by Rinelle Grey
None of it changed reality. Warrian wasn’t who she’d thought he was. Somehow, that betrayal made everything gloomy and grey.
“What did you tell them?” Warrian demanded, his voice low and hot.
“Nothing,” Rita said defensively. “I didn’t know anything about dragons until I met you. I published a blurry picture. That was it. And no one believed me anyway. I was a laughing stock.”
It was mostly the truth. The rest of what she’d published had been at Rian clan’s request. He couldn’t blame her for that, could he? Of course, he had no idea where his clan was or that his brothers and sisters were awake.
He was going to be far angrier she’d kept that from him than he was about the newspaper article, not to mention the fact she’d made a deal with Ultrima specifically to keep him away from his clan.
“That’s all?” Warrian searched her face as though he knew she was lying, and Rita shrugged uncomfortably.
Why was she the one who was so uncomfortable?
She straightened her shoulders and looked Warrian in the eye. “I did what I did for the good of my people. Maybe even for the good of yours. This news is out. Ultrima flew over the city. Thousands of people saw him and took photos. The existence of dragons wasn’t going to remain a secret.”
Warrian’s eyes widened as she spoke. The anger was gone, replaced by shock.
Rita pushed her advantage while she had it. “Can you say the same thing? Why did you lie to your clan about Ultrima and Sarian?”
Warrian stumbled back a step, the shock on his face replaced by horror. “What do you mean? Who told you that?”
“The Trima life dragon,” Rita said firmly. “I didn’t want to believe it. But it’s true, isn’t it?”
If she needed any more confirmation, the horrified expression on his face said it all.
Rita’s heart sank. She’d been hoping she was wrong, that the life dragon had lied to her. She’d hoped that Warrian would deny the accusation, insist he hadn’t done it.
But it was true.
Chapter 4
For a moment, Warrian felt like he couldn’t breathe. Concerns about humans finding out about his clan were nothing compared to Rita knowing what he’d done. It was his worst nightmare come true.
He wanted to deny it. To accuse Rita of believing his enemy over him after all they’d been through together.
But he couldn’t make the words come out.
He was tired of lying. Tired of sacrificing his own honour for the good of his clan.
He’d been trapped in this maze of lies for what felt like half his lifetime. Maybe it was more if you counted the three hundred years he’d lost in the Mesmer sleep because of the war. And right now he could see a way out. True, the exit was guarded by the largest lightning throwing dragon he’d ever seen, and he wasn’t sure he’d survive, but that didn’t dim the relief he felt at finally being able to come clean.
“It’s true,” he admitted. “I lied to them.”
He was surprised he didn’t feel the need to immediately follow up the confession with a justification. But anything he might have said seemed pointless. None of it changed the reality.
But apparently Rita needed more. “Why? You go on and on about respecting people and not forcing them into something they don’t want, and yet you ruined your sister’s life. For what? For some elusive kind of dragon that would win you a war? You started a war.”
Warrian winced. Her accusations were undeniably true. Painfully so.
And for the first time, it really hit him how badly he’d messed up. If he hadn’t lied about Ultrian, then yes, he and Sarian might have mated. They might not have either. But either way, Ultrian probably wouldn’t have formed a rival faction and Warrian’s clan probably wouldn’t be at war. He definitely wouldn’t have missed three hundred years.
And he never would have met Rita.
She definitely wouldn’t be yelling at him right now, and he wouldn’t be wondering how she’d react if he just closed the distance between them and kissed her.
Warrian clenched his fists. If he hadn’t met Rita, he would never have revealed so much about himself or put his clan at risk. He should wish he’d never met her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He was even more of a sucker than Sarian had been.
His heart ached, and the opening in the maze seemed to close up. There was no way out of the mess he’d created. No way to get back to a time when he’d been happy with himself.
The only option was to keep pushing forwards. To keep doing what his clan needed. If he couldn’t get out of the maze, he was going to do everything he could to prevent the metaphorical dragon from hurting his clan.
“You’re changing the subject,” he growled. “Everything I did was to keep my clan safe. At least a war between dragons is one we have a chance of winning. But now that humans know we exist, they’ll try to wipe us off the face of the earth. That one’s on you. What defence do you have?”
Rita gawked at him. “You’re turning this back on me? Really? Fine. I was protecting my people. You talk about humans wiping out dragons? Why should I believe that? I’ve seen dragons fighting one another, and a human wouldn’t stand a chance. Most humans here have no way to defend themselves against an angry dragon. I’m not too sure even the police could do that. There aren’t enough of them if your clan decides to attack us. My people deserved to know dragons exist. If you can’t keep the peace with us, then that’s your problem.” Her voice rose with each sentence until she was almost yelling. She was slightly out of breath when she stopped and glared at him.
Warrian could hardly deny her accusations. A war with the humans would go just as badly as the war with Trima had gone, for both sides. He might wish she could be loyal to his people, but as angry as he was, he couldn’t fault her for trying to protect her own kind.
That’s all he’d been doing after all.
Both of them stared at each other. They’d reached a stalemate. There was no way out. Even if they hadn’t both lied to each other and betrayed each other, it was clear they were on opposite sides, fighting for different things.
