Page 151 of The Dragon Queen Complete Series Collection

Chapter 150

This was all going so very wrong.

My heart was beating too hard, my body too hot, sweat prickling all over me as I fought to get my body to move. Forward, to intercept Flynn, but Soren did just that to me.

“Pippin…”

This wasn’t a drill sergeant speaking to his cadet, or even a rider speaking to the queen. There was a rough edge to his voice that had me twisting my neck up to meet his eyes. He was so very big, very strong. He provided a near impossible barrier, but some devil rode me right then.

Or some dragon.

Cynane’s cry of challenge felt like it came from my lips as I was filled with the same feeling of defiance. Soren thought he could stop me? I feinted to one side, his body mirroring mine, but I was jerking back and away from him and slipping away before he could recover. Gold dragons were smaller than the males, making it easier for them to overcome, but right now I knew our smaller size was also a gift. We were nimble, quicker, and I wove my way through the crowd, feeling Cynane do the same as she leapt into the air.

Only for her males to follow her.

“Going somewhere?”

Ged’s eyes glittered with an unnatural light. My kind, honest lover was gone and replaced by something feral. His lips spread into a sly grin when I tried the same trick, only to turn and find Brom standing there.

“We need to get you…” Brom’s brow creased, his expression growing thunderous as he stared. “We need…”

“I know what I need.”

Ged’s hand locked around my arm right as a bright green male came abreast of Cynane, but the race to mate was far from over. I flicked open the clasp to the metal vambrace on my arm and slipped free, leaving Ged holding that rather than me. Brom shouted a warning, his cry lost in the clamour, because more and more names were being called. The slightest waver in Draven’s voice, that was the only sign that he was affected, but continue he did, until he got to the end of the list.

“You thought you were summoned before us all to receive great honours.” The king was a venomous snake, swaying before its victims. “You thought this was finally your time to stand in the light.” When he stepped forward, so did several riders, including those I now saw placed deliberately amongst the crowd. People did the same, clustering closer to watch the spectacle. “To be recognised, given the power you so desire.”

That, that word was what my mind caught on. Hormonal heat raged through Cynane’s body, prompting her and all the males that wanted to be considered as her mates to fly, but desire had many faces. A secret need for something shameful. A passion for the thing that made your heart lighten, and the far darker seduction of coveting what others have.

And being prepared to kill for it.

Edwin couldn’t believe that he would never be duke. When he was told as a boy where he fit into the family structure, his mind rebelled, unable to accept it. He’d looked at his cousins in a new light, seeing an unearned, undeserved privilege. Just because they were born to the duke and not him? Just because their father was the eldest and his was the spare, that would determine his lot in life? No. Edwin’s brain was like poison, seeping into mine, showing me all the ugliness that lurked inside him.

From that point onwards, he catalogued all the ways his cousins didn’t match up. The time he beat the eldest and heir, Gareth, in a boxing match. The fact he kept his seat on the wildest of stallions, even while the second in line fell on his arse. Then there was Flynn. I almost didn’t recognise my lover in his cousin’s thoughts. My golden-haired dragon rider was transformed into some kind of arrogant fool. Overly concerned with his own good looks and swanning around, playing at being a dragon rider, Edwin hated him the most.

He was the last barrier between Edwin and what he wanted, needed. The Duke of Harlston’s men had promised that Flynn would die the night of the massacres, clearing the way for him. If he could just slip into the ducal estate and kill each person that stood in his way, they would do the rest. He’d asked questions, many questions, about how the hell they could kill the rider of a massive dragon, but…

In his memories, I saw the gleam of dragonstone as it was held before him. Clutched in the claws of a silver dragon, the stone grew brighter and brighter as the duke’s men spoke. He didn’t need to worry about Flynn. All Edwin needed to do was eradicate the Duke of Skane and his family. Do that and he would get everything he wanted.

Just as he would now.

The stone pendant pulsed at Edwin’s chest now, hidden by his shirt and tunic, but I saw it. The crystal egg in my hand throbbed in time with his heart as all the secrets were spilled. Flynn jerked his sword from its scabbard and women screamed, falling back. Riders converged, men shouted, everyone thinking they knew how to deal with what was happening.

