Embattled (The Dragon Captured #4)

Prologue Liz

Humans have filled billions of pages—diaries, novels, poetry collections, and countless essays—on the subject of love. As far back as Virgil, two thousand years ago, humans proclaimed, “Omnia vinci amor!”

Love conquers all.

It’s an inspiring concept, especially if you’re a teenager whose parents don’t approve of the tattooed miscreant you’re dating, if you’re frustrated by the bigotry of your family or friends, or if you’re dealing with discrimination in the workplace.

In those circumstances, it’s probably just the push you need to hold firm.

But when you’re in love with a beast whose entire being is at odds with the future of your species?

It feels a little trite. Can love conquer the forces that are hard at work against me?

Can it restore Azar’s memories? Can it force all humanity to give the two of us a chance?

Can it convince his father that the human, err, human-adjacent person, who killed his wife isn’t the enemy?

Can it vanquish a horde of demons who have burned for millennia and probably now want us dead?

As I survive another day and then another week, against all odds, it feels like our enemies are just piling up, and none of them care about Virgil or the power of love. It leaves me wondering more often than I’d care to admit whether love can actually conquer anything.

Because I’m afraid—very afraid—that Virgil was an epic moron.

I’m worried that, at the end of the day, love is pretty fricking useless.