Page 29 of The Alliance

Dee bounded over to us, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. Whatever she was going to do, it wouldn’t be helpful.

I took the box from Prince and searched around for the lid. As soon as I saw it, I put it on the box, concealing the contents. I wanted it away from Prince. He always went a funny colour when he’d been looking at it.

He asked, “Who does it belong to, then? Is it yours?”

“No,” said Glimmer. “It belonged to the dragon you left at our castle. When you stole Morgan from us.”

He said it in such a light-hearted way that I couldn’t be sure whether he resented that or not. I knew dragons were clannish and possessive. Hecouldresent Morgan being taken.

Dee grinned. “Wetook it. As a mating present for Morgan!”

Dum was instantly beside Dee, of course. “That’s right. We thought he’d like it.”

Weakly, Prince asked, “Why would he like a severed finger?”

“Because it belonged to the dragon who shot Alfie, of course. We took it before we left the Somerville castle.”

Around us, the whole room went silent.

Then Alfie asked, “Whodidshoot me?”

“The dragon we disowned,” said Dee.

“He wanted to hurt you so Morgan would visit and leave the protection of Nana’s territory,” said Dum.

“We didn’t realise until it was too late.”

“You’d already set off for the Somerville’s.”

“He’d already hurt Morgan.”

“Dane had already killed him.”

“We took his trigger finger.”

“We didn’t want the rest of the body.”

“We don’t want the body of a traitor.”

“We left it to be burned.”

“Besides,” said Dee, and bared her teeth in what might – generously – be considered a smile, “he hurt my baby brother.”

Lew gave a weak smile and a very nervous, “Yes, thank you for… helping.” He sounded as though he didn’t want any more help from those two, ever.

A frown line appeared between Glimmer’s eyebrows. “How did you get into our territory?”

Dee blinked innocently at him, as though she wasn’t going to answer.

I could feel a sudden surge of magic, though. I couldn’t identify what it was but it poured out and wrapped around Dum. It took me a moment to work out that it was coming from Kingsley.

Dum said, “Morgan smashed the gates. We got in quickly, before anyone could fix them. And got out before Nana noticed we were missing.”

I’d bet he hadn’t meant to reveal that. I’d have to ask Kingsley if that was some kind of truth spell. Theridirewere known for being excellent at interrogation, though usually it was asking about where someone might have seen a dragon.

The magic faded and Glimmer muttered, “I’ve repaired the defences around the gates.”

Dee growled. “We know.”

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