Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7)

Oh goddess, it was Abacus! Dead, rotting. She stank of decay. Her once bright silver color had dulled in her death. Her silvery voice had silenced for evermore.
An arrow of pain shot straight through Aborella’s heart, shattering it. She stumbled back a step, clutching her chest. Small sips of air were all she could manage as she tried her best not to cry. Nothing good would come from Eleanor seeing her cry.
“What have you done?” she rasped. The symbols in her dark purple skin came alive, her magic itching to teach Ransom a lesson.
“Don’t,” the empress warned Aborella. “I will fry you where you stand.”
Aborella shot daggers at Eleanor. “What is the meaning of this?”
Eleanor nodded at Ransom, who withdrew a strip of rolled parchment from the bag. Aborella’s heart stopped. The message she’d sent to Dianthe, it was there in his hand.
To her dismay, he unrolled it and read her message aloud. “Beware. The forest has eyes. Don’t lose faith. I will help you.”
“Ransom saw the bird fly from your window the very day you returned to us. Who will you help, Aborella? Which forest has eyes? What exactly should they beware of?” Eleanor took a step toward her, unblinking, like a tiger moving in for the kill.
“I have no idea who wrote that—”
“I shot the bird from the air directly.” Ransom stared down his nose at her. “No one else could have written it but you.”
“It was your familiar, Aborella. The note is in your handwriting. Do not play games with me. Haven’t you learned yet that I make the rules, I hold all the pieces? You are either on my side or no side. Do you understand?” Eleanor barked the words, striding closer until she was towering over Aborella, her teeth bared. “Now tell me the truth! Who was the note intended for?”
Aborella allowed the first lie that popped into her mind to slip off her tongue. “Merely a girl in the village who I promised to teach magic. Her father does not approve. We’ve been using the forest to practice.”
Eleanor shook her head. Before Aborella could take her next breath, the empress’s magic coursed over her skin like liquid lightning, holding her in place. Talons gripped one of her wings. Sharp pain cut into the place the silver gossamer met her back.
“I am so disappointed in you, Aborella. Do you know what I think? I think the time you spent in Everfield recovering has corrupted you. I think that message was meant for the friends you made there. I think you are helping the rebellion.”
Helpless in the grip of Eleanor’s magic, Aborella’s panicked gaze pleaded with Ransom, but the guard barely looked at her. He seemed bored. His gaze drifted toward the window, the body of her familiar still dangling from his fingertips. There would be no help coming from his direction. There would be no help coming at all.
“I haven’t told you the best part.” Eleanor’s voice was eerily quiet. She whispered the words through her teeth, directly into Aborella’s ear. “Since we couldn’t trust you and we weren’t sure who got into your head, we simply burned down the entire Empyrean Wood. Even as we speak, your home kingdom of Everfield is in ashes.”
Hot, prickling tears stirred in Aborella’s vision. Was Dianthe okay? What about all the people, the children who’d danced around the fire during the waning festival the last night she was there? Were they all homeless now?
“I am a generous empress,” Eleanor said through a fake pout. “I offered to annex Everfield and devote all of Paragon’s resources to rebuilding the territory, but alas, Chancellor Ciro is hell-bent on retaining their independence. I imagine it’s only a matter of time though before the population is so hungry they will beg to become ours.”
Aborella felt the magic noose around her throat loosen by a fraction, and she gasped to cover a sob. “Eleanor, there’s been a mistake. It’s not what it seems.”
“Then tell me now, Aborella. Where is the child?”
Aborella closed her eyes. Days ago she’d seen where Raven and the others were heading, but she’d kept the vision secret, trying her best to protect the heirs until they reached safety. But now she had to convince Eleanor she was on her side. She fluttered her lashes and rolled her eyes back in her head, imitating what happened to her when she was seized by a vision.
“I see the babe now. The family is on a ship, a sailboat traveling from Crete to the island of Aeaea. They have not arrived as of yet.”
“Circe’s island?”
Aborella nodded. “If my vision is correct, they have not reached the island’s shores. If you go now, you will intercept them.”
Eleanor gave a divisive snort. “The one thing we know is we can’t count on your visions to be correct, can we?” Eleanor moved her talon from Aborella’s wing to her throat. “Ransom, take her to the dungeon. The back. The hottest cell.”
“No! Please, I can’t help you without access to my magic!” Aborella spoke frantically. The dungeon was incredibly dark and hot, torture for a fairy such as herself. She’d do anything to avoid that fate.
But Eleanor showed no mercy. “If you’ve told me the truth and my children are in fact on a ship to Aeaea, your visit to the dungeon will be short. We’ll follow up on this vision of yours. Pray I find the child. If I don’t, there will be hell to pay.”
Ransom clamped cuffs around her wrists and shoved her out the door, her protests falling on deaf ears. Even as they descended to the place she’d personally seen prisoners go to die, she prayed—for Dianthe, for the Treasure of Paragon. Goddess help them. They were going to need it.

Chapter Three
“I think I see it!” Raven bounced her daughter, Charlie, on her hip and searched the horizon for the island of Aeaea, their promised sanctuary from those who wanted them dead, namely her mate’s mother, Eleanor, empress