Chapter Twenty-Four

Rhyse

I should have known going to the party was a bad idea.

The instant I saw her come out of the room, however, I knew I could never say no to this woman. Emma looked resplendent in her glani with the pendant I'd found for her dangling from her neck. A goddess who was now at my side, her arm linked in mine.

We arrived at the party together.

Others noticed immediately. I was not a common sight, and that alone set mouths running. But showing up with a human woman at my side drew all sorts of looks. The hushed background conversations notched up a level, the buzz growing.

A handful of bonfires had sprung up by that point, and we started to weave our way through them. The smell of burning wood filled the air, tickling our nostrils with its almost sweet aroma.

"Campfire" was something impossible to replicate and never failed to bring a hint of a smile to my face. Emma, it seemed, was the same. I listened to her first deep breath of it, inhaling her surroundings, and felt the matching satisfaction trickle into my mind.

"It's been so long, but it's all so familiar," she said, twirling away from me as the other dragons accepted our presence and returned to their conversations.

From a nearby circle of logs set around a larger bonfire, a dragon struck up a tune on a guitar made from a tortoise shell.

Emma paused to listen to the odd sounds. A moment later, the dragon lifted his voice in song, giving voice to the desires of all dragons to float on the morning breeze and see just what lay over the horizon, always chasing that next mile.

"Is this a sad song?" Emma whispered quietly to me. "Everyone seems to be smiling."

"It's a song of inner longing," I said. "But also something that speaks to all of us on different levels."

"Why does it make you sad?" she asked.

I looked away, trying to shield my emotions from her. Now was not the time for this. I didn't want to ruin a perfectly wonderful evening.

As it turned out, someone else did that for me.

The change was a rustle at first. A slight cessation of conversations which then resumed in much lower tones.

I glanced over my shoulder, seeking the source of it all.

"Shit," I muttered, seeing someone I hadn't expected to put in an appearance. "Come on. We need to go."

"What? Why?" Emma asked before following my glance to the trio of characters making their way through the bonfires. "Oh."

"Yeah, come on. Let's get out of here before Killian sees us."

We almost made it. The last bonfire was just in front of us, and beyond it, the darkness waited to swallow us up, allowing us to avoid any confrontation.

"RHYSE! GET BACK HERE!"

I groaned audibly as the shout silenced all other chatter nearby.

"So much for avoiding any trouble," I snarled, using one hand to put Emma behind me as I turned around.

Killian approached until he was ten feet away, his eyes full of fury. I affected a bored look and gestured for him to speak.

"Leaving us already?" Killian sneered. "Seems to be a habit of yours, running away. You really should try to stop doing that before it becomes the only thing you know how to do."

"What? Like you and sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?" I said, deadpan.

Someone nearby snickered.

One thing I could bank on was that Killian had many among the shore dragons who had no use for him. While I had few friends, I also had few enemies. I was rarely rude to anyone. I simply did not interact. It was an important difference.

But not one that automatically translated into backup if something happened.

"That's rich coming from you, considering you never show your face at gatherings like this," Killian managed to retort.

"I mean, it's clearly not invite-only if you're here," I said. "So, let's just get it over with. What do you want?"

"An apology," Killian smirked. "For soaking my boat yesterday."

"Not gonna happen. You deserved that."

"For what?" he barked, one hand clenching into a fist.

"Being yourself."

Killian snarled.

Emma shifted from behind me, resting a hand on my arm. "Are you trying to bait him into a fight?" she whispered. "Cause he's looking for one."

"Stay behind me," I hissed.

But it was too late. I saw Killian's eyes drop to her neck.

"Well, what a stunning piece that is," he said, gesturing with a finger. "Looks awfully new. Not the type of thing our Rhyse here would keep, that's for sure. I wonder where he found it."

I kept my mouth shut, mentally urging Emma to do the same. She must have picked up on it because she slid behind me once again.

"Holding out on us, are you?" Killian growled, taking a step toward us. As always, Reece and Calan were not far behind. "Something you found while we were off fighting, I suppose? And to think, just the other day you lied to my face and said you hadn't found anything out there. That you were just out on the water."

I gritted my teeth.

The crowd was silent, watching the confrontation. None were taking sides.

"Must have been easy for you to search while the rest of us were off fighting, doing the dirty work for you!"

I laughed. "Dirty work? You were off being a bully. And you have no idea why I stayed behind, Killian, because your brain is too small to think that big. So, piss off, and go bother someone else."

"I don't think so," he spat. "That treasure belongs to all of us. You would never have found it if you'd been fighting like a true dragon, not a fake one. That's probably why you never come to the beach parties. Not that I can blame you, I wouldn't either if had your—"

"Fuck you," I spat, too angry to care anymore. "You want it, come and get it, Gorillian ."

"I'm going to fuck you up," he hissed, clenching both hands into tight fists, flames dancing in his eyes.

But before he even took a step forward, a blinding pain raced up my spine and into my head at the same time as Emma groaned with pain and keeled over, falling to the sand.