Chapter 383: The Beta Finally Shoots His Shot

The throne room was on fire. Three different colors. None of them were winning.

Kael’s gold flame came out of both hands in a continuous "die and stay dead" stream that should’ve incinerated anything living within thirty feet. Ryker’s red flame slammed Emma from the left flank. Griffin’s green dropped in from the right.

Emma stood in the center of it, untouched, underwhelmed, and unimpressed by the three grown men giving it everything they had.

The flames broke around her like water hitting a stone, splitting and curling and dissipating against whatever she was running underneath her skin. She looked bored. Three apex predator dragons were trying to cremate her and the woman looked like she was waiting for her drink order.

The throne room lit up gold the second Guinevere entered, Archaic Draken-Vorah runes igniting along the walls.

"There she is. Showtime," Emma called.

Dark magic detonated from her in a concentric blast. Black and violet light erupted outward in every direction.

Before it could reach the men behind the flame—

WHOMPF.

Guinevere’s palms went off like two tiny suns. White light left them, forming a cocoon around Emma and her dark magic in a blinding "sit the fuck down, bitch." Same instant, white-and-gold light snapped around Nicholas, Kael, and Maddox like they’d been selected for the deluxe Luminari mate package.

Emma clapped her hands, not even breathing hard. "The boys too. Well done, girl. I have to say, this is the most entertainment I’ve had in seven weeks."

FLICK.

Guinevere flicked her hand like she was shooing a fly. Sterling’s bracelet ripped off Emma’s wrist and sailed across the throne room. A pendant necklace flew out of Emma’s coat pocket at the same time.

Maddox and Kael both raised their hands, instinct guiding them. Gold flame erupted from both brothers at the same time, hitting Emma from two angles. Griffin and Ryker joined automatically.

It did nothing.

Four dragons. Zero damage. Emma was keeping score. Of course she was. This round went to her so clean it should’ve come with a receipt and a middle finger.

She looked at them with an expression that clearly said, dragons never learn.

The fire was touching her and the fire was doing nothing, and the nothing was louder than any scream would have been because it meant the flame that had cremated armies couldn’t touch her.

Her eyes landed directly on Guinevere. "Who am I meeting right now? Please tell me ancient queen."

White light exploded out of Guinevere. It didn’t touch Emma this time. It formed a ring and shoved everyone else back.

Kael’s boots scraped stone. Ryker hit the pillar with the dignity of a man who had been getting his ass handed to him by Blair and was fine with adding Guinevere to the roster. Griffin caught himself on a column. Nicholas and Maddox hit opposite walls.

Sterling’s body moved. It slid across the stone floor without being touched, gliding smoothly until it came to rest at Kael’s feet, outside the ring. Placed there. Delivered. With the deliberateness of someone who had noticed the injured man on the ground and had decided where he belonged before the ring closed.

Guinevere didn’t look at Kael when she spoke. Her gold eyes stayed on Emma.

"Treat him."

The voice used to deliver the command was not her normal voice. But he had heard it from her before, when they were considerably more naked.

He dropped to his knees beside Sterling. His hands found the Third’s chest, checking for breath, for heartbeat, for the damage that dark magic leaves in a body.

Then his eyes went wide for a half second. White light pulsed in his palms, more powerful than he had ever manifested. He was only part Luminari. He wasn’t sure if it was his or hers. It moved into Sterling without Kael having to do anything except hold still.

"What the fuck," he breathed, staring at his hands.

His magic had just been upgraded without his consent, his input, or his understanding. He was a vessel now. The vessel had concerns.

Blair’s feet were still locked up from Emma’s last tantrum, but the white light treated that like a suggestion. It slid her ass backward across the stone, immobilized legs and all while she looked like a pissed-off mannequin. Her back hit Damon Tavian’s chest. Damon immediately pulled her behind him because his legs were working.

Blair, legs still frozen, looked up at him.

"Damon."

"Princess."

"I have been blasted by dark magic. My mother’s necklace was ripped off my throat. I have been dragged across a stone floor on my ass by holy light. And my legs don’t work."

"Correct on all counts."

"If anyone, at any point, asks me how my evening was, I will set them on fire."

"How about if we survive this, I take you to dinner?" he asked.

"Done."

A ring closed in the center of the throne room. Inside? A girls-only fight club: Guinevere Lunaris versus Emma Eldritch.

Outside the circle? Every sorry son-of-a-bitch who didn’t make the cut.

The Dragon King was pissed about this arrangement, and banged his fists against the white barrier.

Kael watched him unimpressed. "You’re banging on the wall like a caveman."

"Guinevere. Let me in. Now," Maddox roared, ignoring Kael.

Inside the ring, Guinevere didn’t look at him. But the white wall in front of his hands thinned, then parted, and opened for him to step through before sealing behind him.

That easy. He was inside. Standing beside his wife. Because he asked. Every person outside the ring processed that.

Maddox shot Kael a sideways glare. "Don’t wait up."

On the other side of the throne room, Nicholas watched Maddox step through the barrier like it was a curtain and immediately banged a single fist on the barrier. He was not content to sit the fuck down and watch.

"Guinevere. Let me in too."

The wall went see-through, then parted. Nicholas stepped through. It sealed behind him. He blinked once, like he had also been expecting resistance.

Kael looked up from Sterling, not pleased by this arrangement. He opened his mouth, but Guinevere cut him off at the knees.

"You stay because you are not healed, Young Dragon," she called over to him in a voice that still wasn’t her own.

Kael’s hands hadn’t stopped glowing. Sterling’s breathing was evening out under the light pouring from his palms, color climbing back into his face one shade at a time.

"Oh, sure," he muttered, not even looking at Sterling. "Everyone gets in. I’m out here doing medical work."

Ryker, who was leaning against a pillar with a bruise forming on his shoulder, looked at Kael. "I do believe that means you got benched, Young Dragon."

"You hit a pillar, Ryker."

"That I did. All of us got shoved, but she specifically told you to stay. That’s worse."

Kael opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "Fuck. I hate that you’re right."

"First time for everything, Young Dragon."

"Call me that one more time."

"Young Dragon."