Page 12 of The Dragon Queen #3

“What’s being done about this situation with your uncle?” a gruff man asked. One of Draven’s many paternal uncles, it appeared. Many of the extended Nithian clan were seated at the head of the table in recognition of their link to the throne. Normally the dukes would outrank them, but as no dukes had been recognised yet, we were left to deal with Draven’s family’s concerns. “Surely you can talk sense into the man. He may be Raina’s brother.” His uncle could barely contain the scathing note in his voice when he mentioned the former queen. “But he can’t be an idiot. A civil war waged with a king who has the backing of the dragon corp?”

“Some of the corp decamped to Harlston,” I said that without thinking, my spoon hovering between my bowl of soup and my mouth. It would’ve been better if I had swallowed the soup by the looks the men gave me, all but Draven. “The Duke has dragons,” I added in a low mutter, then swallowed a mouthful of soup, doing my best not to slurp it.

“But not as many as you, young Draven,” another man said with the same blue eyes as my prince. They were a lot colder, more calculating, though .

“Majesty.” Draven cited his title mildly, as if mentioning the weather. “Your Majesty.”

“Your coronation—” one of them spluttered.

“Will be delayed. I have to bury my mother and my father, then oversee the succession of not one but three duchies. I think we can all agree that the next duke of each of those regions will be crucially important.” Draven stared down each person in turn. “It probably will not occur until after the civil war is won.”

There was the sound of multiple throats sucking in a breath, ready to protest, but Stefan got in first.

“Best to make sure there’s a throne to perch his arse on first before we go bestowing crowns on anyone.”

I couldn’t help but admire Draven’s cousin then. He drawled that out, elbows perched on the fine linen of the table, like he was having a conversation at a local tavern, not the king’s high table.

“Yes, well, we’ll also need to discuss the royal succession,” Draven’s uncle said. “It’s bad enough that Magnus’ death took us by surprise.” He surveyed the table and the other Nithians all nodded. “In times of war, we need to be prepared for all eventualities.”

“As well as your choice of wife.” Draven’s aunt shot me a slightly apologetic look, right before she looked down her nose at me. Here it comes, I thought, what I had expected all along. “I acknowledge your bond with the queen, Glitter?—”

Raina had looked me over and found me wanting, so why would Draven’s paternal family be any different?

“Glimmer,” I corrected with a tight smile, then remembered my manners. “Glimmer, Lady Helene.”

“Glimmer, then.” The woman spared me a nod. “The birth of a second queen dragon complicates things.” She allowed herself a smile. “Or makes things easier. One of our own girls could bond with the little dragon in the egg.”

Lady Helene nudged a couple of very pretty girls sitting further down the table. Both of their eyes went wide, and then they fluttered their eyelashes a little, smiling up the table at Draven in a way I remembered well.

Don’t be too direct. Don’t make clear what you wanted. As a lady, you needed to be a picture of serenity, a pool of quiet, elegant energy that the man could sip from to replenish himself. Don’t have thoughts, feelings, opinions. All those old strictures were like a corset being laced tighter around my ribs, stealing my ability to breathe. The remnants of that training kept my mouth shut as people discussed me like I was a horse at market, not a sentient person.

“Now that bloody Raina isn’t here to skew the results of the bonding, perhaps one of our own could become the next queen,” another Nithian man said with a well-practised smile.

“Nothing creates order like inbreeding…” Stefan shook his head. “Eloise is very beautiful.” The girl flushed at that. “Genevieve as well, but surely having seen them in swaddling is enough to dissuade any man related to them from making an offer of marriage?”

“It has nothing to do with bloodlines or alliances.”

Draven was uncharacteristically quiet during dinner. So much so, I wondered if he was having a conversation with Darkspire instead. He came back to the moment with a snap. His hand took mine, cradling it close as everyone seemed to turn in that moment to stare. Not here, I wanted to tell him, not now. I didn’t want any of what we shared out there for passers-by to consume. But as my heart thudded way too fast, he said the words.

“The bonding of a queen dragon is much like other matters of the heart, one spurred by emotion, not politics. When we retrieve the other queen egg…” We all heard the emphasis on the first word of that sentence. “Then any woman that wishes to put herself as a potential bondmate may do so.”

In that moment, I felt it, that claustrophobic feeling Glimmer had endured in the shell. Mind after mind buffeting hers as it was still formed, trying to push their will, their wishes upon my dragon. We were the same, I realised now. Glimmer constrained to her egg, me to mine. When I heard the harsh sound of scratches at the door, I looked down at my free hand, half expecting it to be me that was demanding ingress. The door slammed open and a bemused footman ushered Glimmer inside. My dragon marched up the length of the table, her head held high .

I am queen here , she announced with all the confidence that had been bred out of me. This is my territory . People turned to watch her pass, but she didn’t even give them a second glance. Instead, she came to me, my arms moving of their own volition to scoop her up, but she was not content to sit on my lap. Their dragons are my mates. Draven smirked as she stomped across the table, scattering bread and side plates, to sit down in his lap, looking like the most incongruous of lap dogs. And this is my king.

I dared to smile then, turning to face these lordlings that thought to talk over me, as if I wasn’t even there. I might be the daughter of a minor lord, little more than a country squire, but Glimmer had chosen me.

And so had Draven.

