Page 25 of Guardian's Dilemma

“Why haven’t you killed me yet?”

“I told you: you’re my mate.”

He grunted. “Want to use me as bait, more like.”

I didn’t have time to argue with him and it was going to take a long, long time to convince him that we were mates, so I left him there.

This time, when I flew to the house, I went straight to the front door. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done that. Even when I’d heard that Lord Somerville had disowned Seren and I’d gone to ask him to take Seren back, I’d slipped in round the back and gone to Lord Somerville’s study that way. This time, I dressed and opened the large front doors, standing for a second in the entrance while my eyes adjusted to the gloom inside.

It only took a second and then I saw Aunt Isabella, who’d been walking out of the drawing room, paused where she was. She was looking at me with wide eyes, obviously as surprised as I was that I was using the front doors and she had the sense to be a bit afraid, too. There weren’t many reasons why the Guardian should be at the castle, and none of them were good.

I didn’t have the heart to try and comfort her, since there was nothing truthful I could say that would make her feel any safer. Instead, I set off directly for Lord Somerville’s study and knocked boldly on the door.

“Enter,” he said, and I went inside.

This was going to be a very dangerous conversation.

“What are you doing at the castle?”

“I’ve come to report aridire.”

Even Lord Somerville reacted to that, though it was barely noticeable. He always stood proud and he kept his face impassive. There was a slight movement of his eyebrow but his face became stern again immediately.

“Where?”

This was where I needed to be very careful. It would be almost impossible to protect both my clan and my mate, but I needed to pull it off.

“He found our territory and reported it to his coven. They’ll arrive at the boundary soon, probably to the south-east.”

I was guessing that based on the location of the vault, assuming that theridirewould go straight to where the signal was and not circle round our boundary. It was actually the best thing we could hope for, since it was over a mile away from the castle where our real treasure was.

“Circle the territory and check our defences. I’ll send you some support. Use them however you need to keep theridireaway from the castle.”

I nodded and retreated, thinking that was probably the best it could have gone. Already, Lord Somerville had pressed the alarm and a siren blared throughout the castle. It had never before been sounded in my lifetime.

Poor little Aunt Isabella was sent to me, along with Rhod and a couple of others. I noticed straight away that these were the weakest of the clan, which was not great. If I’d been protecting the territory – which I was – I’d have sent the strongest out first. There was no point in letting theridirein and then defending the castle, when they got to it. But I knew Lord Somerville and he hoarded the strongest of his clan and the purest Somervilles in the castle, and sent the rest out to fight. He’d kept Isabella’s daughter, Matilda, inside, because she had Somerville blood and her mother didn’t.

They all looked at me, wide-eyes and unsure, even if they tried to hide it.

This was not how I wanted it to go.

They were frightened, which was good. That would mean that they would be on their guard. It would also mean that they were willing to do what I wanted.

I decided that a little white lie was in order, such a small thing that it was barely a lie at all.

“We don’t know where theridirewill attack, which means we need to cover the entire territory. Take your phones and use the alerts if you see anything. Report all sightings straight away and do not engage.”

They nodded, looking unsure. They knew as well as I did that, if aridiregot inside the boundary, they’d need to fight for their life.

“You,” I said, pointing at Isabella. “Patrol the north section. You, Rhod, take the north-west.”

I gave them each a section of boundary to patrol, which actually would be useful. If theridiredidtry to sneak around, I wanted someone to spot it quickly and report in.

Also, coincidentally, I gave them sections as far from where I thought the real danger was as I could. That made sense, right? Since I was the Guardian and I should take the most likely point of attack.

Just as I was turning to go, already in my dragon form, I heard Glenwise behind me. “Let me patrol a section,” he said.

I shook my head.

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