Too Late for My Shifters' Regret novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Mysterious Dragon

"What is it?" I said.

He folded the letter in half, then in half again.

"My steward."

"You have a steward?"

"I wrote to him the night you took my collar off. I told him I was alive." He put the letter inside his shirt. "He's answered."

"And?"

He looked at me for a long moment, with Pip snoring softly in my hair.

"Give me until tomorrow night," he said. "I'll tell you everything. I swear it on her."

He put one finger on Pip's back.

She didn't bite him that time.

So I let it go.

In the morning I took Pip to breakfast.

That was a mistake.

The dining hall saw her and went mad.

People climbed onto benches.

A first-year fainted into his porridge.

My roommate shoved her way to the front and burst into tears.

"She's so small," she sobbed. "Look at her little feet."

Pip sat on my shoulder and ate a honey cake bigger than her head, and every time someone reached for her she hissed like a kettle.

Cassius stood behind me with his arms folded and his new horns on show for the first time.

Nobody laughed at the snake now.

Then the doors at the end of the hall banged open.

My father walked in.

He wore his good black coat and carried a roll of paper with a red ribbon on it.

Two of his house men walked behind him.

Delphine trotted at his side in pink, glowing.

The hall went quiet table by table.

My father stopped in front of me.

He looked at Pip.

Just for a second, his face went perfectly blank.

Then it came back.

"Briony," he said. "Get your things. You're coming home today."

"Why?"

"The Reach has moved up the wedding." He held up the roll of paper. "This is a writ signed by a magistrate. Your betrothed's steward wants you north at once. I have a carriage waiting."

I put down my spoon.

"No."

"This isn't a request."

"I'm entered in the Spring Competition. You were at the table when I said it."

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