Page 108 of His Greatest Treasure

“I wished to know what your plans were for our clan.”

“Oh, um, yes, plans. I have those.”

We all eyed Alfie with amusement. I said, “You don’t need to know yet what you want to do. You have time to think about it.”

“Do I? Yes, I’d like that more. I need to think about it first. What am I allowed to do? It seems like a lot of responsibility, looking after a whole clan. I wish Rhod were here to help me. He’s the one who knows everything.”

I saw a flicker in Evangeline’s eyes but she said nothing. George said, “You can do anything you wish,Lord- Alfie.”

Alfie thought for a minute and we all sat in silence. I was used to him being a chatterbox, so I knew that if he was thinking things through now, it was serious. He needed time to process.

At last, he said, “I suppose it depends what everyone else wants. I need to ask them all first before I decide.”

Evangeline said, “You can ask them now.”

“Shall I go and fetch them?”

“You can summon them.”

“How?”

“With your bonds.”

Alfie cocked his head to the side and Evangeline shook her head. “I know you can do it. You did it before, when your mate was in danger. You summoned your clan to your aid.”

“Oh, yes, that. But I was worried then,” Alfie pointed out.

“You can do it, though. Call them to you.”

Alfie shifted round and moved his hands and huffed in annoyance as he got it wrong but then, after five minutes, Regina came into the room, followed by Matilda and Isabella and then, from all the way upstairs in her studio, Silvia.

Alfie said, “I didn’t want to summon the sprites or the Guardian while they were protecting the border.”

“You can ring them and see if they have a few moments free,” I pointed out.

Alfie gasped and then planted a big, loud kiss on my cheek. “I will!”

Chapter 43

Alfie

Glimmer seemed to think that the territory was protected again. “We’ve closed the gap and we’re fortifying the defences now. It’s going to take a few weeks for the sprites to work their magic round the whole of the border, but I’ve arranged for them to work in shifts until it’s done. There’s no rush. Kingsley and I have been working on it for ages, and the only weakness was where Lord Somerville broke the protections.”

“Can you come up to the castle? I want to talk to everyone.”

When they arrived, I felt better. I hadn’t realised quite how much my dragon had been pushing against my skin. I wasn’t yet sure what was normal and what was my dragon trying to tell mesomething. All I did know was that we both liked having our clan here, surrounding us.

Inside me, my dragon griped again. Because we weren’t all here, were we?

I was terribly aware that some of my clan were missing. Rhod and Glenwise were out there alone and, sure, I missed Morgan a lot. I wished I could see him again and I felt pleased that some of my magic was exactly like his because it made me feel closer to him. But my dragon didn’t get riled up about Morgan being outside of our territory.

I sat and thought about it. Morgan had a clan. Glenwise and Rhod didn’t. They were vulnerable out there.

My dragon snorted inside me, wanting to shift and fly after them, follow their bonds until we reached the end and found our missing clan.

“Do you think I can go and find them?” I asked.

The blank stares around me made me squirm. They hadn’t been following my train of thought.

---