Page 44 of The Alliance

Dee slithered over to them and joined in the pleas. “It’ll be good for clan relations, Matty. The family that fights together stays together.”

“No.” Matty sounded very commanding as he said it, and Dee and Dum pouted. It was weird to see their almost-identical faces with the same expression. Matty looked to Darren. “If you see either of them within fifty metres of the armoury for the rest of the day, let me know and I’ll make the rest of their weekveryunpleasant.”

Darren nodded.

Dum muttered, “Traitor.”

Matty pointed along the corridor, the way Lady Hoskins had left. “Get.”

Both Hoskins dragons walked sulkily along.

Matty pointed at my mate next. “You’re not to fight either of them, understand.”

Kingsley said, “I have no interest in fighting them.”

“Good. Because if you win, they’re going to be twice as reckless about proving themselves next time.”

Arram moved past me, following their mate. “Yes, and iftheywin they will be insufferably smug about it.”

I smirked. No way would two little dragons win in a fight against my mate. He wassucha badass and I wanted to scream about how lucky I was to have a mate so strong.

I moved towards the door to the armoury but Darren was blocking it. Now that I had permission to be there, I wanted to see it quickly. Before anyone could change their minds.

“How did you see my spells?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you after I’ve seen inside.” He didn’t look happy, and I was worried he’d delay me further, so I added a little sweetener. “I’ll show you how I disabled them when I put them back up for you. And I can add a different kind, too, if you want.” At the alarm on his face, I added, “I’ll show you how to work them and you can put them up yourself.”

It seemed only fair. Lady Hoskins was trusting me inside her territory, the armoury no less, so the least I could do was to help protect it.

Darren relented. “Okay, we’ll do that. Now, Prince, do you want to wait for me in the library?”

Prince let out a breath of relief. “Yes! I don’t think it’s wise to let me loose in the armoury. I’ll stay away from the sharp things, thank you very much.”

Darren grabbed him round the waist and pulled him close. I inched forward, wondering if I could get past him if I used my power to shimmer into the edges of the world and slip past.

“Prince, you’ve just been in the kitchen with all the sharp knives and nothing bad happened. You can come into the armoury if you want.”

“No, thank you. I might go in later. You know, one day.”

I felt a warm touch on my arm and Kingsley’s scent beside me told me it was him. He was warning me not to try and sneak past. Dammit. Why were these two being so lovey-dovey while they were meant to be lettingme past?

Darren kissed his mate soundly and then sent him off to the library and I was about to vibrate out of my skin with anticipation.

As I finally stepped through the door, I felt the press of all those weapons against me. Some of them were filled with magic, whereas others were simply sharp and deadly. Lady Hoskins had a bit of everything here.

The first thing I did was take in an overview, trying to establish a pattern so I could see everything. It wasn’t arranged logically, not to me. Kingsley had followed me straight in. No way would he wait outside while I was in here. Everyone else could wait their turn if they wanted to get a look.

Darren watched me silently, standing out of the way and looking on, typical gargoyle, but Lew cleared his throat and said, “Would you like to know anything about the weapons?”

Maybe he was being sincere, or maybe he was being sarcastic, I couldn’t tell. I hadn’t decided whether to ask for anything, in case it stopped me seeing all the weapons, but my mate was a straight-forward kind of person and he took that as a genuine offer.

“Yes, I’d like to know where that came from.”

He pointed at the wall opposite me and I had to move around the centre display case to see what he was looking at.

It was a dagger, and it looked very ordinary.

Lew said, “That’s abiorachblade.”

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