Bao snorted again and started to say something, but her words were cut short when Fiat, moving so fast he was just a blur, snatched the sword from behind him and leaped out of view, toward Bao.

There was a horrible sucking noise, followed by a wet gurgle, and a thump as something heavy hit the floor.

Fiat backed into view again, wiping a now bloodied blade on a piece of cloth. “As my good friend says, power flows to the wyvern, not away from him.”

He smiled contentedly as he replaced the sword on the wall.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

I clapped a hand over Cyrene’s mouth even before she could draw breath to scream.

“Don’t make a sound,” I whispered, my mouth close to her ear.

Her eyes widened, and she struggled as if she was going to pull away from me and scream her lungs out.

“There is a madman with a very lethal sword just a few feet away,” I pointed out.

She stopped struggling and nodded. I released her and reapplied my eye to the narrow space in the doorway.

Fiat stood at the opened door opposite, calling to someone. A couple of his bodyguards and two others trooped into the room.

“Remove that,” he said nonchalantly, waving toward the area where Bao had stood.

The stark expressions of disbelief on his men’s faces had to match the one I wore; they certainly mirrored Cyrene’s.

“What are you waiting for?” Fiat demanded, raising his voice as his dragons just stood there, clearly too astounded to do anything. “I want that removed, and this place cleaned up. There is much I must attend to, and little time in which to ensure there will be no trouble from the red dragons.”

One of the bodyguards grabbed a blanket that was draped over a chair and moved out of view. He returned hauling what I could only assume was Bao’s body, thankfully covered with the blanket. Another man followed with another object, also wrapped.

“Clean up the blood,” Fiat barked, waving an authoritative hand. “And remove all signs that she was here. Stephano, go upstairs and take care of her guards.”

A handsome blond man lifted his eyebrows in silent question.

Fiat growled, “Just get rid of them. I won’t have them interfering.”

Stephano hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded and left. I closed the door carefully, my heart beating wildly as I turned to look at a shaken Cyrene. Maata stood with an impassive look on her face, but her eyes were bright with emotion.

“We have to get out of here,” I told them softly. “I really do not want Fiat to know we’re here, or what we’ve seen.”

“We will go out the way we came in,” Maata agreed.

She waited until Cyrene and I hurried through the door to the tunnel before following us.