Page 27 of Microburst

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding half distracted.

I simply sighed which was a mistake. He started chuffing and that made my dragon pissed. “Never mind. This—never mind. Have a nice night.”

A miracle happened and he calmed down. “What happened, Ayao?” It was the worry in his voice that made me pause.

“That’s actually what I wanted to ask you,” I muttered, scrubbing my hand over my hair. “What happened in that meeting before we got in there?” I sighed again when he didn’t say anything. “Not specifics. I know you can’t tell us, but like…”

“I honestly don’t know how to answer that because I don’t know what you’re looking for,” he answered, sounding confused.

“She’s different,” I finally blurted before we danced around each other all night. “Something clearly happened and… She’s different.”

“What do you meandifferent?”

I sighed and kept scrubbing my hair and then over my head. “I don’t know, Dray.” I sighed again when he growled. “No, come on, enough. She doesn’t call her uncles or aunt—I’m calling you man to man and—can you just—”

“Okay, seriously, what happened?” he whispered. “You don’t get all flustered like this.” It was his turn to sigh when I snorted. “You blew a gasket at assholes. Yeah, we all do that, Ayao. They’re going so far over the line with her and—I feel like Thovudin has lost its fucking mind and then I feel likeI havefor having missed how sexist and crazy they’ve all been.”

“Yeah, it’s… It’s like people just feel like they can say the things they shouldn’t out loud now. I can’t like get my footing.” I felt better when he snorted. “Did you see what she said to the media today?”

“No, I was in meetings—things have been piling up here doing so much there.”

More like while he was overreaching for power. “Look real quick and tell me—just look.”

He did, and I felt better when he choked on air at some point. “Is this true?”

“She’s not stupid enough to lie, but Joris confirmed he’s known for a while about the comedian. He wanted to go after that Kyle fucker, but she told him not to because she wanted his sins to compile.”

“She really is much smarter than anyone gives her credit for—Igave her credit for,” he muttered. “He’s done now. There’s no saving his career after she waited—fuck, don’t ever piss her off. She’s so much better than Rhys. I’m sorry he died, but—she’s going to be a fantastic queen when she matures into the role and is actually supported.

“I honestly want to be excited how this could change Thovudin for the better, but—fucking Rhys handicapped her! He stacked the deck against her by sending her off the way he did. I get it now and how it’s worked out that she’s so amazing and the connections she made are priceless.

“But he should have outlined the plan and like—he set her up to fail. If she was anyone else she would have already failed.” He grumbled a bit. “Fucking failure of a father. We had our differences, but—she deserves better than what she got from them. It’s honestly like he didn’t want her to be queen the way he’s stacked the deck against her.”

“What?” I whispered, my dragon stirring and making me see the colors I’d seen around her on the veranda.

“It’s like he didn’t want her to be queen!” he exploded. “He did so much to undermine her and set all of this in motion. I get he was playing a longer game now, but shit happens—shit did happen, and look how she suffers now because of his bullshit. He used his daughter to make a point we’ve secluded ourselves too much, I get that, but he used her.”

He went on and on, but I kept circling back to the point he started at and realized I was sitting down without meaning to.

“You there?” he finally asked.

“Yeah, I just… The pieces don’t make sense,” I mumbled, knowing there was no way I could tell him where my head was. “And the meeting or…” No, it was something after, but I decided to switch lanes to throw him off because what I realized he could actually use against her.

And I didn’t trust him not to.

“Did you see the other clip? About the embargo?” I checked.

“Why is she so focused on Khirriln?” he muttered, and I heard the clicking of him typing.

“Oh, you’ll see,” I chuckled darkly. I smirked when he swore up a storm. “Yeah, and you know she’s not just going to say that.”

“Fucking elders. Okay, well, this is going to be fun. Let me know if you figure out what’s going on.”

“Yeah, you—was there something specific in that meeting?” I pushed again, not wanting to make it like I was giving up.

He was quite a moment. “I think we’ve pushed her too far and—I don’t know. I don’t think it’s any one thing.”

I pretended like I accepted that and hung up, but I was already out the door and headed to the residence wing. I was glad when I saw one of Sagan’s guards who I’d talked with a few times and was a decent guy. I pulled him off to the side. “Look, I don’t want to cause a scene, but I think—I think I really need to talk to the queen. Can you please go ask her to give me two minutes?”