Chapter 4
S he’s gone!”
Ragna growled as her sister, Reva, swept into her bedroom without preamble.
Her lover, Trexton, jumped away from her instantly, and began looking for…
Who knew? His dignity or an escape. Probably his brain as she hadn’t chosen him for his intellect as much as another piece of anatomy that had definitely not been disappointing her before her bitchy sister had intruded.
Furious over the interruption, Ragna glared at Reva, who didn’t seem to care in the least that she’d walked in on them. “Don’t you knock?”
Reva drew up short as she realized what she’d interrupted. Completely unabashed, she let out an irritated sigh. “Seriously? Can’t you go an hour? How many males has it been today so far?”
Trexton gaped. “What?”
Ragna rose up at her sister. “Don’t you dare!”
Using her tail, Reva pushed him toward the door. “You need to leave now. I’m sure she’ll be horny again in ten minutes. Come back when the grownups are through talking.”
As soon as she forced him through the door, she used her tail to slam it shut.
With a furious sigh, Ragna ruffled her wings. “That was rude, sister.”
“Don’t care.” Reva turned back to face her.
With orange and brown scales, Reva was a beautiful dragon, if not a large one. Ragna had always been grateful she hadn’t inherited their father’s wider girth. Her slender form was much more graceful, especially for flight.
“Why are you here?”
Reva sat back on her haunches. When she spoke again, she enunciated each word slowly. “I told you. She’s gone.”
“If you mean Marla, I already know. She packed the hatchlings up and headed to her father before I had a chance to get to them.”
Reva sneered at her. “Not Marla, you idiot. Tanis . She’s nowhere to be found.”
That wasn’t good. Tanis was a stubborn little bitch who listened to no one. For days now, she’d been demanding justice and driving everyone to madness. So much so, that they’d both been tempted to throw her skull to the same dragon slayer and imp.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Ragna asked.
“You heard what I said. No one has seen her. The last anyone heard of her was Marla. Tanis told her that she was going to avenge Davin and reclaim his skull so that Marla could bury him properly.”
Ragna cursed. “When was that?”
“A day or so ago. I don’t know. I thought you told her to forget it.”
“Of course I did. Since when does Tanis listen to anyone?”
Reva belched fire and fluttered her wings. “What are we going to do?”
Ragna pressed her claws to her snout as she tried to think through this. Leave it to Tanis to screw up all their plans. “Where’s the idiot?”
“I just told you, I don’t know.”
“Not our sister idiot. The other idiot!”
Reva gave her a droll stare. “Which other idiot? Really, Ragna, you need to find other insults. It’s rather tedious and extremely confusing.”
“Fine. Imbecile. Moron. Human !”
“That was uncalled for. I’m not human, you bitch.”
Ragna hissed at her sister. “You deserve it, and I didn’t mean you . That dragon slayer moron you found who pissed himself when he saw you the first time. Where did he and that imp of his go?”
“Oh...” Reva paused to consider it. “I don’t know. I suppose they headed home? If they’d stayed here, they would have been eaten. If not by one of us, then a gryphon or wyvern.”
“You’re useless! Why didn’t you keep an eye on the human and imp until they left?”
“Don’t take that tone with me, Ragna. You didn’t tell me to keep an eye on them. How was I supposed to know you’d want them later?”
Ragna let out an angry burst of flames. “Fine. You go after that idiot dragon slayer and his companion. See if you can find Davin’s skull so that we can get in tight with Marla again and finish this, and I’ll go find Tanis.”
“What are you going to do with her when you find her?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
Ragna examined her dew claw and how sharp it was. “How much trouble she gives me.”
Reva understood that threat and was glad she wasn’t the one Ragna was angry at. “What about Father? What do we tell him?”
Ragna paused as if to consider options. “Leave him to me. I’ll deal with it. You worry about the human and imp.”
“If I can’t find them?”
Ragna gave her a cold, piercing glare. “Then don’t come home.”
Just after the sun had set, Dash found them a comfortable spot to camp for the night. Tanis slid from his saddle in a way that left him cursing everything, especially his life and, in particular, the stupidity of making deals with dragons.
She laughed at the latter one as he groused about it.
He conjured her a bedroll and a few supplies before he headed off into the woods alone.
“Is he all right?” Tanis asked Halla.
“I’m sure he just needs a few minutes to attend his needs.” Halla wagged her brows to convey a meaning Tanis didn’t want to think about.
The hobgoblin was incorrigible.
“You didn’t have to go there, you know.” Tanis set about laying her bedding on the ground while Halla piled up rocks to make a circle. She scowled as she watched the hobgoblin. “What are you doing?”
“Getting ready for the fire.”
Tanis was very confused by that. “Why would you have to get ready for a fire?”
Halla gave her a droll stare. “Not a dragon. We don’t just belch flames. We have to make one and contain it.”
Oh. She hadn’t thought of that. As Halla had noted, dragons didn’t concern themselves with such things. When they wanted a fire, it was an easy thing to burp.
Tanis gazed off into the woods as she considered her two companions. They were very different from one another. Dash was as quiet as Halla was chatty. Huge as she was small. Terrifying as she was friendly.
