Sons of Hellfire: Book 1 [Wattys 2016]

Lucien - 13

"So we meet again," Lucien drawled as he was pulled into the throne room of his mother once more. "Really, I thought you wanted me gone."

"What is the meaning of this?" thundered the Queen, marching in from the back door and casting a dark look at the surrounding guards holding Lucien captive. "You were supposed to capture the beast."

He rolled his eyes. "As if I'm such a deviant," he muttered under his breath.

The Queen snapped her eyes towards him. "And you," she hissed. She took in his bedraggled appearance and the sword and shield that still hung over his shoulders. "You swore to never return."

"I wasn't going to come back," he snapped. "I just so happened to escape from a beast with my life and instead of celebrating my luck joyously, I'm here again. This time in chains."

The guard holding him looked uncomfortable with the exchange happening between them. "It was just as terrible as the stories tell, M'lady. It was a dragon, alright. With massive wings and claws. It was half-man too. Completely barbaric in nature. It crashed into Neal's pub, destroying the entire thing. Then it set off for this young man and they both ran into the forest. We found it dead when we arrived, and this one unscathed." He gave Lucien a little shake. "The beast's body looked...burned."

The Queen frowned and when she looked at Lucien, it morphed into a smug expression. "Excited to go down south now, boy? You're in for a nasty surprise if you think you can get away that easily the first time."

"Nastier than having to face you for the second time in a day? I'll take my chances." The comment got him a slap across the face. He refused to cry out even when his mother's sharp nails dragged lines across his cheek. Her eyes burned with fury.

"Were you the one who set that monstrosity upon my kingdom?" she hissed, bending down to stick her face in front of his. "Is this some sort of sick idea of revenge for you?"

Lucien kept their eyes leveled, unwilling to back down by her intimidation. He had spent enough days of his life seeking her attention, then another few years avoiding it completely. Now, he had to show her it didn't affect him at all. Plus, it felt absolutely exhilarating to be able to throw so much sarcasm at her face and know that she technically could not do anything about it. The slap was meaningless. "I had nothing to do with the beast coming to Artus," he said slowly and honestly, and he watched as her eyes searched his face for lies. "I was truly intending to leave tomorrow. I had no clue this was going to happen."

The Queen was silent for a moment, her narrowed eyes trying to pry his soul open. Then, she straightened back up with a disappointed expression on her face. "I don't want to believe you," she said primly.

He couldn't resist a smirk as well as a silent sigh of a relief. "But unfortunately, you do."

"Do you know anything about the attack at all? What it was, where it came from, what its goal to achieve was?"

The guard jumped in again. "We think it was from the south, your majesty. There are no other dragons but in the south." Lucien bit the inside of his cheek as his mother's eyes flickered upon him for a fleeting second. "My men think it's a declaration of war. Ignisia has been quiet for far too long; perhaps they're-"

"It's not about war," Lucien interrupted as loudly as he could. Silence fell in the throne room as a dozen eyes swung back to him. "It's not a declaration of war."

"And what do you know about whether or not it's about war?" His mother asked suspiciously, rounding on him with her arms crossed. "You said you knew nothing about it."

He couldn't give up Rodel and Demetrius. Whereas he had the advantage of knowing his mother and the court, if they found out that two more dragons from Ignisia were actually within their borders, his mother wouldn't care if the beast was a declaration of war or not. She'd start one herself. "I don't," he said quickly. "But I'm sure it's not. What reason would they declare war for?" His mother still looked stubbornly unconvinced. If he didn't steer her mindset away from war now, there'd be a very likely chance that the ideas would bubble within her and her council's heads. He'd be traveling between two war zones.