Page 141 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Those last words weren’t to convince anyone but herself.

If she had even dared to think that things might not have gone as she hoped, if she had lost faith in Kein and Kassein, she might as well have abandoned any hope she had now.

She had done everything for Lumie’s sake.

If her child wasn’t alive and well, there was absolutely no point to all of this.

Alezya was pulled from her thoughts by Ekata’s gentle but firm hand on her shoulder. The two women exchanged a silent understanding nod before she turned back to the other clan representatives.

“...We’ve chosen to believe Alezya,” Ekata said. “Our clan has never been willing to believe in the Deklaan’s claims, and we won’t start now because we’re guided by fear.”

“That’s easy to say when you live on the other side of the mountains,” someone muttered. “You guys will be the last ones killed!”

“And we have nowhere to run,” Ekut retorted.

“But even if we’re the farthest, so what?

You’ve all heard how fast the Dragon Clan is progressing.

Entire clans are fleeing this very second, and it’s only a matter of days before they reach us.

Trusting this woman who already survived them once is the only way to go forward.

Fighting will only precipitate our end.”

“Who’s to say she isn’t a spy for her father? What if Darak is merely testing us all before he raises an army?!”

“My father is a cunning man, but even he can’t anticipate the Dragon Clan’s attacks,” Alezya said, “and I have nothing to gain whether you believe me or not. The only thing I know is that I will most likely be safe from their attacks, but I can’t say the same for everyone else.”

“Don’t be stubborn and get yourselves killed,” Ekata insisted.

“Come on. We reached out because we know we can survive and we want as many clans as possible to survive too. Many of us didn’t trust Darak before, why should we trust him now?

That plan of his is madness! Do you guys seriously believe we have a chance against the Dragon Clan?

Darak is the one who’s been claiming they’re invincible all these years, and we’ve lost countless men to his battles! ”

“...How can you guarantee we will be safe?” someone asked Ekata, although their eyes drifted to Alezya.

“I can talk to the Dragon Clan Chief,” Alezya insisted, stepping forward. “He listens to me—”

“Why would the leader of the most powerful clan in the world listen to a woman?!” the old man grunted again. “This is nonsense! That witch is doing that tyrant’s bidding, that’s what this is! She will sell us all out after she sold herself!”

“Watch it, old man,” Ekata hissed, drawing her blade out.

“I knew it! Traitors! You summoned us here to sell us out!”

Things were escalating too quickly, and Alezya realized this meeting had been a mistake.

No one was concealing their voices anymore, instead shouting at each other, meaning they could be heard down the valley at any moment now, and depending on who heard it, things could potentially get much worse.

Alezya looked up again nervously, silently hoping Kein’s orange scales would cover the skies right this instant, but all she got was the cloudless night and wind shuddering the trees.

“The Deklaan Clan are liars!”

“We can’t trust the Munsa! They hid that witch while we were all running from our homes!”

“She’s our only way to survive, you fools!”

“These negotiations are a trap,” the white-haired man hissed to the others. “We should just capture that woman and use her as a hostage! The Deklaan Clan will know what to do with her!”

“Touch me, and that will be the last thing you do, old man,” Alezya hissed, her eyes darting back to him.

“W-wait,” a man from a different clan exclaimed. “You can’t decide for all of us! What if she’s telling the truth? If you harm her, you might condemn us all! No, our clan will go to our elders and explain—”

“Nonsense! There isn’t a minute to lose! Capture that woman, now!”

The man took a step toward Alezya, ready to cross the thin stream, and all hell broke loose at once: she pulled out her blade and slashed his wrist in one movement, but at the exact same moment, someone grabbed and brutally pulled her back.

Alezya felt the pull, her feet slipping on the wet ground and her body inevitably losing balance.

She didn’t have time to lower her arms, only to see the men on the other side either draw weapons and launch themselves toward them or run away, and then, her vision toppled.

Ekata shouted something, and right after, Alezya’s body hit the ground, not in a singular, violent shock, but instead she felt different parts of her body hit the uneven ground, causing more pain in certain areas than others.

Shouts echoed just as her head rang, and someone screamed in pain, a voice that sounded like hers, as deafening as the violent pain that hit her limbs.

