Page 52 of Dragon Fight

“Is that what this is? What it’s been all along?” I asked him. There were murmurs from the others muttered and from the dragons, but I shut them all out, focussing entirely on Draven. “You’ve tormented me, judged me, harassed me and put me down, all because you’re jealous?”

“Jealous?” My bravado faltered slightly under Draven’s vicious glare, his lips twisting in the most perfect of caustic smiles, as if he was laughing at the possibility, but then he continued. “That’s far too small a word for what I’ve felt.” He shook his head slowly, moving to circle me and I mirrored him, as though the two of us were angry cats, each looking for a weakness in the other. “Jealousy implies that I’ve been watching Brom, watching you, wanting to be exactly where you are, with his arms around me instead of you. Gods, how I wish it was that simple.”

He stopped still, then stepped towards me, cutting across the circle we had been wearing into the floor. When he stood directly in front of me, he put out a hand, tipping my chin up so I was forced to stare into his eyes.

“I’ll only say this once, so do pay attention. I haven’t been pining for Brom and, as far as I know, neither has he for me, so don’t exile him from your bed on my account. I don’t want to steal your husband away from you.”

His breath came out in a long, painful rattle, which gave me a hint of what was to come.

“What I’ve wanted is far grander than that: everything and every person who is mine.” His eyes were like twin blue fires as he bit off the words. “To finally be able to draw close those who plague my every moment, that make my heart, my body and my mind ache...” His frown creased. “To be able to hold them in my arms and breathe in their scent. To be able to brush my lips across theirs and then tease them open, because I can’t wait for them to give ground, because I’m that greedy for their taste. And then when I have it, I’ll…”

As his thumb brushed against my bottom lip, I went to pull my head away, but his gaze hardened and he held me there, forcing me to endure his caress.

“I’m sorry if I’ve not been a particularly amiable travelling companion and that I haven’t taken the time to explain my chequered past with this wing before you decided to pursue a relationship with each one of them. You see, I find the entirety of my energy is focussed on keeping those I care about at arm’s length, just to make sure they see another day.”

I’d thought he was telling me about how he felt about the men, that he was nurturing an infatuation just for Brom, but as he’d continued, I was confused. Just as I began to frown, Draven’s head dropped down, as if he would close the gap between us.

He stopped himself, with a look of disbelief on his face that was mirrored by my own. And, it felt like the whole world stood still as he hung there, close but not close enough. My breath was too noisy, my heart pounding far too hard to hear what anyone else had to say, so when Cynane’s voice slid into my mind it came as a rude shock.

I have returned from speaking to the enclave. Is everyone ready to hear my news?

34

Draven and I jerked away from each other as the dragon walked into the room, as if we were the ones indulging in an affair of the heart, not him and Brom. The queen dragon stared at the two of us, and it was as though she sensed all of the tense undertones, but she did not comment on them.

The news is not good, unfortunately, she said.Many of the enclave reacted as I expected, seeing your wing as agents of a power that seek to threaten everything we have built here at Dragon Home.She sighed.I admit, I’m not entirely sure that isn’t the case, but…She nodded slightly.You have brought us information, precious information, that allows usto prepare for the threats we face. Cynane turned to Draven then with a note of censure in her voice.News you could’ve brought us when you came here days ago.

“You came here days ago?” Brom asked the prince, his voice rising. “Before you came to Pippin’s estate? Before you instructed us that we needed to go to see my family? Before several attempts were made on my wife’s life?”

Soren had said that I had nothing to worry about with Brom, that he would choose me and his actions now were evidence of that. He marched across the room and then paused, only for a moment, as if mentally debating the rights and wrongs of laying hands on a prince of the realm, before grabbing the collar of Draven’s shirt and dragging him towards him.

“You put Pippin and Glimmer in danger?!” Brom’s voice had changed, a feral kind of growl taking over. “They could’ve died! Pippin could’ve…” Brom shook his head sharply as Draven just glared at him, then Brom dragged him closer. “She was lying there in the bed, lifeless as a fucking corpse, and you—”

“I did what I needed to,” Draven spat back, the effect marred by his choked-off tone, as Brom’s grip pulled the prince’s shirt tighter around his neck. “Pippin would’ve been safe, Glimmer too.” He glanced at Cynane, who watched the proceedings with a censorious eye. “I had to know—”

“You had to know what? That your fucking bitch of a mother was willing to send her own son to do the work of her assassins?” Flynn snapped, stalking closer. “And that she wouldn’t allow herself to just rely on you to get the job done?”

Draven, you came here with endless questions about queen dragons, but no mention of your queen’s plans, Cynane said.Not until it was convenient for you to disclose.

“I had only suspicions and conjecture to go on,” Draven replied, pulling his collar out of Brom’s hands, before shifting his focus to Glimmer. “I sought clarification, solid information, before I went and threatened a treaty that had kept the peace between dragonkind and humankind.” He turned to Cynane. “Father can’t speak of this place to Mother or anyone else, and neither can I. You’ve all made sure of that with the mental block placed on each prince, each king and our dragons, and so there is no immediate danger facing Dragon Home.”

When he turned to face us, I saw it, the pain, the desperation that he so rarely showed and I knew he had to be consciously putting aside his princely mask right now.

“And with Pippin… With Glimmer…” His brows creased then smoothed, every muscle in his face seeming to shift as he struggled to find the words. “I had to know… Is Glimmer just a smaller than average queen dragon? Or is she the seer prophesied to come?”

“So you tested them.” Brom pushed himself away from the prince, stumbling as though he couldn’t get away quickly enough. “Gods, I always knew there was a cold side to you, a vicious one, but—”

“But the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree,” Ged said, narrowing his eyes as he crossed his arms and shook his head. “You are your mother’s son.”

I saw the moment Draven stopped trying to make his case. The light went out of his eyes and he stepped back, dropping his shoulders as if defeated. He stared at each of us, a plea for understanding in his eyes.

But it wasn’t granted to him.

I was still trying to piece things together. And the others? They stared at Draven not just like he wasn’t a prince, but that he was less than the dirt on the soles of their shoes. And I thought I had an idea of what he had lost what he’d been referring to when he’d been speaking just to me, earlier.

“What I’ve wanted is far grander than that: everything and every person who is mine.”

It wasn’t just Brom he wanted, but…

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