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Judging from the determined expressions on my mates’ masked faces, I believed that they’d decided to fight our way through if we couldn’t solve Sphinx’s riddle.
“The test is magically bound,” Sphinx said. “If you can’t answer the riddle, I’ll have the rights to eat you all. I’ve been hungry for a long time.”
I bit my lip. There was no way out of this.
Blaze snorted. “You can try!”
Iokul wielded his sword with deadly swiftness.
“How did you bump into these three clueless, pompous asses, Daisy?” Sphinx asked. “Who assigned you the true loves? Fate? Then Fate’s an asshole. The dragon boys are good-looking, I’m sure, but true loves should be more, right? I know you have doubts. You aren’t one to lurk in someone else’s shadow.”
The dragon princes and I all glared at Sphinx.
My mates seldom showed fear. When they did, it was fear for my safety.
“Who are you to challenge Fate’s choice?” I asked sharply. “I have no doubts about any of my mates.”
“Really?” Sphinx sent me an equally sharp look. “Since you scolded me, little dragon, I’ll show you what Fate’s choice is. Because of your snide comments, I just crossed out an easy, old riddle that would have played in your favor. I’m going to give you a new one, and it’s going to sting.”
“What’s the riddle?” I asked. The longer we tangled with him, the worse it would be for us.
“Spill it, Sphinx, and let’s get it over with,” Blaze said.
Sphinx opened his mouth, and his words poured out.
“The first one becomes the last, and the last ones stole the first kisses of blessing and curse.
The first is robbed of everything that’s his.
Heart doesn’t know. Heart betrays. Heart breaks. Heart divides. Heart deceives. But the blind has to see, then the heart reveals.”
Suddenly a pair of piercing eyes, one purple and one red, appeared and glowed under Sphinx’s bushy eyebrows. He was telling me that he was no longer blind, and as such, I shouldn’t be either.
“It’s not one, not two, and not three,”Sphinx said. “Only when you find the missing piece of what the heart desires will you finally find your way home.”
My heart pounded. I wasn’t good at riddles, but I instantly knew the answer to this one. It was as if Sphinx speared me in my heart to show me what it was.
I didn’t want to say the answer.
“Let’s get to work and solve it,” Rai ordered, and the three of my mates andChiron started to put their heads together.
One got an answer, then another man found a flaw and denied it. And on and on they went.
Sphinx put his head on his paws and snorted at the shifters’ debates.
The wind swirled around us. The sun was going to set before they could find the answer. No one could get this riddle, except me.
“Four,” I whispered to Sphinx, my throat dry as the word scratched against it.
His snort stopped, and he opened an eye.
“Four,” I said in a low voice. Why must he make me repeat myself? “Four is the real number.”
My mates stopped arguing with each other and trained their attention on us. Tension crackled in the air.
“Uh, magic number,” Sphinx said. “You’ll have to say the whole answer.”
He was tormenting me. He knew my curse, my history, and everything related to me. And he wanted to torment my mates more because they’d offended him.
