Page 97 of Dragon’s Ending

Of course he had a driver. Dominic made a tiny sound beside me that suggested he’d had exactly the same reaction.

Rhodri held the study door open for Mortimer. The house had grown quiet while we’d been in there, the rest of the family evidently vanishing somewhere safer than the vicinity of Abimelech Mortimer. The grandfather clock in the hall ticked steadily through the silence as Rhodri held Mortimer’s coat for him to don, then we crossed towards the front door.

Outside, rain slicked the gravel, yellow beneath the lights spilling from the house. Waiting at the foot of the steps sat a cream Rolls Royce so polished it reflected Dragon’s Ending in its bonnet.

The driver appeared like a jack-in-the-box, climbing the steps with an umbrella already raised.

Mortimer paused before moving outside, and looked back at Dominic. “Goodnight, Dominic.”

Something about the way he said it made the hairs on my neck stand on end. He sounded pleased with himself, and I couldn’t see how that could be a good thing.

“Night,” Dominic replied cautiously.

Mortimer’s mouth twitched very slightly.

Then he disappeared into the car, the door shutting with a soft, expensive sound before the Rolls glided silently down the drive and vanished into the rain and the dark.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then Rhodri and I turned towards Dominic at exactly the same moment.

He looked between us and visibly recoiled. “Oh, absolutely not,” he said immediately. “I need a fucking drink before whatever this conversation is.”

I folded my arms. “Dominic—”

“No.”

Beside me, Rhodri pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to need one as well.”

Chapter Thirty-six

BEN

It turned out we all needed at least two drinks.

Rhodri dragged his chair round from behind his desk, and the three of us sat in front of the fire as Dominic told us what Mortimer had said about setting up a council to lead the dragons.

“He thinks we’ll fracture once he’s no longer here to lead us,” he said.

It had never occurred to me to wonder what might happen once Abimelech Mortimer was gone. From the way Rhodri was tilting his glass, watching the firelight through the whisky, he was just as worried about the families descending once more into war as I suddenly felt.

“I don’t even know who his heir is,” I realised. “That’s probably part of the problem, that he’s been the sole leader for so long.”

And my God, the parallels blinded me with their obviousness.

“How can you expect dragons to trust someone who’s never been allowed to deputise? How are they supposed to know how to lead when they’re thrust into it all at once, rather than learning from the previous head?”

Rhodri was currently getting an extremely hard stare from me, just in case he hadn’t heard what I was saying.

Dominic, it appeared, had missed my point entirely. “Maybe he’s not up to the job. Or maybe Mortimer just thinks he isn’t,” he said. “Or her. Anyway, even though this council will be completely unelected, it has to be more fair than one obscenely rich dragon assuming power because he can.”

Rhodri had met my gaze unflinchingly while Dominic was speaking. He’d received my message, loud and clear. Whether he’d act on it…

“Why did he tell you about the council?” Rhodri asked Dominic.

Dominic paused. Not to be dramatic, for once, but as if what he was about to say was something he was still struggling with.

“He wants me to be a member.”