Page 35

Damian

T he guard captain stood in front of me, watching my face as his men took her away. I listened to her cry my name and protest her innocence. I heard it all. Every word laced with fear and confusion. I took it all in, feeding it to the fires in my very core. The air around me shimmered with the building heat.

“Don’t do it,” the captain whispered under his breath. “That’s what they want.”

I tore my eyes away from Aurora’s manacled wrists, fixated instead on the man who’d ordered her arrest. “What who want?”

“The councilors,” he hissed. “I’m the sovereign’s man, as are you. But Kerstun and the others were there when I was given these orders. You know she’s being forced to do this by them. Otherwise, they’ll give her further difficulties.”

I looked him up and down. “You hate humans,” I said. His attitude toward Aurora had not been faked. I’d seen the real thing often enough to know that. “Why are you telling me this?”

The captain’s face never changed. “I hate politicians even more. I’m urging you, Magistrate. Damian . Don’t give them what they want. I have orders to arrest you if you resist, and that will tie the sovereign’s hands even further.”

I inhaled sharply, the fury in my chest redoubling in intensity. Fire would be dancing in my eyes at this point, while my dragon was on its edge, ready to come the instant I summoned it.

“ Don’t .” The captain pleaded with me now.

Exhaling the breath, I let my rage go with it. In its place came a cold determination, a vow to myself, to Aurora, and to anyone who got in my way.

“Mark my words, Captain,” I said, hearing the ice in my words as it reached out to encompass him and those nearest. “Everything that just happened here, everything that is going on, it had better be completely and totally by the book. I mean utterly perfect. If I find out that anyone has been doing something that doesn’t follow procedure, twists the law from its spirit, or blatantly breaks it, there will be … punishment.”

I said the last word with calm promise, but I knew from the paling of nearby faces that they all understood exactly what I meant by it. The magistrate was speaking now, not Damian. When he spoke, people listened.

“Am I clear, Captain?”

The guard captain bobbed his head. “Completely.”

“I thought so.” I shouldered past him and headed for a separate set of stairs down into the palace, making it clear I was not pursuing Aurora.

My dragon fought me every step of the way, demanding I go after her and free her. With it went my heart, longing to go show her just what I was willing to do for her.

But over it all, I flung my iron willpower, locking down those emotions and taking control of every step I took. It was not the time for rash emotional action. I needed to use cold hard logic and the law. I was a master of the law. I was the law.

And those who were trying to play games with it were about to regret it.

Down the stairs I went, making a beeline for the administrative wing and the sovereign’s office. She would be there, waiting, well aware that I would be unhappy. I figured the councilors would be with her.

It wasn’t until the third checkpoint that I realized something else must be going on. The level of security wasn’t unusual. In fact, it was as I expected. The guards verified my identity and let me proceed, which was also as normal.

But each of those security stations had been manned by guards I suspected were more loyal to the councilors than the sovereign. Every guard. That was unusual. Where were her loyalists?

I bared my teeth. Someone was playing funny with the schedule, and I doubted it was an accident either. There was nothing I could do about it now. I could only hope someone else had noticed what was going on and was taking action.

The fact that doing so would mean the rule of law was on the verge of breaking down didn’t sit well with me. However, it was not the law-followers who were causing issues. I crossed my fingers that I was overreacting, but I doubted it.

Upon reaching the inner area of the administrative wing, I breathed a sigh of relief. All the guards there were of the sovereign’s own bodyguard. Staunch loyalists. They were surrounded and outnumbered, but at least there were no traitors among them.

That you know of. Someone is stealing the scepters, and we still don’t know who’s behind it.

Word must have preceded me into the inner areas because I was intercepted by a furious-looking Jair not long after I arrived.

“What the hell is going on around here?” I hissed.

“Lots,” the commander of the sovereign’s bodyguard replied, his anger barely held in check. “Where do you want to start?”

“The beginning.”

He nodded. “In brief, your messenger set off a firestorm. Word got out quickly. We couldn’t keep a lid on it. The councilors called an emergency session, and now they’re making a play for power.”

“What do you mean?” I curled one hand into a fist, knuckles cracking loudly.

“They’ve turned the entire council against her. A vote of no confidence is on the table, and they claim to have the support to pass it, removing her entirely. Her hands are tied, Damian. That’s why the stupid arrest order for your human went out. She can’t go against them. Not right now.”

I growled in frustration, clenching and unclenching both hands.

“And given how things are going, she’s not going to be able to, is she?” I said. “Three missing scepters. Not a single lead, besides the idiocy with Aurora. It doesn’t look good.”

“I know.” Jair just glowered at nothing, probably feeling just as impotent as I did.

“Are they in there with her?”

“No, thankfully.”

“Good.”

Entering the sovereign’s office, I exchanged a brisk nod with the Ruler of All Dragonkind. For now .

“Damian,” she greeted, her voice tight, strained. I couldn’t imagine the pressure she was under.

“My sovereign,” I said, saluting formally.

“Tell me you know who did this?”

I stayed silent.

“Shit.” The sovereign rarely cursed.

“But I may have a lead,” I said into the silence that followed.

She waited expectantly.

“Technically, it’s Aurora who may have it.”

“Either she does or she doesn’t,” the sovereign said. “And I am sorry for the arrest ridiculousness. I could not stop it.”

I waved it away. “She didn’t get a chance to finish telling me when we landed. It sounded like she didn’t want to let anyone else know about it. But I didn’t have time before she was hauled off.”

My dragon roared furiously.

The sovereign nodded. “Damn. We need to know what she knows.”

I grimaced. “I was thinking the same. I noted the guard situation out there, however, and if it’s similar in the dungeons—”

Jair grunted. “It is.”

“Then they won’t let me anywhere near her to find out,” I snarled, slamming a fist into my palm.

“To them, she’s their only lead, their only suspect.”

I snorted. “More like she’s the only one who might have a clue which one of them is behind it. But if I can’t ask her, what the hell do we do?”

The sovereign laid her hands out her desk, her lips compressed into a firm line.

“What is it?” I asked, sensing the tension within her.

“There is a way,” she said. “If you’re prepared to do what must be done, Damian.”

The fact she called me Damian, not magistrate, rang all sorts of alarm bells. I silenced them.

“I am,” I said without hesitation. “What must I do?”

There was a great sadness in the sovereign’s eyes when she looked up at me. She didn’t flinch, didn’t hesitate, but she was filled with regret.

“You must do what you have sworn not to do,” she said. “You must go against the law. Go get her, Damian, help her escape, and find out what she knows. It’s our only lead, our only hope at this point.”

I stared at her, stunned.

Break the law? Me?

But it was all I had. All I was. No, it used to be all I had, all I was. Now, there was something more. Some one more.

Aurora.