Page 60 of Dragon Fight

“Who are you willing to sacrifice for me?” I asked, saying cold, cruel things like I was discussing the weather.

“No one, but—”

“If I don’t return, if I don’t present myself at every court event riders are required to participate in, if I don’t put myself forward, reminding her of the obstacle I pose, she will find other victims, easier ones to kill. I’ll have those deaths on my conscience.”

“Pippin, you—”

Brom moved forward, putting his hands on my shoulders as he spoke in a low, intimate tone, trying to urge me to see sense. And I wanted to fall into that, into his embrace, his protection, to spend my days in beautiful Dragon Home discovering each one of its secrets until he returned to me with the boys and their dragons in tow.

But then other lads would disappear and more after them.

I squared my shoulders as I stepped away from Brom, unwilling to feel his fingers leave my skin, but doing it anyway.

“I need to talk to Draven,” I told Brom and he just shook his head. “Alone.”

“No. No, Pippin, you—”

“I’m not asking, Brom.” I hated the way he looked, as if I’d slapped him across his face, red spots forming in his cheeks, his eyes going wide. His look of pain only increased when Draven sidled closer, taking me in his arms.

The feel of the prince’s chest against my back, his face resting against my short hair was a strange kind of intimacy, but it seemed to do the job. Brom shook his head again, stepping away from the two of us as if we had betrayed him.

“You won’t do this.” Brom spoke over my head, stabbing the air with his finger. “If you have any love for me, you’ll keep Pippin out of all of this.”

“You brought Pippin into all of this the minute you all decided you cared for her.” Draven’s arms cradled my body as if in some mimicry of real affection, rocking me against him. “If she was just some little nobody, ignored by the rider corps, her dragon left to limp along, little more than a pathetic mascot, the two of them might’ve had a chance of surviving in the way you hoped. But you didn’t. And queens don’t tolerate other queens in their territory.”

“Then it will be Pippin who is made queen of all of Nevermere, not your mother,” Brom declared and I felt Draven stiffen. “Think aboutthatas the two of you talk.” I blinked when Brom’s eyes dropped to meet mine, the sort of passion burning there I’d never expected to see. “You’ll talk to me afterwards about whatever you discuss,” he demanded. “Promise me that, Pippin.”

I stared at him, and I realised Glimmer was too. I felt like I was channelling her queenly attitude as I looked at him. Because while he might blithely put me forward as an alternative queen to Raina, if I accepted that role there would be many more decisions made without his approval. Brom seemed to get a sense of this, his lips thinning as he shook his head in resignation at Draven and I.

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

“So it seemsthat both of us are determined to break Brom’s heart today.”

I’d expected Draven to move away the moment my husband left the room. But even when Brom slammed the door shut behind him, the prince’s arms continued to rub up and down my arms, only the leather of the armour muffling that intimate gesture. But of course he pulled away: how else was he going to treat me to the sight of his ever present smirk if he didn’t?

“You asked to speak to me alone, leaving your husband out of a conversation he would dearly like to be a part of.” The prince stared at me meaningfully and I knew exactly what he was getting at. It was just like he and Brom had done to me.

“Because you’re the only one who doesn’t care at all for me,” I replied. “It means nothing to you whether or not I live or die.”

He snorted at that, shaking his head before gesturing. “Go on.”

“We need to stop reacting to what your mother is doing. Instead we need to draw her out, make her think she’s going to succeed in killing me. And she can only do that when I’m in the capital,” I said, remembering, then feeling, the intensity of the vision I’d had of the two queen dragons. “We need to force her to make a mistake, one that can be used against her to turn the people and your father against her.”

I thought of Arabella and Cecily and their increasingly reckless cruelties.

“I’ll keep a low profile.” I swallowed as I considered what I was about to suggest. “I’ll play the perfect prey. She’ll think it just dumb luck that keeps me dodging her attempts. That’ll feed her arrogance and force her to be more and more reckless. Then…”

We stared at each other, as if trying to imagine the potential outcome of my plan. I shivered, because, instead, the vision I’d had reappeared in my mind: the nesting queen dragon snapping her jaws around the neck of the invading one and tearing it out, the blood joining that of the crushed hatchlings.

“You’ve got it all worked out, have you?” I came back to the here and now at the sound of Draven’s voice, a silken rope winding tighter around my wrists. “You brought this plan to me because you knew your men would reject it outright.Theywouldn’t be able to countenance the idea of you being in danger. Butme…? I could. Is that what you think?”

“What does it matter to you if I live or die?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “You let those attacks on me take place. You want—”

“Gods, woman…” The growl came from deep in his chest. Then he strode closer, matching my steps when I backed away. He caught me by the shoulders to stop me from retreating, then I felt his hands move up to grip my throat. No, not my throat, my jaw. His hands gentled as he cupped either side of my face, tilting my head back slightly so my eyes met his. “Don’t tell me what I want, because you have no idea what hell I’ve been living in.”

Glimmer’s low hum began, buzzing, buzzing in my ears, as the prince stared into my eyes. I couldn’t look away, caught in his blue gaze. My pulse quickened, my breathing became shallow, faster, and I lost track of time, my only points of reference his touch, his eyes and the humming that reverberated through me. When he spoke again, his voice was level, quiet, but with an edge of disbelief.

“You think you know me. That you can come to me with this ridiculous, self-sacrificing plan and I’ll just go along with it.” He shook his head at me, not unlike the way Brom had done earlier.

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