Page 82 of Dragon's Honor

Finley met his gaze. “He wasn’t wearing it. He had nothing on him that looked anything like a heartstone.”

“It would be opal, not tourmaline,” Ash clarified.

“He didn’t have any rocks on him at all. Does he have a human mate?”

Ash pushed off the wall. “Rumor is he had a mate and killed her.”

“Either way, if he’s not wearing his heartstone, perhaps it allowed him to be controlled.”

Ash sighed. “He’s not being controlled.”

“Why not? Are you so eager for him to be evil?”

“I watched him lead his opal army into my palace and kill everyone he could. He destroyed hearstones…”

Syrena’s eyes widened. “They killed the soldiers, the ones who would rather die fighting. Most of the courtiers survived. Their heartstones did not. We’re still trying to figure out how to replace them, if we even can…”

Ash’s eyes widened and he looked from Syrena to Finley. “You really think it was the vampire who attacked you?”

“How could he know such intimate details about me?”

“It was random. You were there and it was random. There was no way for him to just be drugging the same club you were…”

Finley clenched her fists. “He wasn’t there at that club as a random choice. He was there because he knew Olivia and I were going to be there. He made sure to drug us. He hadn’t been counting on me having the tourmaline. He wanted to finish what he started.”

Olivia’s cackle started low and deep. “I’m afraid you’re only half right.”

Finley hopped off her seat and backed away from Olivia.

“Yes, I followed you to that club that night. I had planned on watching you burn. When you didn’t, when you continued to buzz around that dung heap of a dragon, I knew why you were special. Fate had already sunk it’s claws into you.” Olivia stood up. Her blue eyes were dead, and her expression was blank. She looked paler with an almost gray tint. “You see, when the moronic tourmaline king worked with me trying to rule over all the humans, he trusted me. While I worked in the dungeon, I came up with the perfect recipe to end the dragon race, but it would seem that fate decided to branch out. Mating with humans?” Olivia spat. “Disgusting. Degrading. They’re food and entertainment at best. As if I needed more reasons to want to kill the lesser creatures of the world. The humans are lucky they give a service. But you shifters, the fae, the witches,” she spat again, “you offer nothing. Fate has plans for you… well, I’ve taken fate over.” Olivia grabbed the chair and whipped it across the room, shattering the wood frame. “This place belongs to the vampires.”

“Not all vampires want what you’re suggesting.” Cillian’s voice startled Finley.

Cillian, Henrik, and a couple of the others were standing in the room now.

“They will be destroyed as well. There will be no revolution. There will be no battles. You cannot take me when I have the entire human race doped up on Dragon Fire looking for you.”

“Why would Tabitha help you do this?” Syrena asked. “She’s a little crazy, but she can’t…she wouldn’t do this…”

“It would seem you witches don’t wear hearstones either. Tabitha does what I tell her.”

“Who are you?” Henrik growled. “If you’re not worried about this war, then tell us who you are.”

Olivia smirked and then without warning she fell to the ground, crumpled on her side. Finley rushed for her.

Silence filled the room. Syrena was by Olivia’s side casting a healing spell.

“Is everyone all right?”

Finley froze. The deep voice from earlier drew gooseflesh across her skin. She kept her focus on Olivia. She didn’t want to look up. She didn’t want to see.

“Cillian. Grey. Do you know of a vampire capable of this?”

Finley squeezed her eyes shut and then she lifted her chin. Her eyes fluttered open and there was everything nightmares were made of. The vampire called Grey was leering down at her. Kneeling on the floor, she looked up at him, the same way she did as a child when he found in the alley during the storm.

“It’s you.”

Grey’s smile, full of malice, his eyes full of hunger, and his entire hulking body hovering over her.

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