Page 9 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Orion raised his famous fists, which shined with the kind of magic I craved. But the sapphire glimmer wasn’t as bright as it should have been, the tendrils weak and pale.
The Dragon didn’t even turn around.
He swung his sword behind him with a speed and precision I’d never seen before. But he didn’t aim at Orion, oh no.
The tip of his blade landed just a breath away from Orion’s wife’s belly. Her very protruding, pregnant belly.
An ugly, shocked stillness settled over the garden.
“I’d reconsider if I were you, Orion,” The Dragon said, his ice eyes still fixed on the altar. “I hear you already have three children.”
Orion shook with rage. He still had his fists raised, but they no longer vibrated with magic. His wife’s lower lip trembled, but she didn’t dare move as the sword rested on the surface of her gorgeous cobalt blue gown.
“Gorgeous little ones. They take after their mother, from what I see.” The Dragon’s voice echoed in the horrified silence. Only then did he look over his shoulder with a calm, deadly precision. Not at Orion, a man as tall and wide as a small hill, but at his wife, who was a slight and lithe thing, barely taller than me. “I heard they’re so eager to meet their little siblings. The midwives said you’re having twins, yes?”
The woman nodded and squinted her eyes shut, twin tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Sit down,” The Dragon said to Orion, still not looking at him. “Or this ends in more than one grave.”
“Don’t!” I heard myself call out. My frantic voice echoed on a loop; some of the birds flew out of the sycamore trees.
“Don’t worry,” Allegra said in a lethal tone. Her eyes spit fire at the ghostly fighter in the back. “It’s rude to spill blood at a wedding. He wouldn’t risk it.”
“And it brings bad luck,” the priest said, though he sounded less certain.
I clenched my jaw. The only thing standing between The Dragon and an assassination were superstitions and manners?
The Dragon shrugged. Hundreds of powerful Clan members surrounded him, all poised to rip his gorgeous head off his shoulders, and heshrugged.
“Perhaps.” He finally looked at Orion. “Are you willing to risk your wife and unborn children to find out how devoted I am to the old ways and the Clan Code?”
Orion’s jaws trembled with fury, but he sat back down.
“So the Protectorate Clan can be tamed.” The Dragon raised his sword back to his side in a flash. Orion’s wife slumped in her chair with relief. “May the gods bless you with healthy children.”
“How did you get past our warding spells?” Allegra demanded. She stood tall and proud, like The Huntress she’d become.
“What wards?” The Dragon flashed her a grin that had too many edges to ever be kind. “We found no power protecting your precious island and you’re not attacking me with your remarkable magic, Huntress, so I’m guessing something is terribly wrong with your magic on this blessed day. You really should investigate that. What’s the Protectorate without its protective spells?”
Allegra pursed her lips. He was right, our Clan would crumble without our powers. But her magic had worked back in the room–
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“You broke the Code.”
Allegra remained silent, but there was a tremor in her neck.
“I’m here to claim what’s mine.” His ice gaze finally found me. I flinched from the intensity of his eyes that tried to spear me to my very core. Luckily, the veil hid the way my mouth opened in shock. My skin felt suddenly too tight as his stare raced over me. Assessing. As if making sure he had, indeed, found his target. The severe line of his lips changed; they were no longer twisted in that ghostly grin.
He’d turned serious and looked more dangerous for it.
Allegra took a step forward. “You’re not welcomed here.” Her gaze slashed over all the Blood Brotherhood members. “None of you.”
“Step aside, Vegheara,” the prince said. “Malhaven can’t afford to lose a sharp mind like yours. This isn’t your fight.”
“Everything related to my family is my fight.”
I wanted to hug Allie–but I’d settle for protecting her.
