Chapter Twenty-Five
I felt the Beast stir even though the dragon lord hadn’t done more than look my way. Without Remy’s new control, the Beast would have probably been ready to rip itself free. That’s how much menace poured off the red-haired man we walked toward.
“Daegal.” Remy’s cool tones washed over me like a dive into an autumn stream. “To what do I owe this visit?”
The dragon lord came around the table, a half smile adorning features as handsome as the fictional Prince Charming. “Remington, even you know that introductions come before business. Who is the beauty at your side?”
Remy took my hand as we ascended the steps that led to the raised banquet table. Once there, he didn’t let it go. A mark of possessiveness? Or a warning not to shake the dragon’s hand?
“Daegal Morsyn, Lord of Orion, meet Raine Stone, my céile.”
The dragon’s gaze raked me.
I kept my spine straight. Predators loved to see fear. That’s why I wouldn’t show him any. Besides, Daegal didn’t know it, but he and Remy weren’t the only predators in this room.
“So pleased to meet you, Lord Morsyn,” I said.
His smile showed regular white teeth, but I was suddenly struck by a mental image of blood dripping from sharp fangs.
“Raine. A true pleasure.”
I might have found the silky baritone of Daegal’s voice pleasant if not for its undercurrents of malevolence. He also had an accent I couldn’t place, probably because I didn’t speak dragon.
“Were you named after a spring rain, I wonder?” Daegal went on. “You’re as fresh and lovely as one.”
“It’s short for Lorraine, so it wasn’t meant that way, but thank you,” I replied. “Your name is also unusual. Does it mean anything?”
He smiled. “In your world, it means ‘dweller by the dark stream.’”
Yeah. Dwelling there to eat unwary travelers, no doubt.
“Are you hungry?” Daegal said, as if reading my mind. “Remington’s had enough food brought out to choke me, although I’m sure he’d hate it if anything untoward befell me.”
Daegal’s sarcasm was clear, but I was too focused on all the mouthwatering dishes behind him to fully appreciate it.
I’d been trying to ignore them, but now I was close enough to smell them.
Serve him delicacies, Remy had instructed Mandal.
I’d assumed that meant oysters or caviar or sushi since Remy had said that all the flying dragons in Orion were pescatarian.
The human-looking ones clearly weren’t. The table was laden with savory and sweet pastries, an assortment of roasted meats, and steaming pockets of golden-crusted hors d’oeuvres that smelled so good, my stomach yowled loud enough to be heard.
Daegal laughed. “Clearly you are hungry, Raine. Come, join me. Remington, our business can wait for a bit.”
Remy let out a grating laugh. “She’d be eating her breakfast in bed with me if not for you demanding an audience with both of us, so let’s get to your reason behind it.”
Sunset-red brows rose. “What’s made you so unpleasant this morning? Didn’t you sleep well?”
“I didn’t sleep at all.” Remy’s tone was so cold, I was surprised I didn’t see his breath come out in frosty plumes. “First a young relative was kidnapped from my hotel, then my céile was snatched away while I was looking for the child.”
“How terrible,” Daegal said in a bored tone. “But she’s here now, so all must be well in that regard. Speaking of the lovely Raine, why do you keep calling her your céile instead of your future céile? Your binding hasn’t happened yet.”
Remy raised our clasped hands to brush a kiss across my knuckles. “Oh, but it has.”
For a split second, surprise cracked the dragon’s urbane mask. Then a female voice said, “You didn’t!” from behind us.
I turned.
Zenobia was there, wearing a stunning red dress with a black lace overlay that deepened its scarlet hue. She also had a black coat with a scarlet-and-gold inlay that matched Daegal’s ostentatious lining. That coat swirled around her like fluttering wings as she strode toward us.
“What is she doing here?” Remy growled.
“Did I forget to mention?” Daegal said with false pleasantness. “I invited my cousin to join me.”
His cousin?
I gave the approaching dragoness a new once-over.
Zenobia had black hair and Daegal was a redhead, but they both shared the same pearly skin.
They were also tall, long-legged, and lean, although Daegal had the muscled frame of a warrior while Zenobia had a dancer’s build.
They were both certainly beautiful in that Instagram-influencer way, but their most obvious family trait was something I couldn’t see at the moment: a violence-soaked aura that could uncurl into a pair of huge scarlet wings.
“Remy,” Zenobia snapped. “Tell me you did not squander your only céile bestowment on an insignificant human nurse.”
“Come at me all you want, but don’t insult my profession,” I said before Remy could speak. “Nurses save lives every day. If you can’t say the same, don’t you dare pretend to be better.”
