Page 4 of The Diamond Dragon Prince
He tugged me closer still, and I was certain he would wrap his arm around my waist and pull me flush against him. He might have even slanted his mouth over mind in a possessive kiss, despite the fact we were in public.
But instead, Obi’s cry of, “That looks like an army, and they’re attacking a village!” shook me straight out of my thoughts.
Diamant and I both turned to where my brothers were all crowded around Selle, gazing into the scrying glass.
“What is that and where did you find it?” Diamant asked, stepping away from me to see what was going on.
Selle glanced up at Diamant as though he were someone who was part of his life every day and said, “Billi gave this glass to me. It sees into my father’s world.”
Diamant frowned. “Magic like that is regulated. Does Gildur know about this gift?”
His question, which was so fussy I would have to tease him about it later, was ignored.
“I know that village,” Rumi said. “It’s to the far west of the castle, but it’s right along the road leading to our neighboring kingdom.”
“Is the neighboring kingdom attacking us?” Obi asked.
“No, look!” Tovey said, pointing at the glass. “That’s Rottum leading the army.”
Rottum was our father’s chief of guards. He’d been missing from the castle for a few weeks. Hearing that he was leading an army in attack of one of our own villages was disconcerting.
“Is Father trying to attack his own people again?” Tovey asked.
“It looks like it,” Rumi said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“We have to do something about it,” I said, making the decision right then and there. “We have to go back to our father’s world and find a way to put a stop to the attack.”
Chapter
Two
Diamant
From the moment I’d first spotted Leo with his brothers in the pavilion, I’d known my life would never be the same. I wasn’t too proud to say that from the first sight of his clever eyes, his svelte, omega body, and his surprisingly masculine features, I’d known he would have me under his thumb in no time.
Unlike Rufus and Gildur, I’d decided to take my time with the fascinating and feisty young man. We were fated, which meant we had all the time in the world to be together, literally hundreds of years, once we mated and he shared my magic. I never did anything in my life in a hurry. I indulged, enjoyed, and languished. It was simply what diamonds did. So why rush to the completion of a romance when the seduction could be so sweet?
Of course, I was tempted to change my mind and whisk Leo off to some concealed corner to have my waywith him as soon as he suggested going to war. I wasn’t cowardly or craven, but it had never occurred to me to step away from the finer things of life to go to battle for a just cause. Doing so by Leo’s side might be fun.
“You can’t just jump through the glass and battle an army,” Tovey pointed out, swinging the pack that contained his eggs around so he could check on them.
“Why not?” Leo asked. “We’re princes of our father’s realm. It is our duty to our people to protect them, especially against Father.”
“No, I mean you can’t just blip from one world to the next,” Tovey explained. “There are laws governing who can move between worlds and where and when.”
“He’s right,” Selle said with a sigh. “Saoirse and Lord Manfred were punished for doing just that last month. Queen Gaia wishes for there to be less travel between worlds for now, not more.”
“But we cannot simply stand by and let whatever Father is plotting this time hurt innocent people,” Leo insisted.
I was so proud of him I could burst. His heart was always in the right place, and he had the strength of will to follow through with whatever was needed to help people. I’d learned that already in the few, short months since we’d met.
And I was absolutely going to help him.
“Making a doorway between worlds is no trouble at all,” I said with an admittedly arrogant shrug of one shoulder. “We dragons do it all the time.”
“Yes, but you are not supposed to,” my brother, Gildur, said, walking up to stand beside his omega. He rested his arm around Selle’s shoulder and smiled at him as if the twoof them were on their way to a picnic instead of discussing plans for war.
“‘Supposed to’ is such a gold concept,” I said, smirking at him. “Diamonds don’t wait around for permission to do anything.”
