2. Talon
Chapter 2
Talon
My arms were hooked underneath her thighs, and I pressed a hard kiss to her slick sex, feeling lips fuller than the ones on her mouth. The second she felt the heat of my mouth, she arched her back and released a whimper as her nails clawed into the flesh of my forearms. I kissed her again and again, taking my time because we were on a soft mattress rather than the hard ground, both clean from our showers.
Her taste had been on my lips the moment we parted, a scar that hadn’t faded, a memory so vivid it felt like reality. But now, I tasted her again—and my memory hadn’t done it justice.
She whimpered and shed her wet tears, thrusting her sex into my mouth. It took just a few minutes for her to release and grind against me, to arch her back hard and flail like she had no control of her body.
Knowing I was her one and only turned me on like crazy, that the pretty elf man had tried to take what was mine and failed. He might be a commander, but I was a king. My lips left hers, and I moved up her body so my dick could relish the fruits of my labor.
But instead of opening her thighs to my hips, she guided me onto my back and moved on top of me. Her wet sex sat on my fire-hot dick, and her lips gave a sexy moan.
I felt the pull on all my tendons, the desperation to be inside that wetness. My hands gripped her hips harder than I should have, and I released a breath louder than I meant to. Every second I wasn’t inside her made me more desperate.
Her confidence waned as she grabbed my dick and directed me inside her. I was the one who was always on top, the one who did all the fucking, which I was perfectly fine with. But she wanted to reciprocate, though she still didn’t quite know how.
I lifted myself against the headboard to sit up and then guided myself inside her, watching her slide down and sheathe me. My eyes closed because it felt so damn good, like we hadn’t been fucking like rabbits for days, and it felt even better because I could see how much she wanted me. How much she needed me. Could feel her forgiveness and her commitment. Her lack of experience made it that much better, because I was the only man she’d ever wanted.
She slid down until there was nowhere else to go, and she released a shaky breath mixed with a wince.
My cock twitched inside her.
Her hands gripped my shoulders, and she brought herself close, arching her back farther than ever. As I’d taught her before, she rose and fell and rocked her hips at the same time, riding me down to the base before she lifted herself once again.
Damn.
She started to move quick and jerkily, her breaths growing heavy, and her nails began to claw me.
I grabbed her hips and slowed her down. “Baby…” I wouldn’t last like this, not with the taste of her sweetness on my mouth and her pussy fucking my dick hard because she wanted to come again.
She matched the movements of my hands, resting her forehead against mine, her eyes down on my lips.
Fuck, this was worse.
My hands spanned her waist before I moved one hand into the valley between her tits, feeling her heartbeat right under the skin, feeling the soul attached to it. She was flesh and blood, good and innocent, unbreakable despite all the attempts to shatter her. I was a man who’d pissed away any chance of redemption, and I stood in the shade of her beacon of light because it made me feel whole…even for just a moment.
Her hand moved to mine and squeezed, just under her tit, where her frantic heart continued to race. She was right at the edge of her desire, ready to combust in a fire that would burn this whole forest. A flush entered her cheeks, her eyes glistened like morning dew on a flower, and her body contracted on me before she trembled.
When I felt her come around me, my hand left her chest and moved to her neck instead, clutching her hard enough to feel her frantic pulse under the skin. My dick was hard as steel as her body gripped me like a hand gripped the hilt of a sword. Her hips convulsed, and she turned into a teary-eyed mess on top of me, tits up with hard nipples sharp as daggers.
“Fuck.” I squeezed her so hard I nearly choked her. I dumped everything inside that tightness and made her mine for the twelfth time since we’d been reunited. A line of women could have entertained me in her absence, but no woman ever satisfied me the way she did. No woman ever brought me this close to the sun.
I finally released her neck and watched her take a deep breath once her airway was clear. She lay on the rumpled bed beside me, her naked body slightly illuminated by the fireflies that danced outside the window. A sheen of sweat sparkled across her beautiful skin. She lay there and immediately closed her eyes.
I was still against the headboard as I looked down at her, her perfect body on display like she was about to be painted for a portrait to adorn a wall in the castle. Little scars were on her body, but I’d stopped noticing them a long time ago.
I shifted down until I was flat on the bed beside her, listening to the sound of the croaking frogs from the ponds and the chirping crickets hidden in the tall grass. I’d had no expectations when I’d walked into this forest, so I certainly hadn’t expected it to remind me of home. But it did.
