the firestorm? He couldn’t seriously believe that she’d bear his son, could he? He was nothing if not optimistic.
How could he trust her not to take advantage of the opportunity? It was that confidence of his. He thought he was irresistible.
The thing was Rania did find this dragon shifter hard to resist.
She couldn’t stay away from the battle. She had to know what was happening.
And it wasn’t because she thought there might be an opportunity to strike Hadrian down in the confusion of the attack.
But Rania wasn’t ready to admit that, even to herself.
Rania manifested closer to Hadrian’s converted mill. She decided to approach from the river, since the windows were there and no one would expect company from that side. She took her human form again and gripped the bichuwa, thinking that her dark clothes were less visible than her white feathers.
She could hear the sounds of fighting and crept steadily closer to the big windows, moving from rock to rock in the stream. She heard a triumphant shout, then saw a flash of silver light. There was a blaze of dragonfire, then more silver lightning. Rania reached the window and peeked in, uncertain what to expect. Hadrian was in his human form in the main room of his lair, still wearing the gloves. The talons shone with menace and she saw that one was stained with blood. He was pumped and alert, almost bouncing on the balls of his feet and braced for attack.
The two other Pyr were there, too. The one who looked most like him, just a bit older and stockier, was beside him, both of them staring down at something on the floor. Hadrian had a line of blood on his cheek. His hair was disheveled but he looked uninjured other than his face.
There was also a dragon of citrine and gold, a sleek and sinuous dragon that nearly filled the space, flicking his tail and looking dangerous as smoke rose from his nostrils. His eyes glittered dangerously as he scanned the lair. He then shimmered blue, and she saw that in his alternate form, he was the Pyr with the man-bun. Which one was Alasdair? The one who had just shifted went to stand beside the others and looked down with them.
What was on the floor? She could see that the Fae were gone.
The light of the firestorm must have alerted Hadrian to her presence, because he looked up and sought her, then gave her a thumbs-up when their gazes met. He beckoned to her.
Rania manifested in the main room beside him, visibly startling the other two Pyr.
“I got two of them,” Hadrian informed her with pride, then gestured to a shining puddle on the floor. It could have been liquid silver or mercury, because it was thicker than blood or water. Its diameter was already diminishing in size and there was a weapon in the middle of it.
Rania wasn’t sure what to think of that. She felt jumbled up inside, her heart tugged with an unfamiliar mix of sympathy for the fallen warriors and an understanding of Hadrian’s jubilation. Where were her alliances in this battle? They should be with the Fae, but she didn’t like Hadrian being assaulted.
Not just because he was supposed to be her kill, either.
She’d never felt so much emotion or uncertainty before. It was as unsettling as the firestorm was seductive.
“They really attacked?” she asked, crouching down beside the puddle. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a Fae die. Had he melted completely?
“Of course they attacked,” the one with the man-bun said with impatience. “They’ve sworn to slaughter all shifters, at the Dark Queen’s command. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all hunted down.”
“Unless we do some hunting first,” Hadrian said with resolve. Rania watched him crouch down to study the sword in the puddle. The silver liquid was disappearing quickly from around and over it. “How about one of these for your collection?” he murmured with a quick sidelong glance, apparently not expecting a reply.
Rania shouldn’t have replied. She should have seized the opportunity of his inattention and taken the clean strike at his throat with the bichuwa. She was close and her blow unobstructed. Hadrian was so interested in the blade that he wasn’t even looking at her. The other two Pyr were similarly distracted.
But she was curious again. She didn’t have a Fae blade in her collection. Maeve managed them very closely, since weapons were always in short supply in a realm with