Page 59 of Retrograde

But right then wasn’t the time for it. I paid attention then instead of tunnel vision on the fight and noticed he followed up my attacks with others to catch them off guard or do more damage.

Once the ancients arrived, the fight was basically done, so I roared to Benson and headed down to the ground. He tried to cut me off and probably demand I return to the castle but… No.

Not this time. We were going to be needed, and I had too many questions I needed answered firsthand.

Plus, I was carrying another dying dragon and I was out of people to like throw it to… Which was why he tried to take it from me, but I was going to see this through.

Two dragons from the ground came up and made it clear they wanted me to drop the dragon I was holding to them. I did and assumed it was the police again.

But I was worried it was the attacker’s help to clean this up before we could find out who was responsible. Call me crazy—or validly paranoid—but it seemed to be how my life was currently.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case. I saw the pile of dragons and a few who had shifted back already cuffed, the interim chief of police on the scene managing it.

I landed and nodded to him before changing back, Iris tired. Not so much from the fight, but the amount of adrenaline that had filled us that there was a fight and people with me could get hurt.

“Avert your eyes,” several people were yelling.

But it was too late, spectators were already taking pictures of me. I ignored it and headed for the interim chief of police. “EMS is en route?” Relief filled me when they confirmed it. “I want two teams of search and rescue to go over where we were above just to make sure no one was hurt in the chaos and cannot report it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he replied, nodding to someone to handle it.

I swallowed a yelp when Onyx was there and hugged me to him, bellowing for people to stop gawking. I smacked his arm but then realized Thorn was trying to cover me from behind.

“You’re both idiots,” I hissed. “You think holding me whileyou’re nakedis better?”

Onyx ignored me and touched my head. “Medic for the queen!”

I reached up and grabbed his face, swallowing down my need to yell when I saw panic in his eyes. “It’s not my blood. I don’t even have a scratch.”

A woman tried to approach us, but other guards blocked her. “For the queen to wear. These bastards are—Your Majesty, put this on.”

I glanced over and saw she was holding sweats out to me. “Thank you.” I sighed as Onyx still tried to cover me while grabbing them and then dressing me. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” Thorn growled, and I was pretty sure I heard others echo.

I pulled away and thanked the woman again, asking her to give her contact information to one of my guards, even flagging one to handle it. “I’ll make sure to get it back to you and with a thank-you.”

The woman blinked at me. “Dozens of dragons just tried to assassinate you, Your Majesty. I don’t give a fuck about the clothes.”

I really liked her but just winked and went to handle what I needed to. I saw police trying to take cell phones and devices and realized I had to get involved… Because they weren’t handling it the right way.

“No, the law is clear. We’re not taking devices to erase anything against their rights,” I said loudly to a bunch of police. “Take their information, and if anything is leaked illegally as the law says any nude photos cannot be posted, we will investigate. There’s also extra charges if they post them to any place with a sexual nature, which Instagram can be considered that to most.”

That was the right way to handle it. People started giving their phones over to police and asking them to erase everything that could get them in trouble because they didn’t want to be involved when someoneelseposted them online.

And it would happen. I knew it would.

It was inevitable at this point.

“So much for worrying about Kole having nudes,” I grumbled and turned to handle what came next.

Which was a lot. More than I could ever have guessed… Mostly because of who I recognized. Rage filled every inch of me as I stared down at the now-dead elder.

Yes, it was a fuckingelderwho had tried to kill Benson and then assassinate me. There was no reason to have so many dragons otherwise. That wasn’t even a slight against Benson, but if he was theonlytarget then—they weren’t needed.

“I don’t care who killed this man—I did,” I told the interim police chief. I shook my head when he opened his mouth. “I did it, and that will be the statement of—”

“You did do it, but please talk with the attorney your uncle provided before making statements like that,” Benson hissed at me under his breath.