Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (free novels to read TXT) 📗

Afraid of what it could do, the dragon didn’t know how to proceed. It knew Sigrid was something important to them both. That she had to be protected at all costs, because he was calm at her side. She made him think like a man. Something like that was precious and rare as the most beautiful of rubies pulled from the mines deep below his palace.

She looked up at him through the waving strands of gold and diamonds, then smiled. “How does it look?”

He stared down at her and lost all the air in his lungs. He wanted to shout that she looked incandescent. That the stars in the sky couldn’t rival her beauty for they would never shine bright enough to overpower her.

But he couldn’t. Nadir wasn’t a man who knew how to speak poetry. He’d been raised to be a general. Now his brother, Hakim, he could have wooed her the right way. He wouldn’t have been the spoiled child in her eyes, but the man who had sonnets dripping from his tongue.

Nadir cleared his throat and took a step back. He tucked his shaking hands behind him and nodded. “Good. It suits you.”

She gave him a strange look. Perhaps she saw there was something more in his gaze. Something he couldn’t control. Were his eyes shifted? The colors in the room had skewed a bit, but he could only focus on the gold covering her face. That hadn’t changed at all. In fact, the gold looked… so…

Something clattered onto the balcony outside his room. Angry voices drifted through the curtains, pitched low so no one would hear them but his ears picked up on much more than the average person.

“You could have been more gentle!”

“It’s not like I was trying to hit your head.”

“I was right behind you. How did you not know I was right there?”

He recognized both of those voices, although he hadn’t thought to see them quite so soon. He glanced down at Sigrid to see she’d recognized them as well. She rolled her eyes and gestured with an arm for him to go get them.

The smile on Sigrid’s face hadn’t shifted. “It’s your palace.”

“They’re your friends.”

“Only two of them. I believe there’s also an assassin with them who hasn’t spoken yet.”

He listened intently, but couldn’t pick up on the sound of anyone else. “How do you know she’s out there with them?”

Before Sigrid could respond, Tahira pushed the red curtain aside. “Because she could see me. Really, how did you not have more assassination attempts? Your guards are foolishly simple.”

Nadir gritted his teeth. “Need I remind you they don’t know their sultan is here?”

“They don’t yet?” Tahira lifted a brow. “Then I’ll say it again. Your army is lacking in any kind of training, and I’m shocked you’re still alive.”

Sigrid stepped forward before he could respond with the growl bubbling in his throat. He wanted to change in front of the assassin once more. His lungs still ached from where she’d tried to drown him, and there were plenty of unsaid words between them.

Just because the death of his mother had stilled those words, didn’t mean he wasn’t going to say them. Tahira had a lot to own up to, and he would ensure she understood he was the dragon. He could pick her bones from between his teeth if he wanted to.

His wife ushered her two, strange friends into the room then turned toward Tahira. “One of the Qatal, I take it?”

Tahira inclined her head. “I see you’ve heard of us even in Wildewyn.”

“No,” Sigrid replied, then pointed at Nadir. “He told me everything. The Earthen folk have never heard of your kind, nor are we intimidated by your people in the slightest. I do appreciate that you’re… confident in your abilities.”

Leave it to his feral wife to bring even a Qatal to her knees. Nadir hid his laugh behind a cough, turning away from the three women so they wouldn’t see the grin spreading across his face.

He’d missed her banter so much more than he’d thought. The women here battled with words as well, but they were hidden behind veiled threats and wishes of well health. Sigrid didn’t hold back at all. Instead, she just destroyed them.

His woman didn’t go to battle unless she knew she’d win.

Turning back toward the women, he realized they were staring at each other with a little too much aggression for his comfort. He cleared his throat, hoping he wouldn’t have to step between them. The last thing he wanted was to get wounded while trying to stop a famed warrior and a dragon from murdering each other.

On second thought… the blast of heat that flowed through his veins suggested his dragon would be very interested in breaking up such a fight.

Tahira glanced at him. “Where is this army of yours?”

“I assume they’re still in Wildewyn. I haven't revealed myself to anyone just yet.”

Camilla stepped forward, her dark skin glistening in the sunlight. He should really tell her that she’d always looked better here in Bymere. She seemed happier here as well, where the sun could stroke her skin and her eyes could stare across the vastness of the sand dunes. “They’ve returned,” she said, snapping him out of his thoughts. “On the way here, we had to go around them.”

“They’ve returned?” He shook his head. “Then why hasn’t the sultan returned to his private quarters?”

“You mean the false sultan?” Tahira asked.

Gods, he couldn’t keep this straight. So many people were in the room talking over him and he couldn’t pay attention when his mind was screaming that they should have told him.

But they didn’t know he was here. They all thought he was with them, but that was the sultan who had sent them a war that would end them all. He’d always hoped his people would follow him so blindly to their deaths, and yet, they had.

Shaking his head, trying to clear the thoughts that thundered in