Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nienna
“You were to keep her in the sky.” Kallias’ snarl cracked through the room the moment the door shut.
“You were supposed to keep your hands to yourself. Look where that got us.”
Kallias gripped the table’s edge, his eye twitching. The healer working on his arm shifted back, sensing the raw heat radiating off him.
“Ronan, mind your tongue,” I hissed.
“And you—ordering my dragon?” He leaned close, a sneer cutting across his face. “Do that again, sis, and we’ll have problems.”
Kallias lurched, hands braced against the table, nose-to-nose with the Prince of Draconia. “She is Queen of Radaan. The treaty I signed with yourfatherstates she does, in fact, have authority over the beasts.”
“No, she–” Ronan shook his head, straightening. He ran a hand through his hair, yanking his flight goggles free. “You don’t understand dragons.”
“No, but I do,” I snapped. “Both of you, sit. Why did Tsunami cause a scene?”
My brother collapsed into the chair opposite me, tossing his goggles onto the table. “To bondhim!” He jabbed a gloved finger at my husband, who sank slowly into his seat.
I offered my arm to the healer. “She has no interest in bonding him.”
“She’s had ample opportunity,” Kallias muttered, a begrudging agreement. The man beside him leaned forward, cloth in hand, cautious as continued cleaning his wound.
Ronan scoffed. “You’re refusing her. There’s never been a dragon this… obsessed. She follows you like an abandoned pup, and you spurn her.”
“I met her in a field of my men, alone.Nothing happened,” Kallias ground out, fingers curling into a fist.
“I can’t believe that. Even the other dragons know there’s something between you. I try to protect you both, and your little ceremony, yet you act like I’m at fault.”
“That’s childish, Ronan.” I reclined in my seat, disgusted. “It was your job to keep her in the sky. I warned you the blood might push her over the edge.”
“Gyrak’s the only one big enough to put her in her place. She fears nothing but brute strength. Youspecificallyrequested my presence on the ground,QueenNienna. When she loosed dragonfire, Gyrak had no choice but to bring her to heel.”
I pressed my lips together, staring at the grain of the wooden table beneath my palm as the healer wrapped my arm. None of it made sense. No other dragon stayed without bonding a rider. They all left, following their baser instincts. Yet Tsunami remained—clinging to my husband like a pup, but refused to bond.
Perhaps she wanted to… but couldn’t, because of his tie to his god.
“I want her banned from the plains.”
Both our heads snapped to Kallias.
“I expect you think we can sit her down, explain she’s banished, over a cup of tea?” Ronan drawled.
“You can’t tell a dragon where to go,” I said. Constant repetition of today’s chaos would be the only result.
Kallias shook his head, eyes narrowing at me. “I will not have her terrorizing my people, dogging my every step.”
He wasn’t angry with me, just frustrated. What should have been a display of unity, a day for Radaan, had spiraled into a dragon-pissing war. He had to clean up a mess my dragons made—even if no one was at fault. He didn’t want it happening again.
And neither did I.
I drew a steadying breath. “Tomorrow we prepare to find Tallon?”
His eye twitched, though he tried to mask it with a wince and a flex of his bandaged fingers. “I ride out as soon as we have a secure lead.”
“Then let her follow. If she likes you so much, she’ll protect you—”
