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The hatchling nods. “It’s my grandfather’s name. He was a warrior.”
“I can tell. You must take after him.” She tentatively reaches out to caress his face. Cyrus lets her, leaning into her touch. “We are going to find your parents. And your sister. I just need you to be brave for a little longer. Can you do that for me?”
Cyrus sniffles, but nods. “Yes.” Then after a moment of hesitation adds, “Who are you?”
“My name is Rose. I’m…” I hear her hesitation and I don’t like it.
“Queen. She’s my queen,” I supply for her, making a mental note to remind her later of her status at my court.
“Oh. Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t know, My Queen.” Cyrus scrambles to bow, but Rose stops him.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m still getting used to it myself,” she assures. “You must be hungry. How about we get you some food and then we can work on finding your family, okay?”
Rose stands, dusting off her dress before addressing me. “We need to get him food.”
I don’t hesitate. “Aeron. See to it that the hatchling is fed. Then start looking into his family.”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
Rose and Aeron speak at the same time. Annoyance dampens my mood. I’m really getting to hate that fucking word.
“Rose just broke the sleeping curse on one of our dragons. Something we have been trying to do for weeks. Send someone else for the boy. We must call the council together and have the girl tell us how she did it.”
“The girl,” Rose hisses, “is not your interrogation subject. You want to know how I did it? Well, so do I. The one thing I know for certain is that I’m getting this child food. I can’t trust you with his well-being.”
“You have an obligation to your people. We must learn how you broke the sleeping curse and harness that ability to restore the rest of the sleeping dragons.”
“Don’t speak to me about obligations! I know why I’m here.”
“Do you?” Aeron growls. “Seems like you should be reminded.”
“Enough.” Aeron has been playing a dangerous game ever since my wife arrived in Mescos. He’s purposely pushing the line because he knows I need him. Aside from me, he holds a considerable amount of power and knowledge about our realm. Acting too rash could set me up for an internal battle I’m not equipped to fight. Not yet.
“The queen,” I start, reminding Aeron of his place. He does little but narrow his eyes at the term. “Will see that the boy is taken care of. Then we will gather everyone into the meeting room.”
“But I don’t have anything to say!” Rose argues. “I don’t know how I did what I did and I’m not even sure it was me.”
“It was,” Aeron insists, but we both ignore him.
“Be that as it may, a dragon was revived tonight. The council needs to know this and you need to be there to share your experience. I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think it was important.”
Rose bites her lip. I wonder for a second if she will fight me on this as she has fought me on everything else. I’m not above forcing her into the meeting, but I also don’t want the council’s first impression of my wife to be her attending against her will.
Slowly, the steam inside of her deflates, and Rose sighs. “Fine. But I’m not going to be any help.”
“On the contrary, My Queen, you will be more help than you can imagine.” Aeron breezes past us, heading toward the stairs. “I’ll tell the council we will meet at dusk.”
I don’t stop him as he leaves. The council will be informed of what took place here and will undoubtedly have questions. Luckily, Rose has a few hours to get her bearings and to tend to Cyrus like she seems so keen to do.
“Will you call Mina? I’m going to need her help,” she says, just as Cyrus sheds his dragon skin in favor of his human skin since he’s probably too weak to maintain his dragon. He’s far too pale and skinny. A good meal and warm clothes would do him well.
Mina is the obvious choice to help her. She’s a mother and nurturing, far better suited than I will be in this situation. Still, I can’t help but feel disappointed that her first instinct isn’t me.
And why would it? We’ve been at each other’s throats every step of the way. A perfect dance of mutual disdain and something that runs deeper than lust. A pull that I can’t quite shake and am not prepared to act on yet.
“It will be done.” She nods and gives her attention back to Cyrus. “There are a few blankets by the stairwell. He can wrap one around himself until he gets clothes,” I say as Rose and Cyrus walk away from me.
