Dragon 7 Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Pixie hurried into the Summer Court, her eyes flickered over me as she smirked. “My Queen.” She gave a slight bow to Summer, but there was a little dismissal in it as she focused on me. “The Highaens are at the manor. Sebastian is with them and throwing a fit.”

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Sebastian to ruin my happy ending.

“Bad enough to get me from here?” I sat up straight and looked down at my shirt before discarding it and pulling a fresh one from my bracer.

“They are both nervous. They seem to have bad news and are being quite pushy. I wouldn’t have disturbed you, but I’m concerned it has to do with Simon’s body.” Pixie bowed, still ignoring Summer.

Summer crossed her arms under her chest and watched Pixie. “Oh, how quickly have I become nothing.”

Pixie glanced at Summer. “I apologize. But I serve Zach entirely.”

“I remember when you were just a young girl. Always was one of my best. I’ve suffered a terrible loss.” Summer lamented and sat down on the arm of her throne, crossing her legs. “Keep our favorite man alive.”

I cursed Sebastian again seeing Summer perched on the arm of the throne.

Pixie beamed at the praise from Summer before pushing it down and being my professional secretary again. “My King, please, we must hurry. Can you create another portal?”

Blowing out a breath, I tried to get my head straight and think with the brian between my ears, and not the one between my legs.

Summer smirked, seeing my struggles, but didn’t tease me further.

After blowing out a few breaths, I felt centered enough to try. I reached out, imagining pulling a portal into being back to my manor.

The glowing portal crackled open, the edges frayed unlike Ikta’s smooth portal.

Summer made a strange noise.

“Everything alright?”  I asked her, unable to take my attention off the portal without it collapsing.

“Yes. Just surprised at how quickly you are taking to fae magic.” Her voice sounded a little off, but there was no time to dwell on it.

I grabbed Pixie and rushed through the portal.

As soon as my feet were on solid ground again, I lost focus and the portal snapped close.

Pixie let out a little yelp and pulled some of her hair forward. A few of the locks were bluntly cut at the end “My King, I’m going to schedule time for you to practice portals.”

“Probably for the best.” I agreed. “Or we can just stop having so much urgency that I need them all the time.”

Pixie let out a soft hum. “I doubt that’ll happen. I’m beginning to understand Morgana’s comments about you being a magnet for trouble more each day.”

Turning, I frowned at her, but Pixie just smiled back at me and bat her eyelashes.

“Where are the elves?” I turned, trying to remember my way around the manor.

“This way.” Her legs carried her swiftly through the manor to a room on the first floor. She opened the doors to a large delegation from the elves. Yev and Tyrande were entertaining them, and Nyske and other nymphs were supplying them with food and drink to try to stall.

“One large coffee, two shots of espresso. One sugar, no cream.” Nyske handed me a tall to-go cup. “I’m told you haven’t slept.” She gave me a brilliant smile.

She even knew my coffee order.

I grunted. I was starting to feel like I was unlikely to be getting any sleep soon so I took a sip and sat down on the couch next to Tyrande both of the Highaen sisters were beautiful as usual with their golden hair and near glowing bluish-purple eyes. Though Yev wasn’t on the couch.

Instead, she was sitting on her egg like a bar stool. “That can’t be comfortable.” I observed.

“Like hell I’m letting it out of my sight. Even if Trina is trying to convince me it doesn’t need my dragon warmth, I want my baby to feel me as it grows.” Yev dared me to say something more.

I wasn’t that stupid.

“Mother-in-law, Father-in-law.” I bowed to both of them. “Sebastian.” I nodded to him. “Does anyone want to tell me why I have the honor of all of you in my manor?” The less I potentially angered Yev by keeping her from nesting the better for all of our safety.

Behind them, there were five tough as nails looking elf mages standing up in a line. If the elves had a military equivalent of special forces, I felt like these five would be in it. They gave off an intense no-nonsense vibe as they held themselves in a relaxed vigilance.

I turned, eying Tyrande. She’d mentioned bringing Highaen mages to look into Simon. I wondered if these were part of that group.

“Can’t we come visit our son-in-law?” Tyrande’s mother was like a skinnier, sharper copy of my wife. “Besides, my daughter just had her egg. We are so excited to see her and the egg.”

Yev grunted from atop her egg, but she seemed to let her mother get away with the diversion. “The egg is very healthy. Our mate has a doctor mate, and she’s taking good care of me and the egg. Daily check ups.”

We all paused, finding that to be excessive, but no one said a thing to the nesting dragon.

“Wonderful. I’m so happy for you both. Can I touch the egg?” My mother-in-law approached it like she was worried that Yev would snap at her.

Yev eyed her a little warily, but she moved the blanket over it aside just a smidge, giving access to the tiniest bit of egg.

