Dragon's Honor (The Dragon Corps Series Book 1) by Michaela Kendrick

Author:Michaela Kendrick [Kendrick, Michaela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

A single curl trembled as it lay against Aryn’s neck. Her face was blank. She had been made up perfectly by the maids Ellian had brought with him, dressed in a blue-green gown that exactly matched the necklace of Vorekan sapphires at her neck, and she walked silently at her husband’s side as the Warlord of Ymir gave a grand tour of his gardens, Cade walking behind them and trying to pretend, as a bodyguard should, that he did not exist.

“They tried to destroy it,” the Warlord said now, sweeping out one arm to indicate the greenery. Hedgerows grew in perfect patterns, line with paths, a fountain at the center. “Barbarians. They have no appreciation for history. It took me ten years to get a clipping of each of the plants. I’ve been thinking of building a perfect replica of the palace as well. It would have to be modernized, of course, but what better than a model of the Sun King’s palace?”

Aryn’s fingers trailed over a brass plaque, proclaiming these gardens to be a perfect replica of those at Versailles, on old earth. Her face, she kept blank, and Cade ached to know what lay behind those flat, blue-grey eyes. What must she be thinking now, this woman who had worked in the Warlord’s mines, who had seen his cruelty firsthand, as she looked out at the silent beauty of his palace?

He did not think he could bear to know. And Ellian, he thought, his anger rising, should have known better than to ask Aryn to accompany them on this tour.

On the other hand… As Cade held the door open for Aryn to leave the hangar, Ellian’s eyes had looked between them, assessing. He watched every gesture between them, an inspection that was just shy of a blatant accusation, and Cade had the rising urge to ask Ellian just what he expected to see. The two of them lying together on the launch pad, perhaps? Matching rings and a declaration of love, right there in front of everyone?

It would be funnier if his chest didn’t ache with it. It would be funnier, also, if Ellian were not bringing Aryn on this tour as a form of revenge. Cade wanted to take the man by the shoulders and throw him against one of the nearby walls, demand to know why he would throw the two of them together if these were his suspicions.

He should have quit three days ago when he had the chance. Then he’d be with Talon, planning desperately now that the Warlord’s armorer had arrived. Ellian’s presence could only mean one thing—that the Warlord was about to have the weapon he’d been demanding all this time.

Cade knew he should focus on what the two were saying to one another as they strolled off, talking easily about the folly of the rebellion, but he could not move. Aryn stood as if frozen, staring out at the gardens. In the past days of the journey, she had grown both more confident, and more remote.

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