On summer nights, it used to sound just like this, the critters coming out now that the sun was gone. Enjoying the warm darkness and reduction in predators. The window was closed, so I couldn’t feel the breeze, but I could imagine it through my hair and I could hear the waves against the base of the cliff, even though I was nowhere near the sea.
She opened her eyes and looked at me.
And time stopped. Her green eyes could command me the way a king commanded an army. I’d never felt inferior to anyone, felt like a pawn in someone’s hand, until I met this woman. I was the darkness, and she was the light. I knew I didn’t deserve her, but I also knew I wouldn’t let her go, even if she wanted to walk away.
She continued to stare at me. “What’s behind those dark eyes?”
Black riptides of death. Bottomless pits of brokenness. Sheer nothingness. “You.” She was the only thing left in me.
The corners of her eyes dropped in heaviness, and I saw a mixture of affection and pity in her gaze. Then she smashed against me, the way butter met bread, and she crawled inside me until we were a single person.
My arms hooked around her and held her close, my lips resting against her forehead, smelling her scent because it reminded me of jasmine flowers on a spring afternoon. When her heart was close to mine, I felt better. Everything felt better. A month of loneliness and solitude had shown me that the light in my life didn’t come from my fireplace or the fire in my dragon’s belly.
It came from her.
“What do you think of the forest?” she whispered.
I stared at the fireflies through the window, their yellowish glow so bright it masked the stars up above. The place was beautiful and full of serenity, but there was a sense of discomfort that pressed against me like the tips of a thousand knives. The air around me was tight, like the forest wanted to eject me from its home with all the force it could muster. I didn’t belong there, and for as long as I remained, the trunks of the trees would feel brittle like old bones. “It reminds me of home.”
“You lived in a forest?”
“No. Late at night, I could hear the crickets in the grass and the frogs in the pond.”
“You still call it home after all this time?”
I’d spent twenty years traveling to different places, taking up different trades, until my destiny could no longer be avoided. “It’ll always be my home.” I wondered how much it had changed, if the castle was still at the top of the cliff above the city, if the white stone of the buildings remained untouched or if it was scarred by soot and ash. Uncle Barron would have been dead by now if he were a mortal, but after being fused with Constantine, he wouldn’t have aged a day. No doubt, he’d destroyed every piece of history that suggested my line had ever lived. The family portraits had probably been burned or thrown in the sea.
“You’ll have to show me around…when this is over.”
My fingers moved through her soft strands, gliding to the tips before I let it fall back to the pillow. I repeated it, caressing her hair over and over, the way a sailor dragged his oar through the water.
“I wish I could show you the forest, but I know Queen Eldinar would be furious.”
I’d been apart from Calista so long that I didn’t want to entertain a separation. My nights had been spent in a silent rage, gripping a glass in front of the fire, seeing another man in her private chambers as if he belonged there. “You’re all I care about, baby.”
I was up before she was.
In just my underwear, I walked into the kitchen where the dining table sat in the center, remembering one of our conversations when she’d had Commander Luxe over for dinner. I found the chopped coffee beans on the counter and boiled a pot of hot water to make myself a hot cup of coffee. I was used to servants doing this for me, but I was resourceful enough to figure it out on my own.
I sat at the dining table and looked out the window, seeing the flowers growing on the vines that hung from the roof. A hummingbird had just slipped its tongue inside a flower, but when it spotted me, it took off so quickly I couldn’t see which direction it went.
Distance has never compromised our connection in the past, but the forest has muffled it. I don’t feel you as strongly as I normally do.
I watched the steam rise from the cup of coffee. We’re deep in the forest, and the trees are thick.
Are you well?
Yes .
The trees may be too big for me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t burn them down to get to you.
That will be unnecessary, Khazmuda.
I appreciate what the elves have done for my kind, but their prejudice against you blinds their sight.
I don’t blame them for their hatred. I’m an easy man to hate.
And an easy man to love.
I smirked and drank the coffee.
Minutes later, Calista left the bedroom and came into the morning light that brightened the rest of the house. In just a cotton shirt and her panties, she lifted her arms high over her head as she stretched like a cat. “Morning.”
Her shirt lifted to expose her little belly, and my hand immediately went to her hip and guided her onto my lap. “Morning.”
