Skylar couldn't bear to look at it. She turned her head into Orion's shoulder and squeezed her eyes closed. Orion was frozen in surprise, as was everyone else. Whatever they'd been expecting, it wasn't someone's head. She didn't know who it was, she hadn't let herself look long enough for that, but she assumed it was someone her father knew.
Orion's arm came around her and he pulled her into side, completely disregarding her family. She shuddered and pressed against him for comfort.
"What the hell," Olly whispered.
His words seemed to break through her father's stupor. His head snapped up and turned to look at the messenger, the girl Ashley.
"Seize her!" he demanded. The young woman yelped as two guards grabbed her arms roughly. She shook as Hal stalked towards her.
"Who do you really work for? Draco wouldn't dare send me something like this." He shoved the box toward her and she shrunk back in disgust, flinching away from the head.
"It is him! I swear," she insisted. "I didn't know what was in the box! I just do as His Majesty says, and he wanted to box delivered here."
Hal snorted and glanced back down in the box. Skylar wanted to ask if he knew who it was, but she did want to have to inhale to do so. Orion's arm tightened around her.
"There's a letter, he said there's a letter," Ashley burst, as if just remembering. "There should be a letter in there."
The king looked back down in the box long enough to notice the white paper tucked next to the head. He plucked it out and walked over to set the box down on the table. He slowly unfolded it and they all waited patiently. Violet stood with a hand to her chest and her eyes closed as she composed herself, but she moved toward her husband to offer him her support.
"My dear old friend--," Hal began slowly reading the letter. "I don't take betrayal well, and I'm disappointed in you. Instead of simply asking me about your daughter, you sent your men into my kingdom without my permission to search for her. Unfortunately, your men are not as inconspicuous as you had hoped. They didn't find her, but my men found them. As observed in the package I sent you, there are consequences to my anger.
"I hadn't planned on sending this package, simply a letter, but then I found out Skylar had returned."
Hal paused in his reading and looked up at Skylar. She gasped quietly. He knew, he knew. He knew she'd gone back on her word, and now she had no idea what he was going to do. Orion growled softly while Olly looked at the two of them in question. They hadn't come up with a Plan B, because there should have been no way that Draco found out. There was a spy in the castle. But, spy or not, word shouldn't have gotten to him so fast. He would have had to heard the day she arrived.
She clenched her fists and stepped away from Orion, who protested but let her lose contact with him.
"Keep reading," she told her father.
After pursing his lips, Hal continued. "...I found out Skylar had returned. She explicitly agreed to do no such thing, and she went back on her word. In return for such lack of honor, I have another one of your knights. Your head knight, if I recall. And Skylar's lover."
A growl tore through the room as Orion lost his temper. Skylar turned around in surprise. He didn't think that Draco was telling the truth, did he? Draco had seen her kissing Jonathan, but that had been one time; they were far from lovers.
Orion's eyes glowed dangerously at the words her father had read off the page. "Your what?"
"My nothing," she snarled back. "It's not important right now. Father, continue."
YOU ARE READING
Dragon Blood
Fantasy"Do you remember calling me 'mate?'" he asked softly, pushing her wild curls away from her face. She blushed deeply, but he wouldn't let her look away. "You heard that?" He nodded with a smile. "It was the first thought she ever shared with me." Sky...