Halla stood back from the fire pit to survey her handiwork. With a satisfied nod, she wiped her hands together. “You wait here, Lady Tanis, and I’ll gather more wood.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to help?”
“Ever gather firewood?”
Tanis paused. “Well, no. Part of being a dragon. We don’t need it.”
“Then you won’t be very helpful, will you? Because the one thing you don’t want to do is gather the wrong kind or the wood that something’s making a home in. Especially the kinds of things that bite.”
Tanis shivered at the thought. Definitely not something dragons had to worry over.
Halla patted her gently on the arm to take the sting out of those words. “Don’t worry. I won’t be long. Just rest a few and I’ll be back.”
“Try not to get bitten.”
Laughing, Halla ventured off in the direction Dash had vanished.
Tanis was tempted to follow, but truthfully, she was too tired to bother. It was nice to have a little reprieve by herself. Not that they were bad company. Halla was very pleasant.
Dash...
He was intense. Dangerous. Not in a bad way. It was just... There were no real words for it. He lured her like no one ever had before.
The more they traveled, the more she wanted to know why he was so quiet and mysterious. She felt as if Dash and Halla had a secret they were keeping from her. Not that it was any of her business. But a part of her would like to know what was behind some of the side glances they exchanged.
Didn’t matter. She had a mission. And she intended to finish it as quickly as possible.
Then, she’d work on regaining her freedom.
Dash froze at the sound of someone rustling in the brush in front of him. “Better be Halla.”
“You better be dressed.”
He snorted at her irritable tone as she broke through the clearing where he was stretched out on the grass. “Where’s the dragon?”
“I left her at the campsite. You should try being nicer to her.”
“Nicer how? I haven’t yelled at her, and I’ve been carrying her on my back all day.”
Standing over him while he lay in the grass, staring up at the sky, she gave him a peeved stare and crossed her arms over her chest. “You know, you could fly with her.”
He smirked. “I could do a lot of things with her.”
She threw an acorn at him. “Get your mind out of the gutter. You know what I mean. It’d be a lot faster if we flew.”
“She doesn’t need to know I can do that anymore than she needs to know I can be human.”
Halla cocked her head as she raked a look over his human form. “I’m assuming that’s why you’re not in camp at the moment, too?”
“It is.” He just needed a moment to stretch out and relax in his human body.
“Then why is she with us if she’s slowing you down?”
He had no idea and no real answer. Except for one thing. “I’d like to think that if I was the one who was dead, Renata would be as determined to avenge me.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
Because it wasn’t the entire truth. There was something about the dragon that compelled him, and he had no idea what or why. Only that she haunted him.
It made no sense, but all he could think about right now was heading to their camp, scooping that dragon up in his arms and shocking Halla right back into her hobgoblin hill.
You need a woman.
Perhaps that was all it was.
He’d been alone far too long, and he knew it. But lovers came with all kinds of complications he didn’t need or want. He’d learned a long time ago that he was better off on his own.
And still, his thoughts kept drifting back to that auburn-haired temptation. To those searing dark brown eyes that were filled with intelligence and fire.
Stop .
He had so much more he needed to focus on. Someone had his sister’s horn and with it, they could do all manner of damage. Not the least of which was kill him.
If he died...
The dragon would have a lot more to worry about than just her brother’s skull. All he’d fought and bled for...
It would be for nothing. Chaos would return and it would own the world once more.
Maybe that was the only point of his life. To hold chaos off for just one more day.
Do not fail.
The price of failure was too high for all of them. But particularly for the innocents like their dragon.
He glanced back at Halla. “Did anyone follow you when you left the palace?”
“Not that I know.”
Not that she knew. Lovely. “You haven’t seen him following you?”
She laughed. “Does anyone ever see Ryper?”
Not unless he wanted them to. Damn it. He should have been named Shadow with the way he blended into the darkness and traveled without sound. Although, given the fact he’d been an assassin for most of his life, Ryper was probably the most fitting name for him, and Dash had always wondered if it was the name his mother had bestowed on the boy or one he’d chosen.
The one time he’d asked that question, Ryper had just stared at him and said nothing.
He was good at that, too.
Noncommittal to the bitter end.
“Besides, Ryper told me to keep me eyes on you, Sire.”
Of course, he did. Ryper worried as much as a nursemaid.
“He also told me that he was going where he was most needed.”
Dash scowled as he tried to figure out where that might be. “What does that mean?”
She shrugged. “It’s Ryper. Could mean anything. But he was insistent that I watch your back, Sire, as he was sure something bad was coming.”
That sounded about right. And it sounded like Ryper’s normal paranoia. Which tragically had a way of coming true.
Dash let out a tired sigh. He’d acted rashly and he knew it. Leaving his lands had been a bad idea, and Ryper would be the first to lecture him on the stupidity of it. But this was something he dared not trust to anyone else. No one could know about his sister.
Most of all, they couldn’t know about her missing wand.
Just a few more days and they’d be in Auderley. He’d have Renata’s wand back. The dragon would get her skull.
And he’d put the darkness to rest before it devoured them all.