Page 16 of The Alliance

I opened the window and leaned out to shout, “Glimmer! They’re not meant to leave the ground.”

It was actually funny to watch him. He almost skidded to a stop in mid-air. He’d been streaking around so fast that he nearly threw the two children off him and they fell forward onto his neck and scrambled to sit up again where they’d been clutching hold of him. Their little legs were far too small to sit astride his back, even though he was only half my size. They were sitting on his neck, just where it joined his shoulders.

Glimmer beat his wings steadily, keeping his large body in place, and he twisted his long neck back so he could glare at the two giggling children.

I could see the accusation in that glare. No doubt they’d convinced him that they were allowed to fly around on people’s backs when they absolutely were not.

Hannah leaned forward so she was cuddling his muscular neck and looked into Glimmer’s eyes with her own sweet, child-like ones.

“We love you, Uncle Glimmer.”

I snorted. No wonder he’d been duped. That kid knew how to get whatshe wanted.

I shouted out the window, “Bring them in here.”

Glimmer twisted his body closer to the wall and eased himself onto the huge windowsill where he steadied himself and allowed Hannah and Ed to slide off him, straight into my arms. Ed was already talking.

“Did you see us, Uncle Dane? We were goingso fast,” and he made zooming noises as he showed me how fast he’d been flying with his hand.

Hannah, though, knew they were in trouble. She looked up at me with those same puppy-dog eyes that had tricked Glimmer and said, “We were very safe on Uncle Glimmer’s back. He’s theGuardian.”

She said the word ‘guardian’ as though it were obvious that it therefore followed everyone was safe around him. Annoyingly, she kind of had a point. They’d been perfectly safe with Glimmer. He’d never have allowed any harm to come to them.

In my deepest voice, I growled out, “Youtrickedhim.”

They both had the decency to look ashamed about that.

Ed turned to Glimmer, looking contrite, and said, “Sorry, Uncle Glimmer. You were really fun though.”

Hannah added, “Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.”

I wanted to snort again. What the little minx meant was that it would be great for her if Nana never found out about this.

I made my voice as stern as I could, and then said, “Please forgive them, Glimmer. You’re well within your rights to eat them as a punishment.”

Glimmer snapped his jaws at them and both of them ran squealing from the room, shouting, “Don’t eat us! We won’t do it again.”

When the kids were gone and the sound of their thudding footsteps had faded – probably charging through the castle and waking everyone else up – I turned to Glimmer.

“You can come in, if you like.”

He slid into the room, shifting as he did so. Glimmer was incredibly graceful like that. He dropped a bundle of clothes onto the floor and began to rummage through them, having obviously kept the bundle in his claws as he was flying.

I was dressed, except for my socks and shoes, so I busied myself putting them on while Glimmer yanked his clothes on behind me.

Before we left my room, I asked, “You okay, G?”

He shot me a surprised look. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shrugged. I’d felt something of the prickling unease when I’d visited the Somerville castle when Alfie became elder, but I’d known a lot of the clan and I’d been with my mate, who’d been born to them, and I’d been there before to train Seren and Glimmer. In fact, I was one of the few people who felt okay about walking into other dragons territories, since I’d done it before. Glimmer had never been in someone else’s territory before.

“Just wondered if you felt weird about being here.”

“Your elder’s magic is different from mine. Maybe because she’s acuraidh. I can feel it pressing against me but it’s not hurting me.”

On the basis I couldn’t feel magic at all, that was news to me.

“The rest of your family doing okay?”

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