The fight got louder above her, and it took her a second to recover, find the ground she’d brutally hit, and feel the tears welling in her eyes.

She barely managed to roll onto her stomach, various areas of her body protesting in atrocious pain.

When she blinked the tears away and glanced up, all she could see were limbs moving fast, weapons crashing together, and a chaos of shadows. Someone stepped on her, and she cried out, curling up on her flank.

As she tried to pull herself up, her body slid down, and pain radiated through her hand and wrist, making her wince.

Alezya let out a frustrated grunt, but her survival instincts were fighting to take over; she had to move or she would be killed.

It was too dark, but she knew everyone was either trying to kill her or protect her, or they were part of the silhouettes she could see darting through the trees, running away from the fight.

“There! She’s there! Grab her!”

Alezya managed to get on her elbows and drag her body up, but something was wrong, and she couldn’t pull her own body far.

She couldn’t pinpoint where the pain came from, but it was too much to move, and waves of pain kept crashing, making her cry and her head spin.

When someone grabbed her wrist, she let out another scream of pain.

“Here! I got—”

The pressure on her wrist disappeared, and another high-pitched scream echoed, one that wasn’t hers this time.

Alezya glanced up, and much to her shock, Niiru must have jumped out of the bag at some point, because the small dragon was fangs deep into the forearm of the man who had grabbed her, and growling furiously.

She didn’t have time to feel an ounce of relief: the wounded man started trying to punch the young dragon’s head, and after a couple of hits, Niiru let go with an angry growl, jumping down to Alezya’s side.

“Niiru!” she shouted. “ Go away! Fly! Go to Kein! Niiru, fly to Kein! ”

But the young dragon either didn’t understand or didn’t want to. It remained stuck on the ground, its tail furiously swishing left and right, its body arched like an angry feline, standing all of its two feet tall between her and the man.

“ Niiru, go! ” she begged the dragon through her tears.

She wouldn’t forgive herself if the young dragon got any more hurt here.

Somewhere past her feet, she could hear the fight going on, grunts, shouts, and the furious clashing of weapons, but Alezya was in a position where she could only see upward of the valley, not toward the fight.

It didn’t matter; all she could focus on was the baby dragon defending her with all its tiny might.

“Niiru, please!” she cried.

“Alezya!”

She heard Ekata’s voice, and the next second, someone was jumping over her and swinging a long fishing spear at the man, forcing him to step back. It took her a second to recognize Ekut’s back just as his twin sister appeared at her side.

“Alezya! Oh, thank the gods, you’re alive. Are you alright?”

“No,” Alezya groaned. “I can’t... I can’t get up.”

“Let me help you— Easy, baby dragon, I’m helping her!”

Niiru stopped growling at Ekata, instead turning back to Ekut, who was fighting the man, to growl in support.

It gave Ekata a second to help Alezya sit up, despite the atrocious pain.

The fighting was nearing its end already; the men who hadn’t fled were dead or bleeding, and much to her dismay, Ekata’s arm was covered in blood too, and two of the Munsa Clan’s men were lying lifeless. Alezya gasped in shock.

“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “This is my—”

“Oh, no,” Ekata grunted. “If anyone, it’s my dumb brother’s fault for inviting that old stubborn fuck!”

“I told you the others insisted he come too!” Ekut groaned between two jabs of his spear. “And can we please have this fight later?! Seriously!”

“What are we going to do,” Alezya muttered, her eyes still riveted on the dead men lying by the river.

“We got our message across,” Ekata muttered. “Now we can only hope some of the men who fled understood and–”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence; a deafening growl shook the skies.

All their heads whipped toward the skies just as a large shadow covered them.

The others gasped, but a wave of hope and relief submerged Alezya, her heart making a violent leap in her chest. Orange scales flew and disappeared, another growl echoing loudly somewhere above.

A few steps away from her, Niiru sat and tilted its head toward the sky, its tail swishing again curiously before it took off.

“No!” Ekata said, trying to reach the baby dragon before it flew out of hand.

But Alezya grabbed her coat, shaking her head.

“No! No, let... let Niiru go.”