Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Forty-Eight

Graydon had first followed Maeno in the fall when he came to understand that he was a part of Naena's life that would never go away. He had followed to keep the second-year alive. Graydon had figured if Maeno died, Naena would be sad. The city was dangerous for any lone man and he didn't have recognizably mage-ish features.

He had even heard the maids call Maeno handsome. One did not call a mage handsome. They inherited magic and mainly looked like they got hit with a hot frying pan shortly after birth, except those born of Seven mothers.

So, he had followed Maeno into the city to keep what he thought was an idiot alive. Only to follow Maeno on a job, then another... and another.

And to return to the university and claim he was feeding the animal.

Feeding the animal was slang for sex, though Graydon wasn't entirely sure Maeno knew that.

Graydon said not a word to anyone. He doubted Naena knew what Maeno got up to in his free time. He doubted the pair of them spoke of it. If Nendan didn't know, well, that was Nendan's damned problem.

Until Maeno returned from a job to an angry Nendan doing things without thinking. Lugh rarely acted on emotion, but when they did, it was a bad time for everyone. Pan had cleaned up more than one Lugh mess in the past. For all the accepting, guiding force that they were, Graydon would rather wrangle with a dragon than a pissed-off Lugh. Finding Maeno caught up in a command, Graydon realized two things.

The first was that he would need to deal with Lord Lugh that night, not Nendan. The man had lost six including, rumour was, his own kissing cousin. A mage had been in the area when he shouldn't have been, where he shouldn't have been and miles from where he claimed he had been. The mage had startled the draconians, scaring them onto the Lugh group attempting to infiltrate their camp to retrieve a wyvern dragoness egg. The egg was smashed, his people killed, and Lugh had furiously turned on the dragons.

Dragons backed down from Lugh. It was how the family forged the first treaty. But even having a dragon take a step back couldn't resolve that kind of anger.

The second thing he realized was that he and Naena needed to talk about the command before someone pushed Graydon's hand.

His tutors had attempted to explain the sensation to Graydon once. His father, having experienced it, had also attempted to put words to it. Graydon doubted either managed to fully encompass what happened to a shield when a sword ordered them to obey.

Not magic was the best they had described to him. How could something not be magic? A command could not be worked around or changed, hidden from or lessened because it wasn't magic.

Graydon was starting to lean into Naena's declaration that even the Seven didn't really know how magic worked.

With Maeno's coin in his pocket, an assurance that Maeno now knew that Graydon knew, and the paper scroll in his hand, Graydon entered Lord Lugh's study. The man's eyebrows rose as he looked across the desk. Those eyes roved up and down Graydon, then the mouth opened as a little breath was drawn in.

"What can I do for the dragon prince?" Nendan asked.

Not Lord Lugh. There was caution in Nendan's voice.

"I am the Pan heir, not the dragon prince," Graydon snarled.

"You may say that, but there is a distinction," Nendan said. "I would never fear a visit from the Pan heir, but the prince? Whose grave will you be digging tonight? Whose heart have they ordered up on a platter this time? Trathor's?"

"I don't do that anymore."

The relief that swept across Nendan's features was obvious and cut Graydon to his core.