Pia Does Hollywood (Elder Races, #8.6)

With that ominous-sounding statement, the Queen calmly speared an olive on her fork and ate it.





Chapter Six





After a second’s hesitation, Pia followed suit. Between her new life as Dragos’s mate and having a small child, at least for several months, in the household, she had learned to eat heartily when she could.

The quality of the food was excellent, of course, and her constant appetite ensured that she cleaned her plate.

The conversation could have turned stilted, but it didn’t. Tatiana plied her with questions about her daily life and asked after Liam. Part of Pia found the chitchat rather bizarre. Clearly something was wrong enough to require Tatiana’s attention, but the Queen behaved as though there was nothing more urgent than discussing school choices for children.

“Your son sounds remarkable,” Tatiana said. “And how unusual that he has grown so much, so fast.”

“Yes, he’s remarkable in every way,” Pia replied. “And while his magical nature has made him unique, the important thing is, he’s a really good person. I don’t just love him, I respect him.”

When Tatiana met her gaze, her expression had turned warm and sympathetic. “I understand. I have always felt that way about my daughters too.”

For the first time since arriving, Pia felt like she had made a real connection with the Queen. Any sense of achievement she might have felt at that was overshadowed by concern for Dragos.

When the dragon took to flight, he could eat away miles like chomping through popcorn, but it had been over half an hour since he had last texted her. Shouldn’t he have arrived by now?

She resisted fiddling with her phone. It hadn’t pinged with a new message, and obsessing over a phone while in someone else’s company was rude. Older members of the Elder Races, for whom new technology was intrusive anyway, were especially offended by such things.

While she wasn’t sure how old Tatiana was, she knew the other woman had to be quite old. The Sebille had been an exploratory voyage sent out by Tatiana to find new lands for her people to settle in, and that ship had wrecked off the coast of Bermuda in the fifteenth century.

When Pia saw that Eva’s plate was clear, she murmured to her, “Please go update Quentin and Aryal, and let them know Dragos will be here any minute.”

“Sure thing. I’ll be right back.” Eva stood, gave Tatiana a slight bow and left.

One moment trickled after the other, excruciatingly slow. Tatiana sipped coffee and remarked how well the daffodils bordering the verandah were doing, while Pia wanted to do nothing more than jump to her feet and pace. Bailey, clearly not immune to the slow-building tension either, rubbed her face with both hands.

Eva returned, and this time, she took a position behind Pia’s chair, while she said telepathically, They’re coming down ASAP.

Good, Pia said.

New footsteps sounded at the doorway, and a tense-looking Light Fae guard appeared. “Ma’am,” he said to Tatiana, while he flicked a nervous gaze to Pia. “Lord Cuelebre has arrived and is outside.”

“Don’t make him wait,” Tatiana said impatiently. “For the gods’ sake, let him in.”

The guard grew more nervous. “My apologies, ma’am, but we can’t.”

“What do you mean?” the Light Fae Queen snapped.

As Pia pushed to her feet, she reached out telepathically, Dragos? What’s going on?

There was no response.

No response, yet Dragos was here.

The wrongness of that pounded in her head. Abruptly, she abandoned civility. Quickly she strode into the house, leaving the others to exclaim and scramble after her.

As she moved toward the front of the house, she picked up her pace until she was running. The double front doors stood open, framing a sunlit lawn. Two guards stood in the doorway, facing outward.

There was just enough space between the two guards. As Pia wriggled between them, she realized they both had their weapons drawn.

Had the world gone crazy?

She almost made it through to outside. Exclaiming, both of the guards grabbed for her, and one of them managed to catch hold of her by the arm.

“Are you insane?” she hissed furiously. “Put up your weapons. We’re invited guests!”

“Lady, you don’t understand,” the guard said. “You can’t go out there.”

“Like hell I can’t,” she said between her teeth.

She caught what happened next in snatches.

Dragos stood on the lawn, his clothing torn and bloody. He had his hands on his hips, his hard expression grim. One of his forearms had cloth tied around it.

Then Pia was knocked sidelong, as Eva tackled the guard who held on to her arm. Stumbling, she fell to the ground, scraping her elbows on the concrete pavement while Eva and the guard grappled with each other.

Bailey ordered, “Stand down! Everybody stand down!”