He’d given up his right to be called a dragon in that moment. He’d known he’d be hated and shunned by his people, but he clung to the single idea that he couldn’t leave Caelan behind. His king needed him. The memory of Zastrad would always be fresh in his mind. The gods were breaking the man he loved. No matter what it took, he would stay beside Caelan through it all.
Even if it meant sacrificing his wings.
“Drayce?” Haru called.
Drayce shook his head, snapping from those grim memories. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“No. Look!”
His eyes followed where Haru pointed just through the open gates to the dark-red smear of blood on the paving stones. There was more on the gravel in the courtyard.
But there were no guards…anywhere.
From just a quick glance at the fighting, Masaru had taken most of the clan to the Omari, but he would have left at least a skeleton protection squad behind to protect the manor as well as any children they had under their watch for training. Where the fuck was everyone? Where had the blood come from?
“Go slowly,” Drayce instructed, pulling out both of his guns. He took the lead, with Haru falling into step as his shadow.
“Fine. But you must promise that I get to try shooting those before you leave the Isle,” Haru grumbled.
Yeah, that was what this lunatic needed to learn, how to shoot.
They crossed the courtyard quickly, their footsteps barely making a sound across the stepping-stones through the gravel and around the statues. Blood spotted the ground in a few more places, but there were no bodies. No sounds of fighting.
Where were all the guards? The servants? Where was Shinobu? Even his sister?
Drayce slowed his steps more as they entered the central house. The halls were narrower, giving them less room in which to fight. Haru placed a little more room between them so they could maneuver if attacked.
Nothing had changed about his childhood home. His eyes danced over paintings and random bits of art that the Takahashi had collected over the centuries. The walls, floors, even the fucking smell was exactly the same as it had been when he’d lived there.
No.
The smell was different. Coppery. Tinged with blood and getting heavier.
He moved toward the main audience chamber where his father loved spending hours lording over both his own clan members as well as other clan leaders. In the center of the room, he found his sister on her knees, straddling Shinobu’s hips as she brought down a blade over and over again into his chest. Shinobu didn’t move. Didn’t fight. Didn’t breathe. He was dead and had been dead for a bit.
“Hitomi!” he cried.
But it wasn’t Drayce’s voice that finally dragged his sister from her trance. It was the frightened gasp of the other woman standing next to Hitomi. A blade fell from her blood-covered fingers and thumped on the floor.
Hitomi’s head snapped up and she looked at her companion before turning to look at him. She was streaked with Shinobu’s blood. It was so soaked into her clothes that he wasn’t sure what the original color of her robe was. Her black hair hung wet around her face and strands clung to her cheeks. She lifted her knife, pointing it at Drayce, and Drayce automatically pointed his guns at his sister.
He didn’t move as she stumbled to her feet and crossed to stand in front of the other person. She swayed a little, her eyes wide and fearful, but her grip on the stranger was strong.
“You’re here,” she said in a rough, trembling voice. “Does that mean he’s dead?”
“Masaru is dead,” Drayce answered and then his throat closed up. He’d just left the corpse of his father and they were standing over the bloody body of their brother.
“Drayce killed him. The Takahashi are surrendering to the Omari as we speak,” Haru continued and Drayce couldn’t be more grateful that he could find the words that needed to be spoken.
“So, you came here to kill Shinobu?”
Drayce nodded. “To end this. I won’t permit the Takahashi to threaten my new family, my clan.”
“Does that mean you’ve come to kill me too?” Hitomi demanded. The woman behind his sister whimpered and clutched at Hitomi’s sleeve, pulling her, but Drayce wasn’t sure if she was trying to pull Hitomi out of the room or to switch their places so she could protect her.
“How?” Drayce asked, avoiding her question because he wasn’t sure how to answer it yet.
“I have friends in the Chasm. We’re sick of the way those dragons have been treated by Father and Shinobu. When he launched the attack on the Omari, I knew it was our best chance to get control of the clan, to kill Shinobu.” An ugly sneer curled her upper lip as she stared down at the shredded remains of their brother. “I knew there was no way Masaru was returning alive from that fight. After what he did to you?” A sound of disgust left her throat. “He didn’t see what that human did to the Ito dragon. Killed him just by raising his hand. He was dead the moment he flew from here.”