Kiera
As always, I took point. Old habits die hard. We were a team but I would always stand between my team and any danger. Walking down the ramp, I couldn't stop myself from raising my face to the sun. The warmth of actual sunlight! The air was clean and fresh with a slight floral scent coming off the breeze. It was the first non-artificial, clean air I had breathed in a long time. There had been so much going on at the beach that I hadn't stopped to really enjoy it. Here, with the king and his second in command standing with us, I knew no one would attack us. At least for the next five minutes. I could afford to take just one moment.
Opening my eyes, I couldn't keep the smile from flitting across my features.
"Good?" Glacian asked softly. I hadn't realized he was standing so close.
"Very good," I responded. For that one unguarded moment, looking into those amethyst eyes, something passed between us. I wasn't sure what it was but I knew that I wasn't altogether comfortable with it. Breaking that connection, I moved further off the ramp to let the others step off the transport. Their reactions were much the same as mine had been. It was pure bliss. We were in survival mode as soon as we had hit the beach and then Glacian showed up. Even now, we were cautious. But we still stopped to breathe. Just once.
"Come. Let us get you settled." Glacian motioned toward the stairs. He proceeded us up and swung open the doors as we reached them. They were exceptionally large. Everything here seemed to be. It made sense though. There were just as many dragons entering and leaving the castle as there were dragon people.
The inside of the castle looked nothing like the outside. I would almost call it ornate. The foyer we walked into was more like a large hallway. There were multiple doors leading off the room on the left. At the back there was a curved staircase leading to the upper floors. Enormous floor to ceiling windows made up the entire right wall letting in natural light. I hadn't noticed the windows from the outside. I needed to find out how they disguised them later. The room was busy. People were going in and out. Only one or two glanced up as we entered.
"This place is amazing!" I was completely enchanted. I wanted to open every door and see what was hidden behind them. Never had I seen anything like this outside of a book. Reading stories about castles of old and wondering what it had been like was so different from stepping into one.
"What did you say?"
Glacian now stood beside me looking down at me curiously. Only then did I realize that I had spoken in English. Glancing around, my crew was just as awestruck as I was.
"I said this place is amazing," I repeated in Drakian. I did my best to draw my excitement in some. I had to remember that I was in a new place that held untold dangers. Being aware of my surroundings and not blinded by them was where I needed to be until I was absolutely sure that my team was safe. "It's very beautiful."
"You don't have castles like this where you come from?" Glacian stepped closer to me and reached up to touch a strand of my hair that had come loose from the knot I had it tied in. Normally I don't like anyone getting close to me. It surprised and annoyed me that I didn't feel the need to shake off his touch.
"Not anymore." I kept my eyes on our surroundings. Anywhere but at him.
A sudden commotion came from the direction of the stairway. We all turned to see a tall, orange Drakian woman storming down the last few steps. Her short red hair had a windblown look to it. Her coloring reminded me of a sunset. She was a beautiful woman, athletic. She was wearing a skimpy, shimmery dress and sandals. Not a single Drakian I had seen so far had been dressed even remotely close to this. The woman was unquestionably pissed. Her tail was slashing behind her in fast agitated flicks. She was arguing loudly with another woman who may have been a maid, judging by the apron wrapped around her like a short skirt.
Once the blazing lady reached the bottom, her gaze found our group. It wasn't difficult. We were standing in the middle of the foyer. She ignored the rest of us. Her eyes were locked onto Glacian, and she seemed ready to do battle. Something about her made my instincts kick into high gear. Going on alert, I slowly slid my bag to the floor and felt my crew behind me doing the same.
Glacian didn't seem at all worried about the woman headed our way. His eyes were taking my group in and he seemed surprised at how quickly we had moved from amazed to lethal. It was just another reminder of just how little we really knew each other. It was easy to forget with how blithe he had been since we left the beach. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Rokk had stepped back and was talking into his wristband.
The woman stopped in front of Glacian, glaring daggers. He simply lifted an eyebrow at her.
"I demand an explanation! I am going to be your queen. Yet suddenly, I am told I am to be sent to King Balkan in Venia!" The woman was practically spitting in her rage. Attractive, I couldn't help thinking to myself. Her skin was also turning a deeper shade of orange.
"You are making demands of your King?" For the first time, I noticed how royal he looked compared to everyone around us. It was something in the way he carried himself. A regal quality. "I owe you no explanation. I want you gone and so you will be."
