4. Talon
4
TALON
I stood on the ramparts of the castle, looking over the kingdom I’d claimed as my own, seeing the mountains in the distance, the peaks covered in white snow. A gust of wind blew into my face, the cold swiping across my skin with a subtle sting.
Her name is Calista. I stared ahead and waited, waited for the dark scales to appear in the sunshine. And she’s…difficult.
As are you . His deep voice spoke in my mind, diminishing the sound of the wind, diminishing the flap of the flags as they waved proudly in the sunlight. He suddenly appeared from below, his vast wings visible first before the rest of his enormous body came into view. With grace, he folded his wings as he landed, making a solid thud that the entire castle could feel. He craned his neck down, bringing our faces level with each other, his dark eyes like the sea on a moonless night.
I know her face.
But you can’t recall.
No . There was a familiarity to her face, to the harshness in her eyes. Our paths had crossed, but I didn’t know when or where. Or perhaps they hadn’t crossed at all…and her appearance simply unnerved me.
Does it matter if your routes have been intertwined in the past?
Probably not. But I can’t stop thinking about it.
You’ve been to the Arid Sands many times.
I would remember her face if I’d seen it before.
Then you’ve never seen her.
I would agree…but I know I have.
Perhaps it’s her beauty that deceives you.
The first thing I’d noticed about her was her stupidity, approaching my dragon like a woman with a death wish. When Khazmuda warned me about her approach, I expected him to have eaten her before I could arrive, and if she was still alive, I would behead her myself.
But then he told me the news—that she had the gift.
A gift I needed for the war to come.
Have you told her?
No .
Tell her.
That can be dangerous. Our minds were connected by magic, creating the most intimate relationship I’d ever known. Everything we said was spoken in secret. Every conversation happened in the presence of others who couldn’t hear it. It was the only real relationship I had, the only one I’d had in a long time.
You have no other choice, Talon.
I sat in the armchair by the fire, naked with my knees spread far apart, my elbow on the armrest as I dragged my fingers across the hard grooves in my jawline. My fingertips pricked the stubble as they moved across, my jaw covered in shadow because it hadn’t seen my razor in a few days.
Natalie had fallen asleep in my bed—to my annoyance.
All I did was blink my eyes, and there he was.
Bahamut.
But he wasn’t a monster with wings and claws, with a jaw that unhinged to show razor-sharp teeth. Contrary to the legends, he was a man—or he was a shapeshifter.
He sat in the other armchair, one ankle crossed on the opposite knee, wearing armor that was midnight blue and black, his cape hanging off the side of the chair so it wouldn’t wrinkle. Like a vivid dream, he looked real, felt real…but I was the only one who could see him. “Greetings, Talon.” His eyes were serious, but his mouth was set in an amused smile. “A beautiful woman sleeps in your bed, but you sit alone by the fire, your dick no longer shiny and wet.”
I didn’t cover myself. Didn’t care what he saw.
“The completion of this deal is taking a lot longer than I anticipated.”
“I still don’t have what I need.”
“I disagree,” he said coldly. “I’ve given you powers beyond belief.”
“It’s still not enough.”
His elbows rested on the armrests, and his hands came together.
“I need dragons.”
“That’s not what you asked for.”
“Because that’s not something you can give.”
“But I gave you something else?—”
“I already said it’s not enough. It claimed a lesser kingdom, but a lesser kingdom won’t beat a greater one. It won’t win the crown of revenge that belongs upon my head. It’s not enough.”
Bahamut stared at me, eyes locked on mine and not drifting anywhere else. “If you need dragons, then find dragons.”
“I’ve scoured this world far and wide—and I’ve only found Khazmuda.”
“Then perhaps we should dissolve this agreement.”
I stared, feeling the invisible veil of threat fall upon me.
“Because I don’t have forever, Talon.” His grin returned in full force. “Oh wait, I do. But that’s not the point.”
Natalie sat up in bed, squinting in the light from the fire, her hair a mess. “Are you talking to someone?” she asked in a raspy voice, clearly half asleep.
My eyes shifted back to Bahamut.
The chair was empty.
“Your Majesty?” she asked in her same coarse voice.
I rose to my feet and approached the four-poster bed. “It’s time to go, Natalie.”
She stilled at the dismissal. “It’s the middle of the night?—”
“You’re my whore, not my lover.” I’d made it clear there would be no overnight stays in my chambers. The other girls understood those rules, but Natalie always tried to push me because she had her own agenda. If she fucked me good enough, she would be a queen instead of a concubine.
