Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Wet Silk, Floss, Giblets

Ormiss curled his upper lip like a stallion barring his teeth. "I am fully capable of keeping her safe."

"She won't even have you in the same room, and you have human senses in that form. If I hadn't been there, the gods know what would have happened."

Asund, just going right for Ormiss fleshy Hippocamp belly: how powerless Hippocamp were on land. Unless they were summoning massive storms.

"And you think this is the best way to handle it?" I demanded, pointing at the pile of Maris. For fuck's sake!

The Lord-Raven gave me a frown. "Lady Theia, why were you alone with a demon-touched?"

Now Soir was in on it? "I knew him. He never tried anything before!"

"Because we were always watching," Korr said, stepping over the worst of the gore. Something squished between his toes. The wind whipped his hair into a cloudy storm, twisting the blue silk around his body.

"What do you think provoked him?" Soir asked me.

"I don't know. I had a minor scratch on my back, I guess it started to bleed again?"

Itek placed his palm on my back and pushed me forward oh-so-slightly to get a look. His thumb ran down the offending scar. I shivered and pulled away.

"Did she say you could touch her?!" Ormiss raged, storming past Korr and would have come right for Itek if Asund hadn't caught him and hauled him back with one arm.

"Take a breath, Lord-Regent," Soir said with a gesture, his voice low and soothing, "Itek meant no affront."

"Save your songs for someone else," Ormiss snarled. "You know that a male always asks and never presumes. I have instructed you on that often enough, have I not?"

"It was not an affectionate caress, it was one of inquiry, and you are over-reacting. She is not your possession, Lord-Regent." Soir's voice took on a sharp, glass-like edge that caused a flinch.

"You do not need to be so unreasonably over-protective," Korr murmured to Ormiss.

"You do not need to be so unreasonably disinterested, not that I would expect a dragon to care about a Hippocamp's concerns." Ormiss coiled lightening around his fist like shining wires.

Korr swirled with powdery white and shining crystals tangled in his hair and weaving around his hands. "And will you start a war the next time someone so much as brushes against her?"

"If necessary."

"This is a foolish thing to cause a diplomatic incident over. Unless the Queen's directed you to make an opportunity where none exists."

"You would take Itek's side and accuse me of trying to start a war. That is where the war begins." He pointed his staff at the remains.

"You didn't need to explode him like an overstuffed carcass!" I shouted.

"That is exactly what needed to be done and I will not apologize for it!"

"What the hell is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind?!"

Ormiss surged forward when Korr caught him with an arm and spun him around, yanking Ormiss close by his hair and talking to him. Lightening cracked against ice. Ethat picked something out of his teeth with a fang.

Itek ignored all of them and softly asked, "Have you been picking at this?"

"A little, it's been a bit itchy," I lied. I did not want him to know I'd been scratching around on it trying to feel something to prompt me to shift.