Page 26 of Forked Tongues Are Fun
The shifters looked around, waiting for this Yara Parmstone to reveal herself, their gazes cruel and their fists tight at their sides. They didn’t want this any more than I did.
One of the little boys inside the cage was looking at the gold bar in my hand with his jaw dangling to his knees, no more than six years old and with about that many teeth in his mouth. I brought my finger to my lips and tried to think of a way out of this. For all of us.
A flash of red lightning cut across the moon followed by a blast of thunder.
“Yara Parmstone, show yourself,” Léas announced, her voice radiating authority. “I wish to speak to you now.”
Vance caught my eye from the other side of the rooftop, then Tavis and Calhoun, all of whom gave the subtlest of nods.
A terrible sinking feeling ripped down my heart. I’d come so far, farther than any human ever had to rescue a kidnapped loved one from the dragon shifters, close enough to hear my brother, and here, right now was where I would fail to save him and myself.
I looked at the toothless boy, seeing Asa in him, seeing all humans in him. He was still very much alive. I made a circular motion with my finger at those around him and then pointed at the door marked with Stairs behind me, and then held my finger to my lips again, hoping he got all that.
He nodded, and I walked away from him with part of the birdcage bar still in my hand, leaving all of them to save themselves while I strode up to face the goddess in an attempt to save me.
The shifters parted out of my way, their fury torching the air at my back as I passed. I stopped at the edge of the pond with my chin held high, and a flying monkey circus in my stomach. The goddess exuded power and a touch of pure darkness, and she was even more beautiful up close.
“I’m Yara Parmstone,” I announced, my voice ringing clear through the night.
Léas stared at me with dark, almost black eyes, a glint of curiosity in them. “I’ve been waiting for you for quite some time.”
I opened my mouth to say something like a half-hearted apology, but then I realized she wasn’t just talking about tonight. “Why?”
The shifters gasped and hissed.
“How dare you question Léas,” one of them scolded.
But really though. Why? I had a right to know, and I hoped my unwavering stare at the goddess conveyed that.
She smiled, but it was much too toothy to be friendly. “Because you’re here.”
Something small blurred across the rooftop. Running footsteps pounded toward me, and then Asa was flinging himself at me. I didn’t allow myself to feel relief at having my brother back. Not yet. I pushed him behind me, and I could sense the heat from my dragon shifters closing in behind him, forming our own kind of birdcage around him.
A growl swept over the crowd as they searched behind me, then at the empty birdcage, at the open stairwell door, and back again. Some rushed toward it, and I hoped to hell those kids were faster than adult-sized dragon shifters. Others pressed in around me, flashing half-shifted fangs, talons, and yellow eyes. I’d pissed every last one of them off. So, this should go really well.
“What the hell is this?” Petra demanded. Curls of smoke lifted off her arms as if she were going to blow any minute. “Why is there a human hiding behind this Yara Parmstone? Didshefree the children?”
A woman stepped up the pond’s edge, opposite Petra, loose, blonde curls framing very large breasts barely contained underneath a red silk gown. Rio, if I had to guess.
Several heartbeats passed as realization seemed to strike her like a bolt of Léas’s red lightning, and she pointed right at me. “Is she human?”
Anger crackled through the shifters, hot enough I could feel it spiking through my veins like lava. They stared at their goddess and hung on her next words before they made the decision to snap or not.
Léas looked out at her worshippers and then swept a graceful arm toward me. “A human will lead you all to greatness. Yara Parmstone is your next queen.”
Shocked silence, thick as the air siphoning into my lungs. I couldn’t breathe, wasn’t quite sure I wanted to.
“Your Holiness—” Petra started, the shrillness in her voice multiplying with each syllable.
Léas cut her off with a single, hard look that rattled up even my spine, and then she returned her gaze to me.”Your coronation is a week from today. Your throne is in a castle outside Mission Hill where you’ll have everything you need. The Queen’s Cross is there should you need to communicate directly with me. This is the way of it.”
Her tone made no room to argue, but I sure thought about doing it anyway. What was she thinking putting a human thief on a throne in a castle to rule over dragon shifters who had no interest in being ruled, let alone by me? But if I questioned her in front of everyone, I would be fueling their doubts in me, making myself look like I had no idea what was going on—even though I didn’t—and letting them have some kind of power over me because of it. I had absolutely no interest in a power trip, but they didn’t need to know that. Best to play smart and keep everything close to my heart, specifically Asa.
“My bro—”
“You may keep him,” Léas said with a nod.
Keep him...like an object? In exchange for becoming queen? I’d made worse deals before, but if it saved Asa’s life, it would be worth it. Right? I had no idea since I’d never been a queen before, but because everything I did was to keep a roof over Asa’s head and his belly from caving in on itself, he came first. Always. We’d be living in a castle, and the goddess had said I would have everything I need. No more stealing? No more considering selling my body just so I could put enough food on the table?
