Inside the tent, the tension was a bit heavy.
"My king, I don't think it's wise for us to carelessly make a decision about this in an instant. I believe we need more time to think over this matter. This is not something that should be decided in a rush." One of the lords said when Gavrael piped in.
"More time you say, Lord Argus… but what if we don't have much time left? I don't understand why you're still being cautious at this point. Queen Evielyn came all the way here to save our assess. She had already given us a lot of information and you still doubt her motives?"
"Your Highness," the Lord looked offended as he faced Gavrael. "You are being biased because she's your wife. But to us, she's still just a foreign queen. It's a given for us to doubt outsiders. And I only asked for more time, I didn't shun her proposal."
Gavrael smirked. His blue eyes blazing as he looked at the Lord.
"Foreign queen? Outsider?" Gavrael uttered and all of a sudden, a blade made of dark magic had appeared and was pointed at the lord's throat. Everyone was shocked at Gavrael's show of power. How did he create a weapon out of dark magic that fast? Most of the lords did not even realize what had happened until the blade was already pointed right at Lord Argus' throat. "You know that she's my wife and you still refer to her as an outsider? How dare you call someone who is a part of the royal family as an outsider." Gav spoke quietly but there was a very clear threat ringing out from his voice.
"Gavrael." It was Queen Beatrice who had called out to stop Gavrael from behaving rashly. Knowing her son's temper, she quickly moved over to him and held his hand and whispered at him. "Son… Evie did her best to gain their trust… don't do anything to rush and ruin it."
Somehow, Beatrice's words calmed him down and he dissolved the weapon, causing the lord to breath out a sigh in relief.
"Queen Evielyn is also carrying another royal…" Gavrael said suddenly, "my child… so I don't ever want to hear anyone calling her an outsider anymore."
There was an ominous threat in Gavrael's voice as he said that, and the Lord could only fall silent. None of the lords could deny what Gavrael had said was the truth.
At that moment, the king stood. His expression was calm, but everyone could feel that the king was also reaching his limit.
"I want everyone to think carefully and give me an answer right now. Anyone who rejects Queen Evielyn's proposal can now leave the tent and go return to your post." The king declared, causing the tension to become even heavier.
The Lords glanced at each other. When Lord Argus, followed by three other Lords, stood and was about to leave, they heard a shriek. That sound…
In the blink of an eye, the tent was completely emptied.
Everyone materialized outside, the Lords already more than prepared for battle, only to see dragons flying and circling above them.
The King shook as he held in his laughter. "Goodness," he whispered to his wife, "our daughter-in-law really is one of a kind. I had yet to say anything yet and she had already shown her power out here. This group of lords would not be able to do anything. She would run circles around them!"
"She is. I told you, she will be able to deal with this." Beatrice replied as she smirked at the looks on all the lord's faces, most specially Lord Argus'.
The dark faes could hardly believe their eyes. They had never ever seen real life dragon – much less a fire-breathing dragon in their lifetimes! Did the light fae queen just summon three dragons all at once? They could not believe fire dragons were massive!
As the dragons spiralled down and landed right before the light fae queen, the dark faes including the Lords could only watch on in awe. They were mesmerized at the magnificence of these noble creatures. Their hearts were bursting to the brim with admiration, fear and reverence.
And when they watched as the queen touched their snouts gently, and when the dragons docilely fell to their knees as soon as the queen kissed their snout, they all gaped in disbelief.
Evie walked over to the King, her steps confident and firm.
"Pardon me for the surprise, King Belial. A young man there told me he wanted to see and ride on dragons. So I granted his request." Evie said with a graceful shrug of her shoulders and the dark fae lords almost fell to the ground in speechlessness. She summoned her dragons over just because of that? And she had summoned three!
"You called over three at once," The king raised a brow in question.
"Because I think some of the other dark faes would like to try riding on one too." Evie responded when Azrael piped in.
"Y-y… Queen Evielyn… you're going to let us ride on your dragons?!" Azrael's eyes sparked exactly the same as that boy.
"Why not?" Evie smiled. "If a war broke out, I can't ride them all so I thought it would be a good idea to find people who are capable of riding them. It won't be easy though. The dragons couldn't be ridden by just anyone. But it would always be great to just try out and see, Lord Azrael. Maybe, if you are lucky, one of my dragons will like you."
Azrael nearly jumped with excitement at the queen's words while the other Lords remained speechless. It was obvious all of them wanted to try getting onto a dragon too.
"How about you try too? Lord Cadmus?" Evie faced Lord Cadmus, causing him to look shocked for a while.
And thus, just like that, three dark faes were all up above them, trying to ride the dragons. The dark faes wings were all spread out, as none of them could even ride them at all. But the dark faes, even the young man named Caztiel, was determined as hell and it was actually funny to see how hard they were trying.
As Evie, the dark fae royals and the rest of the lords were watching, one of the lords asked.
"By the way, Queen Evielyn." Lord Kione asked. "Who was the last ice dragon keeper you mentioned a while ago?" he queried, and everyone looked over at her.
A/N: deadline for the giveaway is tomorrow.
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE WITH YOUR GOLDEN TICKETS SPELLBOUNDERS! ^>^
P..s. hellbound with you is updated ^^