Page 24 of Dragon Fight (The Dragon Queen #2)

24

“T hey’ll be here soon,” Draven observed as each of his riders’ four dragons took to the air. “They’ll find out what happened and…” He shot me a sidelong look. “And I need you to cool their heads.”

“What do you expect me to do?” I said, trying to push myself up into a seated position, but my weight combined with Glimmer’s made that task seem too hard to manage right now. My arms and legs felt like limp noodles, and my feet slid across the grass when I tried to gain purchase. Draven reached out and his arms felt impossibly strong as he lifted me to my feet, walked me away from my vomit site and sat me down on a nearby log, ensuring Glimmer remained in my arms. His hands stayed on me, and he ran them down my arms as he crouched down to speak to me.

“I need you to keep your head because they will be losing theirs.” He stared intently at me “It’s what I’d be doing if the woman I loved was nearly murdered right beneath their noses.”

I searched his face, the tone in his voice making me look for something even though I wasn’t sure what. I hesitantly broached a question, not sure what I was really asking, as I looked into his eyes.

“And what would you do, if it was someone you actually cared about that was poisoned? How would you respond?”

Draven took some time to answer me, his eyes dropping down to spend an inordinate amount of time on my lips before he dragged them up again and the expression in them was fierce.

“I’d want to kill her, the fucking bitch that did this.” Draven’s voice shook with emotion. “I’d want to ride to the capital and use ‘Spire’s acid breath to melt the very stones of the castle to get me to her. I’d have my sword in my hand so I could I lop her fucking head off, then drive the point of it into her heart for good measure. That’s the only way I’d know that my love would be safe and no one could try and take what’s mine.”

I had often felt like the prince wore a mask around us, one of many that he affected. Sardonic sneering prince for me. Fellow rider with the men. Hard but fair taskmaster with the cadets. But now? This Draven was someone else altogether, a raw and savage beast, his teeth flashing in the darkness as he bit off every word. And his eyes burned brightest of blue in the darkness, as he leaned forward and—

“Draven!”

My men were everything the prince had said they would be. Brom’s sword was in his hand as he jumped off Obsidian’s back and he strode towards me with all of the wing at his back. Ged’s hands had become fists, Flynn was incandescent with rage; and Soren? He was no voice of reason now, he marched towards the prince just like the others did.

“What the hell did you do?” Brom’s sword arm snapped up and then he committed treason with no more thought than one might take a breath. The tip of his sword went under the prince’s neck and came to rest there.

“Brom, it wasn’t Draven. He saved me—” I started to say.

“Saved you? More like this was all part of his shitty little plan,” Flynn snapped.

“He did. Ada, she… And then I… He…”

Some of the heat went out of my men when they saw me trying to clamber to my feet and fail. Glimmer finally jumped off my lap and Brom stabbed his sword into the ground, rushing forward to grab me.

“Pippin…”

I blinked, unable to bear the raw throbbing emotion in his voice, nor the feel of all four of them as they grabbed me in their arms and held me tight. I didn’t need to put all of my energy into trying to stand up anymore because they did it for me. And when I was relieved of that burden everything else came out.

I wasn’t vomiting up any more moss or water, so all the fear and the anger and confusion that had been kept at bay rushed up. I bit back a sob. I didn’t want to cry, I really didn’t, but I just couldn’t seem to keep any of it back now that I was near them. I burrowed my face in blindly, breathing in their scents, feeling the hard press of their bodies, hearing each man call my name over and over as their hands began to move. They stroked their hands across my scalp or down my back, lifted my face to place kisses on my cheeks until finally I was forced to pull back and suck in a breath.

“Ada poisoned me.” My voice was flat and even. “The queen directed her to. She thought she was doing it for Draven, but he… He brought me here, gave me some absolutely disgusting moss to eat and I vomited it all up. He…” I looked back where the man himself still sat on that log with a mulish expression. “He knew what to do and he saved me.”

“Then you have my thanks,” Brom said, offering the prince his hand. Draven’s eyes rolled upwards, his lips twisting at the stiff gesture but he took it anyway. They clasped hands in the way that seemed so important to men, each staring at the other for a second before Draven focussed on the rest of us.

“I knew how insufferable you’d all be if something happened to your girl.” Draven’s voice was completely different now. He was the prince again, not the man. “Not good for team morale, losing a member.”

I watched him closely, still able to hear his hoarse words of encouragement in my ears, even as Draven spoke so glibly now.

“So we ride back to Emberly and this Ada will feel the full force of rider justice,” Soren growled but Draven just snorted in response.

“You’re a member of the Royal Riders, not the riders of Nevermere. You are extensions of the king’s will, and therefore the queen’s. She sent Ada to do this.”

“But the queen can’t be seen to be taking direct action to rid herself of Pippin and Glimmer,” Brom observed. “It’d destabilise the control the throne has over the riders.”

“Indeed.” Draven nodded slowly. “And if she’s reluctant to show her hand, we can take just as indirect a response to the issue.”