Page 34 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
He grabbed her and pulled her hands behind her back when she started to struggle.
"What?" she screeched.
"You may have noticed the discoloration in my skin," I said above her protests. "It's because of her and that dress. She tried to kill me, so to the dungeon she goes." I narrowed my eyes at Rio and Petra, whose faces had gone completely pale. Good. They knew that I knew what they did. "Let that be a warning toallof you."
Everyone gaped at Dox dragging the struggling redhead toward the castle.
"Asa, the video outside the throne room, pLéase. Just the beginning," I said, and the video changed to Big Mama January with a knife at my throat and admitting to taking Léas.
A stunned silence blanketed the crowd after they heard the admission, and then turned to me as one, their faces pinched with agony and desperation. They needed their goddess back or they would die, and they knew it.
"Who is that woman?" a shifter asked from the front row.
"Fae," I announced, and my heart twisted a little at the stark horror on their faces. "Asa, the rest of it."
The video kept going then, to where Big Mama declared war on the dragon shifters.
More silence while that news settled over them, just as suffocating for them as it was for me.
"What are you going to do?" someone shouted.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do.” I paused for a beat to stare out at all of them. “You may know already that I'm a thief, but what you might not know is that I'm a damn good one. I'm going to cross over into fae land and steal back your goddess."
"That'swar." Petra stood up, her hands balled at the sides of her gorgeous red dress. The cliffside breeze touched her long dark hair, giving her a pissed-off model look.
"We're already at war," I reminded her.
"I don't believe you,” Rio spat, standing too. Her light blue dress and her blonde curls had a lot more movement to them, and they kept blowing into Petra who batted them away. “I don't believe anything you say. You're a liar. You’re a thief and a murderer. That…woman with a knife at your throat doesn't prove a damn thing. The fae aren't here. You just want us to believe that."
"Why the fuck would I want to go to war with the fae, Rio?” The words were sharp and biting, and I imagined them chomping off her head. “Will you listen to yourself?"
Petra arched her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "For the same reason you wanted the crown on top of your head. You want to rule usandthe fae, and probably your shitty species too."
I didn't want to rule anyone, but I wasn't about to tell them that.
Rio jabbed a finger at me, her face contorted with rage. "You are fucking crazy, you know that? You’re not going to say a word about your harem? Not one?" She faced the rest of the shifters. "For their protection, we took them from her this morning. She tried to kill Calhoun right in front of us.This menace doesn’t deserve her harem or the crown."
For their protection… They were safe, then. Right now, at Léast.
But if I took Rio and Petra to the dungeon, someone might retaliate against my harem. I had to make it look like I didn't care. With them away from me, locked somewhere out of sight from the fae, that was where they'd be safest until I could somehow make everything right. If that meant every shifter thought I was a psycho bitch, then so be it.
I looked right at Rio and told her the biggest lie of my life. "I got what I wanted from them."
Both of their jaws fell to their high heels as their anger bubbled over. The rest of the shifters squirmed in their seats uneasily.
"Go home and be wary of anyone without a tattoo on the back of their neck,” I said, facing the rest of the crowd again. “You can either believe me…or you can be the faes’ next victim. Your choice." My stomach sank at the fearful looks they were throwing me. Me, and not what they should be scared of. "We're done here."
I climbed down the steps, my crown feeling much too heavy. The dragon shifters glared and gnashed their teeth, but they were smart enough not to stop me. They knew they weren't supposed to touch the crown or they'd get zapped to death. They stayed well away from the rest of me, too, and I wondered just how psychotic I looked right then with my mottled skin, bedhead hair, and the painful twist in my heart from the lie I’d told them. Besides, without their shifter power, they couldn’t do a lot to stop me. We were on as even a level as we’d ever been.
As I walked toward the front castle doors, I kept an eye out for this Belle Harrison lady, but I had no idea what she looked like, or how she'd even get through security since she wasn't a shifter. If she wasn't here in ten, I'd go to the fae land myself by car.
Once inside the castle, I checked in on Asa in the art room. "Good job, buddy."
"No prob." He turned, and his eyes just about popped out when he saw my crown. "Sweet!"
"Thanks.” I managed a smile for his benefit. “Hey, I'm going to take a short trip today to help get back Tavis, Calhoun, and Vance, okay? You'll be all right in here?"
I knew he would be, at Léast physically.
