9 #2
“I apologize you’ve felt that way, but it’s been at our request, child,” the ancient said.
I shot him a look and let him feel my power. “You are in my home, addressing the leader of the nation you are a citizen of. I love and defer to Belinda and she knew me as a child. You haven’t even shown me the basic manners of giving me your name. Do not refer to me as that again, savvy?”
He chuckled and extended his hand to me. “Modren, Your Majesty. My name is Modren.”
I raised an eyebrow and accepted it, frowning when I felt something odd and like a tingle almost when his skin touched mine. It made me want to pull away, but I realized it was some sort of test. “Why are you letting a spirit dragon test me somehow?”
“Truly a gift from the gods,” he breathed, shock covering him like a blanket almost.
“I told you,” Belinda chuckled. “You will stay and help?”
“Yes, and the boy. He needs guidance. I have not seen one with such raw potential in many centuries. He—he carries a great burden and has no idea he is different. It breaks my heart.”
“Hello?” I growled and yanked my hand away.
Belinda gave me a look but then sighed when I tried to walk away. “You’re right, I’m sorry. Now—we’re coming to help.” She fell in step with me when I didn’t say anything. “We can take the time to work on things and I will explain. I didn’t mean to poke when you have things bothering you.”
“Thank you,” I accepted.
Plus, there was no need to sneak anywhere with her magic. It would make everything easier. She covered us and we walked right to the plane without anyone seeing us.
Once we were on it though, I gave them a look to start talking.
She licked her lips. “Your aunt told you that the royal family used to have mystic dragon advisors, yes?” She waited until I nodded. “Do you know why?”
“No, the writings I saw were vague,” I answered honestly.
“Saw or were allowed to look at?” she checked.
Something weird raced through me. Not fear, but… I wasn’t sure. “Father kept more secrets from me? Shocker.”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it past Rhys, especially now that we know how twisted his beliefs about you were.” She nodded that Modren knew about my two dragons when I shot him a glance. “Assume the ancients I bring here will figure it out. I’m not asking idiots to come help, darling.”
Fair enough.
I heard Benson outside and we were quiet until he got in. He glanced over his shoulder and sighed… But wasn’t surprised.
“She warned you?” I drawled.
“She can protect you better than I can and promised to help Eloise. Why would I say no?” He faced front and focused on his pre-flight checks.
“Belinda will dance around, but I want to see what your second—Eloise is capable of,” Modren said. “The mystic dragon advisors are all buried in the tombs below the royal family. That’s vast magic here. Have you never felt it?”
Belinda smacked him in the chest. “Who just blurts that out? You are not a boy to be so impatient?”
“Yes,” I answered instead. “I…” They both froze and I scrubbed my hands over my face, glad when the plane pulled out and we had to duck down on the floor just to be safe.
It was easier to say without them looking at me.
“I don’t know what I felt. Energy that I couldn’t really say what it was, almost an agitation, but if I had to say from where, it was the castle. ”
“Astounding. She can sense the powers of other dragon types and dormant magic of powerful mystics. You are right that the gods want change for dragons, Belinda.”
“Wait, dormant magic? You said they were dead and buried,” I muttered, lifting my head and looking over at him and not hiding how crazy that sounded.
He chuckled, his eyes dancing with amusement.
“Think of magic like energy. You are well educated.
“There is no deletion of energy, right? It just changes forms? Even bodies when they die they decompose and feed the ground. Think of it like that, and when a powerful mystic dragon who had vast magic dies…”
“All the magic sits in their coffin like a box holding it?” I asked after a moment, hating how stupid that sounded.
“You’re not wrong though,” Belinda forgave. “It’s not exactly like that, but you’re not wrong either. The very basic idea, like wheels being round make the car go kind of concept, but everything is more complicated than that.”
Again… Fair enough.
Once the plane was in the air, we took our seats like normal people, not stowaways, and I wanted to ask about a million questions, but really I was so overloaded with too many discovered secrets that I just couldn’t handle any more.
So I looked at Modren and asked the only thing I thought I needed to know. “You mean Ayao?”
He seemed impressed and nodded. “You have other spirit dragons around you. Why think him?”
I was going to brush the ancient off, but then I realized it might tell him something that could help Ayao and I probably owed him that after shutting him down hard when he came to comfort me.
“He glances around me sometimes—the other night when I was really upset. I’ve read about how spirit dragons used to read auras and helped truth dragons. ”
“Yes, and much more,” he said honestly. “They were great assets to rulers like you because they could mediate very well. One of your ancestors was a spirit dragon and powerful. He stopped many wars and conflicts—not just here, but other nations would come to him for that help. If the boy is as talented as I’m sensing he would be an asset to you. ”
“He doesn’t mean to mate,” Belinda quickly said. “He’s not in line to be Alpha. Dray’s son is mated and will take over. It used to be that the royal family had aides from Alpha families to train and help.”
I nodded, knowing that well, but then they became too egotistical like aide to the king or queen was beneath them.
Right, because the king or queen was the boss of the Alphas, so… How did that work in their tiny brains? “But funny because some Alphas offered a few female family members for the positions.”
“Yes, but they wanted advisor positions and were probably thinking to frame it that way even if you said aide and made it clear it wasn’t a token position,” Belinda told me, chuckling when I rubbed my temples.
Unfortunately, she was probably right and I hadn’t thought of that. Fucking assholes.
I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it, swearing under my breath and then decided to do it anyways. “No one talks about it, but I’m sure you could find out anyways. He just might not tell you and—”
“His mother,” Modren said gently, nodding when I blinked at him. “Belinda warned me that it surrounds him like a spikey shield and his father seeks to punish him with a bad match in retaliation. It was Dray who pushed this to help him with a real chance for better instead of the other options.”
“I didn’t know that,” I admitted. “Just he said I was the best option he had.” I glanced away.
“But what he offers you don’t want,” Modren sighed. “Shame. He has a good soul.”
I shot him a nasty look. “Well, I deserve better than him being one of my mates but having quiet affairs because if I have sex with other men then I shouldn’t be selfish and he should get to have other women too.
And he would never be here but always out like a fucking ambassador with his mistress. Why do I deserve that?”
“He what?” Benson chuffed from the cockpit, the door open between us.
I met his gaze and didn’t hide my anger. “You stuff it and stop acting like you should have—shut up about my mating and love life. You had your chance and denied me. That wasn’t an open-ended invitation for me forever, asshole.”
I felt better when Belinda snorted. I focused back on her and asked she get going with the lesson since it wasn’t a long flight and I wanted the distraction.
She winked at me and Eloise practically danced inside of me at getting to have some fun.