If it weren’t for the Mesmer bond requiring them to stay in close proximity, Warrian would have walked out and returned to his clan.
Returned to war. Whether it was with humans or dragons, at least it was familiar. Warrian knew how to fight. He was good at it. He could be ruthless when he needed to be. That was easy.
This stuff, whatever it was, was too difficult. He didn’t know how to apologise or make things right, and he wasn’t even sure if he should. There was no way he could make this right while they had such different priorities.
He turned to what he knew best, protecting his clan. At least he could still do that. “How much do the humans know?” he demanded.
Rita hesitated, anger still written on her face, then it slipped away, and she heaved a sigh. She opened her mouth, hopefully to answer truthfully for once, but before she could, there was another knock at the door.
Another interruption. Frustration rose up in Warrian. If that was Todd again… He strode towards the door and yanked it open before Rita’s voice saying, “Stop,” even registered.
It wasn’t Todd standing on the step this time. It was a woman in a dark blue outfit, and her eyes narrowed as soon as she saw him. “Are you the dragon?”
Crap. That wasn’t good. Warrian looked back at Rita, hoping that despite the mess he’d caused, she’d still help him. She had to. Their fates were tied together, for a few more days at least.
But Rita looked as rattled as he was.
Luckily, she recovered faster. “Constable Lyons, there must be some mix up. Did Todd call you? I’m sure it was a prank. This is my boyfriend. From Yerlou.”
The woman didn’t look convinced. Her lips tightened. “I’m afraid we have to take every report of dragon sightings seriously at the moment. I’m sure you’ll understand. If you can just come down to the station with me and answer a few questions…”
Warrian wasn’t sure what station she meant, but he didn’t like the sound of that. At all.
“I can get rid of this annoying human,” he said into Rita’s head. He was aware that his voice sounded doubtful and questioning and like he was asking for her permission. That was because he was. No matter what issues there were between them, Rita still knew far more about the human world than he did.
And the discreet shake of her head told him all he needed to know. It wasn’t a good idea. His shoulders slumped in frustration.
If Rita were a dragon, they’d be able to have an entire conversation in dragon speech. He could ask for clarification, argue with her decision, and evaluate whether fight or flight was the better option.
But since he couldn’t communicate back and forth with her privately, he was forced to trust Rita’s judgement. Even if it irritated him.
He turned back to the woman at the door, sizing her up. Constable Lyons, Rita had called her. She didn’t look dangerous. She was slightly taller than Rita, but that didn’t mean much. Her stance was confident, and she watched them closely. Getting the drop on her would be hard, but Warrian had a speed and strength advantage.
“I wouldn’t hurt her, just get her out of our way so we could run,” he tried.
This time, Rita’s head shake was firm. Warrian bit back a sigh.
When he glanced back at Constable Lyons though, there was something in her expression, amusement barely concealed by wariness.
That was when Warrian smelled it—a hint of dragon. Not enough to suggest she was a dragon, her human scent was unmistakable, but enough to indicate she’d been close to one, and recently.
The fact that she clearly knew about them could account for that, but Warrian wasn’t convinced. This was a heady, heavy smell. Too strong to come from just an encounter with a dragon, the scent lingered on her body, mingling with her own human smell in the same way the scent of two mated dragons merged.
Warrian considered the possibilities. Either she had come from Rian clan, in which case she could actually be here to help him, or she was from Trima, in which case he needed to know more.
So he didn’t object when Rita said, “Of course. Let me just grab my keys.”
Chapter 5
Rita sat in the back of the police car, staring straight ahead, her mind racing at a million miles an hour.
It wasn’t a crime to be associating with a dragon, was it?
She had no idea what had happened in the five days she’d been out of contact with the world. With the appearance of dragons, she had no doubt a state of emergency had been called, and that would have changed all the rules. For all she knew she could be in serious trouble.
But the fact that the government was meeting with dragons to talk meant that they weren’t considered national enemies, didn’t it? Not officially at least.
Warrian’s words echoed in her head. He’d wanted to get rid of Constable Lyons, and Rita had been sorely tempted to let him. But while she wasn’t sure if associating with a dragon was a crime, she knew assaulting a police officer most certainly was. Besides, there was more going on with Hailey Lyons than Warrian knew. Rita was sure she was somehow connected to Ultrima, meaning attacking her would not only get Warrian in trouble with the police, but with his enemy as well.
Could he get in any more trouble with Ultrima? She had no idea, but either way, it wasn’t an option as far as she was concerned.
Hopefully this wouldn’t take long, and they wouldn’t have any drama. Maybe if they cooperated, the police would just let them go.
They might let her go, but Warrian was a dragon. He had no identification, and that would be a dead giveaway in the current climate. They weren’t likely to pat him on the head and wave him off. At best, they’d return him to his clan. And since she was still bonded to him, Rita would have to go too.
Maybe it was time. She could stay there quietly, safe from Ultrima and his awful life dragon, until this was over. Yes, that was probably the best option.
She glanced out the window to figure out how long she had to ponder her fate, but the streets outside were all wrong. They were going away from the police station, not towards it. Rita’s heartrate sped up, and her mind started racing into overdrive.