Her mother stroked the egg. “I bet it’s going to be a wonderfully strong child.”

“Of course.” Yev stuck her chin up with pride. “It’s the first child of the Dragon King. They will become a mighty dragon.”

Her father chuckled. “Well then. Thank you for having us Zach. We were unsure how everything had been going since the wedding. We’ve been waiting for a visit.”

“Yes.” My mother-in-law picked up the conversation before he could continue. “Your new home is absolutely lovely. That it connects to the passage between Sentarshaden and here is novel. We also wanted to talk about several things with you regarding that. Have you thought about expanding to connect to other major paranormal hubs?” She waited expectantly.

Meanwhile, Sebastian seemed calm, but he was also drinking far too much tea, like he was using it to calm his nerves.

The whole encounter felt strange, but I also didn’t want to insult my mother-in-law. Elves and the Highaen parents were fairly rigid in their customs for deals.

Last time I’d smashed an heirloom table, and I felt like I could at least do better than that. So I sipped my coffee and let the idle chatter continue, waiting for the actual conversation to begin.

Tyrande rubbed a hand on my arm.

I glanced over and she just smiled.

“We’ve thought about expanding to the faerie next.” I admitted, finally joining into the conversation when an opening arose. “There have been some developments with the faerie. Currently, this manor is actually both in the faerie and in the normal world. I guess the Queens made a new fragment together and gave it to me.”

Sebastian put down his tea, his hand shaking loudly enough that it rattled. “This is a new fragment of faerie?”

“Yes. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but they gave it to me to claim.” I smiled, trying to play it off. But I was slowly coming to realize it had a good deal of significance.

“Impressive. A fragment of faerie is a grand artifact of power.” My mother-in-law smiled. “So, expanding into faerie. Would the Highaen be able to connect trade that way?”

“You’ll have to ask Jadelyn for details. I’ve come to rely on her for those matters.” I deflected. I wasn’t going to get into the weeds of managing that.

“What about a small embassy here in Philly for the elves? Sebastian has done a grand job, but Sentarshaden is interested in reaching out to the elves of America and see if they would like to reconnect with their roots.” She moved on to a new topic smoothly.

I rumbled in thought. “Why ask me?”

“You are the dragon king. We respect that and would ask your permission before making any moves within your territory.” She gave me a gracious nod.

“That’s fine. Put Tyrande or Yev in charge so that I can be a greedy dragon and keep them close more often.” I chuckled.

There was a strange moment of quiet before they all followed me in laughter.

“I’m sorry to rush this along. But can I ask why Sebastian is here? Is there an update on Simon?” I took the chance with the pause to push this along to something fruitful.

There was a twitch of my mother-in-law’s brows at my directness.

But her husband saved me. “Sebastian has some news.”

The elf looked around for support before taking a deep breath. “Simon’s body has been recovered, minus a hand. The hand was found in a well protected location of ours.”

He was beating around the bush, and I didn’t like it.

“What kind of protected location?” I pushed him forward.

“A vault.” He replied, still hesitating.

“And they took what?” I felt like I was pulling teeth.

“A weapon. One that has a history you may not be fond of. The elves refer to it as Dragonbane.” He winced as he said the name.

I didn’t have any association, but Yev screamed out with sheer rage.

She didn’t even try to control herself. Her dragon strength added to her voice, making the table and everyone’s drinks rattle. “What?! Why is that in Philly? Why is it anywhere near my baby!”

I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “We’ll deal with it.” I met her eyes to make sure she still had control of herself before I turned to Sebastian. “I think my wife would like answers, Sebastian.”

“It was placed into our family’s care years ago. The weapon has not been in use for quite some time, but it is incredibly powerful. We’ve kept it here in Philly just in case something were to cause us to need it.” He didn’t want to directly say it, but I suspected it was kept here because of me.

“This weapon is powerful. How? I need more details.” The name ‘Dragonbane’ wasn’t sitting well with me.

It was Tyrande that answered. “It came from a now dead clan of elves. They hunted dragons and enchanted a spear to draw the strength of each dragon it killed. Supposedly, it hungers for dragon flesh.” She crossed her arms and was scowling at her mother. “You knew it was here.”

“It is their weapon.” Her mother defended herself. “It has rested with their clan for some time. Taking it would be a slight that I had no intention of delivering.”

“Yet you kept a powerful weapon, one that specializes in killing dragons. And you allowed it to be here, near my husband and my sister.” Tyrande pointed out.

Yev’s growl was deep as she said, “And now my child.”

Everybody in the room seemed to try to make themselves slightly smaller to avoid Yev’s wrath as she spoke.

“There was a reason! I was happy to not have it in Sentarshaden for so many years.” Her mother defended herself. “I wanted it nowhere near Yevanandra. I didn’t intend for her to then end up here as well. And I couldn’t just take it from the Greenleafs.”

