Astra's POV
I didn't know the Elders' gazes had shifted to me until I lifted my head and my eyes met with theirs.
I dropped my hands, previously folded across my chest, my cheeks heating up with embarrassment as I bathed in their stare.
No Highborn elder ever paid me a glance except the ones that often tried to paw me while I worked as a maid at Valenreach. I was always too inconsequential for them.
Now, having them stare right at me, their eyes digging holes into my skin, I didn't know what to do or how to feel, except embarrassed.
One of them nudged his jaw up my way. "Is she your human guide, Destroyer of Worlds?" He asked.
Drayven turned back to me then, his expression nothing near warm, just the usual serious, expressionless look he'd worn since I'd known him an hour ago.
His eyes swept me for a while. They tugged gently to the corners, jerking as if he were calculating. His jaw clicked tight as he returned to the elders.
I was expecting him to say yes, just like he'd confirmed to me in the cave, but his response rather threw me off.
"Why do you want to know?" he asked the elders.
"Because we need to know…" one of them was saying.
The chief Elder, the oldest of the crew of sleazy, greedy, and evil octogenarians, slanted the other Elder a glance, and the other man quieted.
The chief elder then plastered on a false smile, which stretched his old dry lips thin. "Is the lady you mate then, the Destroyer of Worlds?"
That seemed to irk Drayven. His shoulders hunched tight, jaw clenched. "Of course not." He yelled, his voice loud, echoing how ludicrous he thought that statement was. "I could never be fated to your kind once again."
I had never been rejected by a male in my life, perhaps because I had been too busy with my problematic life to be concerned with one. And truthfully, this shouldn't even count as a rejection, yet it stung like I'd expect one to.
My heart squeezed into itself like it had just taken a whip. Drayven looked back, but I wouldn't let the bastard think he'd wounded me with those words.
I tilted my chin up and raised my neck, looking straight up into his eyes, with my arms folded. I don't give a damn about him anyway.
His lips parted, like he wanted to say something, but they only closed shut back without a word.
The chief elder looked to me again, and he signaled to one of the guards hanging by the walls of the large hall and pointed to me. "Seize her for her crimes of disturbing the well-deserved sleep of Dragon Drayven. And throw her into the worst cell in the dungeons."
My heart thrummed hard against the thin walls of my chest as the guards rushed for me.
"Stop!" Drayven barked just before they could grab my arms and drag me away. "If anyone dares touch her, they will have hell to pay."
The men dropped back from me like I was a curse that could afflict them by mere proximity. They looked from Drayven to the chief elder with terror in their eyes.
Drayven's back was to the elders, but being the one facing them, I didn't miss the sharp spark in the chief's elders' eyes.
His lips curved with satisfaction. Satisfied he had forced Drayven to reveal the truth about our relationship.
He nudged his fingers in the air as a signal for the guards, and they returned fast to slap themselves against the walls as if they hadn't moved in the first place.
"So would you like a place to rest until the preparations are made to return you to your slumber?" the Elder asked.
Drayven grunted. "No, that would come later. We have some things to discuss before then," he said. "And I should point out that for the abode, I ask only for something modest, not extravagant."
"Of course, the Destroyer of worlds." The chief elder beamed. The others chanted something similar.
He walked away from his throne, which was the biggest in the room, and gestured to it with a bow. "Perhaps you can continue your conversation here, Destroyer of Worlds. A creature as great as you doesn't deserve to stand while we use such a seat."
It was obvious the elder was patronizing. Whether Drayven realized it or not, I couldn't tell, or perhaps he didn't care. He strode quietly towards the throne and eased slowly into it.
His eyes found me again, jaw clenched at the unconcerned look I wore on my face. "Find something for her as well." He grunted, as if the order was an afterthought he didn't enjoy.
"I'll manage," I said, disapproving with a bow when another elder offered me his seat.
I knew what hell awaited me if I took that seat. The moment Drayven gets imprisoned again, the elders wouldn't wait a second before they flay me alive.
Releasing Drayven was enough to tick their anger against me, taking a seat would only worsen it…
"Just take the seat, Astra." He growled with impatience.
"But I don't want to," I shot back.
"Take the seat. Like I said, I am not letting you out of my sight, especially not over ten feet away."
"You can still see me from here." I reiterated, "The distance between us is not that far—"
"It is," he cut me off. "Just sit and stop being stubborn." He snapped. "Don't make me make you sit."
I wasn't scared of his threat and refused to cower. But when my skin prickled with the awareness of being watched and I looked around to see the Elders staring at me, watching me and Drayven bicker like a couple, I changed my mind.
I bit down hard on my lip, nearly chewing it, while I walked towards the throne offered me, which was just near him. I hated to be the center of attention, but since I got tangled with him, I just can't seem to get enough of the spotlight.
I forced a tight smile at the elders as I took his seat, hoping that perhaps that would help reduce my punishment once Drayven was gone, but the cold, deadly stare he gave me warned me I was doomed.
Drayven looked to him, and he plastered on a smile on his old wrinkly face, acting as though he loved that he'd relinquished his throne to me.
Drayven looked around at the old faces in the hall. "Now, let's talk," he said.
And then they did, forgetting that I was in the room with them. Except for the straying, deathly stare my way from one elder or another, I might not even exist as far as they were concerned.