Page 78 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
FIFTEEN
YRIAN
“Ihave failed, dragonsire.”Yrian bowed his head, braced for the disappointment he would see in the First Dragon’s eyes.He wanted to rail against it, to explain that it wasn’t his fault that Tenite had been in the Duat helping Kashi, but none of that would matter.He had gone to the Duat to remove Kashi as a threat to the dragonkin, and he had failed to do so.
The First Dragon would not be happy.
Becket moved closer to him, her fingers twining around his in an obvious show of support.A warm rush of emotion filled him at the gesture.
The First Dragon stood in the garden surrounding his home, silent, with crossed arms, the late afternoon sun casting a golden aura around him that heightened the lack of expression on his face.
“It wasn’t really your fault, though,” Becket said, her voice forceful and full of sharp edges.Yrian was simultaneously surprised by the fact that she was defending him to the First Dragon, and warmed even more by the emotion that continued to drive away dark patches on his soul.“He looked like Bael.He spoke like Bael.He had black demon blood, and that fancy blue sword.How were you to know it wasn’t Bael?Also, the fact that your mom was there stirring things up didn’t help.”
That seemed to provoke the First Dragon into an actual reaction.He considered first Becket, then Yrian.“Tenite was in the Duat?”
“Yes.She was working with Kashi to manipulate Xavier and, I assume, others.Maat mentioned Asfet aiding Kashi, as well.”
A look of speculation crossed the First Dragon’s face as he unbent, no doubt because his mate emerged from the house and made her way to his side, sliding her hand into the crook of his elbow.“Asfet.She is the other half of Maat.I will speak to Osiris about her.As for the other ...”
“No!”Becket tossed a glamour onto the First Dragon, taking everyone there by surprise.
“Hey!”Charity said, indignation rolling off her as she moved in front of the First Dragon, taking his face in her hands while she studied him.“Are you OK?What did she do to you?”
To Yrian’s amazement, the First Dragon actually smiled, his eyes warming to gold as he gently moved Charity back to his side, going so far as to place an arm around her.Yrian had never in all the thousands of years of his life seen the First Dragon do such a thing with Iceni.He had always assumed his father felt such displays of affection beneath him, and yet, here he was, pulling Charity against his side.
“Dammit!”Becket snarled under her breath, another glamour in her hands, one she clearly intended on using on the First Dragon.“Demigods are just so very—”
Both the First Dragon and Yrian looked at her with lifted eyebrows.
She growled, actually growled in frustration as she stuffed the glamour back in her bag.“It wasn’t anything to get your knickers in a twist about, Charity.It was just a clarity glamour, one that I hoped would make the First Dragon see that Yrian did not fail.He did what he was asked to do.It wasn’t his fault that Bael had Xavier so wrapped around his little finger that he would convince him to swap forms.”
“I don’t care what it was.Don’t do it again,” Charity answered, her brows pulled together.
“Mate,” Yrian said to Becket, bending what he hoped was a stern eye on her.He was secretly so delighted that she stood up for him, he couldn’t truly be annoyed with her.“I appreciate you wish to avert some of the First Dragon’s wrath due to fall upon me, but you need not attempt to sway him with glamours.For one, it won’t work on him unless he allows it, and for another, it will put him further out of humor, and I would rather receive his punishment now so I might continue my search for Kashi.”
The corners of the First Dragon’s mouth twitched, but his face was as impassive as ever as he continued to watch Yrian for another two minutes before he said in a slow, measured manner, “You said you have failed, and yet, you eliminated one of the risks to the kin.The one called Xavier was a pawn in Bael’s hands, which made him all that much more dangerous.That threat is no more.”
“But I did not kill Kashi,” Yrian insisted, suddenly irritated.Was this his father’s punishment—to keep him standing there, feeling every ounce of the weight of his failure, when all he wanted was to get Becket to the nearest bed, where he could reassure himself that her heart was truly his?
“Did you really believe you could do so?”The First Dragon gave a little shake of his head.“Has time in your griefscape made you forget that your powers were limited in the Duat, just as they are in every other underworld?”
“I did not forget,” Yrian said, his jaw setting despite his trying to appear humble before his sire.“On the contrary, I had little choice but to attempt to honor your request.It is in that I failed.I was too weak to overcome the forces Kashi had rallied to his side.”
The First Dragon continued to consider him for another few minutes before he did the last thing Yrian expected—he put a hand on his shoulder, saying, “You, Yrian Shadowsworn, are stronger than you think, but you are not capable of overcoming the restrictions set for underworlds.You did not fail.”
