Dragon Flight Read Free Page B

you are powerful and your reputation will keep those high bred men under control. And furthermore if I choose you I want to be able to announce my choice at the end of the party to dissuade suitors from thinking they still have a chance with me afterward.”
    “And you know each of these men personally so you’d be able to tell whether their intentions are toward her or the vacant throne beside her,” Amalthea put in.
    Isabelle nodded. “Exactly.”
    Amalthea leaned back thoughtfully. “They’re all good points, Zorin.”
    He nodded grudgingly. “Yes, I suppose they are.”
    “Then you’ll be there?” Isabelle asked him hopefully.
    Zorin gave her a brief but warm smile. “Yes, I’ll be there.”
    She blushed prettily under her gaze and returned his smile. “Thank you.”
    Isabelle took a moment to look out of the large windows at the soft sunlight that was streaming in. “I have to go,” she said, quickly rising to her feet and smoothing down the front of her dress.
    “He’s down the hall, fourth door on your left,” Zorin said as he also got to his feet with all the natural grace she had come to expect from him in such a short time.
    Startled, Isabelle blinked at him. “Who?” she asked.
    Zorin smiled indulgently at her. “Your brother.”
    Isabelle blushed and fiddled with one of her curls. She knew Zorin wouldn’t chastise her for spending so much time with him as Andrew had but she still felt silly getting caught rushing off to be beside him. Perhaps, in time, she would be able to find some friends in Feeorin as well as a husband. It had been years since she’d had that kind of constant companionship.
    “How’d you know?” she asked him.
    “Where else would you go in such a hurry?” he took her arm and began to lead her from the room.
    “I’ll see to the details!” Amalthea called after them, seemingly forgotten in her lavish chair. Zorin waved to her without looking over his shoulder.
    “It appears that you know me better than I thought,” Isabelle told him as he led her down the hall.
    “Or I just remember what it was like to care about someone beyond myself.” He pulled her to a stop in front of a large ornate door.
    Isabelle heard nothing from the room beyond, but rose her hand to knock anyway.
    “Queens, even future ones, do not knock,” Zorin said as he pushed open the door revealing the small sitting room beyond.
    In a brightly colored floral chair, Caden sat hunched over a large tome in his lap.
    “Caden?” she called as she approached him.
    He looked up, his eyes bleary from the strain of studying. “Izzy? And Zorin?” He stretched and yawned loudly as Zorin took the book from him.
    “Ancient history huh?” Zorin said as he glanced at the embossed cover. He frowned as he skimmed the page Caden had been reading. “Idiots. I’m not mentioned at all.”
    “It was hundreds of years ago,” Caden replied as if the man had gone mad.
    Zorin snapped the book shut with a sudden finality and a disgusted shake of his wrist as he dropped it haphazardly onto a nearby table. The hard thud it made caused Isabelle to cringe. “That doesn’t make whoever wrote it any less of an idiot. I was there. I should know what happened.”
    “You were?” Suddenly Caden was sitting up much straighter as he eyed the man with renewed interest.
    Zorin seemed to brighten under the boy’s curiosity. “Yes. I was. I—”
    “A story for another time perhaps? I’d like to speak to Caden in private,” Isabelle cut in. They both had mirrored looks of disappointment. “Oh grow up,” Isabelle told Zorin as she brushed past him.
    She could tell by the smile Caden was trying to hide that Zorin was most likely making faces at her behind her back which sent a pleasant warmth of happiness through her at their ability to play with each other in a way she never had with anyone else before.
    “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Isabelle asked him, making sure to keep her voice light.
    Zorin came to