Chapter Forty
Tor
“Time to go,” I said, taking her hand.
“Uh, we’re going toward the screaming,” Mia pointed out.
She didn’t try to slow down or get me to stop. Instead, she hurried along as fast as her shoes would let her. Although they hadn’t been a focus for me while I was underneath her skirt, I’d seen enough to know her pace was more than respectful, given their heel.
“Yes, we are,” I said, turning her down the corner back to the ballroom.
“Can I ask why?”
“This is my home,” I said. “I will defend it.”
“But why am I coming with you? Shouldn’t I be running the other direction?”
“You could,” I said. “I won’t stop you.”
She kept coming.
“What is wrong with me? I’m not brave.”
“I think you might be braver than you think, my darling,” I rumbled, pulling open the door to the ballroom for her.
“Nope. A good little coward, that’s me,” she said. But she went inside anyway. “What’s going on? Why are people screaming?”
“That would be my sister. I would assume,” I said, making my way toward the main doors, which closed behind a pair of shifters from my clan who hurried through them, slamming them shut in their wake.
Mia came to a dead stop, yanking my arm back. “What did you say?” she hissed.
“Uh, it’s most likely my sister through there?”
“She’s alive?”
“Yes?” I frowned. “You knew that?”
“No, no, I didn’t!” she said. “I assumed that, you know, you’d dealt with her before you decided to host a ball. That’s, like, providing your psychotic sister an all-you-can-eat buffet!”
“Maybe,” I agreed.
“You brought me back here and put me in danger?” she asked. “Without telling me?”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Again,” she said hotly, “I thought you would have done the sane thing and killed her before you brought all these people here.”
I grimaced. “Mia. You aren’t in any danger from her. You just have to trust me on that.”
The doors flew open with a tremendous crash, drawing my attention away from my mate and my conflicting feelings. After all, she was right. I’d brought her into danger. I shouldn’t have done that.
But there was no time to dwell on it because the sight in the doorway stole all my attention.
“Uh-oh,” I muttered as my sister walked in, wearing a sparkling blood-red dress down to her ankles. The slit up the sides revealed that her heeled boots went up past the knee. Her hair was drawn back into a strict ponytail that was tied off every few inches right down to the base.
The darkness of her eye makeup flowed into the evil intent of her gaze, mirroring the anger and hatred on her face.
All of that was a statement on its own. However, it all paled to the fact that she entered flanked by a quartet of Vorgans, two to the front and two to the rear.
Each shadow beast walked on six legs, their heads jutting forward from their lean bodies, wings tucked tight to their sides.
They walked with a predatory gaze that had the other dragons shying away from them.
“Brother!” she cried upon spotting me, the shout echoed by screeches from the Vorgans.
Dragons drew back, standing behind Mia and me.
“Why am I still standing here?” Mia asked. “I should go.”
“Just stay behind me,” I said. “Everything will be fine.”
I could feel her shock. “How are you so calm? Do you not see what’s in front of us?”
“I do,” I said, putting on a bored smile as Rica closed the distance, until her pet Vorgans were less than a dozen feet from me. One of them snarled silently, as if straining against an invisible leash.
I wagged a finger at it while making a tut-tut noise.
“This is very lovely, brother, but you did not have to go to such lengths for me,” Rica said, waving a hand around. “A coronation ceremony? Too kind.”
“You’re delusional, sister. None of this is for you. But if you want, I’ve got a long wooden box out back you can have.”
Rica barked a laugh. “I hope it will fit your bloated ego, brother.”
“Threatening me already?”
Her expression hardened. “That depends. If you abdicate peacefully, then I won’t be forced to use … unpleasant methods.”
The Vorgan heads swung outward hungrily at her last words.
“How generous an offer,” I drawled, standing my ground, not moving back as some others did.
“I’m not without mercy. You give the throne to me, and you and your human lover will be allowed to live peacefully. Here on Earth. The same offer dear old daddy gave to me.”
I marveled at her ability to get those words out seriously. Did she truly believe she could be considered merciful?
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said.
Rica hissed angrily. “You will give the throne to me. I will finally sit on the throne, mine by right as the eldest!”
“No.” I matched her fury with my own. “That’s not how it works. The heir is the firstborn son.”
Rica waved her hand dismissively. “An archaic law.”
“I agree,” I said, drawing a shocked look from Rica, and surprised mutters from others behind me. “And I intend to change that law if the God-King will allow it. However, I was the one appointed as heir to the Storm Throne. Not you. Besides, Rica, you can’t sit on the throne.”
She frowned. “Why not?”
“Mostly because you’re a psycho bitch,” I said with false humor. “You’ve killed so many of the clan already. If you’re made Storm Princess, you’d probably kill everyone else, too. I can’t let you wipe out our clan.”
“We shall see about that,” Rica said, chuckling nastily. “You killed one of my pets, but what will you do against four, Torrent? Not even you can stand against them and me. Nobody here will stop me. They’ll kill all of you. There are none strong enough to resist.”
“Maybe they will kill me,” I admitted, causing a squeak of worry from Mia. “But you’re wrong that nobody will stop you. And that there are none strong enough to resist you.”
Rica frowned. “What are you talking about?”
The dragons around me shuffled, parting in three places as a trio of dragon shifters stepped to the fore.
“We’re at a ball, Rica,” I said. “What soon-to-be clan prince would be rude enough to exclude others? This is Ember, the Prince of Fire, Rip, heir to the Tides, and, of course, Vil, heir apparent of the Iron Clan.”
The shock on Rica’s face as the other three nobles showed themselves would forever be etched into my memory.
As was the shriek of fury that followed, sending the Vorgans lunging at us.