Page 29 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
My vision started to clear, the little white dots scooting to the edges, though much too slowly. My outstretched hands hit a wall, and then slapped toward what I hoped was the exit. Soon, I found it and stepped out into the hallway.
“Hello,” I called, but my voice broke on the second syllable. Probably wasn’t a good idea to announce my exact location while almost completely blind. If anyone wanted me dead—and let’s face it, most everyone did these days—now was the time to strike such an easy target.
But I needed to get to Asa to see if he was all right. Even though he was protected by my harem’s treasure trove magic, I had to make sure.
Blinking several times, I took a step forward—then froze. The hairs all over my body lifted. Awareness sifted over the senses I still had. I definitely wasn’t alone in this hallway.
“Yara!” a familiar voice called form the hallway to my right. Tavis.
I could just make out the faint shape of him, but this feeling that I wasn’t alone didn’t stem from him.
“We chased her out down this hallway, and then she vanished,” Calhoun said from the hallway to my left, his voice thick with rage.
“And Vance and Asa?” I asked. “Can you two see?”
“Vance is outside searching the grounds,” Calhoun said.
“Asa’s just fine,” Tavis promised. “I was only blinded for a little bit.”
Then he could see behind me, then. I had the distinct feeling that something was unfolding itself from the shadows and creeping up behind me. I started to move across the hall to draw it out into the open. Footsteps sounded behind me. A vicious chill raced between my shoulders.
“No!” Calhoun bellowed.
“Yara!” Tavis shouted.
Something cold and jagged pressed into the skin at my neck. Strong arms wrapped around me from behind and locked mine to my sides with bruising force. A whiff of smoker’s breath hit my cheek. Bad Mama.
She dug the blade into my neck hard enough to make me gasp. “Come any closer and she dies.” Her voice didn’t belong to her—it was cruel and sharp as a broken mirror.
“Let her go now,” Calhoun bellowed.
“Tell us what you want,” Tavis said, cool and calm like this kind of thing happened every day.
“I want your land,” she hissed. “Our little truce with the dragon shifters is through.”
“So you are fae,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Shut up,” she snapped and angled the blade as a warning so a drop of blood slid down my neck.
“Don’t you fucking hurt her,” Calhoun said, seething. “She had nothing to do with the truce or the war before that.”
“As queen, she’s got everything to do with it now, doesn’t she? Fuel to the fire for the Civil War that’s been brewing for years since your goddess refused to choose a queen before now. A good distraction while we’ve infiltrated your land all these years, and an even better distraction while we take it away.”
“You seem so confident that’ll work,” Tavis said, his usual casual self like they were discussing the weather instead of war. “Have you met Yara? She’s not exactly going to just let you take our land.”
“He’s right.” I tried to search out the position of her feet, see if I could stomp on them to get away, but I couldn’t turn my head because of the blade at my neck, couldn’t see much past a few inches past my nose. Plus, she was fast and deadly and likely had tricks up her sleeves for days. “You know deep down in your fae head he’s right.”
“Yes, I know Booklet,” the fae said. “Clever enough for a human to take the throne as an outcast thief nobody.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“How long have you been in dragon shifter lands?” Calhoun demanded.
“Twenty years, a very short amount of time for fae,” she said, her breath hot and uncomfortable on the back of my neck. “Before Booklet was even born, you believed she was coming to rule your species. Twenty years for you to think and wait and wonder until the very idea of her took over your lives, when I didn’t even know Yara existed until a few months ago. I duped you, all with the power of suggestion. All because I told you what you wanted to hear. The queen’s harem.” She spat to the side. “How gullible do you have to be?”
My blood simmered, nearly as hot as Calhoun’s furious energy curling off of him. I could feel it charging the air. How dare she speak to them that way. She could cut me up into dog food, but she needed to leave them out of this.
“Enough with your goddamn gloating,” I shot back. “If I’ve served your purpose as a distraction, then why not kill me?”
