Page 70 of Haunted

I’ve thoroughly frustrated her. “Do you want to hear it or not?”

“Please, shock me.”

“As you wish.” I speak matter-of-factly. “Siana has many descendants. One of those descendants rose to power. She was an awful wench. Cruel. She murdered many people. So I tried to stop her.” Niawen doesn’t need to know I was obsessed with the empress.

“Is she the one who exiled you?”

“Yes.” Unexpectedly, my voice breaks. “And she killed my dragon.”

Niawen shoots upright in her chair. “Your dragon!” She gulps, and her face pales. “She killed your dragon?”

Alarmed, I rise, pushing my chair back hastily. I drop to one knee, against my better judgment, and grip the arm of her chair. With one fingertip—all I dare use—I turn her face to mine.

She is innocent. Her pain over Neifion’s death—it’s nothing compared to mine, but I hate that it grieves her.

“Easy. Breathe.” I fight the sorrow that’s coursing through myself. I shouldn’t have told her about Neifion. I shouldn’t have hurt her by speaking the truth. The past should lie in the past. “That was long ago. I know you can’t imagine the death of a dragon. Coming to grips with a blow like that took many centuries. I still have nightmares. I felt every one of Neifion’s agonizing pains and every rasp of his tortured breaths.”

I don’t want to cause her grief.

I could do more, so much more to comfort her other than my consoling words.

I did do more with the empress.

“She severed your bond,” Niawen squeaks. “And left you—”

“In misery. Only then did she exile me.” My fingertip tingles from the touch of her flesh. I have to restrain myself, have to resist the urge to comfort her by pulling her into my embrace. “I wouldn’t have survived the desert without the men loyal to me. The darkness that descended over me was unbearable. To have an eternal bond such as the one with my dragon taken… that was my real punishment. Not the exile. I couldn’t see straight. My men made sure I ate and drank, or I would have died. I would have crawled into the desert and let the carrion birds rip apart my still beating heart.”

“So you’ve made Islwyn your home. Away from everything!”

“After my predecessor died, yes. Lord Rheinallt admired my skills, and he had no heir. His people welcomed me with open arms.”

“So other half-emrys live beyond the desert?” she asks.

“Thousands. A whole country full.”

“And Siana?”

“She’s there,” I say, “trying to control her unruly children.” Trying to control her evil daughter.

“And the woman who exiled you?”

“She rules. Still.”

“She makes no demands from you?” Niawen asks. “She hasn’t challenged your leadership?”

I push back the fear that edges my heart as Niawen probes further. I fear everything about the empress.

She is the definition of fear.

“Listen to you with your questions. We’re worlds apart. What the empress does in her realm is no longer my concern. Saying this saddens me, but I don’t have the military strength to fight a country full of dragon riders.”

“So Nimue has posterity too?”

“She does.”

Niawen shakes her head. “This is so much to take in. I can’t even fathom.”

I stand, ready to divert the topic. “Come. Stop your mind from wandering. Allow me to show you around my home.”

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