Page 20 of Dragon Blood

Rebellious, self-imposed outsider, gathering a crew that shared her heart for the ultimate freedom, collecting women from around the globe, from all walks of life and communities. Those that desired and answered the call of the seas. And those that desperately needed a place to belong.

That was Red.

Or so he’d thought.

Now, it seems, she wasn’t an outsider at all, but a runaway. A poor little princess who rejected her family’s wealth and status to avoid responsibility.

Commitment.

The ultimate free spirit. Fuck everyone else.

He couldn’t imagine her giving it all up for the stagnation of rulership, like her mother.

But, if and when she ever did, he knew she would devote herself to the role as fiercely as she did the captaincy of this ship and her crew.

Regina and his mother Kolina drifted along the deck behind him.

“You should rest,” Kolina said. “Perhaps being away from Aeleftheria is draining you too much.”

“Perhaps. We’ll be back soon enough. But I will go and rest for now.” Regina moved on, leaving Kolina to join Kai at the rail.

“Did you know that Astred commandeered this ship in order to protect Aeleftheria’s borders from human trespassers, without exposing our true identity to the world?”

Kai shook his head.

After a long silence, Kolina drew a deep breath. “It concerns me to see the queen looking anything but the height of health.”

“She’s unwell?”

Kolina nodded, eyes searching the horizon. “More and more so, since leaving Aeleftheria, she mentioned.”

“Hopefully it’s, as you say, something to do with her absence from her home.”

“Mmm. Yes. It has been a long while since she left.”

How would that kind of land bond affect Red, if that were the case?

Is that why she stayed at sea for so long?

Because the tether to the island was permanent, and short?

Such a thing didn’t exist among the tiger clan’s monarchy. Other dragon colonies didn’t seem to suffer the same. The king of the air dragon clan was gone from his realm all the time. Jori Mountainside didn’t seem to have problems leaving his mountain.

So why Queen Regina?

“Why?” he hadn’t meant to ask, but his curiosity got the better of him. And he was bored as hell and looking for safer topics in present company.

“Why… she doesn’t leave?” Kolina blew out her breath, turning her back to the rail, allowing her gaze to travel up the masts to the billowing sails before dropping it to Kai. “For the same reason our culture exists as it does.”

He lifted a brow, waiting for her to continue.

She seemed to consider her words carefully before she answered. “A lot happened during the dragon schism. This isn’t the first location of Aeleftheria over the centuries, but it is the most important and may very well be our last. We became a warrior culture to protect ourselves from the domination of the males that would control everything—even the air we breathed.”

“So they created some magical bond to protect it?”

Kolina shrugged. “I imagine so. And we will defend it, and our queen, with that very last free breath.”

“Except it seems that the queen herself is not free.”

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