Page 15 of Midnight of Ashes
“Well, they weren’t taking any chances. I told Maddox to meet you at Easton’s car. Prepare Hayden the best you can on the ride home,” Cillian ordered.
Knox glanced at Easton and Cáel. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Which part?”
“All of it, but I was thinking about involving Mad,” Knox answered.
Cillian sighed. “It would be worse if he found out about their presence later.”
Easton muttered something under his breath.
“Make it quick,” Cillian ordered. “It’ll just get worse the longer they have to wait.”
He hung up without another word.
Everyone was quiet for a moment before I spoke. “What the hell is the dragon council?”
“We’ll explain in the car,” Knox said. “We need to move.”
Pete was already on his phone, talking to his enforcer partner, Terry. Cáel kept an arm around me as he hurried me down the hallway and out into the late afternoon sunshine. We crossed the parking lot to find Maddox standing at the G-Wagon.
I’d never seen him quite as he was right now. A fury radiated through Maddox, practically vibrating his body as he waited for our approach.
Easton approached him warily. “You going to be okay?”
“Yes.” Maddox’s voice sounded more animal than human, and I knew for certain he was anything but okay.
Pete and Terry got into the SUV next to ours as Maddox and Easton got into the front seats of ours. Cáel opened the door for me, and I slid into the center back seat. With Knox and Cáel on either side of me, I had to twist my body sideways to fit.
“Start talking,” I ordered as Easton backed out of the parking spot.
Knox and Easton shared a look through the rearview mirror. It felt like some silent twin-speak passed between them before Knox began to talk.
“For a long time, we had a ruling class. A queen and her bond who oversaw all the hordes across the globe. Each individual horde had its own ruling figures. Some were called kings and queens, an honor passed through bloodlines. Others had alphas, who were chosen through dominance.”
“You have an alpha. Cillian is the most dominant dragon?” I asked.
Knox nodded. “That’s how our horde was formed. We really didn’t give Cillian much of a choice.”
“And no one just votes? Like a dragon democracy?” I asked.
Knox’s lips twitched. “I don’t think that’s really a thing.”
“It should be,” I mumbled.
He linked his fingers through mine. “Over the years, there were more and more attempts on the queen’s life. More and more infighting. There were forces calling for change. That we should have a council that represented all the quadrants of the globe.”
“That sounds fair.”
Cáel grunted next to me.
“It’s honestly just people grasping for more power,” Knox explained. “From the stories my parents told me, the queen and her bond really cared for our people. Who we have now seems to be more concerned with control and prestige.”
“What happened to the queen?” I asked.
A shadow passed over Knox’s eyes. “She and her bond were killed in an attack. The new council stepped in days later.”
I gaped at him. “You think they had her killed.”
