“What is that?” Annabelle hissed as she took a deep inhale.
“Smoke.” Her father whispered. His eyes snapped to the entrance they’d used to get to the coliseum. It led out to the free weight room of their massive gym.
A body hurtled past the line of demarcation, a dragon who bore deep crimson slashes over his chest and arms.
Alessandro phased to catch him before he hit the floor, Ciel on his shoulders, looking down at the man with concern.
“Black Cove.” The dragon growled. “The whole damn city is attacking.”
Rowan watched as Blaise, Naseem, and Stone phased out without prompting.
Aqua phased next to the man and had already begun weaving spells of healing as Terra began yelling instructions to the remaining dragons.
Helios phased in next to Alessandro, collecting his son and placing a kiss on his forehead before depositing him into Opal’s awaiting arms.
Rowan watched Opal fight back the urge to reach out to his retreating form as he followed a wave of dragons back into Draconis before she herself phased out.
It occurred to Rowan that if Draconis was being attacked the families had nowhere to go. Then she realized she’d never seen a dragon family in Draconis to begin with, nor enough space to house all of those who’d shown up for her coronation.
Her nose flared as something was on the verge of clicking before Alessandro phased in front of her.
His rainbow eyes swirled with hues of red. She’d never known the color to have so much range.
“I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
Confusion filled her before fury took its place as the world blurred from her vision before it reassembled to show the familiar shadow of the Eastern Elven Kingdom’s castle.
Sidelined.
The hurt bubbled inside and she snapped her head to Louisa, who had appeared a second later, followed closely by her family.
“He said you need to stay here and protect your family,” Louisa said before Rowan could even open her mouth.
Rowan narrowed her eyes. “Who exactly are your loyalties to, Louisa?”
Louisa leveled her with a stern stare before she wavered and groaned, “Fine, but no magic.”
Axel grinned, holding her hand out and conjuring a giant tomahawk from mid-air. “Never needed magic myself.”
Kin sighed, “I’m surprised I’m still alive after half the shit you two drag me into.”
Rowan didn’t need to remind him he was definitely not being dragged in. It was his defense mechanism.
“You’re not going.” Annabelle hissed, pulling on Rowan’s arm. “You’ve lost your eye, your magic. Will you quit only when you lose your final breath?”
Rowan had never seen her mother so scared.
“My shifter mate is facing a psychopath who has a talent for making shifters lose control. I have to go.”
“He’s the one who sent you here!” Annabelle snapped. “Kyron, dile.”
Rowan turned her attention to her father.
He was the only one who stood a real chance at stopping her. If he feared for her life, that meant she had been in a worse condition than she’d been imagining.
He cast his eyes to his hand. “You’re not going.” He reached down to the scabbard at his hip. “Not without Whisper.”
Her jaw dropped. Never had she done more than sharpen and polish the heavy sword her father had taken into all of his battles throughout the elven-dwarf wars.
