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“It was shameful.” Tarik hissed, “You might have loved her baba, but she was selfish to wish to take you from us.”

Abanoub cast his eyes away, and Rowan tried not to compare her personal situation with Alessandro to this one. Still, she felt her back straighten defensively and only when Kin shot her a questioning look was she able to fully pull her mind out of those visions.

“May we search the apartment, Abanoub? We might find a clue.”

Abanoub looked uncomfortable with the idea but sighed. “Yes. Tarik, get me the key.”

Chapter 19

His dragon was driving him insane.

‘Rowan’ echoed in his head in a thundering heartbeat at any idle moment he could find. Only when he was engaged in something else could Alessandro find peace in his head.

As such, he turned his full attention to the ordeal of who had been behind their attack. In doing so, he discovered a report he must have overlooked when he had been more concerned about what the mutt’s tongue had been doing all over Rowan’s abdomen.

Concentrate.

“Stone, what is this about the change in leadership of the Coven being done in secret?” He asked his protégé when the young dragon stepped back into the library conference room with a bowl full of grapes.

The lean man peered at the report and frowned.

“That’s a report we got from Mateo last night.

He was on watch when it happened. He thought it would be a bigger deal with a whole public showing, but Blaise thought that since Cherry Young had been basically running the show for the last year and with what was going on with us, they might have decided a huge ceremony would be in poor taste.

I also thought it was weird, so I put it in my pile to investigate later. ”

Alessandro hummed as he fingered the piece of paper. “Summon Mateo, leave the grapes.”

Stone frowned but swiped a handful of the fruit before he turned to do as bidden.

It didn’t take long for the redhead to show up, not only paler than Alessandro had ever seen him, but shaking like a leaf and stinking of adrenaline and fear.

It didn’t take too long for Alessandro to realize that he hadn’t shown up alone, Blaise had also joined his underling with a mischievous grin on his face.

“Please, your majesty, anything but my wings. I don’t heal as well as others of my kind. Have mercy.”

Alessandro was careful to not show his exasperation to the kid.

He knew the fear the younger generation showed him derived from exaggerated tales of the older generation who had seen him as his terrifying stage of unruliness.

With Mateo’s recent loss of control, he was sure his Fire General had amped up some relatively harmless tale of their king’s wrath to include yet again ripping off the wings of some poor idiot who’d crossed him.

“I’ll allow General Blaise to continue to take charge of your punishment for the time being, but this is regarding another matter. What exactly did you see at the leadership change for the Coven?”

The relief that washed over the boy didn’t totally ease his tension enough to look directly at Alessandro, but he raised his head and he glanced at Blaise, who gave a nod of his permission to go into the tale.

“Well, it was weird. Security on the Compound rarely allows for us to hear or see much of what goes on from our watchtower, but that day the barriers glitched and we could see everything. I sent in a few of the bugs that were provided in case anything like that ever happened and recorded some footage of thousands of witches phasing in at the same time. Then the Elder appeared. She was there in full garb, with that freaky mask. You know, the one Elder Henrietta used to show up in when she was doing official Coven business? She walked around them for hours, making serious eye contact with each witch. At first I thought the equipment failed to catch sound, but everything that happened was in complete silence. There was only one clear shot we got of her passing by, but — and this is the real reason I reported it — I could swear that whoever was in the garb was not Cherry Young. I’ve seen her before and the witch has some serious weight on her chest. This person was flat. ”

Alessandro turned his attention to the video Stone had been queuing up as Mateo spoke.

It paused at the clip where a figure in a hooded cream white and golden cloak passed by wearing a golden mask.

He supposed it could be called freaky, as it covered every inch of the face, even the eyes, but the coverage didn’t extend to the long blonde hair that peaked out around the shoulders that were not of Cherry Young.

His eyes drifted to the timestamp, and he could feel his scales roiling with his fury.

Alessandro hadn’t meant to ice over the library, but with his dragon so volatile, it had been more of a surprise that he hadn’t set it on fire. “This happened the night of the attack on us?”

Matteo gulped. “Y-yes, but I was trying to ensure that the audio wasn’t a mistake before I turned it in. According to procedure, we have to take it to the techies to ensure it wasn’t, and I didn’t get it back until last night.”

