“Lieutenant!”
Adrian whipped around to see Tomas Soto jogging out of the base with a handful of other soldiers at his side. At the very least, no one had a gun or knife in their hand, but none of them looked particularly happy.
“Capt—I mean, Colonel!” Adrian stammered, snapping a quick salute while his cheeks burned. General Morgan promoted Tomas Soto from Captain straight to Colonel prior to their leaving Stormbreak since Soto was leading the first battalion to find and protect the king. A second colonel was supposed to follow a short time later with Prince Shey, Caspagir soldiers, and several divisions of Erya fighters totaling more than thirty thousand men. They had no idea what they faced when it came to New Rosanthe and the Goddess of the Hunt, but they were aiming to hit hard.
“Forget to tell me something, Lieutenant?” Soto growled, returning the salute.
“No, sir!” Adrian released a heavy breath. “I’m sorry, but Haru isn’t great about sharing details. I have a feeling he wasn’t entirely sure his clan leader would send more of his compatriots.”
Tomas sighed and shoved a hand through his short salt-and-pepper hair. “Yes, well, the secret is out now. There’s no tucking this away even if we wanted to.”
Adrian grunted, keeping his thoughts on the matter to himself. The world was going to completely change now, and he had to believe it was going to be for the better. If the gods proved anything, it was that there were still too many secrets and they needed to be shoved into the light for everyone’s well-being. That included the dragons.
And no, it had nothing to do with wanting to see Haru.
“How many were spotted?” Adrian inquired instead.
“Eight.”
Adrian flashed him a broad grin. “Nine dragons against the Empire. That should help to sway the odds in our favor.”
Soto crossed his arms over his broad chest and lifted one bushy eyebrow at Adrian. “Under whose command will they be?”
That was an excellent question. If anything, they had to listen to orders better than Haru.
Adrian watched the skies, his heart picking up its pace as the first dragon dipped below the clouds and wheeled toward the east, its long body cutting easily through the air. It was easy to pick out Haru’s sunset-colored scales in the lead. He was slightly smaller than most of the others, but it only seemed to make him faster. Behind him was a larger dragon who looked pale green like new spring grass.
“Mika,” he breathed. “That’s got to be Mika with him.”
“You recognize them?” demanded the assistant next to Tomas.
Adrian laughed and pointed. “The one in the lead is definitely Haru. Directly behind him, I think that’s Omari Mika. She helped us. Sweet woman.”
Adrian swallowed his next comment when he spotted two large black dragons behind Mika. The only black dragons he’d known were from Clan Takahashi. He couldn’t imagine that Nori would send members of Clan Takahashi if he thought they’d cause problems. No, he was more concerned with how Drayce was going to react to seeing them here.
As they approached the field, dropping lower in the sky, Haru rolled smoothly, diving into Mika. The dragon roared irritably and Haru darted off before she could send a blast of fire at him. The lunatic then moved on to scatter the other dragons in midair, sending up a series of trumpeting roars and snarls.
“Holy fuck! Why is he attacking?” Tomas shouted. “Everyone, battle stations!”
“Dammit!” Adrian growled. He whipped around and started grabbing the other soldiers as they tried to run off to follow the colonel’s orders. “No! No! He’s not attacking! He’s playing! I swear, it’s just playing!”
“Are you shitting me?” Tomas snapped.
“No, I’m serious. I don’t know if it’s a dragon thing or a Clan Omari thing. It’s how they greet each other.”
So, maybe some of Adrian’s irritation ebbed as he watched Haru wrestling in the air with the other dragons. This was probably the longest Haru had gone without seeing his clan, and now he had them in a new place. He was excited. He was on a new adventure and he had his family with him. What could be better?
Unfortunately, Tomas Soto and the others didn’t appear to be reassured.
Sighing heavily, Adrian found himself marching over to the dragons the second they set down. The ground shook under his feet and there was more than one blast of fire that scorched the air over his head, but he couldn’t show fear right now or the colonel would call for the base to open fire.
“Haru, you giant idiot! Stop playing! You’re scaring the humans!” he shouted, trying to get the dragon’s attention.
“Adrian!” the sweetest voice greeted.
He turned as large, strong arms wrapped around him. He was crushed against Omari Mika’s chest as she easily lifted him off the ground in a rib-cracking hug. Oh gods, Mika was squeezing the life out of him.