He’d approached me a couple hours ago, taking a break from preparing everyone to march.
“It’s an honor to fight beside you,” he’d said, putting out his arms for what would become a very awkward hug. I patted his back a little, at a loss, until he squeezed me tightly and rocked me from side to side. It had felt a little weird, until he said, “Am I making the vampire jealous? I hear he has a weakness for stuff like that.”
“I do not get jealous over mere dogs,” Darius replied in a snooty voice.
Roger backed off with a smile, but it faded as he looked at me. “What you said in the conference room the other day has stuck with me. You might’ve taken a get-out-of-jail-free card in the past, but not now. We never saw eye to eye in the past, but now we do. You are made of solid stuff, Reagan Somerset. I respect you. I respect your position. As I said, it is an honor to fight by your side.”
I twisted my lips to the side, a little nervous this might get emotional. How embarrassing. I’d never live it down.
So I just nodded and said, “Ditto.”
“Stop chasing my shifters around the bars.”
I cracked a smile. “Now you’re asking too much.”
He laughed and turned to stick out a hand to Darius. “Durant, we won’t ever see eye to eye. But I am glad as hell to have you in this battle. You had other options, and I’m glad you chose this one.”
Darius took his hand in a firm grip, meeting his eyes. “I had no other options. You are a good leader to your people.”
“High praise coming from a vampire,” Roger said, stepping back.
“Yes,” Darius replied.
“See you out there.” And then Roger had left, probably off to find Penny and Emery, making more spells for easy access, or maybe even Cahal, hiding in the shadows or whatever.
“Why have you never weighed in on what I should do during the battle?” I’d asked Darius while strapping on my leathers.
“In short…I don’t know what you should do in battle. The Seers are not confident, the fae are not confident, and Roger is expending all of his energy on the best practices of defense. There is a very real possibility that this could go wrong. A very real possibility. Almost a certainty, in fact.”
“I get it, I get it.”
“When everything goes wrong, you and Penny—and Emery when he’s inevitably dragged into it—are at your absolute bests. When all is lost, you three create miracles. You will not allow yourself to fail, not when it means the failure of those closest to you. Quite simply, I have put my trust in you. I have led you many times—it is time for you to lead me.”
And that had finally set the waterworks off. Roger had loosened me up, and Darius shoved me over the edge.
But now? Hard-core badass. Action engaged in leather. Ready to kick some ass and forget their names.
I did a lap, the other dragons flying behind me as we soared over the forces gathered below. Callie and Dizzy waited about halfway down the long line, Steve beside them. They’d wanted to be on the front line, but Roger insisted on keeping all of the mages toward the middle. If elves sprang up out of nowhere, he wanted swords and teeth to quickly meet them, and for the mages to step in as backup.
I doubted elves would pop up out of nowhere, though.
Besides, why would they bother with us? We were about a thousand strong, which was great. It was an awesome force. But the elves had enlisted the help of almost everyone in the Realm, drafting those who didn’t come willingly. Anyone who’d escaped the draft but still wanted to fight had apparently headed down to the Underworld. They certainly hadn’t come to us. Plus my father had the other half of the vampires (or maybe a bit less, because Darius had gathered a right few), his rage and violence sects, random draft selections from the edges, a host of experienced dragons, a herd of unicorns—did I need to go on? Why the hell would the elves worry about us when the Underworld was marching toward their castle?
A wave of nervousness washed over me, but I shoved it away with a showing of my teeth.
Let’s go, I said to Archion, leaning forward to gain speed.
He must’ve felt my building adrenaline, or perhaps he was feeling his own, because he let out a trumpeting sound before he dove for the portal.
The magic of the crossing pulled at my energy and scraped across my skin. Archion touched down on the ground before lifting back up, pushing into the sky. Those portals weren’t meant for dragons, since they weren’t in the sky, unlike those of the Underworld. The other dragons flew in after us, and then the troops followed.