“I don’t want a palace or treasures!” She jerked her shoulder away from his outstretched hand. “Maybe you dragons only care about gold and gems, but I don’t. My dad’s paintings, my mother’s books and all my things from my childhood, those were my treasures. They can’t be replaced!”
His armored shoulders hunched, as if her words were blows. “I am sorry, I did not mean…forgive me, my mate. I swear on my honor, I will take care of you.“
“Yes, because that’s been working out really well so far,” she spat. Distantly, she knew that she was being monstrously unfair, but the burning anger in her belly was better than that black despair. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t need anyone to take care of me! If I’d never met you, I’d still have a home!”
Her unfair accusation hammered him to both knees, head bowing. The wash of his shame down the mate bond brought her back to her senses. She might not really have meant what she’d said, but he believed it, every word.
“Oh, John, no.” She twisted round as best she could with Hugh still holding her ankle, reaching out to her mate. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any of that. I’m just upset and taking it out on you. None of this is your fault.”
“But it is.” He didn’t raise his head. His arm was cold and hard as stone under her hand, every muscle knotted tight. “They found you because of me.”
*What are you talking about, John?* Griff asked telepathically.
“I unknowingly stripped away the veil that has kept the Empress safely hidden from her foes.” John dug under one of his vambraces with two fingers, extracting her pearl pendant. “Her father the Emperor, in his infinite wisdom, bestowed this powerful treasure on her. It prevents the wearer from being located by magical means.”
Neridia, already reaching to reclaim her pendant from his palm, looked at him in surprise. “Is that what it does?”
He nodded as she refastened it around her neck. “I deciphered its true nature mere moments before the attack. You must wear it, Your Majesty. It is clear that your enemies have been lying in wait, searching ceaselessly for you. Do not remove it again for even a moment.”
“As the medic who has to patch people up in the wake of this sort of thing, I wholeheartedly endorse this plan.” Hugh sat back on his heels, shaking out his hands as if he had pins-and-needles. “Please try to avoid this happening again in future. John, let me see those burns.”
“My trivial wounds are not worth-“
“Dying over,” Hugh completed tartly. “Much as I’m sure you’d love to be in hideous physical pain as punishment for your so-called failure, you’ll find it hard to redeem your honor if your sword arm drops off with gangrene. Now hold still.”
*Do you have any idea who these enemies could be?* Griff asked, as John grudgingly submitted to Hugh’s ministrations.
“Those we faced tonight are honorless worms who call themselves the Brotherhood of Extinction.” John indicated the nearest corpse—which Neridia had been trying hard to avoid looking at—with a jerk of his head. “But I fear they are not our true foes. They are mere assassins-for-hire, selling their foul services to any who can pay their fee. I have reason to believe that they are working for the Master Shark.”
A chill ran down Neridia’s spine. “That big fin in the lake…that was a shark shifter?”
“Yes. The Master Shark, the lord of the shark shifters. He is their representative on the Sea Council. Many years ago, he was their sovereign King, but the Emperor—your father—conquered him and his people. The sharks were the last of the shifters of the sea to submit to the authority of the Pearl Throne, and they have never been willing subjects.”
Griff clicked his beak. *That definitely sounds like someone who would be happy to keep the Pearl Throne unoccupied.*
John nodded grimly. “The Emperor graciously granted the fallen Master Shark a place of honor on the Sea Council, despite the near-unanimous objections from the other shifter representatives…but there is no satisfying a shark’s hunger. Ever since the Emperor’s disappearance, the Master Shark has always sought to wrest more power away from the rightful talons of the sea dragons.”
“Well, to be fair,” Hugh said, shifting around to lay his hands on another blistered patch on John’s side. “You are something of an irritating bunch of arrogant bastards. I can’t imagine a shark who used to be a king in his own right would be very happy about the prospect of having to bow down to sea dragon royalty again.”
“This Master Shark…” Neridia said slowly. “Would he happen to be a tall, pale-skinned man, with cold grey eyes and a heavy forehead and jaw?”
John’s head jerked up in surprise. “You have seen him?”
“I woke up to find him climbing in through my bedroom window. I ran away, straight into a trap.” Neridia swallowed, her mouth dry. “John, there’s more. That’s not the first time I’ve seen him. Remember I said I saw a creepy guy at my dad’s house, right before he died?”
“Before his house burned down. It cannot be a coincidence. The Master Shark must have been behind both attacks.” John’s fingers clenched in the mud. “The Emperor—he assassinated—“
Human words seemed to fail him. He broke down into a snarling, hissing song in his own language, the tendons on the side of his neck standing out with the force of his rage.
“Um.” Hugh edged away from his patient. “I’m not sure whether to ask for a translation of that.”
The mate bond was giving Neridia a very precise image of exactly what John intended to do with the Master Shark when he got his hands on him. A small, savage part of her echoed his anger, crying out for revenge for her dad’s murder…but mostly, she just felt scared.
The Master Shark killed my dad. My father was a sea dragon, and the Emperor, with incredible powers at his command…and the Master Shark was still able to kill him.
And now he’s after me.
John cut off his tirade mid-note. “I swear on my honor, I will not fail you again,” he said fiercely, his chest heaving for breath. “I will protect you.”