Page 42 of The Alliance
“It was me, Lady Hoskins.”
Chapter 15
Glimmer
I’d been planning on getting away with it but I didn’t like the way the elder cast her suspicious eyes over my clan. My dragon growled inside me when those eyes slid to my mate, and I realised that, if she didn’t know who had tried to breach her armoury protections, she’d suspect all of us.
All my innocent clan.
I couldn’t have that.
I needed to protect them. Even if it meant fessing up and taking the punishment.
When I confessed, Edith’s eyes shot to me and there was something in them that made my insides twist. Fear? Awe? Whatever it was, I knew it was a reaction to seeing the dragon in the eyes of such an old, old elder.
I had been able to look the old Lord Somerville in the eyes, though I’d learned not to. I couldn’t look Alfie in the eyes, not when he was angry or when his dragon took over. Now I saw a hint of Edith’s dragon and realised for the first time that maybe her instincts weren’t so deep and settled after all.
“I’m sorry, Lady Hoskins. I wanted to see your armoury. Nobody knew I was going to do it, not even my mate. He would have told me not to.”
She studied me, and I focused on her face, not her eyes. She was thinking. Was I about to be executed? That would be bad for clan relations.
“You knew it was out of bounds.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you wanted to see it.”
“I didn’t think I’d be caught but someone has put some really neat little alarm spells around it. I didn’t see them all.”
“You saw some?”
“Yes, and I, uh, disabled them. I’ll put them back up for you.”
“Why were you so determined to see inside theHoskins armoury?”
She made it sound as though it wasn’t important, but it was! I looked up, meeting her eyes and feeling a sick jolt inside me as I did it, but I ignored the feeling.
“Because I need to know what you have to protect my clan. I wasn’t going to touch anything. I just needed to know they’d be safe.”
While we’d been talking, nobody had moved. Everyone felt the tension in the air and the potential for battle. Kingsley had been working magic the whole time in a constant stream, which I could feel pressing against my own magic and wrapping around it, giving me extra protections. He hadn’t moved his body but he was preparing to fight.
I wondered if the Hoskins elder realised just how deadly Kingsley could be. He might be human, but he’d take out more than one dragon before he lost the fight.
Okay, I really shouldn’t have let my thoughts slip down that path. The mere possibility that my mate was going to be killed made my dragon rise up inside me with a roar. Nope, I needed to never think about that again unless I wanted toruith. And I did not. I absolutely did not want that. Any dragon inruithwas dangerous but someone likeme, who was able to fight anyway? I’d be deadly several times over.
The pause stretched out and I forced my mind away from my mate and back onto Lady Hoskins. Waiting to know what she’d do.
Fingers crossed she’d just throw us out rather than start a fight. Although my dragon wasn’t happy about leaving my treasures here without my protection, so that was going to be a problem later.
At last, she said, “The armoury is the heart of our territory.”
“I know, Lady Hoskins.”
Kingsley was starting to move towards me now, turning his body towards Edith and moving through the crowd. I was torn between hating that he was moving into potential danger and feeling relieved that I finally had my mate by my side again. When he reached me, his arm pressed against mine for just a moment before he moved away a few inches to give us both room to move and react.
“I cannot allow you all in at once.”
That- that wasn’t what I’d been expecting her to say.
