Page 21 of The Ruby Dragon Prince
“From six of Father’s guards and Rottum?” Leo asked.
I stopped struggling against him and puffed out a breath. He had a point. The six of us weren’t exactly fainting violets—well, Misha was, and maybe Obi—but we weren’t strong enough to fight seven alphas. I certainly wasn’t the way I was feeling.
“We can’t just let them take Rufus away,” I said. “He came here because of me. He’s in trouble because of me.”
More than just that, the farther away the guards took Rufus, the worse I felt. Every bit of greyness and nausea that I’dexperienced before crushed back into me. At least I had a sense of where in the castle he was now through the bond that had formed and was growing between us.
“We have to think this through,” Selle said, still carrying his book as he approached me. My other brothers were right behind him, and the six of us formed a tight circle. “There will be other ways for us to rescue your mate.”
“The guards will take him to the dungeon,” Rumi agreed with a nod. “Father has council meetings all day today, and I doubt he’d leave any of those to order anything worse than imprisonment for your alpha.”
“He doesn’t even know he’s your alpha,” Obi pointed out. “Rufus was dressed in servants’ clothes.”
“You’re right,” I said, taking a deep breath and putting a hand over my belly. The strange, sick feeling I’d been feeling since the night before seemed to be centered in my belly. I knew what it meant, but there were too many other things to worry about in the moment other than the possibility of carrying my fated mate’s child already. “We need to make our way quietly to the dungeons, wait until Rufus isn’t being watched, or distract the guards set over him, and then we can free him.”
“He’s a dragon, isn’t he?” Leo asked, one eyebrow arched. “Isn’t that what you were telling us?”
“He is,” I said slowly.
“Then why doesn’t he fight back or transform into his dragon form and breathe fire over everyone?”
“Why doesn’t he make a doorway to return to the magical world?” Misha asked with a puzzled frown.
“I don’t know,” I said, glancing toward the garden door. We needed to get moving if we were going to rescue Rufus quickly.
Selle put a hand on his chin and tilted his head the way he did when he was thinking. “He started to defend himself,” he said, his eyes bright with thought behind his glasses. “He was goingto blow the guards over with wind. But then you shouted ‘don’t’, and it was as if his magic stopped.”
I blinked wide. “You don’t think I hurt him somehow, do you?”
“He didn’t look hurt to me,” Rumi said.
Selle’s brow creased and he looked at his book. “I’ve only had a chance to skim it, but this book about dragons seems to say that a dragon’s mate shares their magic and has complete power over them. Maybe when you said ‘don’t’, the magic thought you were ordering him not to use his powers.”
“Then it is my fault he was captured,” I said in despair. I shook my head, then turned and started toward the door. “We have to rescue him. He can’t stay here. You know how Father is about anyone who touches or looks at any of us. Once he finds out about Rufus, he’s as likely as not to execute him just to prove a point.”
It was awful and barbaric, but that was Father.
We hurried out of the garden and into the castle’s hallways. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere, but the alphas who usually guarded us had taken Rufus away, and no one had been sent to replace them yet.
It was strange to have free access to any part of the castle and even stranger to feel as though roaming free in what was supposed to be our own home was so foreign. We were almost never allowed to wander on our own, and it surprised me how uncertain all six of us were about where we were going and how to get there.
We couldn’t ask anyone for directions. I didn’t think it was a good idea for anyone to see us at all. Every time we approached a corner, we paused while one of us checked to see if someone was in the other hall, and when we crossed through the Great Hall, we hid and waited for a full minute to make certain we wouldn’t be seen.
The fact that no one saw us, no one at all, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was improbable that the six of us together, making the sort of noise we were, even though we tried to stay quiet, could travel the length of the castle without being seen once.
Only, it wasn’t just the hair on the back of my neck standing up, the mark where Rufus had bit me and claimed me seemed to be tingling and tickling as well. It had faded considerably since the night before, which was odd, but it had taken on the faint shape of a dragon. I touched it carefully as we hid at the far corner of the Great Hall, while Rumi and Leo whispered their debate about where exactly the dungeons were located. When I pulled my hand away, just like that morning, my palm was suddenly filled with a few small, perfect rubies.
Obi had seen the action. He gasped and whispered, “How did you do that?”
There wasn’t time to answer. I tucked the rubies in my pocket and we all crouched, ducked, and flattened ourselves behind furniture as our father’s voice and the voice of another man grew closer from one of the corridors on the other side of the room.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and prayed that my brothers and I wouldn’t be seen. I shouldn’t have been surprised when the feeling of a soft, silken blanket seemed to descend over us.
“It’s a brilliant plan,” Father said to his companion…Lord Groswick.
I gasped at the sight of the man Father intended to give me away to. My stomach roiled with revulsion.
“And the best part of it is, those stupid peasants will blame each other for whatever hardships they endure,” Lord Groswick said, laughing.
