Page 133 of The Storm of the Empire

A gurgling scream cut her off. We all turned towards the sound.

Kol sat straight up in bed and gasped, eyes wild with fear.

EPILOGUE

HAZEL

“How is Kol?” I asked, entering Nyx’s new temporary office, adjoining Kol’s new room now that he had been moved out of the emergency area.It was a week since he first woke and we were all waiting on more news.

“The same. He mostly sleeps, but when he wakes, he is terrified and doesn’t know where or who he is,” Nyx said, looking longingly towards the closed door to Kol’s room

Kol’s new room was more private than the last, situated at the very end of the corridor opposite Kiera and Jaxus’ suite so that they could be on call for him night and day and so Nyx could start retiring at night to sleep in his own bed. For the most part, he was trying to oblige us all by taking the rest he needed, but there were mornings he could still be found asleep in a chair at Kol’s bedside. But he would not budge on using the office space right here, so that he could spend as much time close by as possible.

Faolan had worked some of his magic and warded the office with crystals, like they did during their examinations, to provide a secure place to speak freely—something Faolan was implementing in several spaces throughout the palace while we still didn’t know who to trust.

The bell rang to mark the hour, and I heard the footsteps at the same time Nyx did. The door opened, and our mates as well as Kiera, Jaxus, and Faolan all entered. We tried to only hold the occasional meeting all together so as not to attract attention to ourselves, instead relying on our bonds to make sure we all heard the same information. But this was important, so we all came.

“Good, you’re all here,” Nyx said, taking the seat behind the desk. Zaria moved in beside him and perched on his desk, and we all filled the couches, ready to hear his news.

“How did it go?” Jaxus asked.

“As well as you’d expect.” Nyx grimaced, and Zaria took his hand in hers. “The King is not happy, but when is he these days?”

“But he went for it?” I asked.

Nyx tilted his head in a so/so gesture. “He has accepted my ruling as the head of the Dragon Council that the safety of our eggs is paramount, but he does not want them returned to the parents. I don’t know why he was hesitant, but I’ll deal with that later.”

Kiera let out a huff. “Because then he will have to spare dragons to let them care for their own young through hatching, Goddess forbid!”

“I think we all knew he wouldn’t want to make that concession, but he maintains it would cause unnecessary panic. We know there was no raid. The priests are just covering their backs because we raided them. But any suggestion the priests failed to keep the kingdom’s eggs safe would start unease among the dragons and cause all kinds of trouble the King doesn’t want. So I used that to my advantage and offered him the only alternative, and he went for it begrudgingly.”

“Thank the Goddess for that,” I breathed.

“Indeed,” Nyx agreed, reaching for Zaria and sliding her into his lap, continuing without missing a beat. “I have just made arrangements with Gran for her to stay on with three of the healers she brought with her. They will oversee the transfer of eggs to a new nursery here. While we do that, we can work on finding homes for the ones we took from the caverns as well.”

“Here?” Kiera snapped. “Like we don’t have enough to do.”

Nyx held out a placating hand. “ A new nursery facility will be constructed with haste to help with space, and Gran will be recruiting to help with the daily care. It was the King’s one proviso, that if the eggs were removed from the priests’ care, then they must be housed on palace grounds. It works in our favor, though, because we have eggs here they cannot find out about, so now we won’t have to move them far and risk being caught with them.”

“The elders in Calanthe will not be happy we are keeping Gran,” Kiera muttered.

“The future of the dragon population is at stake. They have no choice. They are sworn to protect life.” Nyx shrugged, clearly not caring if the healers threw a fit.

Kiera rolled her eyes. “And you know that is not how they think when it comes to sending their best away.”

Nyx chuckled. “You think they will really argue it out with Gran? She will tell them, and they will have no choice but to accept.”

Jaxus joined in on the laughter. “And may the Goddess save any who argue.”

I had not known Gran all that long, but this seemed like a fair assessment of the female’s powers of persuasion.

“So that’s it then?” Luka asked, optimism in his tone for the first time in a while.

“Not exactly. He still isn’t letting go of what he overheard you say in your vision. He drilled me to recall it all again for him. He’s become obsessed with what it could mean.” Nyx sighed. “I told him no one could know. It’s too unclear, and until you know your magic better it’s anyone’s guess. But now he wants you to work with Rakan on your magic. I’m sure he’s hoping if you can harness it better, you can revisit the vision for him.”

I felt Luka deflate. “Why won’t he let this go?”

“It might not be a bad thing to see Rakan anyway,” I suggested. “It will help identify all the magic you have and what might help you harness it.”

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