Page 28 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
We’ll have to if she doesn’t choose us,I said.
She will choose us.
How can you be so sure?I wished I had his confidence.
We are for her, and she is for us. She will stay.
I hoped so. With all my heart, I hoped so.
We metat the Port Noble Hotel in the conference room. It was completely empty except for eight large chairs around an expensive-looking table. Everly had demanded to be let out of my shirt as soon as we arrived and was now riding on my shoulder, looking around with interest. Morning light streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the back. To the side, a table held hot drinks, cold bottles of water, muffins, and breakfast pastries. Seven of the chairs were occupied by the Everlight Enclave—the kings and queens who ruled the paranormals.
Directly in front of me sat Draven, the Vampire King.
To his left was Virion, the High Elf Prince—not yet a king, though the elves had made it clear he was their only acceptable candidate.
Seated around the rest of the circle were Garyyk, the Troll King; Sylvara, the Fae Regent; Asharien, the Elemental King; Vylarin, the Shadowthorn King; and Thessaly, the Mistweaver Queen.
There were other kings and queens within the paranormal community, but these were the ones on the highest council of the land, and the highest governing body that paranormals had.
That empty chair next to them carried a weight I could feel all the way down to my toes.
I murmured to Everly who my tablemates were. Each of them nodded as I stated their name.
She’s confused about who they serve,my dragon said.
Ah.
“My mate is confused about who each of you serve. Could you explain that to her, please?” I directed the question to Draven; he was the one I knew best. Besides, I needed a moment to calm my nerves. My heartbeat was steady, but only because the paranormals in this room could tell if it wasn’t. There were no biological secrets among most paranormals—not unless you learned control.
Draven nodded, his eyes bright and alert even at this early hour. “Certainly.” He addressed his comments to Everly. I’d placed her on the table as I sat down; she stayed close to me, uncertainty clear in her body language.
“I am Draven, King of the Vampires. To my left is Virion, the High Elf Prince. The others are Garyyk, Sylvara, Asharien, Vylarin, and Thessaly.”
“The Shadowthorn King is the king of the outcasts—those without a pack, a home, or a place in supernatural society, but who want to be part of one and seek protection,” Vylarin said, his voice quiet but deep.
“And I oversee magical humans—wizards, witches, seers, and so on,” Thessaly added.
She doesn’t know what an Elemental is,my dragon said.
“Asharien, she doesn’t know what an Elemental is.”The Elemental King, like the Troll King, had fascinating eyes: storm clouds danced within them—purple, charcoal, and grey. Lightning flashed when he was particularly fired up, both in his eyes and in the space surrounding him.
Asharien nodded respectfully. “Elementals are a bit like mythologicals,” he began, but I interrupted.
“I haven’t gotten to that explanation in full yet.”
He nodded again, patient as an everstorm. “Mythologicals are a type of shifter that belong to the mythological races—dragons, unicorns, phoenixes, and the like. They are more powerful, and have special abilities related to their kind. Elementals, unlike warlocks, wizards, and witches, are pure magic—from the crown of our heads to the tips of our toes. Every strand of hair, every cell of our body, is infused with magic. We generally fall into seven classes: fire, water, earth, air, storm, ice, and gravity. I am a storm elemental.”
Hence the storm clouds and lightning in his eyes.
Everly bobbed her head. Braver—and far more curious—than I was comfortable with in this setting, she tapped her talons across the table and studied Asharien. They stared at each other, black eye to storm-cloud eye, until I was thoroughly uncomfortable and wanted to snatch her back to my side of the table.
Since that wasn’t exactly acceptable behavior here, I gritted my teeth and endured the prolonged greeting, fighting the urge to smash my fists into the Elemental King’s annoyingly handsome face for no goodreason.
“Oh,” he murmured, as if she’d said something only he understood, and then he chuckled, and my mate—the woman I’d waited over a thousand years for—settled contentedly beside him like they’d been friends for eons.
I ground my teeth harder, and my dragon growled within me.
I never liked him.