“Who my queen will be is not up for debate. The matter is closed. My heart, my hand, the place by my side has been claimed by Pippin, and that’s where she will remain.” I gripped his hand tighter, watching each person in earshot react. “I’ll fight the Duke of Harlston, bring the queen dragon egg back, as well as all the others. The dragon riders who defected will face trial, but no harm will come to their beasts. I will restore order to the country, return us to the peace that the Nithians have always prioritised in their rule of the country, but…”

Did they see the dangerous glitter in Draven’s eyes? His were the same blue as theirs, but something very different burned there.

“If you try to push me or my queen-in-waiting, you will do so at your own peril. I can whisk Pippin away from all this, fly for the continent on Darkspire’s back, and spend our days in idyllic splendour on the mountainsides or fields of foreign countries, but you’ll…”

Gods, how I wanted that. I could just see the lot of us living rough, dirty, dishevelled, but happy, so happy. Draven didn’t allow himself that liberty. His smile had the dangerous glitter of a wolf’s fangs, right before its jaws clamped down on its prey.

“You’ll be bending a knee to the Duke of Harlston, or rather King Rion, first of his name, if he lets you live beyond the coup.”

“To our queen-in-waiting. ”

Stefan raised his glass with a smirk that seemed like a wilder, freer version of his cousin’s.

“To the queen-in-waiting.”

I hadn’t wanted the title, their regard, anything other than to get through this dinner in one piece, hopefully with more knowledge about who the murderers were, but I got it anyway. People stood up all around the table, holding up their glasses. To me, to Draven, and also to Glimmer, though it was only four people’s focus I craved. I flushed but stood tall, accepting the attention with as much grace as possible, glad when everyone finally sat down.

The dinner concluded without fanfare. Draven escorted me back to his suite, only for us to be intercepted by the general.

“The list of names you asked for, Majesty,” he said, then turned to me. “Highness.” His eyes drifted down to spy Glimmer at our feet. “My queen.”

I quite like this one , she told me.

But she wouldn’t like the list we now skimmed. Names, too many names, had been written down with precise strokes of a quill, and while I didn’t know many of them, Draven did.

“The plan goes ahead as discussed,” he told the general. “The funeral in the morning, then a wake will be held in the courtyard. The entire corp will be on high alert.”

“Already are, Majesty,” the general replied. “Having another queen dragon at Wyrmpeak… Well, it’s got some of the males feeling a bit frisky.”

“They’ll need to focus on blood and honour, not mating.” Draven fixed the older man with a deadly stare. “This is a time for retribution, not regeneration. That can come once my uncle and his co-conspirators are brought to justice.”

“So you have the list?”

I wasn’t sure what I expected Brom to say when we got back to Draven’s suite, but it wasn’t this. He crossed the room every inch the wing commander.

“I do.” Draven shook his head and then handed the parchment over. The others clustered closer to take a look, Flynn moving slower than the others, and for good reason.

“Julius…” Flynn sounded broken as he recited the names, because he knew each of the Skanian suspects. “Alliana? Gregor?” His focus shifted rapidly to Draven. “Gods above, Kade? We grew up together, climbed trees and skinned our knees?—”

“Suspects until proven otherwise,” Draven replied in a far softer tone.

“I’ll go straight to the keep,” Brom said, handing the piece of paper back to Draven. “Work with General Rex to ensure everything moves smoothly.” He moved towards me, pulling me in for a kiss, but not for long. “Stay here, stay safe, and don’t let the little queen sleep outside with the adult dragons.”

My mates are perfectly capable of keeping me safe, Glimmer said, something I forwarded onto them.

“For me.” Brom spoke to my dragon, not me, and the fact he acknowledged her as a complete, sentient being apart from me warmed my heart. “Just until we have the monsters locked up in jail cells.”

“Or snapped up by a dragon’s jaws.”

Flynn said that in more growl than voice, his hands becoming fists.

“We’ll find out tomorrow.” Brom pulled away and I barely stopped myself from clawing him back. “I’ll sleep at the keep tonight to oversee the preparations.”

“Brom—” I said.

“I won’t catch a wink unless I can see for myself everything has been done right,” he told me, then glanced over my head at the others.

Well, most of them.

I think we all saw that Brom scrupulously avoided meeting Draven’s gaze.

“Keep Pippin and Glimmer safe.” I could hear the emotion throbbing in Brom’s voice. “Trust no one. If that list has taught us anything, it’s that we have enemies everywhere.” That’s when he finally looked at the prince. “Even where you’d least expect them. We all must remain vigilant.”

And for him that entailed walking out of the door. Obsidian’s deep roar let us know he had arrived, ready to ferry his bondmate back to the keep.

“Well, my bed has been terribly empty since you lot left,” Draven said in a tight voice. “I’m not sure if I can sleep without Ged’s sonorous snores in my ears.”

“I snore!” Ged shot back. “What about the old man here?”

He tried to shove Soren, but the drill sergeant planted his feet, ensuring his stance was strong and didn’t move an inch.

“You do remember that I’m only five years older than you.”

“You do snore, Ged,” Flynn said. His smile was a fragile thing, but sincere. “Terribly when you’ve had a beer or two.”

“At least I don’t roll around in bed, moaning my own name…”

I listened to them banter, feeling a moment of solidarity with Brom. There was nothing in me that wanted to take this moment of levity from them, but… Tomorrow we would bury a king and a queen and, in doing so, would claim those titles for ourselves. No gold crowns would be bestowed upon our heads, not yet, but the responsibilities. Yes, they would be ours from the moment we woke up, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we were up to fulfilling them.