This whole setup was wrong. Hailey shouldn’t be on her own. The police wouldn’t have sent one lone officer to arrest a dragon. They’d sent many, many officers to bring in Ultrima. They may be less shocked and confused after five days of knowing about the existence of dragons, but she was pretty sure they still weren’t stupid enough to send someone to take one down single handed.
She turned to Warrian, wishing she could speak into his head to tell him what she knew without Hailey hearing, when he spoke to her. “We’re being followed.”
Great. As if they didn’t already have enough problems. Diverted, Rita moved to twist in her seat to check behind them, but Warrian’s hand on her thigh and his words in her head stopped her. “Don’t look. You won’t be able to see with your human eyes anyway.”
It took every ounce of Rita’s willpower to heed his words and keep her eyes fixed ahead. Questions ricocheted around in her brain. If only Warrian could read her mind as the life dragon had seemed to be able to. Something was going on, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
She was beginning to regret preventing Warrian from getting Hailey out of their way. If Hailey wasn’t taking them to the police station as she’d said, then she probably wasn’t acting in an official capacity. That meant she wasn’t taking them in for questioning. She was kidnapping them and running would have been perfectly legitimate.
But they were in the police car now, and the doors were locked from the outside. It was too late to run. They were stuck.
Since she was out of better options, Rita took a risk. She leaned in close to Warrian and whispered, “Who’s following us?”
It was a silly question. As if Warrian would know. The only humans he’d ever met were Todd and Rita.
To her surprise, he answered anyway. “There’s a dragon not too far behind us. I’m not sure if he’s trying to avoid us seeing him or the woman.”
Warrian sounded far too calm for the bombshell his words had dropped. Maybe being followed by a dragon was normal for him, but it wasn’t for Rita. Combined with everything else going on right now, it almost sent her into a panic attack.
She struggled to keep her voice low as she told Warrian, “Hailey isn’t taking us to the police station. Something is wrong.” She kept her voice so low she wasn’t sure he could even hear her, but apparently he could.
“That isn’t good. What do you know of this woman?”
Rita swallowed. “We went to school together, but that was a long time ago.” She hesitated, then admitted, “I think she might have some connection to… to Trima clan.”
He was going to ask how she knew. Rita could feel the inevitable storm brewing.
If Warrian had been unimpressed when he’d found out she was a reporter and had released information about dragons, he was going to be livid when he heard she’d made a deal with his enemy. Everything would be over then.
Who was she kidding? It was already over. Him knowing about her deal with Ultrima would make no difference.
But all he said was, “I could smell that she was mated to a dragon, but I wasn’t sure if it was Trima or Rian. If it is Trima, that is bad. Especially if her mate is the one following us.” He looked at her, and Rita could see the question in his eyes, but he didn’t ask it.
Rita felt an inordinate amount of relief that he’d kept his questions to himself. Which was ridiculous, considering she was in the back of a police car being driven by someone connected to the enemy dragon clan, heading goodness knows where, and being followed by a dragon.
When she put it like that…
Rita swallowed. “What do we do?” she whispered.
Warrian was silent. He stared ahead, his eyes boring into Hailey’s shoulder. Then to Rita’s surprise, Hailey turned around. “I’d sugge
st you do nothing. Right now, I have orders to bring you in alive. I’d hate for anything to change that.”
Rita would have said her words were a bluff, but what human would be stupid enough to bluff against a dragon? Then again, if she was connected to the dragon following them, she had backup. And a gun.
Warrian, as he’d mentioned earlier, wasn’t even at full strength yet.
Hailey had no need to bluff. The advantages were all on her side.
They were in serious trouble.
That fact made Rita desperate enough to ask, “Yes, but taking us in where? Not to the station. We’re going the wrong way.”
In fact, they’d been driving long enough that their direction was becoming clear. Rita put all the pieces together, and they pointed to only one place—Ultrima’s lair.
Hairs rose on the back of Rita’s neck.
But to her surprise, Hailey hesitated. “Look, I promise no one is going to harm you, not as long as you do what you’re told. That’s all I can say.”
Her wishy washy promise did little to calm Rita’s nerves. Warrian’s soft harrumph of disbelief indicated he wasn’t convinced either.
Hailey frowned. “You’re so determined to believe the worst of Ultrima, aren’t you, Warrian? I mean, after all you did, he should wipe you out, but all he wants to do is talk to you. Do you really object to that? I mean, this could end the war if you play your cards right. Surely that’s worth your time?”
Her words sounded reasonable to Rita, but a glance at the stony expression on Warrian’s face showed he was feeling far from reasonable.
Rita hesitated, but Warrian already hated her. She could hardly put her foot in it any more than she already had, so she gave it a go. “It seems like a reasonable offer. I mean, after all, you did lie about him. It’s actually pretty nice that he’s still willing to ta…” Her words wilted under Warrian’s glare.
“Oh yes,” he sneered. “So kind and generous of Ultrima to be willing to talk. Now. After he wiped out half my clan. He might be pretending to be all nice and kind, but a decent dragon doesn’t do those kinds of things.”
