With one last glance back, I joined my new comrades in flight. I’d never flown with my kind in a group and a small part of me was giddy with joy. I hid it well, but it felt so good.
I was off on a new adventure.
I just prayed it ended well.
It had to.
Chapter 8
“We have to break apart the inner circle,” Nicolai said in frustration as he ran his hands through his dark hair. He paced the floor of the Command Room with wide strides as his top advisors watched him intently. “Direct attack hasn’t worked and bribing the bastards to get on the inside has simply ended in the loss of millions of dollars. We’ve tried to take them in every conceivable way and always come up short.”
“There have to be weaknesses in the inner circle we haven’t found,” Cade, the fierce looking Dragon lieutenant said pouring over maps and other stats of the enemy.
“Your work has been outstanding and your ingenuity humbling. We’re getting closer. I can feel it,” Nicolai told Cade as he spared me a brief glance.
The loyalty of his people was impressive. Over the last week I’d observed Nicolai be fair and collaborative. This was not the way I’d ever known Dragons to interact. We were an untrusting and violent race—or at least my father’s regime was, and that was all I’d ever experienced of Dragon society. Furthermore, I’d lived among humans for several hundred years while hiding from my father. I was so out of practice with my own kind it was unnerving.
Of course Nicolai’s disdain for me was unwavering and I returned the sentiment out of self-preservation. Even though I was now living amongst several hundred Dragons, an empty loneliness filled my hours, but that was nothing new. I missed the Werewolves and Vampyres desperately. Daniel filled most of my waking thoughts. I knew he was safe, but I missed him.
Stupidly, I longed for the same approval from Nicolai that he gave his people. It was silly and I dismissed it quickly. I’d been on my own for so long my need for acceptance was skewed. I didn’t need his kindness or approval. I needed his army and his cooperation—nothing more.
Nicolai refused any title other than General but they treated him like a God. And from everything I had seen, the asshole deserved it.
“Sir, our intel has been spotty over the last few years and our only infiltrator was…” Cade said haltingly.
I was impressed they’d gotten anyone in at all. My father was quite particular when it came to whom he surrounded himself with.
“Was what?” I asked.
“Beheaded,” Cade said quietly, staring at his hands. For a tough guy he seemed shaken by the loss of a comrade. They were bizarre to me. I was envious of this different kind of Dragon weyr.
“She was skinned alive then beheaded,” Nicolai ground out, correcting his lieutenant and shooting me a withering look.
I stared back unflinchingly even though I wanted to heave. Of course the only way into my father’s circle would have been through sex—hence a woman. I was sickened that they had even sent a woman.
I had nothing to do with my father’s despicable ways and the sooner the bastard let go of that the sooner I would be trusted by his damn people. I was beginning to think coming here was a grave mistake on my part. I had a limited amount time and a lot to accomplish.
“Is there a reason you feel the need to punish me for my father’s sins? I’m not the one who sent a woman to his weyr. However, you did.” My voice was as cold as ice and everyone in the room sat up straighter and became visibly uncomfortable. The hostility was thick.
“It was not my choice,” Nicolai shouted and slammed his fists on the table in front of me sending paper flying everywhere.
The veins in his neck stood out and his Dragon was dangerously close to the surface. Had this woman been his mate? His lover?
“Our sister went on her own,” Seth said quietly. “We knew nothing of it until it was far too late. I didn’t see it coming.”
The bile in my stomach rose and it was all I could do to hold back my own shift and go attack my father.
My God, I could end the regime on my own. No one else needed to die. My father wanted me dead. Maybe if I just showed up unexpectedly, I’d have a chance to kill him where he stood. I’d most likely die a violent death after the fact, but what was one life compared to all the lives he’d taken already? And I had something my father didn’t have—something he’d never have. We both had hatred within us, but I had my son—and love was far stronger than hate. My son would always be loved and taken care of—I’d made sure of that. I just needed to make his world a safer place. That I could do. I had to.
I was now convinced my being here was wrong. Seth was the damn Seer. If he didn’t see his own sister’s death, why should I believe that he saw my help would end my father’s reign of terror?
“It’s not an exact science,” Elaina said as she stood and put her hand on an ashen Seth’s shoulder. “Seth’s visions tend to the positive, not the negative. There is no way he could have known.”
“I’m sorry,” I said to Elaina and Seth. “Sorry is a paltry word, but it’s all I have.”
She nodded and sat back down.
“Blood is thick, Princess,” Nicolai stated and stood his ground. “You have his blood. You have his ways.”
“Actually it’s not,” I disagreed and went toe to toe with Nicolai. “It’s rather watery and means little to nothing to my father. Ask my mother and my three brothers. Oh wait, you can’t because he murdered them with his bare hands right in front of me. So if you believe my ways are similar to my father’s, you are more of a fool than I thought you were to have insisted I come here in the first place.”