19. Talon
Chapter 19
Talon
With Calista in front of me on Khazmuda’s saddle, we left Riviana Star and soared over the mountains, Inferno’s red scales following behind us like a blazing ball of fire. On foot through the trails and mountains, the journey would take a week. But on the back of a dragon, it took merely a day.
The castle was visible even at a distance, the ocean stretching out behind it, the spires reaching high into the sky from atop the towers. It was made of dark stone, the same color as a headstone, so it never looked nor felt like home. Our keep was made of limestone, so it had a hint of brown, a far warmer color from a climate that could be humid in the summertime and absorb less heat. But it was still a beautiful castle, nonetheless.
We landed on the ramparts and dismounted Khazmuda, the weather a bit cooler than it’d been near the lush forest.
I will take Inferno to hunt. We’re both hungry.
Return when you’re finished. My blacksmith needs his measurements to construct his saddle.
Khazmuda flew off and joined Inferno, both of their scales beautiful in the setting sun.
Calista watched them go with a hint of a smile on her face. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”
I’d seen Khazmuda fly through the air countless times, so my eyes stayed on her face, far more intrigued by her high cheekbones, full lips with the curve of a bow, and eyes that sparkled like a set of jewels. I knew I could look at her forever, would give my soul to have this moment for eternity. “Yeah.”
When they were far in the distance, she looked at me again.
I wasn’t sure why I did it, but my eyes flicked away like I hadn’t been staring. My chest caved in, and my pain was squeezed from my heart like water from a wet towel. With every passing day, I ventured closer to the last place I wanted to be…and I couldn’t stop it.
She scanned my bedchambers as she walked inside, studying the armchairs in front of the fireplace, desk in the corner, and the four-poster bed through the open doorway. She stopped and looked at it, probably remembering the night I’d fucked her then sat in the armchair while she slept.
She looked at the bed then the armchair. “Haven’t been here in a long time.”
“Neither have I.” My bed had been full of whores and one-night stands these last decades. Now, it belonged to a single woman. The sheets smelled like her, and I didn’t want her to leave. Walking into this bedroom felt like a step into the past, a time when I was a different man…and she was a different woman.
I removed my sword from my back and leaned it against the wall before I started the fire in the hearth. It wasn’t winter anymore, but it was still too cold for Calista, judging by the bumps I noticed on her arms.
“Now what?” she asked.
“I’ll prepare my men to set sail in the morning. It’ll take a few days for my blacksmith to make Inferno’s saddle. Then we’ll be off, sailing to the south where the hideout is located.”
“You’re certain we’ll be welcome among the pirates?”
I had no doubt. “Yes.”
“You have a lot of faith in men who steal for a living.”
Captain Blackstorm had become more than a superior, a friend instead. He might be disgruntled by the sheer volume of people I brought to his shores, but he would accept them and offer his hospitality. “I have a lot of faith in the men I knew.”
She stared at the fire for a while before she looked at me again. “I have a question…”
“Ask.”
“Why does Queen Eldinar have the gift?” Green flames danced in her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“You said that some have the blood of dragons in their veins, that it’s rare. How can an elf possess it?”
I shook my head. “My answer remains the same—I don’t know. Queen Eldinar has opened her lands to us as well as her heart, but I don’t think she shares all of her secrets—as she shouldn’t. I suspect the relationship she has with Macabre has yielded her such benefits.”
“You’re saying Macabre granted her the gift?”
“Possibly.”
“How would he do that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Anyone can fuse with a dragon if that’s what the dragon wishes. But not everyone can communicate with a dragon as their equal. I suspect that the gift is transferred once a fuse has taken place, that even when you break apart, a piece of the dragon remains with you always.”
“But if Queen Eldinar has the gift, that means she would have already fused with Macabre.”
“Possibly.”
“But he seems so against the practice.”
“It would have been impossible for them to communicate otherwise,” I said. “Perhaps it was only for a moment so they would be able to speak, and then they separated. Or perhaps they’ve been fused this entire time but pretending otherwise. She says she has the gift, but perhaps she was just fused.”
“But why would she lie to us?”
I smirked. “Because otherwise, she would be a hypocrite. Her own people would overthrow her if they knew she’d broken their law and fused with a dragon. I doubt she even told her husband.”
Her eyes shifted back and forth as she looked at me.
“I won’t out her,” I said. “She clearly has no mal intent toward the dragons, and that’s all that matters.”
She turned back to the fire, lost in thought. “That would mean Macabre lied as well.”
“But he would do anything for her, so I’m not surprised.” I stepped away and opened my closet to find the armor I’d had made before I left. I’d told my blacksmith to hang it up in the closet when it was finished. I carried it back to Calista and presented it to her, the same armor set I’d gifted Queen Eldinar.
Her eyes immediately scanned over it, taking in all the features, including the shine of the Black Diamonds that were secured to the surface the way a blade was attached to a hilt. Her stare lingered for a long time before she looked at me again. “You made me one as well.”
“Because my woman deserves the same as any king or queen.”
Her eyes slowly softened as they looked into mine. “You could have kept those diamonds for yourself.”
“I would rather share them with the people I care for.” I placed the armor on the table so she could admire it in the firelight. Dragon scales were hard as stone, and their external smoothness made them the perfect surface to deflect a blade and push off arrows. They were impenetrable to everything, including fire. Not once had this armor failed me. “Besides, you were the one who found some of these. They should belong to you.” Knowing that I was the reason she’d lost ten years of her life had kept me up at night, but now I felt even worse about it. All that time she’d lost, all the torture she’d received, because my depression had turned me into a fucking lunatic.
