by Avril Sabine
Ahead of them the door swung open and Isaac and Amos stepped into the room. Isaac stood with his arms crossed waiting, while Amos came to meet them.
“What are you two doing in here? Do you live in here or something? We’ve been looking for you for ages.”
“Circumstances,” Roy said.
Amber snorted.
Amos walked beside them. “If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”
“Stanley sent us here after class.” She sent the words to all of them, then thought she better say something for anyone who might be listening. “We’re just so dedicated to training we spend every moment we can in here.”
“Why?” Amos demanded.
“It doesn’t matter,” Roy said.
At the same time Amber said, “My fault.”
“What did you do?”
She smiled at Amos’ question. “Became involved with dragons.”
Isaac uncrossed his arms when they reached him. “You’re coming to dinner with us. No time to finish your punishment tonight. You’ll have to do the rest of it in the morning.”
“Dinner? Where?” Should she warn them that she’d have dragons following her? At least two of them.
“Does it matter?” Amos asked.
“Yeah. I have to let Ronan know where I’ll be. He’ll get annoyed if I take off without telling him.” And she wasn’t stupid enough to go somewhere unknown with possible enemies.
“That’s good. We want to meet him. Somewhere private. Without anyone knowing,” Isaac said. “Give him a call.”
“I’ll need to speak to him. Out the front.” She wasn’t going to text that to him and obviously they didn’t want her to say it out loud where the information could be heard.
“We’ll wait inside while you talk to him.” Isaac led the way.
Chapter Thirteen
Amber sent Ronan a text while she walked. It didn’t take long for a reply to come. This better be good. She smiled. It was right up his alley. Plenty of intrigue and who knew what hidden agendas.
Ronan stepped out of the Void when she arrived out the front, staying well away from the front door. “What’s going on?”
“I have three Knights who need to speak with you privately. And no matter what you learn you have to let them return here afterwards. Alive. And you have to keep their secrets. At least for now.”
“Knowledge is power, but it loses its power if it can’t be used.”
“Give them a year.”
“Why should I?”
She thought of several reasons, but discarded each of them. “Because they’re the enemy of your enemy.”
“Which one?”
She slowly shook her head, a slight smile forming. “I should have known you’d need a name. Most people have only one, if any.”
“I don’t have all night.”
“Tahmid.”
“Will this knowledge help us take him down?”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to think of a way to use it without telling anyone the information.”
Ronan stared at her for several minutes before he nodded. “Call them out. I’ll organise my Golds to take them to my place.”
“And they’ll be safe?”
“If they don’t attack me, I won’t attack them. They’ll be safe for tonight.” He looked away from her. “Chait, Alsandair. Out of the Void.”
Kade stepped out of the Void too. “What’s happening?”
“What are you doing here? Aren’t my Golds good enough to look after her?”
“You haven’t been here all weekend have you?” Amber asked before an argument could start.
“Of course not.” Kade crossed the space between them, sliding an arm around her. “Rian has a gold watching the place. He came and told me when Ronan appeared.”
She shook her head. “This is overkill.”
“Go and get your Knights,” Ronan said.
She looked around at the group gathered in front of her. “This actually works out better. Kade, you can take Roy.” Her gaze fell on Ronan. “Where are we taking them?”
“My water garden.”
With a nod, Amber drew away from Kade and headed back inside. She stopped, barely in the door when she saw that Martin, Dominic and Charles were now waiting with Isaac, Amos and Roy. She bit back the words that first came to mind, pretty certain they wouldn’t answer her demands of what they were all doing there. “Are we having a party?”
“Everyone wants to go to dinner,” Isaac said.
“Impossible. Ronan-”
Martin interrupted Amber. “We all go or none go.”
Amber’s hands went to her hips. How dare they try and interfere? It took her only seconds to come up with a plan. She checked first that the door was closed behind her. It was. “I spent all that time convincing Ronan that no one wants to harm me. That this dinner isn’t some diabolical plan to get me away from his warriors. The only way he’ll let you have dinner with me is if you join him at his house.”
“Then you arrange for all of us to go,” Martin said.
“I was barely able to convince him to let three join him.”
“Then you’ll have to cancel,” Martin said.
“And have him wonder what you’d planned to do? If they don’t go after I got them safe passage for the night it’ll look like they wanted to get me alone and harm me.”
“They need to go,” Charles said. “You don’t want to give Ronan an excuse to attack.”
“It’s safe to go with him?” Roy asked.
“I’ll go if you’re too afraid,” Dominic said.
“There should be a representative of the Queensland branch,” Martin said. “Roy can stay and Dominic will go in his place.”
“Are you saying Roy doesn’t belong here?” Isaac demanded.
“He’s your nephew. That would make him loyal to the New South Wales branch. Just because your sister and her husband chose to move to Brisbane doesn’t mean they’ve cut ties to their original branch,” Martin said.
“Ronan won’t accept that. I told him it was a family dinner I was invited to. Dominic doesn’t look like he’s related at all.”