No woman would ever call my bed her own.
She continued to sit there, feigning shock at my outburst.
“Don’t make me ask again.”
She finally got moving, picking up her dress from the floor, taking her time getting dressed as if a couple seconds of tension would make me apologize for my outburst.
But I wasn’t sorry.
She finally walked out, shutting the door harder than necessary.
I was finally alone once more, but that high was brief. Soon, the loneliness suffocated me on all sides, whispers of the past entering my ears and scalding my heart. I felt a twinge of pain that made everything hurt.
Everything.
I’m here, Talon . Khazmuda’s powerful voice entered my mind, dwarfing the fire right beside me.
I stared out the window into the darkness, seeing the stars through the thin clouds that hung in the sky. It was a cold night, frost pressing into the corners of the glass, just the way it coated the outside of my heart. I know you are.
“King Talon.” Commander Navarrese entered my study, spine straight, decorated in his full armor like a battle could arrive at our borders at any moment.
I waited for that day to happen, but with every passing year, I feared it less and less. “Yes?” I looked up from the scroll that had just arrived on my desk.
“General Titan is here to see you.”
I’d been relaxed in the chair just a moment before, wearing my armor and cape, so used to the weight that I felt light when I wore nothing in the privacy of my chambers. My eyes bored into his for several long seconds as I absorbed that announcement. “Why did he abandon his post?”
Commander Navarrese stood with his arms at his sides, his eyes still and locked on my face. He took a beat to compose his response. “I don’t know, King Talon. The second he dismounted his steed, he asked for an audience with you.”
I suspected I knew exactly what this was about—but I’d better be wrong.
He gave a quick nod and stepped out of the room.
A moment later, General Titan entered my chambers, the smell of horse reeking from his clothes because his message was too urgent for a shower. His forehead shone with sweat even though it was a winter’s day. He stopped several feet from my desk, and once our eyes were locked, he was silent.
“You abandoned your post and rode across a desert just to stare at me?”
“King Talon?—”
“Are we under siege?”
“No. I needed to speak with you?—”
“Have we found a hoard of black diamonds?”
“No. But this is urgent.”
“It doesn’t sound urgent.”
He moved his hands behind his back and straightened his spine.
“Say your piece. Just know it’ll probably end with you losing your head.” I sat back in my chair, elbows on the armrests, and waited for his ridiculous plea.
His eyes dropped for a moment as he breathed hard, winded from the long trek down all the hallways and up the staircases. “I apologize for abandoning my post, but I selected an exemplary replacement in my absence.”
“It’s not your job to do that. It’s mine.”
“I needed to speak with you?—”
“A letter would have sufficed.”
His eyes dropped again, probably realizing just how foolish this was.
“Forget about Calista. She’s forgotten you.”
He flinched slightly, so slightly it was practically undetectable. “She’s my woman?—”
“Not anymore.” His obsession with her only made me grip her tighter, only made me want her more. She’d turned my most respectable and loyal soldier into a fucking idiot. He risked his neck by standing before me this very moment—all for her. I’d promoted him to the highest rank, deployed him to the Arid Sands because I knew he would fulfill my wishes, but Calista had single-handedly enslaved his mind with her beauty. “She found a black diamond and fulfilled her obligation, but you chose not to honor that agreement. Is that true?”
His eyes remained on mine, but he held his silence.
“I asked you a question, General Titan.”
“She chose to grant that freedom to another.”
“Because she wanted to, or because she had to?” She’d told me that he’d denied her freedom when she found the black diamond, but she’d failed to mention this part of the tale. She’d fulfilled her obligation—but had to watch someone else reap the rewards.
General Titan fell into silence.
“If a man doesn’t have his word, he has nothing. You violated my reputation when you denied her what she earned. Now, you’ve abandoned your post and selected another to replace you. You’ve come all the way here to ask for a woman who is now mine. Do you have a death wish?”
He stared, the fear and frustration mixed like a cloud in his eyes. “With all due respect, if I hadn’t made that decision, your paths never would have crossed.”
I stared as the fingers on my right hand tightened into a fist. His rationale annoyed me, not just because I didn’t like it, but because it was true. “And I suppose I should thank you for making her existence so unbearable that she risked her pretty neck to steal my dragon?”
He said nothing to that.
“You’ve served me well these past ten years, so I will pardon you—but just this once.” To find his replacement would take time and resources I didn’t have at the moment. My focus had shifted to the woman who spoke directly to my dragon. “Return to your post, and don’t come back. Your claim on this woman is severed, Titan.”