Draygon Inferno | Book 2 | ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Five

           "Tell me again. This time do it without a mouthful." Siobhan rubbed her temples as she sat across from the lioness shoving raw food in her mouth like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Maybe she hadn't. Siobhan didn't know the conditions of the land between Draygon and the Drakewood Forest so for all she knew Ayla was starving. "You just left him there?"

Ayla wiped the food from her mouth and swallowed. "He didn't give me a choice. Elias told me it was important for me to get information to you. Kaylis is going to use the Draygon to enslave all of the highlands."

Siobhan deepened the push of her hands against her temples. Her fingers moved in small circles as she closed her eyes. "You. Left. Elias. In. Draygon."

Ayla sighed. "I wasn't given a choice, Ice Fang!"

Siobhan slammed her hands against the table and growled, opening her eyes to glare at the lioness. "There's always a choice! You knock him out and drag him away if you have to. But you don't just leave him there!"

"He made a deal with Eloy in Ardorn and you know Elias holds his end of the deal."

"Don't act like you know anything about Elias." Siobhan curled her fingers inward, her fingernails ground against the wood table. Her fangs touched her lower lip as she continued to growl. Ice frosted her knuckles and weaved into the warped wood of the table. The eyes of the sparse women waiting to be picked for the Witches fell on her, but she didn't care. She was done hiding who she was, it was time the world knew Siobhan of Draygon was alive, she was back, and she was pissed.

Elias was alone in Draygon, surrounded by the cursed Crimson Cloaks and her enslaved people. He was alone and she could do nothing. She sighed and lowered her head, drawing her magic back. Taking it out on Ayla would solve nothing. Siobhan grabbed her mug of ale and downed its remains in a single gulp. She stood up and turned away from the table.

"Where are you going?" Jeada asked. The dragon sat on the edge of the table, their legs kicking slowly as their tail routinely smacked Wren in the head. He grumbled and pushed it away, only for it to smack him again.

Siobhan wondered why the moron didn't just move, but moving would've meant he had to sit close to her. She wasn't sure if it was the embarrassment of their morning fight or something more, but he kept his distance from her after they returned from Lady Lenore's. Siobhan was about to ask him when Ayla had stumbled in exhausted from running with little sleep from Draygon to the Drakewood forest.

"I'm going to get my things and leave for Draygon immediately. I want you all to follow me as soon as Ayla has had time to rest."

"You can't possibly be thinking of going against your step mother alone?" Wren asked.

"No, I'll wait for you to catch up, promise. But I need to see for myself, I need to be there. I've been feeling sorry for myself since the day Kaylis murdered my father and now my people are suffering for it. She's taken everything from me, I'm not going to let her take Elias too."

Wren rolled his eyes. "You're not going to wait for us. You'll march in there and sacrifice yourself if it means freeing everyone."

"So what if I do?" Siobhan crossed her arms. "If trading my life will save Draygon, why shouldn't I give it?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because there's still Garrith to deal with." Wren stood up and glared at her. "Maybe because there's still no way to safely remove the bracelet so you'd be freeing a bunch of mindless drones. Or maybe because that's exactly what Kaylis wants. For you to get all pissed off and be the same moron you accuse me to be. You're walking into the trap she's setting for you and you're too stupid to realize it."