Page 15 of The Forgotten Throne

Gentle fingers brushed along my cheek as I nuzzled into the warmth I was lying on, which made it hiss as my nose touched skin. “Damn, mouse, your nose is freezing,” Cole muttered.

I froze as his voice rumbled under my ear, making me realize that I was sprawled out on his chest with my face buried in his neck. Something shifted against my back as an arm and leg pulled me tighter. I got a cold nose to the back of my neck followed by a deep sigh of warm air hitting my skin. Gavin had managed to wrap himself around me as I’d done to Cole who was practically bearing the weight of both of us. Carefully, I maneuvered my hand so I could push myself off of Cole, but he didn’t seem to like that idea very much. He pulled me back down.

“Nope, too cold for you to move,” he said, brushing my hair out of my face. “Besides, you’re kinda cute when you sleep. Did you know that you are an extremely aggressive cuddler? Once you were out, you latched on to me like a dog would a bone with meat still left on it.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy every moment of it,” Gavin voiced, lifting his head to peer over my shoulder. “She tried to roll over to snuggle with me and you wouldn’t let her. I don’t want to hear you complain about shit.”

“Oh, sounds like the prince is a little jealous about that,” Cole taunted.

Gavin grinned at him and shook his head. “Nope, I have a whole new appreciation for Cassarah’s assets and how they just seem to fit in all the right places.” Cole tried to smack Gavin, but he ducked behind me, using me as a shield.

“Well, that is my cue that it’s time to get up,” I announced, as I wiggled out from between them. “We’ve got another long day ahead of us, so make sure you guys get the tent packed away once you’re done arguing.”

They both looked at me stunned, making me chuckle to myself as I slipped out of the tent. The sun was still hidden behind the mountains which told me we hadn’t slept in too late. As much as I wanted to get to Sheca, everyone needed their sleep. Showing up to Sheca half dead wouldn’t do us any good in the long run. If we took longer than three days, so be it. The whole point of this was to keep my people safe. Pushing them to the limit wasn’t doing that.

Taking a deep breath of the cold morning air, I stretched, feeling far more rested than I should for the condition I was in. Others were up and getting things packed away while kids huddled together still wrapped in blankets, gnawing on their dried meat. There was a fire going this morning, but it was only to melt the snow so we could fill our water bags and give some to the horses. I made my way over to Inali and started to brush her down and get her ready for another long day, getting things packed before I ate my meager breakfast. A shadow cast over the camp, making me look up. I saw Vasin and the next wave of dragon riders swooping in, making the children jump to their feet and wave excitedly. Tahir and Jade landed in a precarious space long enough for Jade to hop off before Tahir took flight again. Jade took a moment, scanning the area until his eyes landed on me. A smile grew on his face as he headed in my direction.

“Good morning, little bird,” he greeted. “We’ve come back with another hundred dragons to take the rest of the kids and others without horses.”

I moved forward, intending to give Jade a hug, having realized how much I missed him, but Paxton took that moment to fall out of the sky and land right beside us, spooking Inali in the process. She reared and let out a shrill whinny, unsettling the other horses as they responded to her distress.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Jade snarled at Paxton.

“Making an entrance of course,” Paxton said proudly. “I figured I would take a page out of our Queen’s playbook and leap off my dragon instead of having her land—worked out quite well if you ask me.”

“Seems like nothing has changed about you after all these years,” Cole snapped as he walked up to Inali with a bag of grain, trying to settle her. “Always thinking about yourself, not giving a rat’s ass as to who or what it might hurt in the process.”

“Glad to see you are the same self-righteous asshole. Is Grandpa Ballard still greasing the wheels to get you the best jobs?” Paxton countered, a grin plastered on his face.

Cole dropped the bag of grain, but Abbott grabbed his arm, shaking his head. “It’s not worth it, Cole.”

“Ah, I wondered when the abandoned orphan of the Bronze Reapers was going to show up. Speaking of which, where is the lug and his cousin?” Paxton asked, looking around.

“You looking for us?” Dayson called, whipping a snowball at Paxton, but he dodged at the last second.

“Now the gangs all here!” Paxton cheered. “My apologies, I didn’t get a chance to greet all of you properly after saving our new queen from my twin. You see, the Clan Leaders needed their pound of flesh first, and then our lovely spitfire decided we needed to be on the run. Just so busy, busy, busy, but I have been looking forward to the warm greeting from you all after coming back from the dead and all.”

He talked so fast that my brain had a hard time keeping up with everything he was saying, but it seemed everyone else was tracking just fine. None of them seemed thrilled to have him back from the grave, dashing all my thoughts that things had been going well between all of them so far. Had they been playing nice for my sake up until now? What changed from yesterday to today? Or was I the one who didn’t see their true feelings until this moment?

“Wait, what did you say about the Clan Leaders?” I asked, cutting off whoever was going to speak next.

Paxton turned, giving me his full attention. “You didn’t know? I thought for sure you asked them to interrogate me after you clocked me in the face to teach me a lesson.”

“What did they ask you about?” I pressed, not liking that they would go behind my back and question one of my guardians. Sure, Paxton might have some history with the clans but once he bore my mark, he was mine. They should have known better. They didn’t do that with Zan, so why would they with Paxton... because of his father and brother? Still, why didn’t they tell me?

“The typical, where I was, how I was not dead, did I plan to betray the clans and turn them over to Creisal since I’d been hiding out there. Oh, and they also wanted to know how I acquired Ninnat since she’s a golden female and all,” Paxton shared with a shrug. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I honestly thought they would have told you what happened.”

My hands balled into fists, wondering what else they might have done behind my back. The Clan Leaders had been spending a lot of time with King Edward and Queen Mary while Gavin hung out with his brother, Philip, who’d gone with the first group of dragons. It wouldn’t do me any good to have this battle here. Once I was officially crowned in Sheca, I could restructure how things were going to work, blending the two groups together.

“Is there anything you told them that I should know about?” I inquired, rubbing my hand over my forehead.

Paxton dropped his gaze and kicked a stone with his foot before answering. “I was a spy for the Creisal, gathering useful information about the other countries. I knew about Henry and his movements before he infiltrated Norden.”

My eyes widened. “Are you telling me that we could have avoided what happened at the castle if you’d actually come to find me right when you got your guardian mark?”

“I didn’t know what it was at first,” Paxton argued, trying to defend himself. “Once I did more research, I figured it out and then came to find you. But I was in Errit, talking to an old mercenary about it. I was too far away to get back any sooner than I did. You have to admit, it was pretty perfect timing too.”

“Why can’t things ever be simple?” I demanded, tossing my hands up in the air.