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“Don’t tell her what’s going on with me, please. She’ll try to find me—”
“Because her instincts are more witch, especially right now since so much time has elapsed from her last shift,” Roslyn states like she understands perfectly, then her eyes meet mine. “No one understands losing touch with your animal more than I do, even though I only have a wolf. My wolf tore out of me when I lost my connection, and I’m still not completely whole.”
“Crazy girl gets even worse when the one piece of you that works properly starts getting taken over by the pacing, suppressed, restless monsters inside you, got it,” Dice says. “We’ve accepted the mutinous course of action and have moved on to Chaz and I going off to do very different things for at least thirty minutes—”
“Ten minutes,” Chaz interjects.
“I can work with ten,” Dice automatically says. “Let’s get going then before you slash it to five, because I don’t think Karma will be good with five.”
Chapter 18
SLADE
“You’re not even affiliated with the royal family,” Darius says as he gauges me warily.
“Technically, neither are you. Dragonites traditionally had one ruler.”
“Old ways,” he says dismissively, shrugging a shoulder as he leans back in his chair and starts drinking wine.
We’re outside, having this conversation for all to hear, if anyone else was around. It’s just us in the middle of a wide-open field, next to an infuriatingly loud waterfall. At a table with two chairs, sitting amongst the wilderness, like two civilized animals.
I can feel his beast just as he can feel all of mine, and the playing fields are a little more level than I had hoped. I can sense it just as he can.
“The princess plans to offer you less, but sitting across from you, I know it won’t go over well, and trust me, you don’t want to deal with the backlash. She doesn’t have much control right now, and that could get messy for everyone.”
He sits back, lips twitching.
“Why’d you come to me instead of the red with yellow?” he asks.
“Because you have the most to gain with an alliance, and the red and yellow, as you call them, will quickly follow suit to prevent you from having us as your allies and not theirs as well,” I explain. “You and I both know I only need one of you to bend the other, but I’ll like you more if you side with us first.”
Obviously I won’t like him at all, and we both know that, but he also knows the magnitude of being the pioneer when loyalties are involved.
“And your princess won’t mind?” he muses.
“She’ll be irate,” I say with my own shrug.
He leans forward, his eyes getting more serious. “These people did this to your body,” he says, gesturing to my
arms and my face.
“Ah, this is mild compared to what they actually did to cause it. Different methods for whoever was running the show at the time. Your people will be next if the Queen’s rule falls. It’s a different dynamic than you’re used to. And that’s just until Hannah returns with a fresh new Lokie army under her sole control and unlimited power we’ll never stand a chance against.”
He clasps his fingers together. “If my people had been in there, I would have gotten them out,” he points out.
“She’s only been queen for a couple of decades, and the rings collapsed under her rule for the first time in its very long history. She has people tracking down any stragglers even now. Trust me, I wish I didn’t have to admit any of this, and I might actually kill you if you ever tell any of them the things I’ve said.”
His grin outright grows. “Well, then. As long as you can make your princess see reason, I see no reason we can’t adhere to the new terms, for the sake of peace.”
“And you’ll show up when the time comes?” I ensure, leaning toward him this time since he’s been slimming the space, testing my own dominance to meet his subtle challenge.
His eyes spark to life, but his smirk stays fixed.
“Make sure you plant those damn, stupid flowers,” he says, pointing at the bouquet on the desk.
All those centuries I spent plotting revenge, I never once considered gardening to be on the docket of things I’d have to do.
Damn Ella.