She had the grace to pity me, her eyes soft with kindness. “I’m ready to go to bed.”
“You don’t want dinner?”
Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine before she moved into me, rising on her tiptoes as her palm cupped the back of my neck. Her soft lips kissed mine with the enthusiasm of a desperate woman. But she wasn’t desperate for payment or pleasure.
She was only desperate for me.
I would never see the Realm of Caelum with my own eyes. I would only know it from tales that probably weren’t based in truth. But when I was between Calista’s legs, I felt like I was there. In a land filled with light, with pleasure that always throbbed at the fingertips, with a peace that only those who’d passed on could understand.
Wedged between her soft thighs with her nails digging deep into my ass cheek, I rocked into her, giving her only the amount that made her moan in pleasure and not wince in pain. Locked together in the throes of a passion that burned hotter than the flames in the fireplace, our souls grazed each other. I loved Vivian and would have spent my life with her without a single seed of doubt, but my bond with Calista was vastly different. The foundation was strong like a mountain range, formed through earthquakes and floods, withstanding time and all the forces of nature. Our love started as hate, but it still blossomed into a beautiful garden without an ounce of water, as if it was destined to be.
If only I’d found her sooner…
She squeezed my hips with her thighs and dragged her nails down my back. “Talon…”
I could feel her hit the precipice of pleasure then simmer there, slowly building until her desire had nowhere else to go. With watery eyes and nails sharp enough to draw blood, she came around me, her little pussy clenching me with an iron fist.
A wave of heat swept over me and made my spine melt to liquid. The pleasure we experienced together was different from my previous conquests. It was just so damn good, feeding the body as well as the soul. These were the moments that brought me the most joy…and the most pain.
What would she do when I was gone?
Would she be broken the way I was? Searching the world for answers she would never find?
I’d been on the verge of release, but when my mind drifted away, so did my body.
But with white knuckles, she pulled me back. “Come inside me.”
And just like that, I was back as if I’d never left. My forehead rested against hers as I continued to thrust through her slickness. “Here it comes, baby.”
I started the fire in the sitting room and sat in front of it, sipping my scotch in silent misery. This was how I’d spent my nights before Calista and even during the beginning of our relationship, and I fell right back into my old habits.
As a miserable drunk.
The more I let Calista in, the worse I felt. The highs were higher than the sky, and the lows were lower than the dirt that buried the dead. It was an act of torture, to feel so much joy when she looked at me with those green eyes and then to feel so much despair, knowing she wouldn’t be able to look at me for much longer.
“I hope this is all worth it, Talon Rothschild.”
My eyes shifted to the chair beside me.
Bahamut sat there in his midnight-blue armor, with blond hair, looking like a respectable king rather than a monster who devoured souls for sustenance.
“But even if it’s not, it matters not. At least to me.” A slight smirk moved over his lips.
I was more drunk off my misery than the scotch and spoke freely. “What is it about me that fascinates you?” He came to me often, sometimes to discuss matters of import, but most of the time, it was just to taunt me.
“You’re a king.”
“Because you made me one.”
“You’re the heir to the Southern Isles. Your predecessors all contain your blood as well as your honor and integrity. Most of the souls who come to me are those who are forgotten or abandoned. And when a soul is miserable and tainted, it doesn’t taste the same.”
I felt a rush of disgust when I pictured that bowl with my soul within it, ready for the taking.
“My power is fueled by the souls I consume. And the soul of a king…will give me power unlike any other.”
“What do you need power for?”
He stared at me, a slight smirk on his lips.
I knew I would never get an answer.
“You’ll see—once you join me.”
I felt sick again, a taste in my mouth that the scotch couldn’t mask. “There must be something I can do to make you reconsider.”
His smirk remained in place. “The more you try to slip, the harder I grip.”
“My uncle also has the blood of kings.”
“Several times removed. Not interested.”
“He took the kingdom from my family and enslaved the dragons.”
“His allies did that. He himself is not that interesting.”
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could carry this weight. How much longer I could sleep beside Calista and hide the truth. Would it be better to tell her what would come, or would it destroy the happiness she could have enjoyed a little longer?
“There is one person I would accept as a substitute.”
I stared into his cerulean-blue eyes, seeing the ocean that hugged the cliffs in my homeland. Bahamut could be beautiful like a flower one moment and then despicable the next. My heart raced a little quicker at the prospect of leaving this arrangement, of having Calista for the rest of my life. “Give me a name, and I’ll make it happen.” I didn’t care how innocent the person was. I would do anything to be free, to spare my soul from the feast.
His smile widened. “You really despise me, Talon.”
“I just want my soul back.” I wanted to live with Calista and Khazmuda, to start a new life since my old one had been taken from me. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to live until I had something to live for.
“Bring them to my borders—and we have a deal.”
So I’d have to sail them across the sea to the little island that wasn’t found on any map. “Fine. It shall be done after the battle.”
He continued to wear that obnoxious smile.
“Give me a name.” Khazmuda would help me hunt them down. I would tie them up and hand them over against their will. I didn’t care how much they screamed and pleaded. I’d sail away from that island and never look back.
He stared at me for a long time, his smile slowly fading, his eyes hardening. “Queen Eldinar.”
Keep reading for the conclusion we’re afraid to get to. What will happen to Calista when Talon is gone? Or is there a way for him to escape his fate?