“Not another disparaging word to my céile, Zenobia,” Remy said curtly.
“You can hardly expect me to congratulate you,” she retorted. “Wardens need a strong céile to support their rule. You could have bartered that honor to secure an alliance with one of the royal clans. Choosing a human gains you nothing.”
“Are you on his side or mine?” Daegal said with barely concealed astonishment.
I was surprised, too. Zenobia sounded more concerned for Remy’s future than jealous of me, and here I’d thought her bitchiness was regular ex-girlfriend-scorned stuff.
“My choices haven’t been your concern for nearly sixty years, Zenobia,” Remy said with more curtness.
“Enough of this.” Daegal sounded annoyed. “We’re not here to revisit the past.”
“Agreed.” Remy lasered his gaze onto the dragon. “Let’s talk instead about Zenobia causing her own thunderstorm before flying away during my family gathering yesterday.”
Had that only been yesterday? It felt like weeks ago.
Daegal smiled. “‘When dark clouds form from a clear blue sky, beware, for within them dragons might fly.’”
“Don’t quote that old rhyme to me.” Remy scoffed. “Those times in the human world are over, yet Zenobia almost revealed her true nature to a deck full of humans. I’d assume you’d be more concerned by her nearly violating our treaty.”
I schooled my features to show nothing. Still, I was surprised that Remy would be the first to mention a treaty issue. He really was going all in on his bluff.
“What a coincidence that you speak of treaty violations.” Daegal’s voice nearly vibrated with suppressed violence. “I’m here for that very reason.”
Remy raised a brow. “One of your people trespassed onto my lands again?”
“No.” Daegal didn’t move and nothing in his appearance changed, but I swear I felt a whoosh from wings I couldn’t see. “I have evidence that you trespassed onto mine.”
“Impossible,” Remy said flatly. “I would never.”
Daaaaaamn. Remy wasn’t just bluffing. He was driving straight at Daegal in a supernatural game of chicken.
“Then why were traces of your magic found by a Manasa hole this very morning?” Daegal asked with silky menace.
All my nurse’s training couldn’t stop me from tensing.
Daegal’s sharp gaze didn’t miss it. “Seems your céile knows what I’m speaking of.”
Remy laughed, scornful and unconcerned. “Of course she does. She was in that hole with her kidnapper until she detonated the defense spell I’d given her.
That’s what your sensors must have picked up.
I’m flattered that you obviously blanketed your entire realm with those sensors to be on my doorstop a mere three hours after they detected my magic. ”
“Defense spell?” Those gray daggers that Daegal called eyes stabbed in my direction.
I nodded. I might dislike lying, but I’d been at enough patient bedsides to know how to do it with the utmost conviction. Sometimes, lies were the only way to comfort the dying, and the dying deserved all the comfort they could get.
“I’m human,” I said with a what can you do? shrug. “Remy didn’t want me walking around unprotected. That’s why he gave me that spell. Neither of us thought I’d ever need it when I was in his hotel, but … well. Being ready for the unexpected was the whole point behind my having it.”
Daegal was suddenly only inches away, staring down at me while red rolled over his eyes. “And what did that spell do, exactly, if you were there?”
“Back.”
Remy’s growled command made the whole room vibrate, and considering its size, that was saying something.
Daegal took one step backward, although his gaze never left mine. “Well?”
I held that dangerous iron-and-scarlet gaze. “It blew the ceiling off the Manasa hole and bulleted my kidnapper with the debris. Then, when I climbed out, it self-repaired the hole. Good thing, too,” I added. “Mama Manasa had come back. She was pissed at all that racket near her babies.”
From Daegal’s flinty expression, he already knew all of the above. He must have examined the site himself.
“And why did you let yourself be taken into my realm, if you had such a powerful spell to secure your safety?”
I huffed. “Travis was a Siphon. I didn’t wake up until I was already in that snake hole.”
“I sent a servant to my good friend Setreg’s home to enlist his aid as soon as I realized she was missing and the gateway had been accessed,” Remy said. “My next runner would have been to you, but it turned out to be unnecessary. Raine made it back to my hotel herself.”
“Traveling alone through Orion?” Daegal’s gaze shouted that he didn’t believe it.
I smiled wide enough to show my teeth. “As I said, nurses save lives every day. Today, I saved my own.”
“Send a runner.” Remy’s tone was crisp. “Setreg will confirm that I sent a servant for him this morning, giving him instructions to come to me. As you know, Setreg can’t lie.”
Daegal was silent.
Now that’s game, I thought in admiration. You were sure you’d won with your four aces, but Remy just laid down a straight flush.