The beautiful creature stared at me with shrewd eyes for a brief moment and then smiled. “Well, Seth’s friend, it’s nice to meet you. He should be along shortly. Tell me what you think of the gala.”
I let out an inaudible sigh of relief that she didn’t press for more information and didn’t call security on me. These Dragons had the same goal as I did and I didn’t want to have to kill them to save my own hide. As unsettling as it was I felt happy being amongst my own people again.
“I find it curious you’re having a party at all,” I told her truthfully. “It would seem that this would make you sitting ducks for my…for the monarchy.”
“Oh my dear,” she said kindly as she took my hands in hers. “When you don’t know if there will be a tomorrow, you must live today to the fullest. And we have outstanding protection here.”
She winked and gave me a thumbs up. I found myself grinning at her. She was a lot smarter than I had originally thought and she reminded me a bit of my mother. If the security was anything like what was in the parking lot, she was correct. No one had ever come up behind me before and lived to tell about it.
“Speaking of protection, you have a very um…overzealous guard outside,” I said carefully, not wanting to insult anyone and end up a pile of ash on the floor.
“Yes,” she laughed and nodded. “He’s quite a character that one. However, there were far more out there than just the one you met.”
“How do you know which one I met?” I asked, confused.
“Darling, you’re a beautiful woman. He wouldn’t have let any of the others near you. He’s quite territorial that way,” she confided with a smirk that seemed vaguely familiar.
Did I know her? I didn’t think so, but when you live for almost 500 years you meet a lot of Dragons. And when you’re the daughter of the most evil Dragon King alive, you meet more than your share. I couldn’t place her. Odd.
“So the over-sexed jerk in the parking lot was an anomaly?” I asked with raised brows and a smirk of my own.
Elaina’s giggle turned my smirk into a full-blown grin.
“Ohhhhh, he is one of a kind. I’d love to hear you call him that to his face!”
“I did call him a jackass,” I offered up hoping to hear her giggle again.
She didn’t disappoint.
“And you’re still alive. Amazing,” she said as she stared at me with open curiosity. “He doesn’t take well to backtalk, but I’m quite sure he deserved it. His manners are somewhat boorish even though his parentage is impeccable.”
“He doesn’t have any manners at all as far as I could tell,” I replied enjoying the gossip. Clearly she didn’t think too highly of Parking Lot Rambo either. “He was quite powerful though.”
“That’s an understatement, child. There is no other like him anywhere in the world.”
“Your leader, Nicolai must be happy to have the guard pig in the weyr—even as uncouth as he is,” I said with a shrug as I remembered how good the big oaf’s hands felt on me.
“An uncouth jackass and a guard pig,” Elaina repeated with delight. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone brave enough to call him that.”
“You’ve been hanging out with the wrong people,” I told her, liking her more and more.
“Perhaps you’re right! Although you should probably know…” she started, but the rest of her sentence was drowned out by loud cheering.
“Who’s here?” I shouted over the din.
“It’s Seth,” she yelled back as she pointed to the door. “Nicolai will be along in just a moment. This is protocol.”
What the hell was she talking about? Was Seth part of the government of the Resistance? He never mentioned that little fact. In my experience the first in was the Seer. Was Seth the freakin’ Seer? Oh my God, no wonder we hadn’t had sex. Seers were celibate. Had he been playing me?
Kill me now.
I’d told the guard dog that I was mated to a damn Seer. Wait…I hadn’t said Seth’s name. Thank God for that. And I’d only told Elaina I was his guest.
I had to get the hell out of here. Immediately.
Of course there was one way in and one way out. Dragons were not stupid, but apparently I was. How had I trusted Seth? He’d seemed so wonderful and kind. We wanted the same thing—to end my father’s reign of terror. I thought he was my boyfriend or at the very least, my friend.
I’d lost my edge where my people were concerned. We were not nice. We couldn’t be trusted. We were foolish if we trusted others. I was all kinds of a fool, but I wasn’t going to be a dead fool. I had a child and a limited amount of time left on this earth. I needed to accomplish my goal so my son could live in relative safety and not have to be on the run as I’d been for most of my life.
It was becoming abundantly clear to me that Seth had tricked me—lured me here to use me for leverage against my father. Little did he know, that wouldn’t work. My father wanted me dead just as much as I wanted him dead. Maybe these Dragons planned to hand me over to him in exchange for I don’t even know what.
I was so out of here. Getting killed was something I could do all by myself. I didn’t need any help in that department.
With my head down, I quickly edged my way along the wall toward the exit. Seth was moving into the room and I was certain their leader Nicolai was close behind. The excited chaos was to my advantage. I’d just get near the exit and slip out after the arrogant man in charge made his entrance.