“According to procedure, you let your Generals know of any concern you put a chief priority on, but perhaps it fell under your priority to unseat your General from power. Is that what motivated you? You thought once you had my spot that you could turn this in as further proof that you deserved the position?” Blaise roared.

Flames were dancing on his skin as he glared down at the much smaller fire dragon.

The tension that had left Mateo since the beginning of his tale was back in place, and he dropped his sight to the ground, a trick for younger dragons to calm older ones, but Blaise had no soft spot to exploit.

“I swear, I was just trying to make sure that the silence wasn’t a technical error!

Unlike the heads of houses that refused us permission to move against the civilians, I know the importance of Draconis. ”

“Get the fuck back to the coliseum and wait for me. If you deviate, I will resort to our king’s preferred method of punishment and tear your wings from your back in slices.”

Mateo gave a small sound of a whimper and was gone in the next second.

“Fuck!” Blaise roared. His anger manifested in a fireball that shattered a stained window overhead.

Seeing the fire dragon so amped up made Alessandro redouble his grip on his own control and he removed his ice, hoping the protective spells on the books had withstood the instant thaw.

“If that’s not Cherry Young, who is it?” Stone asked even as his fingers were flying on his laptop, his body already working faster than his mind.

Alessandro offered his commandeered bowl of grapes to the fuming dragon general.

He had half a mind to just show up to the compound and figure it out without all the stealth bullshit.

But he couldn’t risk showing any sign of hostility to the undisputed champions of non-shifters with their current state of affairs.

He needed solid evidence something foul was happening with the Coven.

He felt the trigger of one of his barriers only seconds before the trespasser appeared before him.

Shock filled him at the sight of the blue-eyed beauty. Her body was fading slightly in spots where the sun shone just a little too brightly.

“Elaine?” Stone hissed.

“Why haven’t you crossed over?” Alessandro demanded as she stepped into the shadows, anxiety written all over her face.

“I tried.” Even in her ghost form, he could tell she was shaking. “But I saw what he had planned. I had to help the woman, the woman that healed me, but I can’t find her.”

“The ones responsible for Pan’s Flute?” He demanded.

Elaine let out a breath that came out as mist. “Yes, my King, you must hurry, her family is in danger.”

“The elf’s?”

Elaine’s form flickered. “I can’t hang on anymore. Save her kingdom, Alessandro.” Her last words hung thick in the surrounding air.

Her kingdom. The Eastern Elven Kingdom was in peril.

“Naseem, you’re in charge. Aqua, come to me. I’m taking Stone and Blaise as well.”

“Got it.” Naseem’s voice was liquid honey and the calming breeze Alessandro needed to keep from losing total control.

He felt the scales crawling along his skin, a sign of his rage. The anger he’d held onto since Draconis’ attack finally had a source to concentrate its wrath on and his dragon was thirsty for blood.

Aqua appeared a moment later, looking flush with confusion, but just as Stone’s and Blaise’s beasts were showing their heads in iridescent opal and ruby red scales, her own cerulean joined the fray in patches on her flesh.

“We’re going to the Eastern Elven Kingdom. I’ve just received a tip that the ones behind our attack are there, plotting something against the royal family.” He held out a hand, and the book he still hadn’t given to Blaise appeared. “This is the scent we’ll be working off of to gather the targets.”

Aqua looked like she was about to argue, but Alessandro’s stern gaze quieted her.

“Great, now we can call it even against the elf.” Blaise took the book and raised an eyebrow at the title. “Is this a kid’s book?”

“It’s a gift for you once we’re done.”

“For me?“ Blaise demanded with disbelief before handing it off to Stone. “Last time I checked, I was a grown ass man.”

Stone looked a bit troubled by the smell, but he kept quiet as he passed it to Aqua.

Once all his dragons had the scent, they phased out.

When the world reformed, it wasn’t at all what Alessandro had been expecting.

“What in the endless hells?” Blaise lost his breath as they took in the sight of what had once been the Eastern Elven Kingdom.

A thin layer of ice covered the roads, the people, the shops.

Deep ice, his signature move.

Meant to protect and contain inorganic matter, using the spell against living people would produce harm.

“They’re all alive. ” Aqua noted as she examined one elf looking through a shop window at a green silk gown.

“How?” Stone demanded, looking towards his master.