Her arms circled my neck, and she kissed me.
My hand went to her ass and squeezed it as I felt her warm lips on mine, as I felt the tremble of my broken heart. She thawed the ice in my blood, reminded me of a joy I’d long forgotten.
She looked at the mug on the table. “You made coffee.” She grabbed the mug by the handle and took a drink.
“It’s all yours, baby.”
“We can share.” She took another drink and set it on the counter. “Want some breakfast?”
“Depends.”
“On?” She left my lap and stood beside the chair.
My eyes went to her ass that was nearly at eye level. “Not in the mood for seeds and thorns, whatever these people eat.”
“Well, I promise there won’t be thorns in it.” She headed to the kitchen counter and got to work, putting together a vegetable skillet that consisted of hearty potatoes with mushrooms and root vegetables. She cooked it in a sauce made of some kind of plant-based milk. The combination of the ingredients and the spices made a smell waft through the house that wasn’t half bad.
Minutes later, she brought two plates to the table along with her own mug of coffee. I sat at the head of the table, and she took the seat beside me, beautiful first thing in the morning when her eyes were rested and her skin rejuvenated.
We ate in silence.
The potatoes were charred on the outside but soft on the inside, and the other vegetables had a good taste mixed with the ingredients she’d thrown together without a recipe book.
“What do you think?”
“It could use some thorns.”
She stopped eating and released a quick chuckle. “Did you just make a joke?”
I continued to eat like nothing of the sort had happened.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you do that, except when you’re being sarcastic.”
My eyes remained down on the plate to avoid her stare.
“You should make jokes more often.”
I finished my plate then sat back to drink my coffee. In the castle, my breakfast usually consisted of meat and eggs, or I didn’t have breakfast at all.
She finished her breakfast a moment later and looked out the window at the sunshine and the flowers. “It’s still hard to believe you’re here. When you visited me before, it felt like a dream.”
A dream with a hefty cost. “Thank you for breakfast.”
“Wow, you have manners too.”
I smirked. “Don’t get used to it.”
“I like this new version of you.”
It wasn’t new. Just buried for a very long time.
She must have watched my eyes fall because hers did too. “You disappear so quickly…”
“There’s very little left of that version of me.”
She didn’t ask why, and I appreciated that.
“If we find the dragons and they agree to fight for our cause and we take back the Southern Isles…then what?”
Taking back the Southern Isles wasn’t the ambition. Just usurping the ruler who’d taken it from me. “The dragons will be free. Scorpion Valley will be yours once again. The world will be as it should be.”
“You expect me to stay in Scorpion Valley while you’re in the Southern Isles?” she asked with pain in her voice.
No, that wasn’t what I expected at all. “I don’t know what will come, Calista. It’s hard to think about the aftermath of a victory that I haven’t earned yet. That I may never earn.” I might gamble the lives of free dragons and Calista and lose it all. Then my life and soul would be forfeit…all for nothing.
She turned quiet, her pretty eyes contemplative.
A knock sounded on the front door.
I immediately rose to my feet and headed to the front of the house.
“Aren’t you going to put something on?” she asked as she stepped out of sight of the door.
“No.” I opened the front door and came face-to-face with Commander Luxe, who was completely adorned in his dark green armor and his black cape.
I’d hoped it would be him. “Yes?” I was taller and more muscular, probably because I ate a man’s diet instead of foraging for berries and nuts like a fucking rabbit.
His eyes flicked back and forth as he recovered from his surprise, as if he’d expected Calista to open the door in appropriate attire. “Queen Eldinar requests your presence in the royal palace. I’ll escort you there.”
I shut the door in his face without saying a word.
Calista left the kitchen and came into view. She must have heard what he’d said because she went into the bedroom to get dressed.
“Hold on.” I came up behind her and shoved her onto the bed.
She hit the mattress and looked at me in surprise. “What are you doing?”
I moved on top of her and pulled her panties off her ass so I could sink into her tightness. I shoved my boxers down before I adjusted her underneath me.
“They’re waiting for us?—”
I sank inside her, greeted by her slickness. “And they’ll wait.”
We walked down the path, Commander Luxe in the lead while flanked by two of his men. The rest of the soldiers walked behind me, keeping a tight formation all around me like I might snap and destroy this forest with my bare hands.
