“Need I remind you that she is a tool, Yveun?” Coletta snarled, no longer able to keep her mouth shut. She was pushed to a rare point, and there was no going back now. “She was a distraction for you, I see now. She did not make us strong, but weak. Good riddance if the Fen have killed her.”
“You would do well to not say such things to me.” Yveun motioned toward her and Coletta grabbed his wrist with a speed that surprised her mate. His head reared back slightly, like a serpent ready to strike.
“Do not point your claws at me,” she whispered dangerously. They sheathed on command. “Better.” Coletta released him and Yveun spun away, setting to pace like the pouting child he was. “Fae’s death would be tragic. But we can make more of her now. What made her strong could be as common as a cherry-skinned Dragon.”
“Not this again.” He stilled.
“Yveun,” she pleaded. Coletta hated begging. But she would beg, bargain, steal, and murder for her House. “I have ten Perfect Dragons—”
“You continued, despite my direct order?” He looked at her with a gaze that was no doubt an attempt to make her feel small.
“I did.” His stare had no effect on her. “And we can begin to shift the tides if we set them free. If you bring me three, two, just one Xin, I can produce them faster.”
“I needed you to be producing gold for Tam.”
“The refineries are a sham!” Coletta’s claws plunged into the air. “All knew it from the moment they were commissioned. But I allowed you your fantasies. Refineries are effective on Loom because of their systems and resources. But their gold stores have been tapped dry and my contact tells me that they have not resumed production again with the guilds as they are.”
“You.” He pointed at her again, without his claws this time. “You told me, you encouraged me, to destroy the guilds.”
“And it was the right choice.” She stood by the decision without remorse. “But it is still the world we live in, the world we must adapt to.”
Yveun growled and set to pacing again. “Tam is useless and disloyal. Xin fights like Fen. The Fen fight worse than Fen. We have three fronts and make headway on none of them!”
“We’ve made ample headway, if you would only see it as such.” Coletta refrained from pointing out that he was making a fourth front by stoking a rift between them.
“It’s because I’m not there.” Yveun stopped moving, as if punctuating the words. He spoke mostly to himself. “It is because I have been invisible to my people.”
“Yveun—” This was dangerous. This was wild autonomy fueled by frustration and blood lust.
“I will go fight.”
“My Dono, I implore you to rethink.” Coletta felt as though she was scolding a child and not a man nearing ninety.
“You have done enough holding me back.”
The words stung. No, not the words—the shock of them, the outright audacity. Anger flashed hot in her blood, a response very few could draw from her, but it was there. Coletta cooled it. If one let it linger, anger was a poison for which there was no antidote.
“I have done everything for the good of our house, for the good of your rule.” All reminders were proving futile. Her Dono, her life mate, the man she had worked to see to power and then worked alongside to keep it, suddenly saw her as having no more utility than a set of Fenthri tools.
“I will go to Ruana.” Yveun started for the door.
“With more time and just some Xin captives, we will have an army of Perfect Dragons. They will not see it coming. We will blindside them.”
“Or we will lose our chance entirely.” Yveun’s head whipped back to her. “Waiting has given us nothing and the tides are ever shifting against us.”
Coletta had one more request of him. One final attempt to save her Dono’s life and salvage all they had worked for.
“At least become Perfect first,” she implored, knowing the matter futile. “Give yourself the strongest chance.”
He stared at her with abject horror, a look that was the final breaking of any love or kindness or even rapport between them. “How dare you suggest your Dono is anything less than perfection. I will not accept Xin organs—not now, or ever. I will not have them in me unless I am sinking my fangs into the hearts of the fallen. And as long as I breathe, I will not stand to see our house sullied by them either.”
He strode past her, starting for the door. Coletta merely stood, looking at the lone throne. A seat she knew would never have a master again.
“Yveun—”
“No half measures, Coletta.” He paused, briefly, but she refused to look at him. She gave him all the disrespect of her back. “When I return, I will deal with you in the same manner.”
Coletta did not cry. She did not scream or shout or rake her claws over the room. She breathed in through her nose, and out through her mouth, three times to regain her composure.
Then, Coletta’Ryu started back for her garden, to prepare for the end of the world.
Arianna
It was night when they finally had a reprieve.
The reprieve was short-lived, as a frustrated Cain stomped in and disrupted their peace with an endless string of scolding for their recklessness. Cvareh impressed and pleased her in equal measure when he finally stood up for himself, telling off the man.
The break was short-lived, however, as with the dawn came a new swarm of Riders, and a new host of bloodshed.
More fell on both sides, and at long last Arianna was forced to recover her magic. It was like a seemingly never-ending source now. Seemingly. For when she hit her limit, it came fast and hard.
“How do you feel?” Cvareh was the only Dragon who would go out of his way to talk to her. No matter how much the Fenthri bled for their cause, the Dragons regarded them with wary eyes. The inverse was also true. Perfect Chimera huddled in groups, avoiding all contact with the Dragons.
“I’m fine.” Arianna continued her inspection of the gun in her hands. “This, however . . .”
“Is it broken?” Cvareh sat next to her heavily.
“No, but it’s reaching its limit. I thought Flor and I had reached a solution, but it seems not.” There were hairline fractures along the barrel that promised years more of testing and dozens of iterations down the line.
“Florence . . .” Cvareh repeated thoughtfully. “How is she?”
“She’s found her place.” Not unlike you, Arianna added for herself alone.
“I suppose we all have.”
“Get out of my mind, Dragon.”
Cvareh laughed, and Arianna let the sound smooth away her mock ire. She would miss the man, when it was all over. The place he had ultimately found had no room for her. His world, Florence’s—neither was Arianna’s. As Florence had seen it, so would he, when the time came.
They sat on his balcony at the manor. The glider barely fit and his boco swooped back every now and again, cawing in angry protest at having to share its post. They were away from prying eyes and combat.
Arianna listed to one side, her temple meeting his shoulder.