Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I blinked. “How do you know?” Wait. “You plan on giving me a nickname?”
“You’re most certainly not a Bronnie. Or a Winnie. Brownie Bites, perhaps?” He said it with such ease, as if we were debating the proper term for today’s weather. I didn’t know whether he was teasing me or disarming me or both.
What even was my life right now? “You may not call me Brownie Bites. If you will not use my title, my name will do.”
He canted his head at me, his attention steady. “Do you not already have a nickname for me? I believe dragons often refer to me as the Beast of the Seas.”
He was all innocence as he took his first bite, watching me, awaiting my response.
Meanwhile, I nearly squirmed in my seat. “A nickname for me would be… fine.”
He almost smiled; I was sure of it.
I forced myself to concentrate on the food rather than him. My mouth watered. Everything looked so buttery and rich, and I hadn’t eaten properly in days, too anxious about our meeting.
I took a tentative bite of the dish he’d thought I would like best, and oh, the exquisite flavors bathed my tongue in perfect harmony. My eyes sank shut as I savored.
When I refocused, eager for my next shovelful, I discovered Sebastian watching me once again. Intently. As if my reaction mattered more than his appetite.
“Good?” he asked, just a little smug.
A flush spread across my skin. I nodded. “Very good.” I reached for a roll from an assortment of breads in a basket. My fingers brushed his. He’d reached, too.
I jerked away. He didn’t. Instead, he held my gaze, refusing to let it go. Refusing to let me go. We peered at each other, seconds stretching, and my breathing quickened. What was happening right now?
“For you.” He offered his roll to me.
Rather than refuse, I snatched it, very much not like a princess. We ate in silence for several minutes, and I used every second to regain my composure.
“Perhaps His Majesty would be so kind as to finally, at long last, explain my assignment,” I said. “Please.”
He leaned back in his chair, the almost smile once more in place. “Já. Let’s get business out of the way, so you can relax, and I can glimpse the promised charm.”
A backhanded compliment, if ever I’d heard one. Rather than take offense, I quipped back, “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”
He chuckled, a warm, deep sound I felt in my bones. “You’re much wittier than reports suggest.”
Ash and embers, he gave good laugh.
Between one heartbeat and the next, however, he grew serious, not a hint of amusement remaining. “What we discuss from this point forward will not be shared with anyone. No one here. Not even with your sisters. Swear it.”
I blinked rapidly. Ambassadors weren’t supposed to make secret promises they couldn’t honor. Besides that, I couldn’t keep this one. “I can’t swear, majesty. Sebastian. My sister is my queen. If you tell me something that jeopardizes dragons, it’s my duty to inform her.”
He studied me. “I appreciate your honesty, and I give you my word. The dragons in Ashmorra will be in no danger by what you learn today.”
Okay then. “Ja. Based on your assurance, I swear to tell no one.” If he’d lied, all bets were off.
His study of me only intensified, as if he were trying to work out a puzzle.
Finally, he reached out, captured his wine glass and sipped, as if bracing for what was to come. “Jokull, the kraken primordial, has returned. He likes to send corpses instead of flowers.”
My back stiffened, and my hand flew to my neck. Was that what had been inside the crate? Corpses? “That’s not good.” The dragon primordial—my father—had returned as well, and he’d wreaked nothing but havoc.
“There have been… problems.”
“I can imagine.” There was one primordial per faction, and each had begun as a human, then transformed into the first berserker of their kind, powerful in a way the berserkers who’d come after them were not.
“For centuries, Jokull was imprisoned beneath a mountain, held captive by a vengeful goddess,” Sebastian continued. “The turul king and queen defeated the goddess and returned the primordials to their homelands, chained. But those chains did not hold for us.”
“We experienced the same problem.” Olyssa had nearly died trying to contain our father.
“I’m unsure of what was done to Jokull during captivity, but his power is now augmented,” Sebastian said. “Enhanced in ways I never expected. He has designs on my throne, and he’s willing to wipe out krakenkind to get it.”
The table shuddered for seemingly no reason, and the floor lurched beneath my feet. Neither stopped.
“What’s happening?” I cried. An earthquake? My gaze flew to the window. To the water shaking violently beyond the dome. My wine glass tipped over and something cracked above my head.