Calista walked beside me in an olive-green dress with flat sandals, her hair combed back to reveal her beautiful face on this sunny day. I felt the attraction the first moment I saw her, but she was in her element here, looking like a princess of the forest. I understood her affection for this place.
After a short walk, we approached the entrance to the royal palace, a building that had ivy and flowers growing up the sides, a statue in the front, either of Queen Eldinar or the Riviana, the God of Caelum. It was hard to know which.
We were escorted inside, Queen Eldinar sitting upon her throne with a spine stiffer than the trees outside the dwelling. In a white dress with the image of flowers interwoven in the fabric and white flowers braided in her hair, she was a woman of unnatural beauty, her appearance blessed by the nearly immortal blood that ran through her veins.
But she was still no match for Calista.
The General of Riviana was at her side, sword on his hip while his palm rested on the pommel. His resemblance to Calista was obvious in that moment. Their eyes were the same. Same color and shape…and same heart. He seemed to have recovered from the battle, with the exception of the scar on the side of his head.
Queen Eldinar stared at me with her nose turned up like I was a cockroach that had crawled into her bed.
As the ruling monarch, she refused to speak first, so I folded just to get the conversation going. “How may I be of service, Your Majesty?”
Her nose upturned slightly less at my gesture of respect. “We hoped to have more time to recover from the battle, not just physically, but emotionally as well. But according to our scout reports, the dark elves approach our border with the unmistakable intention of breaching it. Tension has existed between our two races, but it’s been a very long time since they tried to infiltrate our borders. They must know that we’re weary from our battle with the Behemoths at the border and have taken this opportunity to strike.”
A smart move. “Then I will meet them in battle and protect your border.” One look at me and they would scatter like a pack of squirrels. I would raise an army of the dead to act as a barrier between their lands and the elves’—and no one would cross it. I probably wouldn’t even have to lift my sword.
“Under no circumstance are you to disturb the dead, Talon.”
“King Talon.” I wouldn’t allow another monarch to belittle my power, not after everything I’d done to earn it. “If you want me to respect your crown, then you will respect mine. If you’re unwilling to do that, then I’ll leave you to be overrun by these creatures. Khazmuda and I will find the dragons—eventually.”
She sat with her arms on the armrests, her blue eyes angry in provocation. But she didn’t refute my request. “You can’t call upon the dead to fight for you. They’ve been disturbed once, and I won’t allow you to disturb them again.”
“Then you shouldn’t have asked the Death King for aid.”
She continued her angry stare.
I stared back.
“I will not change my mind, King Talon.”
“Then you expect me to defeat an army of elves without magic or Khazmuda.”
Her intelligent eyes were pointed but veiled, the truth of her thoughts shrouded in mystery.
I felt the smile move across my lips. “Or you expect me not to…”
“If you’re nothing without your curse and your ally, then perhaps you’re nothing as well.”
“Perhaps.” I felt the smile slowly fade away. “I will defend your forest—without the dead. And when I’m victorious, you will kneel before me and thank me before your subjects. Are we in agreement?”
She could express so much with just her gaze. For a beautiful woman, she could look so vicious, her eyes like daggers in that pretty face. Her hatred cut through flesh and bone, a storm cloud that billowed around her. “Yes.”
“When your men are ready to march, so will I.”
General Ezra presented my sword and scabbard in his open arms.
I took it and secured it across my back where my cape was attached to my armor.
Then he presented my dagger and bow.
I took them and returned them to my body.
Then he presented another dagger, the hilt the color of his dark hair and the blade solid black. “The blade is short, but the heft is substantial. Can pierce most armor if it’s used in the correct manner.”
I eyed it before I took it.
“A gift from my queen.”
“An odd gift to bestow upon someone you hope doesn’t return.”
The general ignored my words and walked off.
Calista came to me next, the storm clouds of worry so heavy in her gaze it looked like it would rain. “I don’t like this.”
“Nor do I.”
“Then maybe we shouldn’t do it.”
“The dark elves march as we speak. Even if your queen offered me nothing in return, I would still fight—not for her, but for you.”
A sad affection moved into her eyes. “I want to come with you.”
The statement was so ridiculous I didn’t even respond to it.
“Talon—”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“But what will you do without your army? Without Khazmuda?”
“Khazmuda may not be here, but his blood is still in my veins. Queen Eldinar will be relieved that the dark elves have been defeated, but she’ll be disappointed when I return with only a few scratches.”
