Page 3 of A Crown of Tears and Treason (The Curse of Silver Secrets and Cruel Shadows #1)

Chapter

Three

EVIE

N obody moved.

I smelled it in the air, wafting from the crowd like an acrid cloud.

Fear.

As the mighty Dragon stepped forward, I stopped breathing.

The prince looked fearsome. He was tall and imposing. He tilted his chin at the huge fighter standing right behind him, whose short, blond hair was almost as white as his stone face. A tremor passed through the crowd as the ghost of a man raised his arm in an unhurried arch. The sentinels and more than half of the guests jolted, as if struck by an unseen force, then just stood there, frozen.

My heart leaped in my throat.

Beside me, Allie flicked her palms with practiced ease. But the blue tendrils didn’t come. She glanced at her fingers, horrified, for the briefest moment, then schooled her face into a mask of rage and calm. But I heard her harsh breaths and saw the muscles tensing in her shoulders.

“What did he do?” I whispered, barely moving my lips.

Allie shook her head, silencing me. She didn’t take her eyes off The Dragon.

The prince was a fierce, poised contrast, with moonstone skin and midnight black hair that fell past his shoulders, and had a feline grace so at odds with his unflinching gaze.

I hadn’t had a chance to see my share of men, but I recognized an apex predator and the hush that fell as the prey sensed one among them. This predator was on the hunt.

He wore the same shadowy uniform as the rest of his Clan members, small vials stitched into the leather in a criss-cross pattern, the blood inside them winking as it swirled. A golden dragon pendant, the Rohen sigil, hung between them.

Sinewy muscles flexed underneath the rich leather. He was living, breathing confidence, from the top of his high, chiseled cheekbones, sharp enough to cut, down to the tip of his mighty sword, held steady in his right hand.

He was lethal and gorgeous. The kind of feral beauty that was almost stupefying. The kind that kept you awed and paralyzed until it struck.

There was carefully controlled power in his steps as he prowled closer, each beating against my heart.

Cold sweat ran down my spine. This was my true fiance? This perfect killer whose name was feared throughout the entire continent?

“Such a darling little wedding.” His grin was sharp, but his eyes terrified me more, even as they stayed mercifully away from mine. They were the color of ice, the kind that cut straight to the bone. His fighters gripped their frightening weapons harder. “Pity we weren’t invited. No hard feelings, we found our way here and arrived just in time.”

Right as The Dragon passed him, Orion “The Mountain” Brawd rose with lightning speed. Whatever the ghost had done, it hadn’t affected him.

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 he shrugged .

“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.

I wouldn’t allow anyone, especially my cousins, to risk their lives for me. I was ready to marry Fabrian and I’d face this Dragon, too, if I had to.

I stepped forward–I didn’t get far.

Fabrian’s mighty arms coiled around me, yanking me back into his chest. Then my “beloved” fiance and my supposed savior did the most stupid thing imaginable.

He pulled out a dagger and held it to my throat.

“One move and she dies.” His breath reeked of booze and spite.

The mighty Clan heir, hiding behind my skirts, threatening his blushing bride to shield his own miserable hide.

“Bastard,” Allegra hissed. “We all swore not to bring weapons today.”

She radiated rage. But it was nothing– nothing –compared to the darkness crowding the prince’s gaze. The sharp lines of his face shifted, turning more angular. A predator ready to strike.

My cousins tensed their shoulders, narrowed gazes promising revenge.

Fabrian truly was stupid. Not only had he angered The Dragon, the deadliest Clan heir on the continent, he’d pissed off my cousins, too.

Fabrian was not walking off this island alive.

But I would be the first to draw blood.