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I turned to gaze upon the sparkling town under the hill in the distance. Near it, pillars of flames gathered at the bank of the vast lake.
Jarrod followed my line of sight. “The king left the towns alone.”
My heart pained. “Who suffered the most losses?”
“The humans who had the least dragon blood,” Jarrod said, averting his gaze. “They didn’t fare well with dragon fire.”
Humans who only had trace amounts of dragon blood had always been looked down on by the dragon community. Not by me, though. The injustice in all the worlds saddened me.
“Jarrod, I need you to summon what’s left of the court,” I said. “From this day on, you’ll act as my Captain of the Guard.”
“I’ll be honored to hold the position, Your Highness,” Jarrod said, bowing. “Until Adrian returns.” After a pause, he continued in a grave voice. “And I have to inform you about Lady Lysandra. King Daghda took her as his consort three months ago.”
My grandfather had married right before he sent the hunters after me.
“She’s called for a High Council meeting of all six cities from her new home in the City of Amethyst. I believe she wants to officially ascend the throne as the realm’s new queen.”
CHAPTER 3
Our unofficial honeymoon ended the moment our ship had touched down on the Dragon Realm.
The more I learned about my realm, the more dismayed I became, and the more desperate my mates were to whisk me off to their kingdom.
“The castle was burned. Danger is everywhere,” Blaze said. “Jarrod doesn’t even know how many infected, psychopathic dragons are out there. In the Oslan Dominion, no one would dare lay a finger on you, and we can protect you better.”
Iokul, who usually disagreed with Blaze on everything, nodded. “Mistresswill get us to our kingdom in a few hours.”
That they wanted to leave so soon disappointed me. I knew it would take a lot of effort to rebuild my realm, but this was my home. They needed to regard it as theirs as well. They were my mates, and we’d promised each other we were all in this together.
“So, we’ll just dump ourselves in your kingdom like this?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
“It might take a while for our people to get used to the idea of all three of us having one mate,” Rai said carefully. “But they’ll get over it. It’s our choice. The king will have to accept it as well.”
“And with this union,” said Iokul, “none of the political parties or our mothers can divide us again.”
“You’ll be Oslan’s princess and future queen,” Blaze said. “The people will adore you.”
I wasn’t worried about whether the Oslanians would accept me or not. We’d wade through court politics when we finally visited the Oslan Dominion.
“I understand it’ll be a lot easier and safer to go to your homeland,” I said. “But I never promised that we’d be safe here. My grandfather sent two ships of hunters to take my heads. We expected there’d be difficulties in my realm.”
Jarrod stared at me. “The king regards you as the apple of his eye. He’d never harm you. I believe he was being influenced by another.”
“Influenced or not,” Blaze said. “We were attacked. I say we leave for Oslan, set up headquarters, and operate from there. We need to have our backs covered. Here, arrows fly from every direction, and who knows which ones will get you.”
I tightened my lips into a thin line. “It won’t work that way. If I can’t stand with my people through thick and thin, then I don’t deserve to rule them.”
Frustration flashed through Blaze’s golden eyes. He had a notorious temper. Mating with me hadn’t changed that. “You can’t rule anyone if you’re dead,” he snapped.
Rai gave Blaze a warning look.
His biting tone humiliated me, though I understood why he was borderline paranoid. “I survived just fine before all of you came along, and I am older than any of you!”
“Is it so bad that we want you to be safe and survive even longer?” Blaze bit out.
We were all still new in this relationship and none of us were experts. I’d been naïve when I’d thought we would have no quarrels after we mated.
I’d thought after what we’d gone through—breaking each other’s curses, fighting the demons and hunters, and winning the battle to come home—there was nothing we couldn’t overcome.