“You don’t think she actually wants you dead, right?”
“I do.”
“Why would she want that?”
“So she gets what she wants without having to uphold her end of the deal. The Death King will be gone from these lands, and the location of the dragons will remain a secret, while her greatest enemy has been defeated. I may not like your queen, but I respect her strategy.”
Despite the fact that the clearing was full of soldiers, including Commander Luxe and General Ezra, Calista came close to me and grabbed my hand because it wasn’t sheathed in my glove. She blanketed me in affection without touching me, the depth in her eyes bottomless. “I just got you back…”
I cupped her face, and I brushed my thumb over her cheek.
She closed her eyes and relaxed into my touch, her hand tightening on mine.
When I held her like this, I forgot the circumstances of my life, the events that had brought me here because, for a moment, I only knew peace. I searched for it in violence and in revenge, but I found it in her.
She opened her eyes and looked at me again.
I didn’t promise her I would return because I wouldn’t make a promise I couldn’t keep. But I wouldn’t let my story end here, in a battle that didn’t further my own interests. It was a stepping-stone to what I needed—and I wouldn’t trip going up the steps. “Gather your armor and sword. Be prepared for battle.”
“Then you think you’ll fail?—”
“The winner of the battle is not necessarily the strongest, but the most prepared.” I’d learned that the hard way. I cupped her cheeks and pressed a kiss to her mouth, claiming her as mine in front of everyone who stood there. “I’ll come back to you.”
I marched beside General Ezra as we left the forest to the west, the army of soldiers marching behind us. Instead of marching in lines and ranks like I’d been taught, they were scattered because of the trees, but still a single entity.
Queen Eldinar stayed behind with her guards and let her husband fight in the name of her crown.
A cowardly move.
We marched in silence. I felt my connection to Calista dwindle the farther apart we became. Commander Luxe was down at the end of the line, leading a different section of the men.
“General Ezra.”
He looked at me as he continued to march forward.
“Tell me everything about their kind.” I remembered the message that King Constantine had delivered to us. It had arrived too late, didn’t give us enough warning to act or flee. It said the dark elves had conquered the minds of the dragons and taken control. Were these the same race as my enemy?
He looked forward again and remained quiet for a while. “A long time ago, they lived among our kind. They were no different from us. But Alaric was hungry for power and tried to take the crown from Queen Eldinar. This was long before my time, and all I have is the tale. It was a coup, but my wife was too smart to fall for the scheme. She banished Alaric from our lands, and his followers went with him.”
I listened to the story and waited for more.
“They returned years later and attacked Riviana Star, but this time, they didn’t come for Queen Eldinar. It was clear their eyes were set on the Great Tree, the Realm of Caelum. It was then that Queen Eldinar realized Alaric had never wanted the crown—just the gateway. Some of them made it through, and the ones who didn’t were cursed by Riviana herself. Their skin was marked with the curse by turning gray, the color of death. Their punishment for trying to steal the afterlife was to be permanently banished from it. As you can imagine, that infuriated Alaric and his followers even more.”
“Did the curse affect them in other ways?”
General Ezra glanced at me. “I don’t understand your question.”
“You said they’re made to look like death. But did the curse bestow any other effects or abilities?”
He still seemed confused by the question. “Not that I know of. But it’s been a thousand years since we’ve interacted with Alaric and the dark elves. Perhaps they abandoned their crusade until they learned about the Behemoths on the border and assumed we were compromised.”
So, if the dark elves had the ability to control minds, General Ezra and Queen Eldinar didn’t know about it. I march with General Ezra and the army to defeat the dark elves that compromise their border.
And you tell me this now?
Under no circumstance are you to attempt to help me.
I will do as I please.
If these dark elves are the same as those who took my kingdom, then we can’t risk their invasion into your mind.
I defied their attacks, Talon.
But I would rather die than risk it.
Khazmuda was quiet.
It’s not worth it.
“I don’t like you.”
I turned back to the general when I heard what he said.
“I don’t like you for my niece…is what I mean.”
I marched by his side and continued to hold his gaze.
“I appreciate what you’ve done for her. I appreciate the way you’ve protected her. But we both know you’re the wrong man for her. She’s suffered enough, and I don’t want her to suffer anymore.”
