Page 30 of Fated to the Grumpy Dragon
“You don’t even have a basis for saying that!” I shouted back. “You can’t remember us! You’re just making this up.”
“Something inside me tells me it’s right,” she said. “But you’re right. I can’t remember. I’mverysorry for losing my memories on you. I promise, I won’t do it again.”
“Whatever,” I said, done with humans. “Just watch your step next time you’re near water.”
Emma got all steamed up, walking toward the edge of the bluffs to get away from me.
“I’ll just watch my step now, how’s that?” she taunted, staring out to sea. “I wouldn’t want to fall, what with my bad footing and all.”
I heard her, but I wasn’t listening. Not anymore. My attention was on the sky and the rapidly approaching flight of dragons, with a particular orange and black dragon at their center.
Great. Just what I needed right now. More trouble.
Chapter Fourteen
Rhyse
“Emma,” I hissed.
“What?”
“Get over here.”
“No way.”
“Now,” I snarled under my breath. I sensed her turn more than I saw it. Her surprise and fear told me she saw the other dragons approaching.
“Who is it?” she asked, coming to stand at my side.
“The sovereign,” I said tautly. “And her bodyguards.”
“Sov-what now?”
“The sovereign. The Ruler of All Dragonkind.”
“I can hear capital letters there. Is that, like, royalty?”
“There’s no one higher than her. She answers to nobody. We must show respect.”
Even as I gave Emma a crash course on dragon politics, my mind raced with other ideas. As much as I didn’t want a random visit from the supreme leader of dragons, it might present a solution to all my problems.
Two of the sovereign’s bodyguards came in for a landing first. Their broad ocher-colored wings creaked and airwhooshedover us as they slowed their flight. Giant talons glinted in the sunlight as they extended their paws forward an instant before landing. Two sets of wings were tucked alongside their bodies, and the pair were shifting into human form.
I watched as they looked first me and then Emma up and down, evaluating us for weapons or threats. Once they decided we were safe, their eyes turned outward, scanning the property. Only after they determined there was no credible threat did they turn and signal to the sky for the others to land.
My eyes narrowed sharply as not one but two of the remaining three dragons came in to land. What I’d first mistaken for a bodyguard was not. The pair of orange and black dragons touched down with as much grace as the first two.
“You just got very, very tense,” Emma whispered. “Should I be worried?”
“Not for your safety, no,” I said. “The sovereign doesn’t have issue with humans. In fact, the terms of the truce that brought you here were her idea, as far as I can tell. You are safe.”
“Then what’s with your reaction?”
“Unheralded visits from the leader of your people are not something to look forward to at any point. I prefer to know why she’s here.”
“Could it because I’m here?” Emma suggested. “She could be checking in on me.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. The idea was good and one I hadn’t considered.
