I’m pretty sure he can’t take a bunch of minds at once, or there wouldn’t have been any reason to wage that Dragon-Viking war. But the extremely dangerous warning Rafes gave his men continues to ring in my head as I hike up that hill. Along with the memory of what happened to the last person who tried to rescue me.
And now almost everyone Damianos ever wanted to kill was in the same space.
My steps become slower as I get closer to the house. And my stomach churns at the memory of coming down this road just a few months ago with a biocollar around my neck. How things have changed since then, but not as much as I previously thought.
Damianos is still an incredibly evil dragon king. And I’m still only pretending not to be terrified of what he might do next.
I reach the part of the path where the woods on either side of me give way to form a circle around the house.
My dads and the other soldiers, stay back behind the tree line, keeping hidden for obvious reasons.
The plan Rafes came up with was for me to go as far as the house. I’m supposed to show myself and call out to Damianos. Try to get him to come outside.
I agreed to the plan in the car. Fixed my face, and repeated, “Whatever it takes.”
But I’m all sorts of hesitating now, even as the words from the dragon king’s note continue to rage through my head.
Reconciliation is not possible.
Reconciliation is not possible.
Reconciliation is not freaking possible.
Why can’t I make myself believe that?
“Ola, tell him to come out here,” Rafes whispers over the encrypted biocomm line he is using to communicate with me, his troops, and all the unwanted family back up.
I can feel everyone’s expectations pressing into my back. And I open my mouth, but…
I can’t do this.
My stupid, stupid heart.
I want to be a bad-ass bitch. Even more, I want to be a good queen.
But in the end, I can’t bring myself to call Damianos out into this trap.
“Ola.”
My name, delivered in that dark and resonate tone, drops into my head like an anvil.
And I still, my gaze raising back toward the house, though I can’t see anyone in the window.
“Ola,” he says again.
“Damianos…” I answer.
And I try to keep the words in, but I end up saying, “Don’t come out. My cousins and dads are here, along with a bunch of soldiers. It’s a trap. And if you turn dragon and try to fly away they’re going to shoot you down with, like, a small-range nuke.”
There comes a long silence.
Then the door to the house opens.
I hear all sorts of clicks and power-ups behind me, everyone’s prepared to shoot on sight.
But it’s not Damianos.
“Colby?” I say when the thin human emerges from the house and comes down the stairs. He’s dressed in a business suit now, not the uniform I remember. But it’s definitely the Brit who Damianos used to call his thrall.
“Maxwell actually,” he answers, his eyes a lot clearer than I remember them. “My friends call me Max. Speaking of friends, could you ask yours not to shoot? I’ve come with an offer of reconciliation from Mr. Drákon.”
Colby—I mean Max must be wearing some kind of voice amplifier. It’s not hard at all to hear him, but I blink, struggling to understand his words. Did he say reconciliation?
“But I thought you said in the note reconciliation wasn’t possible,” I push into the mind of Damianos.
“No, it wasn’t,” Damianos answers from wherever he’s hiding. “Not as things stood between your fathers and me.”
At the same time, Max calls out. “Fathers of Queen Ola, Mr. Drákon would like for you to come forth for a conversation.”
“Don’t follow that—” Rafes starts to say over the biocomm line.
But before he can even finish issuing that command, my dads emerge from the forest. They fall in on either side of me with their swords raised like they were just waiting for an excuse to defend me at close range. Oh, Dads…
Through the abject fear, my heart squeezes at their immediate arrival. They’re still protecting me, even though as FJ said when he first arrived at the North Dakota kingdom house, I’ve offered them “naught but grave disappointment since receiving my crown.”
No matter how bad of a queen I’ve turned out to be in their eyes, they’re still my fathers. And I’m still the daughter they will love and protect until their last breath.
I silently apologize for everything I’ve put them through, before breaking my promise to Damianos. “Don’t hurt them,” I yell fiercely into his mind. “Don’t you dare hurt them.”
“There is no need to issue this command,” he assures me.
Before I can answer Damianos, Max calls out to my dads, “Fathers of Queen Ola, I have been sent by Damianos Drákon to request your forgiveness and to ask formally for your daughter’s hand in marriage on his behalf!”