He wasn't giving this woman an inch. It made me wonder if this was something she had done before. She seemed the type to cause scenes and wreak havoc. It reminded me of some of the socialites we had the misfortune of running into once back home. They seemed to thrive on the drama.
It wasn't hard to follow their conversation. They were making no effort to hide their discussion. My mind began to run in rapid fire as I tried to piece together what was going on and read between the lines. The woman thought she was going to be Glacian's queen? Now he's sending her away. Why would he do that? He was being so cold towards the woman. Was that due to his personal feelings for her or because he was King and was forced to be cold and indifferent? If the royal etiquette was the same here as it was on Earth, then the woman had overstepped. In that way, his demeanor made sense. Who in their right mind would yell and make demands of a King? Well, besides me anyway. Images of the scene on the beach replayed in my head. There was something I didn't know about this situation. Pieces were missing. I would hold off on my judgement.
"There is no reason to send me away. King Balkan already has a harem. He does not need me there. You need me here. You cannot just throw away what we have!" The woman was almost hyperventilating in her rage and claws had now replaced her fingernails.
"There is every reason. You were never meant to be my Queen, for which I have repeatedly told you. The fact that you have convinced yourself otherwise is not my issue. It is yours. Now that I have found my Queen, I do not want you here causing any more trouble than you already have." Glacian remained calm and authoritative. It would seem that once he made a decision, he stuck by it.
"What do you mean you found your Queen?" she asked belligerently. She suddenly became aware of the rest of us standing with Glacian. It was clear we weren't Drakian, so I wasn't sure how she had missed it. This want-a-be queen was not very observant. "What are these things?" The disgust in her voice was abrasive.
None of my crew flinched. Our expressions gave nothing away as to what we were really thinking. We were trained in multiple ways to handle hostile opponents. Our guard never dropped.
Glacian's eyes flashed. "That is quite enough, Kittra. These are the survivors we found today."
"Survivors?" she sneered. "I do not understand why you insist on taking them in. They are nothing but vaskos. We should just kill them and be done with it. It would save all the resources they would use."
I didn't know what a vaskos was, but it didn't sound like a compliment. For someone who was fighting so hard to be queen, this woman was acting very undeserving of the role. There was no way I would want to live in a world where someone like her ruled. I fought to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself. Which was strange. Usually, I had no problem doing it when it involved something that didn't pertain to me.
Glacian smirked but there was still icy fury in his gaze. "You have just proven why you were never fit to be queen. But let me introduce you. Greg, Mikhail, Fabrizio, and Bao." They each nodded slightly in turn just as they had at the beach. "And, this is Commander Kiera, my Queen."
I almost took my eyes off the enemy to roll them. Now he wants to use my rank? And throwing me in front of a problem that wasn't mine? I had almost convinced myself that he had not been serious about the whole mate thing. Simply stating that you were mates may be the way things were done here, but it wasn't how it worked for me. But this was his situation, his rejected lover, and I would let him deal with her how he saw fit. For now. Did he think she would back down just because another woman was in the picture? Glacian apparently knew very little about women.
"You are replacing me with something that is not even Drakian?" Kittra screeched.
"Ah," Glacian said, completely unaffected by her tirade as he looked over Kittra's shoulder. "Gyo, Terra," he addressed what looked like guards coming our way. "Since Kittra seems to be having issues taking orders, escort her to Venia. King Balkan is expecting her."
There was a loud growl. Incensed at being ignored and dismissed, Kittra lunged at me. She was fast, but I was trained. And I was ready. Ducking under Kittra's outstretched claws, I slammed my fist into the other woman's soft stomach. I didn't know if it would have the same effect as on a human, but I wasn't the type to not defend myself. As Kittra bent forward with the force of the blow, I swung my arm in a smooth, hard uppercut against her jaw. There was a crack of bone before she passed out on the floor. Pain radiated through my hand and up my arm.
"Wow. I guess it doesn't matter what species they are," Greg deadpanned and then whistled. "They seem to have one in every culture."
I immediately went back to my ready stance, ignoring Greg's muttered comment. I didn't know what everyone's reaction would be to what I had done. I suppose I may have gone a little overboard. There had really been no need to completely disable the crazy woman. I had never been one to hold back though. No reason I should start now.