Page 8 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
Do it, he’d said. I had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
“Forgive me,” I muttered into Calhoun’s ear. “Please.”
I slashed the blade across his throat.
Chapter Two
Calhoun slumped to the floor.Petra screamed. Rio stopped short and looked from Calhoun to me with betrayal, with fear.
"I warned you," I shouted, somehow able to keep my voice from trembling, to keep my knees from buckling with the weight of what I’d just done. I pointed to the smoke rising off the ground from the dragon fire that had located us here and spun it to my advantage. “Those who helped me take the throne have already found you with the dragon fire to do the exact same thing that was done to your dear old dad, Rio.”
The lie made me sound unhinged, mad with power. And totally not me.
"If you go now, maybe they’ll think twice about murdering every last one of you," I shouted.
Their eyes wide with fear, they ran in opposite directions, thinking I’d shown them my true colors, but really, I was breaking inside. I crumbled to my hands and knees and crawled toward Calhoun. Blood leaked down his neck, and that was enough to tear my chest right open.
"Calhoun," I choked out and wrapped my hands around his throat to staunch the bleeding. "Please be okay."
A soft groan rumbled out of him, and he blinked his eyes open. "Are they gone?"
All the breath fled from my lungs with relief. "Yes. Are you all right?"
"Flesh wound, sweetheart," he rasped. He touched his fingers to his bloodied neck and winced. "Like a bad paper cut. You didn’t cut me near hard enough, but they bought it anyway."
I huffed a short laugh. "I can only imagine what they're saying about me right now. Their new queen, a total basket case. They're going to think I really am a murderer."
His hands at his throat, he sat up and looked at me through several locks of black hair that had tumbled across his forehead. "That may not be so bad for the time being. If they fear you, they listen to you, which they did since they're gone."
"Is that the best way to be a queen though?"
He sighed, seeming to consider. "For right now, yes."
But later? I was so out of my element with this whole thing, I hardly knew what direction was up. This was not who I was. I'd become a thief because it came naturally, but this? It was like I wore someone else's too-tight skin. It didn't fit, and it was terrifying because I was wearing someone else's skin.
"Yara." He waited until I looked him in the eye to continue. "Oliver's murder was a warning that had nothing to do with the full-moon ritual. Plain and simple. And the murderer might just do it again."
Images of Oliver’s body flickered through my head in gory detail, but I shoved them back down, along with a surge of bile. "A warning from who?"
He heaved a long breath and shook his head. "We need to get our hands on the video from the cameras in this place, specifically the one in Oliver's office last night."
"Great.” I nodded. “I'm sure the building’s security will hand those right over, don't you think?"
"No." He looked at me closely, the torchlight dancing in his cunning eyes, and an evil little smile perked his lips even though I’d just cut his throat.Maybe he’d forgotten all about it, but I sure hadn’t. “Do you happen to know a thief?”
“I think I get where you’re going with that,” I said, and offered him my hand. “Let’s get you up.”
After much pushing and shoving, he stood, and that alone pinched my gut with worry. He was weak, and growing weaker by the minute since he hadn’t had his power surge. I was sure Vance and Tavis were feeling it too.
“Are you all right, Calhoun?” I asked, my arm still wrapped around his waist to help support him.
"I'm dead."
I blinked up at him. "No, you are not.”
He kissed my forehead and smoothed the frown from my lips with his thumb. "After Petra and Rio spread what happened here, which they will, it will come as quite a shock that I’m still alive. This will make the rest of the shifters not trust anything Petra and Rio say and more willing to hear whatyouhave to say."
Great. Only I had no idea what to say to them.
