AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My head was sofull of questions and worries about the upcoming parlay that I barely had room in there to decide how I felt about Marco’s apology. I hardly had room to even pay attention to where I wasgoing.
I followed the smell of eggs and sausage down the hall to the private dining room. My stomach was tight with anxiety, but I was going to need energy for this meeting with the fae monarch. I had no doubt aboutthat.
How was she going to react when I told her what I know her people had done? How wasIgoing to react if she tried to brush it aside or deny it? Aaron’s people would bereallyunimpressed if I managed to bring the shifters to the brink of a supernatural war less than a month after I’d shown up to take my spot as dragonshifter.
A woman came out of the dining room and headed toward me. I distantly registered her scent (owl), the tray she was holding (must have been bringing or clearing food), and the thin gloves covering her hands (was it colder than usual today?). Then my mind went back to mulling over the day ahead ofme.
I wasn’t paying her any attention at all when she dropped the tray at my feet and rammed a carving knife toward mystomach.
My shifter reflexes kicked in before I’d even processed that I was under attack. I leapt to the side, smacking out with my arm at the same moment. The knife only nicked mybelly.
The woman gave a little cry and threw herself at me. I grabbed her wrist before she could take another slash. Scales rippled over my body as I started to shift defensively. I loomed over her, my haunches growing, my claws extending, fire rippling in mythroat.
“Ren!” Nate’s voice carried from behindme.
Another distraction wasnotwhat I needed right now. “Stay back,” I shouted, my voice gone hoarse with the partial transformation. “I’m handlingthis.”
The woman squirmed in my grasp. She aimed a kick at my hip, but it glanced off the thickly scaled skin that had formed there. She jabbed at my eyes with her free hand. I jerked away, and my grip on her wrist loosened. She broke free and took another stab atme.
With a growl, I knocked her to the floor. The knife sliced across my shoulder. I swiped at it with a taloned hand, sending it flying into the wall. The woman stared up at me, her eyes wide with what now looked like panic. I pinned both her arms to the floor, staring at her as I caught mybreath.
The gloves suddenly made sense. She had to be hiding her lack of a kinmark.
I had her trapped. I’d stopped her, and now she couldn’t get away. We could finally talk to one of these rogues—whatever good that might dous.
Nate’s footsteps sounded behind me. He’d hung back like I’d asked him to. I shot him a quick, fierce smile over my shoulder. “Thank you. What do you say we find out what sheknows?”
“You’ve got this,” he said, coming to stand beside me. “Let me know if you needme.”
But now that I had the rogue, I wasn’t sure what to say. “Why did you attack me?” I asked, fixing my stare on her again. “Are you on your own, or are there other rogueshere?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” she gasped out, and set her lips in a firmline.
“Are you part of the group that came after my mother before—that murdered my fathers and sisters? How did you even get into theestate?”
She looked back at me without a word. Frustration boiled up inside me. The heat collected in my throat, and my mind leapt back to the words I’d heard as I’d accepted the crystal’s flame in themountain.
Burn away lies to get at what isreal.
The urge to breathe fire tickled in the back of my mouth. I could do it—I could shift all the way, spill my fiery breath over this woman. But I’d never tried to use this new power before. What if I used it wrong, and all I did was burn heralive?
I’d hurt people while fighting them in self-defense before, but this rogue was already subdued. And being set on fire—that wasn’t defense, that was torture. Every bone in my body balked at thethought.
That wasn’t how I wanted to start my reign over the shifters. The rogues were the cruel ones, notme.
“Serenity?” Aaron had come out of the dining room. He stiffened at the scene in the hall. The rasp in his voice thickened. “Whathappened?”
“She attacked me with a knife—looks like one from the kitchens,” I said. “But she’s refusing totalk.”
How did you make someone talk if youdidn’tresort to torture? I peered into her eyes, trying to find an answer there. She blinked, and a strange impression came overme.
The way she was gazing up at me... it wasn’t angry. It wasn’t even entirely afraidanymore.
She was in awe of me. I felt it, like a rush of warm air. And under it, a tight knot of sorrow. The pieces clicked together in myhead.
“You didn’t really want to do this, did you?” I said, letting my voicesoften.
The woman’s jaw twitched. A shadow of that sadness crossed her face. I’d hit themark.
