Page 276 of The War God’s Favorite

“Mother, take him.”

He carefully passed Kassian to his mother, gave him a little kiss on his head in doing so, and then took out his weapon. It was unfortunate that things were so dire already, as they had very little time for a meaningful reunion. Shareen was guarding the door for now, but Vrehan’s men knew where they were. Kairen could hear them outside, banging against every door. It would only be a matter of minutes before they barged in, unless his sister lost patience and went to them first.

“Kyun!”

Kairen almost jumped at the little squeal and looked down. Against his leg, a small, silver-scaled dragon was rubbing it’s back against him and looking up with big green eyes. The War God smiled once again and leaned down to pick the little dragon up. Kian immediately jumped onto his shoulder, which was broad enough for him to perch on comfortably.

“Oh, by the Great Dragon, he is.. perfect!” exclaimed Lady Kareen on the verge of tears.

Though she wasn’t wrong, the new grandmother was already blinded by love. With her knowledge of dragons, she could clearly see Kian was a bit different from all the other dragons she had ever encountered before. He had a longer and leaner body, and his wings were thinner and shorter, too. It was most likely that unless they grew bigger sometime soon, he probably wouldn’t be able to manage long flights or heavy weights, like Krai could.

Kairen didn’t have time for this, however. Keeping the young dragon on his shoulder, he turned towards the women from before. They might have both been scared of the War God, but at least they did not run away. They were already aware of his tender relationship with Cassandra and Kassian, but he was still an impressive man to see in the flesh.

“Where is Cassandra?” he asked.

“L-Lady Cassandra went to the Imperial Palace,” explained one of the women, who was actually Yasora. “She wanted to find and heal the Emperor.”

“She went alone?” protested Kareen.

“She went with young Lady Missandra!” added Yasora. “They wanted to find one of the herbal gardens or medicines there, as we didn’t have time to procure any here.”

“She’s not wrong,” sighed Kareen. “That rat, Vrehan, must have had all the Capital’s apothecaries watched the second he knew Cassie was back. And then?”

“We...we don’t know, Your Highness. The girls left hours ago, and we haven’t heard any news since.”

“Hours ago?” exclaimed Kareen, shocked.

She turned to Kairen, livid. Hours ago could mean bad or good news at this point. At least they hadn’t found their bodies strung up on the Palace’s walls. But in a few hours, they could very well have been caught, tortured, or killed. There might still be a chance the girls were alive, but there was no leaning towards one option over the other.

“Let’s go,” said Kairen, determined.

Kareen nodded and followed him, still carrying Kassian. There was no way the War God was going to part with his son for a single minute, and the Imperial Concubine could very well protect him herself. They left the room and found Shareen and Anour in the garden, both of them watching the gate, which was still holding against their assailants, though it was obviously having quite a bad day.

“Oh, here’s my nephew,” said Shareen with a smirk, staring at the baby. “Wow, you’re lucky he took after his mom. Even for a baby, he’s cute.”

“That dragon is amazing,” added Anour, his eyes on little Kian. “His tail is so long. He’s even leaner than Roun!”

Actually, all three dragons present were quite intrigued by the Baby Dragon. Kian jumped down from Kairen’s shoulder and ran to Krai. Though the Black Dragon looked a bit surprised, it carefully walked closer, the big red eyes wide open with curiosity.

To the side, Roun wasn’t as patient. The Green Dragon growled, almost jumping on the Baby Dragon, but Krai reacted immediately, growling louder as a warning. The Green Dragon retreated with its head low. Between them, Kian seemed to have not even noticed Roun; The Baby Dragon kept running up to Krai, all excited. The Black Dragon clearly didn’t know how to react, especially as the Baby Dragon easily disappeared under its big body. Krai kept trying to look down and around, but the excited Kian kept scuttling over and under, jumping on its paws playfully, making cute squeaks, and chasing Krai’s big black tail.

Finally, the big Black Dragon growled and, when Kian made another move close enough, caught the Baby Dragon under its paw. Surprised, Kian squealed a bit, but Krai tilted its head, and carefully grabbed the baby in its mouth. The Baby Dragon swung its little paws, unhappy with this new position, but Krai ignored it as it walked up to Kairen. The dragon looked like a cat with its pissed off kitten, making everyone smile.

“Don’t you hurt him, Krai,” warned Kareen with a frown.

It was unlikely Krai would harm the Baby Dragon voluntarily, but keeping the baby in its mouth without biting with those sharp fangs must have been quite difficult for Krai, especially as Kian was particularly unruly. However, the Black Dragon looked like it was controlling the situation, and its offspring, perfectly.

They didn’t have much time to keep observing these intimate interactions though. The shouts were getting louder behind the door. Kairen cracked his neck, and his sister looked even more impatient. All the servants had run back inside the mansion to hide. A small army was surely waiting for them out there, but these people had Dragon’s Blood and actual dragons with them!

“This is going to take all day.”

The Princess took a deep breath, taking in as much air as she could into her lungs and, after a couple of seconds, she exhaled a massive fireball towards the door, sending it and everyone behind it flying. The Imperial Princess smirked.

“Now we can actually get to it.”

With a demonic smile on her face, she ran into the crowd of soldiers who were still standing or trying to get back up on their feet. Kairen glanced back towards him, but Kassian was perfectly safe in his grandmother’s arms. She had even shielded him from the smoke by raising her sleeve, though the baby only seemed to care about his plushie.

The Imperial Prince ran to support his sister. Shareen didn’t need much help though, but the faster they dealt with these soldiers, the faster they’d get to the Imperial Palace and to Cassandra. There wasn’t a single second to lose.

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