Free Dragon Blood 2: Wyvern by Avril Sabine Page A

waist and pulled her back against him. “Extremely warped. Now stop trying to stir everyone. For someone who says they like peace you certainly stir up a lot of trouble.”
    “I’m just joking around. Doesn’t anyone have a sense of humour these days?” She turned in his arms to look up at him.
    “No.” He dropped a light kiss on her lips. “Now go and get dressed.”
    They were ready within twenty minutes and Amber steeled herself to pass through the Void, with the help of the Gold Dragons Kade had organised to take them through. Neither he nor Flinn had learned how to travel through the Void yet, even though they’d both held a Pliethin.
    Amber, Kade, Rian, Brann, Crystal, Flinn and Orin travelled to Ronan’s home. The rest, and that reluctantly included Jasper, stayed behind to cover for them. Shannon, Jasper’s Gold Dragon, was in residence with her two warriors to help take the wyvern nest tomorrow morning. Dragons were a secretive bunch, even with their allies.
    “I hope this isn’t going to take all night.” Flinn said as he landed on Ronan’s rooftop garden and became human.
    “Then I suggest getting on with it instead of standing around socialising,” Ronan snapped.
    Amber strode to Ronan’s side and linked her arm with his as she headed for the house entrance. “And here I thought we’d even have time to sit and gossip over tea and scones.”
    “We’re not going through the let’s be friends crap again, are we?” Ronan asked.
    Amber smiled up at him, almost certain that he wasn’t as cranky as he sounded. “But I’m just so lovable you won’t be able to resist being my friend.”
    “Friends are enemies who haven’t gotten around to stabbing you in the back yet.”
    “That’s a sad way of looking at life.” Amber shook her head slowly.
    “It’s realistic.”
    “Sad.”
    Ronan pulled away from Amber. “Enough.” He turned towards Crystal, who along with everyone else had followed them inside. “You shouldn’t see a single person. The house is empty apart from the prisoner. All my warriors are outside.”
    Crystal nodded and started forward, Orin a step in front of her. Amber fell into step beside her, linking her arm with Crystal.
    “I think your ability is so much more useful than mine,” Amber complained.
    “At least you can prevent people from dying,” Crystal said.
    “Yeah but you can see attacks before they come out of the Void at you.”
    “Don’t you ever shut up?” Ronan asked from behind them.
    Amber grinned at him over her shoulder. “Sure I do. When I’m sleeping.”
    Ronan ignored her. “Turn left up here. It’s the third door on the right.”
    Crystal nodded, her gaze darting everywhere as she walked. “It all looks clear so far.”
    Amber really wished Ronan hadn’t interrupted her conversation with Crystal. Now she was left to think about what might be waiting for her. Was this a trap? And why her? Why couldn’t the assassin have told Ronan instead of her? Maybe Ronan’s cynicism was rubbing off on her, but she couldn’t think of one good reason why the assassin wanted to see her. Only really bad scenarios came to mind. Ones filled with blood and dying.
    Orin opened the door for Crystal and stepped into the room and to the right. Crystal glanced around. “Only one person.” She quickly entered so everyone else could follow.
    Amber managed to enter last, uncertain if she really wanted to hear anything an assassin might want to tell her. She stopped. A man wearing dragon-leather pants was chained to a metal stool that was bolted to the floor. Water dripped from his body onto a recently mopped floor and he stared at her out of one green eye, the other swollen shut. His body and face were covered in bruises and cuts, several still oozing blood to mingle with the water droplets. Amber fought the urge to reach out and heal him.
    “Only her.” The man’s voice was surprisingly strong considering his condition.
    “That wasn’t the deal. I agreed to