Page 61 of Dragon in Denial
“No, it doesn’t,” Delilah said as she started struggling again. “That position is mine. He’s obviously unfit. I’ve read up on dragon colony law. He needs to be declared—”
Darius squeezed harder, cutting off her speech. “What the fuck are you talking about, bitch? You sound like you think you’re going to take overmycolony.”
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Rahu said.
Ketu smacked his forehead.
Darius grabbed Delilah by the hair and twisted her around to face him. She gasped and wheezed as her body took in a proper amount of oxygen again.
“This ismycolony,” Darius roared. “I’m going to be reeve, as soon as that fucker dies. No one is taking it from me, but especially not some half-witch loserfemale.”
Delilah wrapped both of her hands around the one holding her hair, and despite her rather awkward position, said, “Are you implying I can’t do the job because I’m a woman? Or is it because I’m a witch?”
“Both, but probably more so because you’re a girl.”
“Oh, okay, because if you were going to say witch—” She muttered an incantation and he screamed while jerking his hand away from her hair and shaking it like she’d burned him.
Ketu rushed across the room and caught him in the gut with his shoulder, pushing him backward until he slammed into the wall. Everything in the room shuddered, including the insulated cup, which teetered and then fell, the lid popping off and letting the contents pour out onto the carpet.
Darius recovered and charged Ketu, both arms swinging, and Ketu danced out of reach until his legs hit the bed and he tumbled backward onto the reeve. The older man grunted but didn’t do much else.
Darius leaped onto the bed, landing on top of Ketu, and began hammering away with his fists.
“Hey,” Antoinette shouted. “Get off him!”
She rushed forward, intending to grab one of Darius’s arms and pull him away from Ketu, but at the last second, Darius adjusted his swing and caught her with an uppercut under the chin that sent her flying backward while stars exploded behind her eyes.
There was a roar, the sounds of a scuffle, and then a yelp like a dog had been kicked, and by the time Antoinette’s vision cleared, Darius was lying on the floor, curled up into a ball, his arms over his head, while Ketu stood over him, breathing heavily, his fists clenched.
Rahu stood next to him and whistled. “That was some seriously badass shit, Ketu. I didn’t know you had it in you. Of course, no one’s probably ever fucked with your mate before, so I guess there’s that.”
Ketu bumped him with his shoulder and walked over to crouch next to Antoinette. “You okay?”
She winced when he touched her chin. “I could really use one of Bebe’s ice packs right about now. And I wouldn’t say no to one of Mitch’s bloody marys either.”
He chuckled and pulled her to her feet.
“What do we do now?” Delilah said. She stood next to the bed, looking down at the man sleeping under the blankets. “He’s still alive, but surely this is considered incapacitated. I still think I should be reeve.”
“How about we try to wake him up and go from there?” Antoinette suggested.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs rushed up to them, followed by complaining voices.
“You do realize it’s the middle of the night, right?”
“Oh hell, Arthur, your bladder probably wakes you up at this time every damn night.”
“Yeah, but I turn around and go right back to bed. I certainly don’t cart my sleepy old ass over to the reeve’s house. What are we doing here anyway? Hell, I haven’t been up here to the bedroom level in close to a decade.”
“Aren’t you the reeve from that colony up north? Didn’t Darius get into a bit of a scrap with you a couple years ago?”
Ketu looked from the door to his Rojo reeve. “Yeah, that’s a good point. About a year and a half ago, Darius came up to Detroit and started shit with Gabe. We got a message from the reeve that he was appropriately reprimanded, and then they offered to sign a peace treaty. How the hell was he able to do all that if he’s been like this for five years or so?”
“Could’ve been the Elders,” Antoinette suggested. “They would be able to make a decision like that without him. Or maybe they did it because he was incapacitated and they didn’t want to bring that fact to light and risk a dragon from another colony showing up to challenge him for the position.”
Two white-haired men stepped into the room. They were both wearing robes over striped pajamas and had slippers on their feet. Three more elderly dragons shuffled in behind them, followed by Gabe, Talia, Noah, Petra, and Argyle.
“Looks like our distraction worked,” Gabe remarked, nodding at Darius, who was still curled up on the floor. “Also, we collected the Elders, like you instructed, Antoinette.”