But they didn’t know.

As wave after wave of psychic energy pulsed through me from Cynane, I felt like a water jug filled too close to the top. What was inside me, it needed to spill out, lest I burst. Spill… I looked down, not at the egg, but at the sword they’d given me, pulling the blade free just far enough for me to press my finger to the edge. Draven had ensured to give me a serviceable blade as well as a pretty one, the edge so sharp I barely felt the cut.

Blood, I felt that, though, streaming from the green dragon as Cynane turned and raked her claws along the male’s sides. She was falling fast, her wings no longer beating, as she tested the dragon and found him wanting. Hadrian’s bellow rocketed across the sky as he emerged from the clouds, his claws outstretched right as he jerked the pretender dragon away. When he reached for Cynane, when Flynn reached for his cousin, I knew what was going to happen.

What must be, that’s what Glimmer had told me, and now I knew it to be true. Hadrian’s neck wound around Cynane’s, the gesture as familiar as breathing for the two of them. She didn’t rise to mate often, but each time she did, he was by her side. Other males caught up, the ones she’d already selected, as well as a few of the more enterprising ones from the dragon corp. Their riders were nowhere to be found as the dragons clustered around the female. Each of their wings flapped out, stopping their deadfall to earth, lowering the queen back down now that she was receptive.

Flynn wasn’t so gentle.

“You killed them…?” I knew then that he saw, that they all saw what I had seen. The crystal egg was so hot in my palm it almost burned, but memories poured out of the accused and into the minds of everyone here. Gasps, cries, sobs rang out through the crowd as the accused’s treachery was revealed. “My father was a conniving bastard,” Flynn growled. “Always staying one step ahead of everyone else. He was manipulative, a political animal through and through, but he…?”

The despair, it broke the spell I was under, forcing me forward.

“You killed my father, my brothers, and their wives. You killed their sons and their daughters. You killed…” A ragged sob. “You killed them, you son of a bitch, all because you thought you could do better.”

“No, Flynn, I?—”

Whatever Edwin had to say, it was cut off. Flynn’s sword was thrust into the man’s chest, and that was the moment the stone on Edwin’s chest dimmed, then went dead as he slid off his cousin’s blade. A few splutters, a groan, but whatever Edwin had to say, it was drowned out by the sound of dragons landing all around the courtyard. Cloudy, Obsidian, Wraith, and Glacier, they approached with an ominous slowness.

“You know what they did,” Draven said. “You know their crimes, and now you’ll know my judgement.” He fixed what was left of the assassins in his gaze. “I will not start my reign soaked in the same blood my uncle so wantonly spilled, but if you think me merciful, think again. You will surrender yourself to the custody of the royal dragon corp and be thrown into the palace dungeons where my interrogators will wring out every single detail you can give me about my uncle’s deception, or…”

Darkspire landed behind Draven, Glimmer clinging to his neck, her eyes glowing brightly. He opened his massive jaws, the fetid stink of a carnivore’s mouth filling the air.

“Or you can save me the cost of a few sheep and feed my dragons. Your choice.”

It was no choice at all. The accused fell to their knees, babbling out excuses, pleas for mercy, but any attention Draven could spare was well and truly gone. Cynane had landed along with her chosen males. She knew, I knew, what had to happen next.

Suddenly, I was beside Flynn, my hand sliding through his cousin’s blood to take his sword from him, something that had the human squirming, but the dragon? Because it appeared I had one inside my heart, not just my head. I smiled up at him, catching him watching my every move as I disarmed him. His hand went to my hair, cradling my scalp, before tearing away the blonde wig. It fell with a flutter as Draven appeared at my side, his fingers undoing the clasps of my breastplate. He had that off as Ged reached out and took off the other vambrace. Soren’s hand slid up my spine, finding the lacing that held my dress up, but Brom swam into view.

“This…” He looked around, bringing our attention to the chaos raging right now. Half of those gathered were screaming and crying over what they’d just discovered, and the others were leaping into the arms of their loved ones, writhing against each other. Mating fever would have every adult in the city marking the death of the king and queen, and celebrating the ascension of the new one. “We need to take this somewhere more private.”

“Whatever did you have in mind?” Draven purred.