The rain intensified, changing from a sprinkle to a summer tempest in a matter of minutes.

Dragon weathered the deluge as he tore a strip from his shirt and pressed the fabric against Carellian’s chest. “You’ll be fine, big boy.”

His majestic steed lay on the floor, wounded and broken, and he could only whisper soothing nonsenses to Carellian.

“The animal medicus will arrive shortly,” Lars repeated for the third time, louder this time to be heard above the pouring rain, staunching the wound on Carellian’s wing with another strip from Dragon’s shirt.

On Solaria, draglets were treated like part of the family. To a dragon shifter, those animals resembling so closely their dragons were like children. Only a perverted soul would harm a draglet.

In contrast with the commotion taking place on the terrace, Valerian stood silent, looking in the distance.

Lightning and thunder scared Carellian, who whimpered and trembled.

“I’m here, big boy. I’m here.” Dragon wanted his guards to come back with the mercenary, so he could pummel the bastard to a pulp. “Jade won’t hurt Contessa,” he said, sparing a glance at his lieutenant, whose ramrod stance radiated anger and fear.

“Jade…” Valerian scoffed. “We are on a first-name basis now.”

“Valerian,” Lars warned him.

Without turning, Valerian raised a finger. “And how could you possibly know that Jade won’t hurt Contessa?” Despite his belligerent attitude, the soft edge in his otherwise cold voice betrayed a sliver of hope.

“Because she could’ve escaped when I trapped her inside the cave, but she didn’t because Carellian stood in the way.” Dragon freed a hand to pet Carellian’s head. “And Contessa let Jade ride her.”

Draglets were empathic animals, and they had an uncanny ability to judge the moral worth of a person. Jade could have never ridden the draglet if Contessa didn’t approve of her.

Valerian turned and gave Dragon a long assessing look before focusing again on the night sky. “That’s the only reason I haven’t hopped behind one of the guards to find and kill your assassin.”

A cold shiver ran down Dragon’s spine at the thought that he would fight one of his best friends to keep Jade safe. “You don’t understand—”

“No, I can’t.” His lieutenant kept his voice low, but the previous softness wasn’t there any longer. “I can’t possibly understand how the luckiest man in the whole Fifth Moon System would risk his life and reputation for a woman whose mission is to kill him. And it is not as if she lied about her intentions or tricked you into thinking otherwise.” He shook his head, his dark mane escaping the leather tie that fell to the floor. “I also can’t understand how the same man, whose wedding day is in less than a month, would forget about his betrotheds.”

“I can’t fight my heart any more than you can control your sentiments—” Dragon let the sentence dangle.

The unsaid words floated between them, causing Lars to scratch his throat. Of course, their common friend had noted Valerian’s stolen glances at Gilda too.

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Valerian said, but lacked the outrage such an insinuation would have provoked any other time.

“Valerian—” Dragon started.

The storm took a turn for the worse, with high winds causing the rain to fall in icy sheets in a cacophony of distorted sounds. Still, his shifter ears caught a feeble whistle, and he emptied his mind to hone his senses on the anomaly. His head swiveled to the right and then up, just in time to see an arrow fast approaching, just above his head. Its perfectly arched trajectory would have ended right inside his skull had his hearing been less sharp.

He moved to the side in the nick of time, and the deadly weapon skittered to the floor. His ceremonial dagger found its way into his hand before he drew his next breath.

Valerian and Lars screamed at the same time, “Move!” as a second and a third arrow rained down from the sky, hidden by the deluge.

Only Dragon’s shifter reflexes made it possible for him to skirt the incoming arrows and grab a third in midair as he spun his head around, his drenched hair whipping his face.

Without their draglets, they were like sitting ducks, and Dragon wished he could shift and let his beast take care of the threat. Damn those cosmic radiations that had crippled his ancestors and trapped their dragons inside their minds.

The assassin’s shadow moved whenever lightning illuminated the sky with brilliant white flashes. As soon as the sky turned black again, he blended perfectly within the darkness, making it impossible to guess from where the next arrow would arrive.

“We must take you inside.” Valerian covered Dragon’s back, brandishing his scimitar with both hands as he deflected the next volley of arrows.

Dragon hesitated. He didn’t want to leave Carellian out there defenseless, but armed only with his dagger, he wouldn’t be able to defend him anyway.

“Dragon!” Lars motioned for him to hurry, tilting his head toward the bedroom’s door as he used his katana to cut a few descending arrows in half.

The next arrow missed Dragon and fell close to Carellian’s head instead. The following shaft missed Carellian’s wing by a hairbreadth. Dragon couldn’t leave him behind.

Valerian ran to Dragon and grabbed his arm. “Those are poisoned tips.” He indicated the thick black substance dripping from the arrows on the floor, then moved a few steps to retrieve some of the shafts.

Dragon understood Valerian’s plan and picked a few of the discarded shafts as well. Then, when the lightning struck followed by a tremendous burst of thunder and the sky revealed the position of the assassin, they both aimed and threw the arrows at him. None of the shafts found their intended target, but the strategy was successful, because it slowed the assassin.

Lightning and thunder intensified, coming closer and closer until one bright flash struck the bridge in front of Dragon’s quarters. In the distance, clockwork wings silhouetted against the sky as the draglet squad flew toward the terrace, rapidly approaching.

At the sight of the draglets, the assassin chose a hasty retreat, going after the second pair of wings.

“You,” Dragon called one of the guards hovering over the terrace. “Stay with Carellian.”

A moment later, he was airborne, riding the guard’s draglet.