Shattered Spirits by C. I. Black Read Free Book Online Page A

dozen drakes glanced at her and she froze. Most were Regis’s sycophants, but she counted at least three guards with them. The sycophants were a collection of drakes who’d sworn allegiance to the Royal Coterie but didn’t hold any position of importance other than to follow Regis around and make him feel good. As if on cue—and, knowing Regis, it could have been orchestrated—the drakes parted, revealing the Prince, who stood waiting at the gate.
    A young drake, dressed in creams to match Regis’s over-dramatic, Henry the 8th attire, cleared his throat. “Your Highness.”
    “What?” Regis barked. He turned and his gaze landed on Capri. A bright, evil pleasure curled his lips and lit his eyes. “Capri. So good of you to join me. Shouldn’t you be at work, chasing down mages?”
    Capri plastered on a fake smile, showing just enough teeth to be polite and not be mistaken as the aggression she wanted to show. “Just reporting to the Chamberlain, Your Highness. I really should gate back to Newgate and carry on.”
    “But my summons,” Regis said.
    “Your—?” Right. There’d been a text message on her phone, summoning all drakes to Court at 4 p.m. exactly. Royal decree and all that. Normally she would have just sucked it up and gone, but given Regis’s mood lately and the current mess with the mages, she figured it would be safer to be too busy for whatever Regis had in mind. “I really should get back to work.”
    “And disobey a decree?” Regis asked, his voice syrupy.
    “Of course not. I shall attend at Your Highness’s pleasure.”
    “And not perform your duties.” Regis’s tone darkened, and he flashed his teeth.
    “Your Highness.” The trap was obvious and there was no way to avoid it. “I am at Your Highness’s disposal.”
    “With the Handmaiden gone, unfortunately you’re not.” Implying he’d dispose of her by rebirthing her—probably just for the thrill of it. He’d do it, even though her new body wouldn’t have the earth magic ability to manipulate humans’ minds and that she’d lose all of her memories. Her soul would be reset back to her most primal state, that she was a blue drake and a baby drake at that, and then she’d be useless as leader of the Clean Team.
    A black void erupted against the far wall in the hall as the gate was activated, and Barna, the doyen of the Major Brown Coterie, and his Second lurched through.
    “About time,” Regis growled. “Come along. You, too, Capri.” He strode from the hall with a wake of drakes dressed to match his cream doublet, breeches, and cape trailing behind him.
    Barna, a drake in the body of a middle-aged man of Greek descent, turned his lined, swarthy face to Capri, his dark eyebrows raised.
    “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, and followed after Regis and his entourage.
    Behind her, Barna’s Second, a drake in a young, mid-twenties body, snorted. Yeah, that’s how she felt, too. With luck, whatever this was wouldn’t last long.
    Regis sauntered down the hall to the main stairs—a wide, curling staircase that connected the arteries of Court. They took the stairs up one flight, then down a secondary promenade to a wide, ornamented hall.
    Capri’s heart sank. Only the halls with royal significance were ornamented, as if to point out to the rest of dragon-kind that the Royal Coterie was so much more important than they were. This hall led to the royal booth in the arena.
    It shouldn’t have surprised her. Regis had summoned everyone. He had a point to make, and the best way to make it was in the arena. But it couldn’t be a duel. Surely she would have heard if someone had called a wasu tahazu . Even if someone had, Regis couldn’t allow it. Yes, the medallion at the heart of the arena absorbed the soul of any drake killed during a fight. But without the Handmaiden to cast the spell, the soul—without a body to maintain its cohesion—would disintegrate.
    Regis passed through a massive, ornamented arch and