Erik paused before a heavy wooden door and turned to face her. “If you would please remove the crown, my dear, we shall leave that behind. The pendant as well. There are rules even I will not break.”
Katy had completely forgotten she was still wearing a fortune in diamonds. She lifted the sparkling crown from her head and looked around for a place to put it.
“Anywhere will do.” Erik pointed to the floor.
Seemed a shame, but…
Katy set the crown on the floor, followed by the necklace, and stood to face Erik. “Now what?” She covered the ring she wore with her opposite hand. That she could not bear to remove.
“Now we shall go somewhere we can have a nice, sensible discussion.”
One of Erik's Guardians opened the door and led the way outside. Each lifted their weapons as they moved together across one of the smaller courtyards, with Erik and her in the center of the circle.
Thunder rumbled in the sky, and Katy looked up, expecting to see clouds. A storm. It was early evening, but dusk had not yet given way to night. She shivered with apprehension.
The sky was clear. Beautiful. She could hear the crashing of the sea far below the cliff the estate rested upon.
Erik and the others led her to a door in the estate’s tall stone wall. “Where are we going? We can talk here.”
Erik laughed. “Oh, no. Not here. Ryker is too hot-headed at the moment to see reason.”
Obviously arguing would do her no good, so Katy followed as Erik led her through the gate, her arms crossed protectively in front of her.
The cliff edge was no more than thirty paces away, then dropped off to the Mediterranean Sea far below. The smell of salt and seaweed, fish and sand surrounded her. The rhythmic sound of crashing surf and thunder made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Then she heard a roar. Not that of a lion. Nothing so small. This sound came from the sky itself, loud as the thunder from twenty simultaneous strikes of lightning.
She jumped. Looked up. And up.
What the…?
Two large beasts crashed together in midair, their bodies twisting and turning around one another as they plummeted toward the water. One black, one red. The black creature released the other and soared back into the sky as the red creature careened out of control toward the water.
Katy blinked. Eagles? Seabirds of some kind? Huge, gigantic scary seabirds?
What was that?
“I see Ryker has not told you everything.”
Tearing her gaze from the strange sight, Katy looked at Erik. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
“He has not told you what we are.”
Erik watched the same spectacle as she, except he did not look confused. He was smiling.
Another roar grabbed her attention, and she whirled back to face the open water just as the red creature erupted from the water. It climbed toward the black as the black—God help her, she was going to say it—dragon plummeted from high in the sky in what looked like an attack dive. Fire, or what looked like fire, came from the black dragon’s mouth.
“Oh my God.” Her hands closed over her mouth in shock. Disbelief. Fascination.
One of the men behind her chuckled. “God isn’t going to help you.”
“Silence.” Erik chastised the man, but it was too late. Katy’s heart, already pounding with adrenaline and fear, beat double time.
The black dragon attacked the red once more, biting, clawing, tearing at the red dragon’s wings, locked in a deadly battle.
“My lord, you’d better send Talon up there. Ryker is in a killing rage.”
Erik nodded, his gaze never losing sight of the two dragons. “Yes, I see that.”