Page 71 of Retrograde

I was glad my buddy said I could share the footage with Sagan and her people, but his friend didn’t want to be named. He wasn’t going to share it—basically leave him out of it.

Yeah, fair enough.

The media had a lot of footage already. Something else had been going on—like always in a huge city like Nerthus—and they’d been gathered only a few blocks away when the attack started.

I learned that Sagan and Benson had done a good job managing to get the attacking dragons positioned over the large park in the middle of the capital. It was smart to reduce any possible casualties or like taking out a whole fucking skyscraper.

From what was being reported, there was honestly minimal damage done.

I sat down in the guest room I was in for now and loosened my tie as I flipped through the news stations. I chuffed as one kept replaying Sagan shifting back to a woman even if they blurred out what they legally had to. They were doing it to be salacious and scummy.

Not one word about how powerful she was or how awesome her dragon had been. No, it was focused that she’d been socrassto flaunt her naked body after killing an elder, his mate, and half his family.

Right, the ones that attacked her.

I flipped channels and was glad at least that station was impressed she could have killed an elder. None of the guards or people flying with Sagan had said anything to the press, but they’d gotten a few unnamed comments from officers who had been on the scene.

At least they were all impressed with her too.

One actually gushed about how amazing Sagan was at checking her surroundings and protecting people while handling such an attack. He had seen her battle tactics and couldn’t get over how well her dragon was prepared.

It also made him wonder how effectively King Rhys would have handled the same situation. Was it him who made her prepare that way or working with the ancients who had come to help?

I smiled as a couple of young girls excitedly rambled to a reporter talking to people on the street that the queen was awesome. A few boys their age joined in, and one boasted thathis dad was mad because the queen was a better flyer than him and his mom kept saying clearly he needed to remember female dragons were stronger.

Oh shit. That kid was in trouble later, but it was great.

I smiled though, I really did. She deserved some good coverage after all the crap she’d been getting.Especiallyfor something so horrible.

Which was why I chuffed when I changed channels again and they had pictures up of all the attackers with their names and it was… Disgusting didn’t cover it. The “news” reporter was essentially doing a segment about how unhinged Sagan was for taking out an elder family and bloodline basically like there weren’t tons of them still.

Probably. I didn’t really know.

“You act like it’s an Alpha or royal bloodline,” the other in-house reporter shot back. “Elder isn’t a bloodline or—fine, they were a wealthy family with a long lineage, but an elder isn’t a born title. An elder family wasn’t a thing until these past decades where they became corrupt. It was supposed to be arotatinghonorary position that—”

“That’s semantics, and we know it was always the same families,” he drawled.

“No, it wasn’t actually,” she argued, ignoring the annoyed looks from the two other men as well. “He was the first of his family.Allthe elders were first of their family. It was people who were the best in their field or the different areas who could serve the ruler and Thovudin to keeppeace. Honestly, Darren Gurren is a perfect example if he wasn’t too young to be an elder.”

“That’s just nepotism,” one of the other men sneered.

“Right, but we live in a monarchy, so kind of hard to throw stones at that then,” she drawled. “Ignoringhe’s the queen’s uncle, he’s one of the most successful businessmen in Thovudin.We’ve done features on him and used to gush about how amazing he wasuntilthe queen named him an advisor.”

“I think you need to remember what the program is about tonight,” the first bit out.

She snorted and sat back in her seat. “You mean get with the program and talk trash about the queen or you’ll threaten to fire me again? Go ahead. You’re not actually my boss, and I’m paid to giveaccurateinformation and myeducatedopinions on situations. And I have a better education thanyou, so your being male shouldn’t make you be the one we listen to.”

“I think you should calm down and—” he seethed.

“I’m completely calm. You’re the one emotional,” she said with a smirk. “Anger is an emotion and you’re pissed. Red face pissed and ready to smack me. You should maybe calm down and get a grip. This is aserioussituation—”

“Okay, let’s remember the topic at hand,” the second guy cut in.

“Yes, the fact the leader of Thovudin was attacked,” she agreed. “An assassination attempt inbroad daylightis serious.” She gestured to the first guy. “And he’s upset they died. The criminals. The elder who brought his whole family to try and take out our ruler. He’s ontheir sideand annoyed… The queen survived?”

“I didn’t say that,” the first guy snapped. “I’m saying she didn’t have to kill him and be—”

“You weren’t there, and it’s a capital crime to try and assassinate the queen. What does it matter if they died then or later? You have one less reason to tear her down?” She snorted when the dragon chuffed. “You’re just pissed that Prince Fraser can’t take over like you want.”