“Since when do Knights feel loyalty to only their local branch, or even their state branch? We are Knights. We should be loyal to the entire organization,” Charles said.
Amber glanced behind her at the closed door. “You better hurry up. They’ll wonder what’s taking us so long.”
“Go,” Martin snapped.
Amber pushed the door open, holding it so Isaac, Amos and Roy could step through. Grabbing Roy’s arm, she strode towards Kade. “Take Roy.” Letting him go, she stepped up to Ronan. “Let’s go.”
Ronan’s eyes travelled to each of the Knights before stopping on Amber. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, kitten.”
Amber grinned. Before she could say anything, Ronan took her arm and they went through the Void to his water garden. When everyone had arrived she made introductions. Her words were greeted with silence. “I hope that once you’ve all finished glaring at each other that we’re going to have dinner. I’m getting hungry and the excuse we used was going out to dinner. I’m pretty sure they’d be asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions if I came back hungry.”
“Chait, take their phones.” Ronan waved him forward.
“Why?” Isaac asked.
“So you don’t use any locating app to find this place. Now hand them over if you’re not planning anything like that.” Ronan waved Chait forward again.
Isaac was the first to hand over his phone, followed by Roy and Amos. “How do we know you’re not going to do something to them?”
Amber stepped in front of Chait. “I’ll take them.”
“They need to be turned off first,” Ronan said.
“Why should we trust you not to do anything to them either?” Amos demanded.
“Who would you prefer to have them? Me or Ronan?”
Amos glared at her for a moment before he replied. “You.”
She took the phones after Chait had turned them off, not certain what to do with all of them. Keeping them in her hand, she asked Ronan, “Are you organising dinner?”
“Would I let you starve, kitten?”
“Only if it benefited you.”
Ronan chuckled. “A good thing for you that there’s no benefit to it at the moment.” He sobered, his gaze going to Isaac. “How did dragons infiltrate the Knights?”
“Tahmid is their father.”
Ronan’s head turned quickly towards Amber. “You better start at the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
She did, with interruptions from both Isaac and Amos. When Ronan continued to stare at her, she asked, “What?”
“Does he have anything to do with you?” Ronan directed his question to the brothers.
Isaac answered. “No.”
“This could be useful.”
“How?” Amos asked Ronan.
Ronan smiled, looking like a predator who was within reach of an elusive prey. “I’ll let you know when I have all the details sorted.”
“Why should we be interested?’ Amos demanded.
“You want Tahmid dead, don’t you?”
Amos nodded.
“Then I’ll let you know when you can help. For now,” Ronan gestured towards the entrance to the house. “Dinner is served.”
“How do we know it’s safe to eat?” Amos asked.
“The meal hasn’t been dished up and the plates and cutlery are still in a pile on the table,” Ronan said. “But most importantly, I gave my word.”
“We don’t even know what the time is,” Isaac said.
Amber checked her phone. “It’s nearly ten. No wonder the panther is complaining.”
“Still the same day,” Isaac said.
Ronan chuckled. “Yes, you’re safe until midnight. Not everyone pays attention to the little details. That must be the dragon in you.”
“I prefer to think it’s the Knight,” Isaac said.
Ronan shrugged. “This way.” He led the way to his dinning room, letting them all help themselves to the food.
It was well after eleven when the meal ended and Isaac, who had been regularly asking Amber the time, said they needed to leave. Amber reached for Kade’s hand. His fingers tightened on hers.
“Can’t we stay a little longer? There’s still time before it’s the next day,” Amber said.
Isaac shook his head. “Time to go.”
When they all rose from the table, Kade drew her to his side. “I’ll see you Monday morning.”
“That feels like a decade away,” Amber muttered. She pulled away from him. “Take Roy.” As soon as he nodded, she crossed the room to Ronan, letting him take hold of her arm to return her to the Knights’ headquarters. Amber gave them back their phones the moment they arrived.
Ronan faced Isaac and Amos. “If anything happens to her while your nephew is guarding her I’ll hold you personally responsible.”
“The harm won’t come from us,” Isaac assured him.
“He better protect her from anyone who would harm her or you’ll wish for death.” Ronan disappeared back into the Void, Chait and Alsandair disappearing too.
Amber threw her arms around Kade, kissing him, her fingers threading through his hair. She drew back slightly, her eyes meeting his. “Angela was asking me about schoolies. You interested in going to it with me?”
“Are you crazy?” Roy asked. “You can’t invite a dragon to schoolies.”
“Feasting and celebrating. Sounds like just the place to invite a dragon.” Kade smiled. “It’s a date.”
She stared up at him, the word date ringing in her head. They’d never had one. Nothing had been normal about their relationship. Not one single thing. “Okay.” She let go of him. “I’ll see you Monday.” She followed the Knights inside, stopping when she saw her grandfather was waiting for her. What did he want now? She came to a halt in front of him, Roy stopping not far from them.
“Go on, Roy. I’ll show her to her room.”
