Eight #3
“We know that,” Sigrid says, hand on the blade at her hip as she eyes me.
“That’s why you had the elf,” Durruk realizes, frowning.
“It is,” I admit.
“Then why…”
“You didn’t give her to him did you,” Karag snarls. I say nothing, and he lets out a scoff. “We’re here because you didn’t hand over the fucking slave?”
I tense. “Watch it, Karag.”
“No you watch it,” he snaps. “You put an elf before all of us? Before your dragons? Your clan?” I breathe deeply through my nose.
“You’re not worthy of your title. I’ve always known it since you have none of these.
” He pulls up his sleeve and shows me the subtle red scales on his forearms, the sign of a bonded.
“But now you’ve caused them all to be here? ”
“You say the word elf like it’s something nasty, Karag, you say it in the same way the people in Lothmere call us Dragorie or barbarians.
You of all people should know what it’s like to be called something that’s less than the dirt beneath your feet, so, for the last time.
” I take a step closer, violence coating me. “Watch, your fucking, mouth!”
He goes to speak again, and I ready myself to lay him in the dirt, but Sigrid steps in.
“Enough, he’s right Karag, we are not like them, don’t make us out to be.”
“Tell us what happened,” Durruk asks when no one else speaks.
Karag and I glare at each other, but when he looks away, I turn my gaze to Durruk. “That was the deal I agreed to last year, and I’ve been trying to find an elf ever since. I found Alara in The Pit, and my plan was to take her to Halen, but things changed.”
“You fucked her.” Varan says bluntly.
I snarl. “If you think I would risk all that I have for just a simple fuck, you are out of your fucking mind, and I won’t have her be thought of or spoken about like that.”
He raises his hands. “Fine, fine.”
I take a calming breath. “Either way, I didn’t hand her over, I told Halen that I no longer had an elf and he found out that wasn’t true, and now here we are.”
The others look at me, staring hard, but I don’t falter.
I don’t regret my choice, but I could’ve found a way for Alara to be away from here.
I study them all, and it’s Durruk who speaks first. “You think it’s one of us who told him?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him honestly.
Darcia betrayed the clan, Declan has said so, and she was involved with Rhett… but were there others involved, too?
“We wouldn’t do that,” Varan says. “We agreed in The Graveyard to keep her secret, and we didn’t know about the deal you made either.”
“He’s right,” Sigrid chimes in. “Which means it was someone close to you.”
Or one of them is lying to me and is working with the king.
I eye Sigrid, and she eyes me back.
She knows what I’m thinking. We had already established that it’s probably a Dragonbond who’s getting eggs out of The Glade. No other could, and now there may have also been one feeding the king information.
Unknowingly like my mother had out of young love?
Or are they doing it for a willing prize…
“Probably someone in your own infested camp,” Karag snarls.
I bare my teeth at him and turn to Sigrid instead.
“Darcia, where did you leave her?”
“I dragged her ass off your horse, I stole it by the way, and made her walk toward the fields of Erbron.”
I ignore the statement about my horse.
“Was she alive when you left her?”
“Unfortunately.”
Karag scoffs.
“Could it be her?” Durruk asks.
“It was her, but I don’t believe she has been acting alone.”
Karag folds his arms. “You killed one of your closest men at The Glade, anyone would want to get rid of you after that.”
“He was a traitor.” I tilt my head. “And let it be a lesson to all, that is exactly what I will do to traitors, not only in my clan, but to Dragorie, to dragonkind.”
His lips curl at that and the others frown, the dragons around us rumbling at the tension.
“No one in my clan is a traitor,” Varan says.
Durruk nods his agreement. “Same here.”
“My clan too,” Sigrid says.
“And mine,” Karag jumps in.
I eye them all.
“My clan doesn’t have any,” I begin. “But after what’d happened with two of my members, and the constant egg stealing and dragon killing over the years, none of us know if we have anyone lurking within our spaces that have ill intentions towards the Dragorie.”
We all stare at each other.
“What do we do now?” Varan asks.
“Now,” I sigh. “We survive The Games.”
“We should just let the king have you and your clan,” Karag scoffs. “You made that deal, not us.”
“He would have done this, anyway, wouldn’t he?” We look at Durruk, who shrugs. “Think about it. He’s been wanting us dead for years, this is the perfect opportunity. Tell me, Rohan. If you did hand the elf over, would that have made a difference?”
I shake my head. “I really don’t think so.”
“Then why make the deal in the first place?” Sigrid asks.
My jaw ticks. “Our dragons are dying, I had to do something.”
For once, Karag has nothing to say to that and looks away.
“So we survive The Games.” Sigrid nods “It’s all we can do.”
“No,” I say, folding my arms and eyeing each of them as a horn blares in the distance. “We kill the king.”