Page 35 of The Gold Dragon Prince
I was stunned by the blustering futility of the two power-hungry tyrants throwing insults and threats at each other. They clearly believed they were powerful, but to me, they seemed like nothing more than two children fighting in a nursery.
The few remaining guards in the room came forward, but Saoirse turned to them, flung out her arm, and said, “You will not come anywhere near me!”
Whether some of her magic returned or whether the guards were simply too surprised to be given an order by a woman, I couldn’t tell. They stopped halfway across the room, blinking at each other and glancing at my father for instructions.
“Don’t just stand there, take her!” Father bellowed.
The guards started forward again, but there was no speed or coordination in their movements. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the men didn’t even know their own names.
I peeked back at the old man, and sure enough, he had his hand raised slightly toward them. If he was the dragon in our castle, I owed him so much. And I worried that he would be exhausted from using so much magic to control the mad situation.
More chaos arrived moments later as the guards who had been sent to fetch my brothers returned. I was so happy to see them that I nearly sobbed with relief. They spotted me right away as well, and despite the guards’ efforts to keep them in line, they broke away to join me.
“Selle!” Rumi called out, hugging me tightly as soon as we were all together. “What’s going on?”
“I was so worried when you didn’t come back with us last night,” Obi whispered, crowding close to me.
“Is that…is that an egg in your arms?” Misha asked, eyes wide.
I wished I had time to show them my egg properly and to explain everything that had happen since we’d parted ways. More time had passed for me than them, and so much had happened in that time.
Unfortunately, their reaction to me proved exactly the thing Father had intended to prove.
“You are my son,” he shouted, stepping down from the dais and striding over to us. “How did you escape from your room? Where is Tovey? How dare you defy me and escape your confinement?”
“You should not be keeping us prisoner in the first place,” Leo snapped back at him, stepping forward as if he would defend us all.
“Sniveling omega!” Father growled, raising a hand like he would strike Leo.
Leo stood bravely, as if he intended to take the blow simply to prove that Father was every bit the tyrant we had always said he was, and in front of his courtiers.
Father’s hand never descended, though. Instead, his eyes went wide as he looked at me. Or rather, as he looked at the egg I cradled against my chest.
“Is that a golden egg?” he asked breathlessly, his eyes filling with greed.
“No,” I said, pulling away as much as I could and shielding my baby again.
“It’s my golden egg!” Saoirse shouted, moving toward us. “I found it first.”
“Give it to me!” Father said, lunging for me.
I pulled back, and as I did, Leo and Rumi stepped forward to be my guards. They did an admirable job, but they weren’t intimidating enough for Father to give up his attempts to snatch at my egg. He pushed into them, his eyes trained on my egg as if he didn’t notice anything else in the room.
“I want it,” he growled. “It must be worth a fortune. It must be mine.”
“No, it’s mine,” Saoirse said, coming at me from the other direction.
Misha and Obi tried to block her, but they weren’t fighters. I had to duck and turn to the side, then attempt to make a break for the door.
There were too many courtiers in the room for me to reach the doors and escape. More than that, as soon as they saw the egg, they, too, seemed to think it had to be theirs.
“It’s a golden egg!” one woman said, reaching out like she could just take it.
“It must be worth more than anything in the kingdom,” another man said, pushing the woman aside like he could come forward to snatch my baby.
“It’s my child,” I wailed, dodging this way and that as more and more people noticed my egg and tried to come after it. “It’s a new life, not some possession for you to drool over.”
“I want it!”