“Will you be okay?” Roy asked Amber.
She started to nod then stopped when she realised it’d look odd. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Charles waited until they were alone before he spoke. “Are you unharmed?”
She nodded.
“What happened tonight?”
“We had dinner.”
“You were gone a long time.”
She shrugged. “Ronan can be entertaining when he wants to be.”
“Is there anything I should know?”
Amber laughed. A sharp sound filled with disbelief. “You’re kidding me, right? Do you seriously think I’d share anything with you? How many times have you and Grandma threatened to kill me? I’m only here because we made a deal. I’ve tried giving your Knights a chance, but they’re not interested. Roy and his uncles are the ones that have been the nicest to me, which isn’t saying much since their only interest in me is to find out how easy it is to kill a mage.”
“Are you saying something happened tonight?”
“I’m saying that’s a stupid question to ask. In future don’t bother with it. The answer will always be no, even if there’s something to be shared.”
“While you’re here you’ll abide by our rules.”
“I never agreed to that. While I’m here all I have to do is give the Knights a chance and not attack anyone unprovoked.” A pity she hadn’t told Roy to wait in the corridor for her. “Are you going to show me to my room?”
“When I’m ready.”
“Forget it. I’ll find my own way.” She opened the door behind the counter, ignoring her grandfather calling out to her. Heading down the corridor she was relieved to see Roy waited for her at the end of it. He pushed away from the wall as she reached his side. “Didn’t I tell you I’d see you in the morning?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Amber smiled. He’d asked her if she’d be okay. “I guess not.”
He silently led her through the corridors, leaving her at her door. Amber watched him head to his own room. She didn’t have a clue if he was a friend or enemy and she hated not knowing. Yawning, she got ready for bed. Morning would arrive far too quickly and there’d be no sleeping in. They still had to finish up in the training room.
Chapter Fourteen
Monday morning Amber followed Roy to the exit, glad to be going home again. Even though yesterday had been uneventful, she’d still had to put up with Stanley. She pitied the Knights who didn’t seem to have any breaks. They trained seven days a week.
“When do you have time off?”
“We get holidays.”
“When?”
“At set intervals.” Roy opened the door to the reception room, staying in the corridor. “I’ll see you Tuesday afternoon.”
She started to ask him her question again, then nodded. What did it matter? She wasn’t about to become a Knight. “Okay. See you Tuesday arve.” She crossed the reception room and stepped outside, glad to see Kade emerge from the Void under the shadowy branches of the fig tree. She hurried towards him, wrapping her arms around him.
When they came out of the Void onto his verandah, they were kissing and Cooper cleared his throat to get their attention. Amber reluctantly pulled away. “What?”
“Why can I smell blood?”
Kade frowned. “Dried blood. What happened?”
She tossed her bag to Cooper. “Make yourself useful. See if you can get blood out of dragon-leather.”
Cooper caught the bag. “Are you hurt?”
“It’s not my blood.”
“Whose is it?” Kade demanded.
“Give me a break. I just got home. Can we talk about it later?” It was the last thing she wanted to discuss after having spent an entire weekend with the Knights. She just wanted to forget all about them for a bit.
“You were hurt, weren’t you?”
At the anger in Kade’s voice, Cooper yelped and scu
rried inside.
“Of course I wasn’t.”
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s complicated.”
“We’ve got time.”
Amber shook her head. “No we don’t. We’ve got school.”
“Then you better hurry up and tell me or we’ll be late.”
She could see he wasn’t going to relent. Sighing, she slowly shook her head. “Damn dragon.”
“I’m waiting.”
“You have to remember this happened before Amos promised not to kill me. And you’re not to retaliate. I nearly killed Isaac.”
“Why would I want to retaliate if you were the one who nearly killed them?”
“Because I didn’t start it. And before you go thinking I should have told you at Ronan’s, I didn’t want to tell you while we were with the Knights.” She quickly explained what had happened, knowing she was going to have to retell it to Ronan again later. When she finished, she sent Ronan a text telling him that when she had time after school she’d tell him the full story of how she’d ended up bringing Isaac and Amos to dinner.
She read the text he sent back. Don’t bother. Alsandair just arrived to tell me all about it.
He better get it right. When no reply came back, she put her phone away. Damn dragons interfering all the time. “Ready to go?”
Kade nodded and Maira and Brann came out of the house. On the way to school Amber told them about her training fight.
“Did he get the dagger out before you had his throat?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Then it wasn’t a tie.”
Amber grinned. “Let him have his tie. I know how much you dragons hate to lose.”
Maira chuckled. “Some more than others.” She parked out the front of the school and everyone clambered out, heading to their classes.
Amber was relieved school was uneventful that week. Keeping up with both school and Knight’s training was becoming exhausting. She probably shouldn’t have asked Kade and Rian to start teaching her to use a sword each morning, but she needed to learn. It was a matter of life and death. By the time Friday afternoon came around she hadn’t improved much, but Rian had given her a sword of her own and she had returned his.
