Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(22)

My nerves twisted. “No, I guess they might not.”

“I want to know you’re all right,” he said. “If you need anything… come to the Twisted Pines pub tonight, will you? It’s filled with friends. I’ll be there, waiting.”

“Are you going to wait there all night?” I asked skeptically. “You have no idea if I’ll even be… where I’ll be…”

God, I hated this. I liked for my life to be predictable, even if it was predictably terrible for these past few years.

“I’ll be there all night,” he said quietly.

“What exactly do you think is going to happen to me?” I demanded.

He didn’t answer that.

But there was a sound of wings beating far above us, and we looked up through the open ceiling to see the stars blotted out by the bodies of dragons as they descended.





Honor



“Keep your mouth shut,” Caldren said to me quietly, moving to my side. “Try not to be a smartass.”

“Me?” I sounded shocked, and he gave me a long look.

The four Elder Dragons entered the room, having transformed from dragons back into men.

Pend Deragon strode in first, his dark hair brushed back from his sharply handsome face. He looked so much like a slightly older version of Jaik that it startled me.

Behind him came the three dukes, Joachim, Teris and Gorion. Gorion was a mountain of a man, heavily bearded and tattooed, with Arren’s cold blue eyes. Teris’ golden hair and unlined, beautiful face gave him a youthful air, but he still carried the same chilling presence as the others. Teris’ gaze widened when he saw me again, outside my stepmother’s drawing room; so he recognized me.

It felt as if the air left the room when they walked in, and there was no mistaking their presence. They were followed by a younger man, in his early thirties, with a craggy face and a muscular build. Anywhere else, I would have thought he was a bodyguard for the kings. But the dragon royals didn’t need bodyguards.

“Where is he?” Pend Deragon demanded, looking around in confusion.

“Right here.” Caldren rested his hand on my shoulder, his grip strangely comforting.

These were the four most powerful men on the continent, and they moved swiftly around me, staring hard into my face. I’d joked with Talisyn about my execution but these men could easily snap my head off and no one would ever question them.

Except Hanna. The thought of Hanna facing these men with the glimmering eyes made me swallow and resolve to be my very quietest and most mild-mannered self.

“She can’t be.”

“She’s prophecy come to life.” The fifth man said.

Prophecy?

Pend Deragon gave him a hard look. “I doubt that very much.”

“I saw her transform from her dragon form to human again,” Caldren said. “I can vouch that she is what she seems to be.”

Pend Deragon didn’t even bother to look at him. It was as if Caldren was invisible to him.

He waved his hand airily. “Show me your transformation then, girl.”

I glanced at Caldren—I didn’t even know why—but the king’s gaze flickered, following mine.

“Caldren. You aren’t needed here.” His tone implied that Caldren was never needed.

“He was close by when I turned,” I said. “He helped me shift back—”

“Did I ask you to speak?” Pend asked coldly.

“Technically, no,” I answered, then fell silent as Caldren shook his head, just the faintest shake.

But Pend noticed, and his eyes narrowed. He seemed to hate Caldren on sight. Behind him, Teris gestured to someone outside the room.

Caldren squeezed my shoulder, gave me an encouraging look, then loped out of the room. Before he could, a pair of guards stopped outside the door seized his arms.

“All right, all right,” he said, raising his hands, but that didn’t stop them from pushing him roughly out the door.

Tension twisted through my stomach. Was he okay? I craned my head to follow him, and Joachim snapped his fingers in my face.

“Is the girl thick?” he asked no one in particular.

I felt alone when Caldren had gone, as I faced these four angry elder royals.

I began to go mechanically through the same steps I had when I first transformed. Right, they wanted to see me transform before they could believe I was a dragon.

“You don’t need to do any of that again,” the king said impatiently. He sounded bored with me, and he cast a glance at one of his dukes, as if I were stupid.

Suddenly, everything about my body was changing, shifting. I dropped to my knees, then all fours, my claws twisting out from my hands. Pain rippled through my body as muscles and bones raced to grow, as scales sprouted from my skin again.

The elder royals scrambled back; clearly they hadn’t expected anything to happen. Gorion was surprisingly nimble for such a large man as he skipped over my tail, which I had very little control over.

The four elder royals stared up at me.

It was the man in the back who drawled, “Well, fuck.”

But I was pretty sure it was a sentiment they all shared.

“Return to your first form,” Pend demanded.

All that work for a mere moment as a dragon? I exhaled an annoyed little blast of smoke and fire, and Pend raised a hand, shielding himself and his companions. The flames curled harmlessly against his shield, then died.