I waved my hands to clear the air. Fighting among this group wasn’t going to accomplish anything. “What’s done is done. It is now gone. I’m assuming it’s been taken and that’s why you’re here?” I frowned at everyone present. “Anything else? A weapon to harm the fae perhaps?”

They all frowned at me.

“I have reason to believe the fae may also be in danger. Iapetus has been blessing humans, and it’s become clear someone among the Summer Fae is aiding them as well. We are concerned that she could be a move on Summer at the end of this.” I caught them all up.

Sebastian just shrugged as if the betrayal wasn’t surprising. “That’s the way of the fae.”

“Well, I’m interested in preventing it.” I met his eyes.

“Because you are surrounded by all those nymphs?” Sebastian scoffed. “Is that all it took to bring the dragon king to the fae’s side?”

Tyrande’s father put a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “I’d be careful that your tongue doesn’t run away from you, if you’d like to keep it.” He eyed the women present, then he focused on me. “We can check, but there’s no need for such a weapon when iron is easy enough to find and works wonders. If this is all caught up in a deposition attempt from the fae, then we should be concerned. Historically, their deposition attempts have had far reaching and long lasting impacts on the paranormal world.”

I considered how much I should say, ultimately deciding to give them the information I knew. “There are a number of prophecies and false prophecies they are reading into. Those prophecies talk of me changing the fae dynamics for good. It could mean an end to the constant wars, or an end to the Queens. My suspicion is that the Spring Lady wants me dead, because I may stop her from ever rising to be the Summer Queen. I have no proof that it is the Spring Lady though.”

The Highaens all sat in silence for a moment, processing my words. “That’s… a lot of weight on your shoulders.” Tyrande reached over and patted my hand. “We will do what we can to protect you. Sebastian, do you have a detailed description of this spear?”

Sebastian fumbled in his pocket before pulling out a first generation smart phone and opened his photos, turning the screen once he’d found it. “You can swipe to the left on the screen to see more pictures. There are plenty of paintings of it.”

The spear was large and cast entirely of bronze. Much of the metal had turned green with age, except the tip was a wicked iron barb.

“Back in the old days, wooden spears wouldn’t hold up to pierce dragon hide.” Sebastian added, but quieted as I glared at him.

I didn’t want a history lesson on dragon slaying. “Anything special it can do that I need to be aware of?”

“It seeks dragon flesh. The spear tip will bend towards you when it gets close. Also, it will be incredibly sharp for you or any other dragon. If it stabs a dragon, it will drain the dragon’s mana and feed it into the spear.” Sebastian’s voice got lower under my glare.

“Great. Thanks for keeping this in Philly.” I grumbled and handed him back the phone. “I can’t promise you are getting this back if I get my hands on it. I’ll probably try my best to break it.”

Sebastian’s face paled, but he just nodded. “So be it.”

“The Highaen’s will pay restitution for the damage the elves have caused here.” My mother-in-law glared at Sebastian like he was going to be the one repaying it in reality.

“Sure. Some gold and maybe some downtime so I can get some sleep.” I grumbled, standing and signaling that the meeting was over.

The five mages led the way out. My Father-in-law was last. “If you want to sleep, maybe slow down the harem growth.” He winked at me with his joke and hurried to catch up to his wife.

Tyrande was showing them the way out, but Yev sat in the room on her egg while the nymphs continued to mill about.

I flopped down on the couch. “Yev, how are you?”

“Missing my mate.” She answered honestly, picking up the egg and placing it on top of me. “You should also get to know your child more.”

I hugged the egg. “Hey little guy. Hope you don’t mind. Daddy is a busy dragon. But we can nap together if you’d like.”

Yev snorted. “I doubt you can nap like that.” She easily lifted the egg off me. I now realized the spikes on it also functioned well as handles, and they were apparently incredibly sturdy. “Come rest with me and the egg in the hoard when you can.”

Giving me a smile over her shoulder, she headed out, her nymph fretting and moving ahead of her to get everyone and everything out of her way. Because she wasn’t stopping and that egg would work better than a battering ram.

I looked up over my head at Pixie. “Okay. So what else is on the agenda. And Nyske, when are you going to tell me your secrets?”

“Later.” Nyske looked away. “Your father has agreed to let me use the crystal that holds his memories to show them to you. But you’ll have to be asleep for that.”

“Sign me up.” I rolled over, ready to get up.

“It isn’t ready yet. Sabrina is helping your father with the adjustments.” Nyske admitted. “Besides, you look haggard, my king. Maybe you should try and get a little sleep.”

“The vampires and forces from the entire council are looking for Norton and Lopez.” Pixie promised me. “I will wake you at the first signs of news.”

I desperately needed sleep and somehow, not even the double shot of espresso could hold back the tide of dreams.