Damian nodded. “I’ll contact you if that changes. I’m sure Chrys will want to speak with you once he can shift.”
Conley walked over to where Ellery and Chrysander were lounging. His golden eyes blazed with fury. “I hope you’re able to shift soon. As far as I’m concerned, this was an attack on your life. Without the quick thinking of your mate to get you here so these sorcerers could get you under control, you might have died fighting not to fly. You’re the Emperor, and no one in this Council is going to sit idly by while our leader is attacked. I’m going to do everything I can to round up the individual or individuals responsible for this and when I do, it’s very likely they will pay with their lives. It’ll certainly be my recommendation for this act of treason.”
Ellery was humbled by the dedication of everyone around him who was so desperate to help. He wished he could tell Conley thank you, but he was stuck. All he could do was grunt and hope Conley knew he’d listened to every word and appreciated each one.
The Reverent Knight smiled. “You’re welcome. Let’s go, Drys. We have a mystery to solve and some assholes to take down.”
“Alaric’s waiting for us,” Drystan responded, then shimmered out of the backyard.
“Well then, we certainly can’t let the Sentinel Brotherhood have all the fun or the glory,” Conley teased. He petted Ellery again. “Be strong. I don’t have to tell you to be brave, we already know you are. We’ll get you into Chrys’s arms as soon as we can.” The Reverent Knight disappeared, and Ellery settled against Chrysander to wait until someone could help him. His dragon was calmed by Chrysander’s, and he hoped it kept him that way. Never again in his life did he want to feel an uncontrollable urge to shift, and he was still amazed that he’d managed to survive.
Chapter 10
Zane allowed none of the emotions rocketing through his body to show on his face…or so he hoped. This was the stuff of his nightmares. Somehow, he’d handed Ellery a cup containing some poison that wouldn’t allow him to shift back. What was the purpose of keeping His Majesty in dragon form? Was this only the beginning, and would it do more as time went on? There was no way to tell at this point.
Several feet behind him on the deck was his mate. He refused to look at him. Zane couldn’t even imagine how embarrassed Tiri must be to find himself with a duke so stupid, he didn’t even see a potion in the coffee mug. Tiri was everything honorable and just, while Zane was born of a traitor. It was a sick fucking echo of the past—only this time around, Zane was simply an unwitting fool not fit for his job as Ducblanc.
“Damian,” he said to get his attention. The Imperial Duke was frowning ferociously at the sight of his twin curled up around the trapped white dragon. All his life Damian had protected Chrysander, and Zane couldn’t even handle watching over Ellery in an office without any enemies present.
“Zane, I can tell by the look on your face, you’re freaking the fuck out. I’m in a bad mood, so if you want to sit around and try to convince me you don’t deserve your title or some other stupid fucking shit like that, just save it.”
Since he was going to wait until Chrysander had shifted back and he could speak to him alone to finalize his resignation, Zane ignored Damian’s protests. To think that morning Zane had the audacity to consider himself worthy of being his brother. “I was just going to remind you that Elf busted through the window, and it needs to be fixed once the fallen knights and sentinels are done in there.”
Damian grunted. “Good point. I’ll call Harley Griffinis and see what he and his guys can do.”
“You should sit down and concentrate on this afternoon,” Costas suggested quietly when Damian turned away to speak to the leader of the griffins and the most respected construction company in the Council. “Maybe if you clear your head a bit, you can think of something you might not have noticed initially.”
All Zane could see, hear, think, and feel was those few precious minutes when he’d gone to the breakroom and brought back Ellery’s coffee. “There was nothing out of the ordinary, Costas.Nothing. Not one damn thing. No weird smell. Nothing in the fucking mug. No crazy wizard lurking in the room rubbing his hands together waiting for me to poison Elf.”
Costas put his hand on Zane’s shoulder to give him a squeeze. He wanted to knock Costas away but forced himself to stand there and endure it. Zane didn’t deserve comfort or the friendship of these amazing men. All Zane wanted at this point was to get Ellery into his elven form. Then he was going to run as fast and as far away from the royal family as he could. There was no way to know if Tiri would be willing to stay at the side of such a moron, but he desperately hoped so. While he might not be worthy of Tiri, his heart broke to think of even a day without him.
