can speak English, and of course, Tanya Le Frey.”
“Master Longwei tell you that too?” My tone sounded sarcastic.
We reached a cable car before Cheng could answer and we were shoved into it, followed by most of the men. It descended down into another part of the city. This time modern buildings and houses on top of each other passed us by. I tried to take it all in. “Not so primitive after all.”
Cheng suppressed his smile. He really wasn’t scared at all.
The cable car came to a halt and we stopped with a jerk. It opened onto another passage where the men handed us over to guards who were fully clothed. Each one carried a huge gun.
They had a short conversation with the four men still aiming their spears at us and when one of the guards took out a bag stuffed with something, they gave us over to them. I looked at Cheng who for the first time looked worried too.
The new guards shoved us into the halls of what I imagined was the palace, or with my luck, the dungeon.
They led us past more dark halls and stopped right in front of a door. When two of the men opened the doors, a light coming from the other side blinded both Cheng and I. It took a couple of minutes for our eyes to adjust. The guards shoved us again from behind and I almost fell into a huge throne room.
I looked at the man sitting on the throne in front of me. He didn’t look very impressed that we were there. At least Master Longwei had been right about something.
A dark hatred danced in his eyes. This was a cruel man. I could feel it inside my dragon bones and Cheng had been wrong: we weren’t going to come out of this alive. That man looked as if he was going to execute us at any moment.
“Bow,” Cheng said and I did as he asked. My hands started to become hot, and I knew at any minute the rope around my wrists was going to fall off.
“Why are you here?” the man asked.
“We wish to speak with Tanya Le Frey, sire,” Cheng answered.
“Another one.” The leader or whatever he was sounded annoyed. It was Lucian he was referring to.
“Please sire, the one that came before us died and we don’t know the verdict of the business he had with Tanya Le Frey; I beg you, we need to speak with her,” Cheng pleaded.
My heart sunk as the guy next to me pointed his gun straight at us. He was ready to pull that trigger when their leader gave the command.
“No, he promised no one else would come and that he would never set foot here to speak with this so-called Tanya Le Frey ever again.”
“Sire, I beg you…”
“I said no.” The leader got up on both his feet, roared and nodded to the guards.
I shifted without thinking about it and blew fire on the one guy right next to me as I hit Cheng down with my tail.
“Elena, stop. Please, stop,” Cheng sounded worried and had both hands up in defense. I did as he asked and the leader was staring at me with huge brown eyes. He showed the halt sign as his eyes just lingered on my majestic body.
“Where are we?” Cara asked.
“Not now, Cara. We are in grave danger, these people want to kill us and we have to get out of here.”
“Just give the command, Elena and I’ll kill whoever you want me to.”
“Deep breaths, Elena,” Cheng said again.
“They tried to kill us, Cheng. You promised that wouldn’t happen.”
“You speak English?” the leader asked.
“Yes, and you are?” Cara spoke this time.
“I’m Balitomora De Ganor, son of—”
“Balti is just fine, no need for the entire history lecture.” Cara sounded so rude.
The sire laughed as if she was merely telling a joke. He touched his chin and kept staring at us. There was lust and want in those big brown puddles and I felt sick.
“What the hell is he looking at?”
“Us?” I replied.
“What is it you want with Tanya?” Balti asked.
“My friend already explained that to you,” I said.
“He’s your rider?”
“I don’t have a rider,” Cara spat.
“She’s a Rubicon dragon, sire.”
The guy looked at Cheng with horror then back at me. “She can’t be, only one can live at a time. We know the one is male.”
“It turns out that they were wrong, sire. We believe Tanya has the answers,” Cheng said.
“I don’t.” A woman’s