She spun, worried she was going to have to face down another dragon.

  Three dark shapes flew overhead. There were indeed more dragons, only these ones carried riders.

  She watched in dismay as they set out after the fleeing dragon and attacked it from behind with ropes and tranquillizers. They had been prepared. These were hunters.

  They brought the dragon down. It spun as it fell, out of control and screaming. It landed in a field some way off. The hunters quickly spiraling in to trap it, she hoped alive. Either way, it was over.

  At least she thought it was. But as she looked around at the devastation and the people, she realised every single eye was on her. So much for keeping a low profile.

  The reactions and atmosphere that surrounded the devastation wasn’t what she had expected. With the exception of a few stressed out groups most people, especially the older ones, appeared to be simply continuing the party. Drinks still in hand, they ate and drank while they whispered. She had little doubt that much of the conversation was about her, given the way they all kept sneaking glances.

  She saw the silver haired, yellow-eyed man from earlier looking at her with the ever-amused smiled. Not far from him were the group of young art lovers whose gossip and constant glances her way were far more obvious than some of the other groups. As she saw them, suddenly she understood something.

  She felt a hand grace her shoulder. A glance to the side signified that Coal had returned. Of course he had, he had impeccable timing. She thought about shoving him off and storming away. He had planned this. She wasn’t sure how but somehow he had known about the dragon and he had known she would not stand by and let it burn everything.

  “Well, it’s been quite the night of excitement, what do you say we return back to Little Rock?” He removed his hand from her shoulder before she could shove it off and instead held out his arm, offering an escort back to the long distant teleportation rings.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. She could cuss him out in front of everyone, reject his hand and storm off, or she could accept his hand and the only ride she had back home. Whatever she did it wouldn’t change what she had already done. They had seen her use her magic. They had all seen her control dragonfire. No, not just control it but mold it into impossible shapes. They knew what she could do, the power she had, and if she did not take Coal’s hand now and align herself with him then she and her family would be a sitting duck that every aristocrat and his dog would want on their side, or out of the way permanently. Coal had left her with no other choice. She took his hand.

  He smiled.

  She resisted the urge to slap him.

  Together they walked through the crowd.

  “Coal! Coal! Whoever is this lovely young lady?” A woman with golden curls called to him as he passed.

  It seemed Coal could not or perhaps did not want to avoid the question, for he quickly pulled Amanda toward the group.

  “This is Amanda. Amanda this is Felicity.”

  Felicity removed a single ice-blue glove and held out a hand to shake.

  Amanda worried at the removal of the glove. Many magics required skin contact. But there wasn’t much she could do nor was there much Felicity could do with such an audience so she shook the woman’s hand.

  Felicity’s expression changed in an instant at the touch. Her eyes widened and she looked at Coal with amazement. Then to Amanda she asked, “Are you a sorcerer?”

  “She’s not a sorcerer,” Coal answered before Amanda could.

  Felicity looked toward him again with bright interested eyes. “Amazing! Where did you find her?”

  “She’s just one of many in my employ,” Coal replied as if Amanda were not there at all.

  Amanda scowled at him but she kept her mouth shut. At this point, the stronger Coal looked, the safer she was. The safer her kids were.

  He took her around several other groups before they finally seemed to break free of the crowd. She was glad to find that the small boy who had been under the stage had gotten out safely.

  Lucifer joined them at one point and then followed them down the hill toward the teleport circles. “I need a ride,” he remarked.

  Coal paused and turned toward him with a frown. “You didn’t drive?”

  Lucifer shrugged.

  Coal didn’t look happy about that answer.

  “Apparently all 50 of his cars are getting waxed,” Amanda answered finally giving into the urge to jab at something.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Coal glanced at her with his eyebrow raised.

  Lucifer’s eyes narrowed but both men still had the subtle indication of a smirk on their faces.

  “I’ll have you know I only have 21 cars,” Lucifer replied with a dash of indignation. Even his tone contained a layer of amusement though. It was as if they all enjoyed the chance for a verbal spar. Arguing with an aristocrat was probably like wrestling with a pig in the mud.

  The word ‘only’ echoed in Amanda’s head, and did nothing but fuel the steadily burning rage that was growing within. This was no game to her. Coal and Lucifer’s next exchange only made things worse.

  “So, how did things go with Aster then?” Lucifer asked. They were now sufficient distance away from the crowd and had almost reached the teleportation circles.

  Amanda wanted nothing more than to leave this place.

  Coal sighed. “Not as good as hoped but better than expected. We’ve come to an arrangement of sorts.” He glanced in Amanda’s direction and spoke to her, “It would have been better if you hadn’t saved that boy under the stage. Aster would rather he wasn’t walking around in one piece. It would have been like two birds with one stone if he’d perished this night.”

  Amanda glared at him. “Don’t you dare harm that child.”

  Coal smiled. “Oh, that would be quite difficult I assure you. Philip is usually quite well protected. It was only by chance that the dragon knocked him into the ballroom.”