“It could’ve been any of us handing Elf the coffee,” Costas said, then released his grip on Zane.
“Except I’m the Ducblanc,” Zane snapped.
The gorgeous gilt-speckled white dragon rose from where he was lying against Chrysander’s dark dragon and headed straight for Zane. When he got close he stopped and did nothing. With his golden eyes boring into Zane’s, he did his best not to fidget. His jaw flexed as he waited to see what Ellery would do. It couldn’t be easy for the hybrid to know that it was his own sworn protector who got him stuck this way for however long it took until the poison wore off. When Zane could no longer take the scrutiny, he shifted his feet. “I’m sorry, Elf.”
There was a growl as Zane got a dragon head in the midsection which knocked him down into the dirt. His Majesty wandered back to Chrysander’s side and lay down.
Costas was chuckling as he helped Zane to his feet. “We’re going to have to start renting Elf out at parties to knock people down. It’s hilarious.”
Zane brushed the earth from his slacks. He didn’t think it was funny that no one was taking his apology seriously, so he refrained from answering Costas’s taunt. Plucking his coronet from his head, he strode over and tossed it onto one of the deck chairs. His sash and suit jacket followed. He wasn’t worthy of the first two objects, and the third wasn’t doing anything but making him hot. Studiously he ignored the stunning sprite whose gaze was still tracking his every movement.
Only an absolute chicken would avoid their other half in such a way, but Zane was discovering several less than noble things about himself. The worst part was, there was zero Zane could do to fix any of this. He was a shifter with only rudimentary knowledge of magic and no experience in potion making. There was nothing he could offer in the hunt for answers.
Zane had to simply accept that Ellery was poisoned on his watch and that he had to be patient enough for everyone around him to solve the mystery and restore the hybrid. At the moment it seemed a fate worse than death to simply wait, but there was no other choice. All he could hope was that they would move fast, and before dinnertime Ellery would be sitting over a plate of fruit. Otherwise Zane was going to quietly go insane.
* * *
Tiri was trying to be a good mate. Though they’d been at D’Vaire for perhaps the space of an hour now, it felt much longer. None of the sentinels or fallen knights could offer any new information on how Ellery wound up stuck in dragon form. Sorcery D’Vaire was holed up in their conference room doing whatever a genius group of magickind and shifters did to problem-solve. Curse words were flying everywhere, but it was a situation that called for them. As for Tiri, he was left sitting in the hot Arizona sun, watching Zane unravel.
His face was somber, and his body appeared nearly relaxed, but this was the man who held Tiri’s heart. From the moment he met Zane, he’d studied him. Tiri had learned his facial expressions, his moods, and understood how his mind worked. The only thing besides Tiri himself that Zane held in the highest regard was his connection to his family. Not the man who gave him life and later died as a result of his treasonous actions, but the three dragons and one hybrid who loved him.
Knowing he’d served Ellery a cup of poison was ripping Zane apart, and he wouldn’t even look at Tiri. Another man might wonder if there was anger there or if he somehow thought Tiri might have something to do with this, but he knew better. Zane was blaming himself and was convincing himself that he wasn’t worthy of anything, much less Tiri himself. As each minute ticked by, it irritated Tiri more, and he wasn’t going to have it.
Another kind of partner might have let Zane figure out the truth for himself and be patient for whatever length of time it took for him to do so. Tiri wasn’t the best other half on the planet, because he couldn’t wait one more second. Getting to his feet, he wandered over to where Zane was standing just beyond the deck. For a few breathless moments, Tiri stood close to him. Costas and Damian were far enough away that Tiri could speak to Zane without them overhearing, if he wished. Tiri wanted to give Zane the opportunity to talk to him first or even glance in his direction. But the stubborn man Fate picked for Tiri continued to stare ahead. His gaze was fixated on the two dragons lying together, and he wore a small frown.
“Zane,” Tiri said as he crossed his arms over his tunic.
