the palace up there, but from here all there is to see is the sheer rockface of Dauor Kliff—death cliff.

“You went against the queen for me?” she asks. “What is she going to do to you?”

Vynessa’s golden eyes meet mine, panic written there. Pride swells in my chest. Now to prove myself worthy of her gratitude…

“She won’t find out.” I break from her gaze.

“How do you know?” she asks, narrowing her eyes.