Chapter 240

• [Primus]
• The command in the drake’s voice is undeniable. There will be no backing away, no arguing with this order. This isn’t just any air drake–Athony is Eleanora’s guard captain and her most trusted soldier and confidant. He’s been by her side from the very beginning, coming to the royal palace as her personal bodyguard when she was brought in to marry me. They are so close that if she weren’t obsessed with my brother, and now me, I’d think the two of them are lovers. The way this guard watches Eleanora when she leaves the room, how he jumps to defend and protect her with even the smallest hint of potential, it is clear that he loves her as more than just her guardian.
• And maybe they are, although I can’t imagine his feelings are reciprocated–he has no status as is clear by his name, Captain Athony Noname. Noname is a common surname for drakes born without a clan to claim them, and although it isn’t uncommon to recruit future soldiers from those ranks, it is rare for a lowborn orphaned bastard to rise to a status high enough to serve a queen.