The flush of anger was enough to make my blood boil underneath the surface. “When you discovered that Scorpion Valley had been conquered and your brother slain, what did you do?”
He held my gaze.
“Answer me.”
He looked ahead and remained silent.
“Nothing—that’s what you did. There wasn’t enough love or loyalty to your brother to get you to leave this forest and search for the only family you had left. An orphaned little girl was forced to survive on her own—and you couldn’t get off your ass.”
His eyes remained locked ahead.
“I didn’t kill her father. He handed her over to his commander and offed himself. A fucking coward.”
General Ezra stopped.
And instantly, so did the entire army.
He looked at me, the rage in his eyes.
“Her father abandoned her. You abandoned her. But I never have. When an army marched upon your forest with her inside it, I flew across the land to raise my sword in her defense. She told me she never wanted to see me again, but I still came. You may not like me, General Ezra. But every man in her life has failed her—except for me.”
General Ezra raised his hand when we approached a large clearing.
The entire army stopped.
We didn’t march with heavy footfalls like most men. The elves were quiet, slithering through the grass and around the roots of trees like snakes. It was dark, and I spotted the torches in the distance on the way here.
Now, I saw them up close, a line of torches across the wide gap between the trees. It wasn’t large enough for a battle to take place, but it was a clear divide between the two borders. The trees were different here, shorter in height with less vegetation.
We stood there for minutes. The soldiers waited for orders.
I waited to spot the enemy, refusing to engage in battle without understanding their numbers or formation.
General Ezra continued to stare ahead.
Then someone appeared through the trees, starting as a shadow before the light of the torches struck his face. The only evidence that he was an elf was his pointed ears, but the rest of him looked human. He was thick and muscular, much bigger than any of the elves who stood behind me. He was dressed in black armor that blended in with the darkness around him. He had long black hair that was combed from his face—and a long scar down the center of his eye.
He stopped at the line of torches and looked straight at us, like he could see in the dark.
General Ezra took a step forward.
My hand went to his shoulder, and I steadied him. “Allow me.”
He threw my hand down. “I’m the general of Riviana Star, and you follow my orders.”
I lowered my voice. “I remember your wife asking me to handle this—not you.”
He said nothing, but his eyes did all the talking.
I walked forward and broke the line of trees.
The dark elf immediately shifted his gaze to me when I emerged, and that arrogant smile slowly faded as I drew near. The disgusting glee left his face, and he turned serious once he realized he faced more than the elves.
I stood several feet away, my face visible in the torchlight.
He stared at me with wide eyes, his skin the color of stone in the mountains, his eyes dark and lifeless. But he was tall and burly, a creature that existed off meat instead of seeds and berries like his relations. “You’re cursed.” His voice was deeper than I expected, like the hum from deep in a mountain. “Cursed just like us.”
“Yes.”
He glanced at the army behind me before he looked at me once again. Then he changed his tongue, speaking in the language of death. “ Scion hueim ahieu schiem buros .” The Death King has conquered Riviana Star .
I spoke back in the same language. Yurot ahugn viuah Riviana Star. Buffios niuiss vitti zurois cuaoloum. I have not conquered Riviana Star. I’m an ally of the forest.
“Impossible. Queen Eldinar would never accept aid from a necromancer.”
“She fears you—so she must.”
A smile moved across his face. Not a normal smile like a child could wear, but a demented one, a mad one. “As she should.”
“What do you want in the Realm of Caelum, Alaric?”
His eyes bored into mine as if he was hypnotized by my stare. “To be the God of Caelum. To make Riviana serve me on her knees. To banish Queen Eldinar and every elf who has ever supported her to an eternity in the underworld. That is what I wish, Death King.”
“That’s quite ambitious.”
He smiled again. “Not as ambitious as you.”
“And how do you intend to subjugate a god?”
He stared at me with that same smile. “Riviana may be invulnerable among us, but in Caelum, she is touchable. She is vulnerable. I will chain her wrists and her ankles. I will fuck the pussy of a god and take her crown.”
I didn’t fear this creature. Not his size or his ambition. But his words were vile…and made me sick. I remembered my wife’s tears when she told me what happened to her. And I would never forgive myself for what happened to Calista because I felt responsible for her tragedy.
