Page 50 of King of Fire and Flames

The king’s mages had sealed the wound, preventing my life force from seeping out, but the blade couldn’t be removed safely without assistance from Taln’s healers. I hoped they’d arrive sometime this fucking century. I was beginning to think Azarn wanted me to die while I waited for them.

Weak from blood loss, I struggled to focus on the Fire King while rehearsing a careless tone in my mind before I spoke. Leaf’s life depended upon Azarn believing I was indifferent to her fate. That I didn’t care about her. But nothing could be further from the truth.

“Why the need to destroy her?” I asked. “Mere hours ago, I thought I heard you declare her as your son’s intended bride.” An event that would only occur over my dead body, I added in my head. “I destroyed your most loyal of courtiers, Gorbinvar the blacksmith, not the human. I don’t understand your obsession with her.”

Unfortunately, I did understand, for I shared his passion quite thoroughly. But instead of wanting to ruin her, I needed Zali Omala to be mine, safe for all time, and recognized as such in all realms, by all beings, fae or human.

I was the ruler of the Light Realm, High Lord of the Gold Accords, and Azarn was nothing but a petty thief. Without question, I would prevail, and soon, my Aldara would be free.

Azarn pushed off the bedpost and resumed trekking back and forth across the floor rug, his black-silk robe whipping the air behind him. “The girl is a future queen,” he said. “I use the term queen quite loosely, of course, since she belongs to the most despicable race ever to inhabit the realms. Due to her reaver blood, she holds power over the gold trade. The disgusting creature attempted to kill my own envoy at your court! The sooner Zali Omala and her people are exterminated, the better for all fae kingdoms. Coridon included.”

I very much doubted that.

In truth, what Azarn really meant was that he couldn’t bear to let a human girl have the upper hand, to possess greater control over the gold trade than he would ever have. Fortunately, for all the kingdoms of the realms, Leaf was no power-grabbing oppressor. Her heart and intentions were good. Benevolent even.

But regardless, I needed her back in Mydorian, safely cloaked by the reavers, where neither Azarn nor I could get my hands on her.

That was my goal. To save her from all fae—myself included. More than anything, Leaf wanted to be free, and I would stop at nothing to give her that gift. But deep down, I knew when the time came to leave her in Mydorian, I would never have the strength to let her go. She was my one vice, my fatal addiction. I would never give her up.

So if that made me a hypocrite or an asshole or both, so be it. I’d gladly wear the title.

“It seems the Earth Princess, a tiny scrap of a girl, has gotten under your skin,” I said, shivering and pulling the bed sheet to just below the knife jutting from my chest.

“She’s aligned with the reavers, related to them by the blood in her veins. I would rather see that blood soak the ground and the gold trade control returned to the fae kingdoms alone.” A laugh shook the Fire King’s shoulders as his cheeks flushed red. “Of course I mean returned to you, Arrowyn. And I will be beside you, always supporting your efforts.”

Losing count of the lies pouring from Azarn’s lips, I struggled to suppress a sneer of disgust.

Azarn’s dreams were simple, obvious, yet impossible to achieve. One day, he hoped to control Coridon. Or at the very least, my auron kanara. But without their feathers, the reavers’ blood couldn’t convert to gold. And even if the Sun Realm annexed my land, to keep the birds alive, he’d need lightning magic and lots of it. And for that, he needed my cooperation.

Azarn was in a bind, but too blinded by greed to notice.

Over the years, the Sun Realm had stolen both kanaras and lightning weavers from my kingdom to conduct illegal experiments on. But even the traitor Esen, a strong lightning wielder herself, couldn’t keep many birds alive for long without my presence.

I alone tethered the lightning weavers’ magic to the source. And more importantly, through my bond with the Zareen of Auryinnia, I was the source.

Coridon’s pact with the reaver elves held the key to not only retaining power, but to maintaining balance in the realms. Reavers were unable to create lightning themselves, but when the Zareen gifted each new Storm King with wings on his crowning day, bestowing him the power of magical transference, he then boosted all Light Realm fae’s power. None more important than the lightning weavers.

If the true measurement of dominion in the Star Realms was the amount of gold a fae controlled, then the Zareen was the most powerful being of all. Azarn was either oblivious to this eternal truth or had chosen to dismiss it as mere rumor.

More fool him.

Carefully gripping the hilt of the knife—the last place Leaf had graced me with her near-fatal touch—I breathed through the pain of her lack of faith in me and addressed Azarn again. “If you hate humans so much, why deal with her brother? He was the very worst of the species, vain and weak, an untrustworthy fool who deserved the poetic justice of his end. Killed by his own twin sister.”

At the word twins, Azarn blanched. I thought of Melaya and Nukala, wondering if recalling them had disturbed the Fire King for some reason.

He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Quin Omala was a gold-addicted moron who was easy to manipulate.”

My stubble rasped as I scratched my jaw and pretended to contemplate options for weakening my Aldara. Whatever I told the Fire King needed to sound plausible, convincing.

“In answer to your question, Azarn, most of all, the human despises being humiliated. Feeling powerless. If I were to feed off her, I could drain her slowly, weaken her will and make her malleable to your needs.”

Azarn’s brow rose in interest. “What would justify such an occurrence? I’d prefer my wife not to be alerted to our schemes.”

“You tell Estella that to fully recover from my injuries, I must feed daily from my Aldara. If necessary, sometimes twice a day. Although, I’ll do my best to feed as infrequently as possible. The process is… distasteful.”

“Why did you mark her in the first place, then?”

“For the same reason you have her here in Taln. To maintain control of the gold through her blood connection to the Zareen.”

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