Was she surrendering her life or did she know that the djinn wouldn’t strike the final blow? He wasn’t sure but he eased back, trying to quell the telltale blue shimmer of light that surrounded him.
The djinn addressed the Others, still holding Rania captive. “I was the wise woman of my kind. They came to me for counsel and for healing, for advice, for my glimpses into the future and for my wisdom. The Dark Queen stole that from me when she seized all the magick, trapping mine in the gem of the hoard along with her own. My uncle was devastated by the loss and his vigor failed, because he had lost hope in the future. I blame the Dark Queen for that as much as for the final stroke of the kiss of death. His death disheartened us even more, and I would take that back.” She flung Rania aside and held the bichuwa high, so that the curved blade glinted in the light. “I am Yasmina, and I would be wise woman of the djinn again. I would retrieve our legacy, so wrongfully taken from us, and I will ally with this swan-maiden to see justice served for once and for all.” She raised her voice to a roar. “Are you with me?”
And the Others roared agreement.
Rania ran toward Hadrian, her eyes alight with pleasure and he caught her up, swinging her around in triumph. “Take me there now,” he urged. “I need to get started, then you can come back for Yasmina.”
She framed his face in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes, her own filled with unshed tears. “We will win,” she said with heat. “We will win, for our son.”
“We will win because you apologized,” he told her with pride, his heart bursting that this warrior maiden was his destined mate. “It takes strength to admit a mistake.”
“I had to learn to do it, from you,” Rania said with a smile.
The firestorm couldn’t have chosen better for him. He loved her with every fiber of his being, and knew their partnership had been meant to be.
Rania laughed, then the Pyr and the Others shouted approval as she kissed Hadrian thoroughly.
He didn’t even notice the vampires or Sylvia leave.
Mel watched as Hadrian breathed slowly and deeply in the middle of the dance floor at Bones. He’d shifted to his dragon form and Rania sat beside him, watching in silence as he banked the fires. He was much better at it than any dragon shifter Mel had seen before and she was impressed by how quickly his pulse and breathing slowed. When she thought he couldn’t go deeper into what had to be a trance, he did, until it seemed that he wasn’t breathing at all.
She looked at Theo, only to find him watching intently, as if he could learn by example. When she looked back, Hadrian had shifted to his human form. He was so still that he could have been dead, but Rania seized his wrist, nodded once to the Pyr, then they both vanished into thin air.
Murray gave a low whistle and turned back to pull a beer.
It was Raymond who gave her a poke and pointed at the dance floor. “Unless I am mistaken, the dragon will have need of his armor,” the ghost whispered.
Sure enough, an emerald and silver scale was resting there.
“It’s not just a firestorm,” Mel told the Others, indicating Hadrian’s lost scale. “Hadrian loves her.”
“That tells us all we need to know,” Drake said, claiming the scale from the floor. “The firestorm always chooses right for the Pyr.”
Yasmina nodded agreement. “She won’t betray us. I could see the honor in her heart.”
“It’s just the Dark Queen and her minions you have to worry about then,” Murray said wryly. “Oh, and the magick.”
“Don’t forget that the Regalian magick makes its own rules,” Caleb added, then drained his drink and got up to leave.
As much as Mel hated to admit it, they were right. There was plenty of challenge to go around. “I’ll follow Wynter and Arach,” she said on impulse. “Who else is with us?”
Rania manifested in the Fae armory and put Hadrian down gently in the middle of the collection of weapons. She could see them glowing in the darkness around the perimeter of the locked room, which fortunately was of considerable size. It had to be to house Maeve’s collection. There weren’t any guards within the chamber, so she guessed they were stationed outside.
Perfect.
Hadrian shimmered blue, summoning the shift without leaving his relaxed state. Rania wanted to linger to make sure he was okay, but the longer she stayed in Fae, the greater the chance that she would be discovered.
The success of the entire plan depended upon each of them trusting the other completely.
She closed her eyes against the bright blue shimmer of his shift and admired his dragon form for a moment, those emerald scales glinting in the glow of the Fae blades. His claw moved and she saw the wavy blade of her kesir catch the light. She bent to retrieve it, knowing that Hadrian was giving it to her. He still had the dirk beneath his scales. She kissed his cheek and hoped he would be safe.
Rania willed herself back to his lair to collect Alasdair, who had volunteered to be her supposed victim in Fae.
When she got back to Hadrian’s lair, she learned that Sebastian had vanished. Balthasar had his doubts about the vampire’s intentions, but there was nothing to be done at this point. They had no chance of stopping him if he meant to betray them.
They had to carry on with the plan and hope for the best.
“Incompetence,” Maeve said, seething as she strode toward the cage where the swans were captive. Bryant knew to keep his distance when she was in this foul mood. Someone would pay the price and the trick to survival was to ensure he wasn’t the one.
The swans watched her, all three of them, their gazes steady and unblinking.
“I’ve yet to have a bite of roast swan,” she continued, her tone scathing as she glanced back at Bryant. “And now you tell me that you haven’t managed to capture the other brothers. I might need to find a new favorite.”
“I’m here for you, my queen,” Kade said, hurrying along beside her. When she stumbled over the heath in her heels, he caught one of her elbows and lifted her, even as Bryant did the same on the other side.
She only thanked Kade.
Bryant didn’t like that the dragon shifter was around all the time, or that he was always close beside the Dark Queen. The truth was that Bryant didn’t want to leave Fae himself long enough to hunt down the other swan brothers. They were irrelevant when his position in Maeve’s court was potentially in peril.
He didn’t like having competition. Maeve had always taken lovers, but this one seemed to have wormed his way into her affections with speed. There was no telling where this infatuation would end. It wasn’t like the other one, the Slayer who had been the last of his kind. And Bryant couldn’t figure out the attraction. Kade wasn’t that good looking. He couldn’t provide any insight into the activities of his fellows, not anymore. From Bryant’s view, Kade was useless, but Maeve seemed determined to keep him as a pet.
They reached the cage with the three swans within it, and the birds hissed at them in agitation. There was no sign of any cooks or assistants.
“I’ve sent three teams,” Maeve complained. “Where could they have gone?”
“The swans are all still here,” Kade noted, as if to prove that he could count to three.