His fingers moved to his temple. “When she cursed us, she bestowed upon us a gift, a gift to attack with the mind.” He tapped twice before he lowered his hand. His smile was wider than ever. “She may be physically superior, but her mind will break under my hold.”
A rush of fear moved up my spine. We were thousands of leagues across the sea from my homeland, but some of these dark elves must have left the forest and moved elsewhere throughout the last thousand years. It was too much of a coincidence. “Why haven’t you used this ability against Queen Eldinar?”
“Because it doesn’t work on mortals.”
That meant it would work on me. Or Khazmuda.
A hint of a smile was still on his lips. “What did Queen Eldinar offer you in return for your service? There is no other reason the Death King would choose an ally that’s beneath him.”
I was certain that General Ezra and the others could hear us speak, but they didn’t understand the content since the language was unknown to them. Very few knew it because it had to be bestowed upon you as a gift or a curse. “My kingdom across the sea was taken from me. My family was executed. I need to find the remaining free dragons to fight alongside me as I take my revenge. Queen Eldinar knows their location and will share it with me in exchange for your defeat.”
His smile was back. “And you believe her?”
“She made the vow in the presence of her people. If she doesn’t fulfill it, she’ll be a liar.”
“Being a liar is one of her better traits.”
I didn’t care for her either, but I wouldn’t insult her in the presence of her enemies.
“She’s not the only one who knows the location of the dragons.”
I’d marched through the forest to fight with my sword and my speed, not with my mind. Now, I was locked in a dangerous chess game where every single move counted. “If that’s true, why haven’t you gone to them?”
“To do what?” he said. “If the dragons burn down the forest, they burn the gateway to the Realm of Caelum. The forest is too dense for their kind to fight alongside us, so they’re worthless in this regard.”
“How do you know where they are?”
“Because I was there when we freed the dragons from the humans and granted them asylum. I was one of the Guardians of Thalian until my service was completed, and I was allowed to return to Riviana Star. There is no other safe place for the dragons, so I know they haven’t changed the location.”
It might be foolish to believe him, but I did.
“Join us. Raise your army of the dead. Help me take the Realm of Caelum, and I’ll give you what you seek.”
Uncle Barron wouldn’t have succeeded in his plan without the aid of the dark elves. If Riviana had never cursed them, this gift of mental subjugation never would have been bestowed and none of this would have happened at all. I wasn’t sure who deserved the blame—Alaric or Riviana.
In either case, I was the one who’d paid the price.
He pressed me when he grew anxious. “What say you, Death King?”
“I can’t betray my alliance. I’m a man of my word and have to preserve my integrity.”
He blinked several times as he stared, trying to hide his disappointment. “I understand. Then excuse yourself from the battle, and I’ll still give you what you seek.”
They didn’t seem to fear the elves. Only me.
“Don’t trust her, Death King. She may shake your hand in public, but she’ll stab you in the back when no one is looking. The safety of those dragons is her responsibility, so there’s no scenario in which she trusts it to an enemy of Riviana.”
“I’m not an enemy to Riviana.”
“You’re sired by Bahamut, God of the Underworld. You’re forever under his command, so yes, you’re an enemy to Riviana.” Alaric continued to stare at me. “I will give you their location this very moment if you agree to stand aside. That is a small sacrifice to have what you want above all else. I offer my hand, and it would be unwise to push it away.”
I continued to stare, my heart racing with my predicament. Those dragons were all I needed and I could continue my war, but what price was I willing to pay for them?
Alaric’s stare was locked on my face, his eyes shifting back and forth as he waited for my answer with palpable desperation.
At that moment, General Ezra joined us. “I grow tired of these secrets.” His hard gaze pierced the side of my face. “What says he?”
Alaric acted as if he weren’t there.
I said nothing.
“Speak,” General Ezra commanded.
Alaric smirked.
“You’ve been at war with Queen Eldinar for a millennium,” I said, still speaking to Alaric. “If you go to war with Riviana Star, those of you who perish will never reach the afterlife. The battle is not worth the risk to your vulnerable mortality. The Realm of Caelum is heavily guarded, and you have no chance of breaking through that defense. I give you one week to vacate this forest and reside at least a hundred leagues elsewhere. It’s time to move on, Alaric.”
“Perhaps you’re right.” Alaric continued to wear his disturbing smile. He gave a slight bow before he turned away and walked back into the trees from which he came. “Thank you for your mercy, Death King.”