said as he reached out with his free hand to steady her by the shoulder. “It’s only midmorning.”
She anxiously ran a hand through her hair, frightfully aware that it probably resembled a bird’s nest. “Since you’re here, I take it you were able to contact your friend okay?”
“Fortunately, on the first try and without incident. Airon should arrive here within a couple of hours or so.”
Matty gestured for Raphek to put him down. He then grabbed Amber’s hand and tugged her towards the room’s doorless threshold. She still found it weird that none of the rooms had doors, just open portals.
“Come watch cartoons with me and Mr. Dragon,” Matty entreated.
That he called Raphek “Mr. Dragon” was just too adorable for words.
“We’re going to have company soon. Let Mommy take a bath and get ready first,” Amber replied. She glanced over at Raphek and asked a bit hesitantly, “You don’t mind keeping an eye on him for a little bit longer, do you?”
“Of course not,” Raphek replied easily.
When Amber emerged from the bathroom a half-hour later, she was once again stunned when she saw Matty snuggled up against Raphek’s side as the two sat on the couch watching one of Matty’s favorite animated series on Raphek’s tablet. The scene made her want to fall to her knees and cry for a week. Only three days earlier, she had despaired of ever finding a place where she and Matty could just live without constant fear.
Now, for the first time since she had made that colossal mistake in falling for Garrett’s fake charm and accepting his marriage proposal, Amber could see a real future for Matty and her—and it was beautiful.
Rather than comment, she decided to take the bull by the horns and snuggle into Raphek’s other side. She nearly melted when Raphek immediately wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her cheek tenderly.
“Tired of cartoons yet?” Amber murmured.
“This is my first exposure to them,” Raphek said. “Minus all the shenanigans, they seem to be lessons of a sort.”
Amber laughed. “ ‘Shenanigans’—where did you even learn that word?”
“Probably the princess. When she first arrived with Prince Astaron in Elysia proper, the prince insisted that everyone in the Royal Guard should learn English. Initially, English was only spoken for clandestine messages between the royals and the Guard.”
“Does this have something to do with that civil war you mentioned last night?”
He nodded. “After all the betrayals that ignited that long and devastating war, trust was no longer easily given to those that were not Rekkan. It was only in the last five years before we were banished here that the majority of our people outside of the Guard began learning English out of curiosity.”
“And a good thing too considering what country you Firedrakes appeared in,” Amber said. “And the other three kingdoms?”
“Once it became apparent that there was no returning home, we sent some of our people to Colorado, Canada, and England as translators and teachers. While the House of the Red Flame has always ruled both the Rekkan and the Ishkkan, the Mikkan and the Sakkan have always had their own rulers.”
And the humans have no clue. How many times had she, herself, looked up into the night sky and not known that a dragon had passed overhead?
“You said the ‘Ansi’ did this to you. ‘Banished’ you here,” she said. “Were they another faction of dragons? I’ve seen someone perform real magic here. Is that how they did it? With some kind of high-level spell?”
Raphek’s eyes darkened. “No, not dragons. They aren’t shifters at all. The English word that Briana uses for the Ansi is ‘witch.’ ”
Amber’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me! Witches? This is the first I’ve ever heard of witches being mentioned when people talk about the Draknos!”
“For very good reason,” Raphek said gravely. “Some of their ancestors were exiled to this world centuries ago, and though their blood has thinned considerably through the generations as they mated with Terrans, those descendants are still very much able to use the same powerful magical artifact we believe the Ansi used to permanently exile us here, as well. We don’t want to invite the scrutiny of anyone with Ansi blood at all costs.”
“I don’t blame you,” Amber said quietly. Once again, guilt of all the likely trouble she had just brought Raphek’s people reared its ugly head. “Hearing all that, I don’t understand why you would—”
A loud knock on the double doors that opened out onto the balcony made Amber nearly jump out