  Amanda suddenly realised what that meant. The room with the guards had been right behind the ballroom, just above the stage, and Coal had been watching, somehow.

  They stepped into the teleportation circle. Amanda glanced back up the hill once more. She could see people already dancing and laughing up on the slopes above them. Several were sitting down.

  “I thought you said sitting was uncouth?” she said to Coal for no other reason than to blow off some steam.

  “That was during the ball, in the ballroom. This is now the afterparty,” he replied simply.

  Then they jumped.

  She found herself back in Coal’s house, standing not far away from a bar. A bottle of whisky and a few shot glasses sat in plain sight and she longed for a drink. She thought of home and all the places she’d stashed her own bottles. When this night was over and there were no more aristocrats in sight she’d open one of them and attempt to forget this gods-damned mess of an evening.

  Coal turned to Lucifer, a scowl on his face. “You were supposed to drive tonight.”

  “You never mentioned that,” Lucifer replied as he reached across the bar for the whiskey and glasses.

  “It looks mighty suspicious if you don’t when a dragon later attacks the party.”

  “Well, I didn’t want the paint scratched, let alone the bodies melted if the dragon took a wrong direction. Anyway, it wasn’t exactly intended. I was having a pre-drink with a lovely lady-”

  “Who?”

  “Does it matter? Anyway, I left it too late to drive-”

  “Who Luci?”

  Lucifer looked embarrassed for the first time that evening. “Kira Monroe.”

  “She’s a politician,” Coal growled.

  “She used to be one of us.”

  “Which is exactly why you should be very careful.”

  “Do you think I’m a fool? Of course I’m careful, and I found out some information that you might find very interesting given...” Lucifer trailed off with a glance in Amanda’s direction.

  Amanda had been closely watching them, growing more and more angry by the second. At Lucifer’s pause she finally decided she’d had enough. “You knew!” she growled at them.

  It drew surprised looks from both men.

  Encasing both her hands in threatening flames she took an angry step toward them. “You set me up! You said I wouldn’t have to do anything!”

  Neither man stepped away although they both flinched at least a little.

  Coal fixed her with a direct look and very slowly he replied, “You didn’t have to do anything.”

  “Oh, what? You expected me to just stand there and watch people getting burnt alive and slaughtered?”

  Coal had the audacity to smile. As if it were the most obvious thing in the world he replied, “Anyone smart wasn’t in that ballroom when the dragon attacked and only fools remained there afterward.”

  “There was a child in that room,” she reminded him.

  “A child whose life would be better served dead.”

  The fire on Amanda’s hands flared.

  This time Lucifer did take a step back. Coal however, remained right where he was.

  “You could kill me if you like,” he told her without a hint of fear in his voice. “But I do hope you are ready for the rest of them because they will come after I am gone, and who will protect your family then?”

  For several seconds they just stared at one another and then Amanda extinguished her flames.

  Coal did not patronise her, instead with complete sincerity he said, “And I will protect them. That I promise.”

  “You owe me more than that,” she said as she turned toward the bar. She took a seat on one of the stools, thinking things through. No, she could not punish him for what had happened, not with violence, but he had tricked her and she could not let him get away with that.

  Coal shook his head. “I have already kept my side of the bargain. Cat’s trial is scheduled for Monday.”

  Amanda shook her head. “No. This wasn’t what we agreed. You got far more than promised. What happened wasn’t in the spirit of the deal.”

  Lucifer had returned to the whiskey now and had taken a seat a few along from her, evidently no longer concerned that she might attack them.

  After a moment’s hesitation Coal asked, “What do you suggest?”

  It was in his interest to placate her, at least up to a point. She knew this and she also knew you never got what you did not ask for. And there was another who had been collateral damage this night, perhaps one she could save. “What’s going to happen to the dragon? Is it even alive?”

  Coal nodded. “I own it. They were instructed to take it alive and not permanently harm it. I have plans to sell it to someone very far away.”

  She fixed him with a look. “I want a say on who you sell it to as well as a cut of the profits. And the eggs too.”

  Confusion marred his face. “The eggs?”

  Amanda frowned. Surely he knew. “That was a mother dragon. It’s why she was so angry. She’d just recently laid her eggs. How do you not know that?”

  Coal was surprised enough into silence.

  Lucifer asked, “How do you know that?”

  Amanda looked from one man to the other. Their confusion seemed genuine. “Because I was under it and there are signs after a dragon has laid.”

  “The hunter said it was a lone dragon,” Coal finally answered.

  “Then he lied,” Amanda answered firmly.

  “No.” Coal shook his head. “I had him trade under the presence of lie detection. There were no eggs that he knew of. The dragon was captured outside of its nest.”

  “Then that means the eggs will still be there at risk of going cold. We need to go and get them.”

  “You want to go hunting for dragon eggs?”

  “Without their mother they will die, and you owe me,” she told him.

  “I owe you.” For a moment it seemed like he was going to argue but then a strange look came across his face. “I owe you," he repeated in an entirely different tone. “Alright.” He nodded. “We’ll go get you your eggs.”