Page 84 of Dragon Awakened

"You've lost your mind." He cuts a hand through the air like a knife, reflected lightning crackling in his eyes. "You turned your back on our people--"

"I tried to save our people." My voice cracks. "Our sister--"

He lets out an ugly, raw laugh. "Our sister doesn't need saving. She's the consort of the greatest power on this earth. Once the Shadow King takes power, she'll be right hand to the throne. Mother to the Prince of Darkness."

"Erembour doesn't care about her," I spit. "Only her bloodline. None of you care about her."

It was only me, screaming against the wind for years, trying so hard to save her.

"And what?" Fury's nostrils flare. "You do? You, the valiant prince. Did you ever listen to what she wanted? Were you there when she offered herself up to become the Shadow King's bride?"

Fury's maelstrom might not have blown me over, but his words come close. "You're lying."

"You've been lying to yourself. Your entire life." His sharp eyes dart to stare at a place over my shoulder, and his mouth twists into a snarl that bares his teeth. "And you're lying to yourself now."

I don't have to glance behind me to know he's glaring at Ember. The raging winds inside me howl, and the air around me stirs.

His cruelty to her blew me wide open, but I told myself that I was powerless. I couldn't reveal my attachment to her or I'd sacrifice us both.

I was a coward and a fool.

"For the first time in my life, I'm seeing clearly."

"You betrayed our family and our kingdom. I got kidnapped, and you didn't give a shit." Real hurt flashes in his eyes, but only for a fraction of a second.

"Sorry, it was a little hard to focus on feeling sorry for you when you were cheering on the horde of Shadow Dragons that were about to burn us alive."

"They never would have hurt you. They're here to protect us, our legacy, our power--"

"We're their prisoners." How can he not see that? "They watched our every move."

"Maybe yours--"

"Our father sold our kingdom to them, gave our sister to them. And for what?"

Power. He already said it, and I knew it was true, but the simple, fact-like matter of it all sends fresh waves of anger and loss coursing through me.

"King Erembour is going to unite the dragon kingdoms," Fury pronounces. "And we would have been right at his side."

"King Erembour is going to destroy the dragon world."

"You don't know the kind of power you're walking away from."

Only I do. The Shadow King is going to steal the magic from all of dragonkind, save his own servants.

And I'm suddenly completely, utterly certain that my brother knows that.

The shock crashes into me like an arctic wind.

"He was going to spare you. You and Father--"

"And you and Aria." He isn't even trying to hide it. Fear flashes in his eyes for the first time. "You walk away now, and you're going to be on the wrong side."

I shake my head and take a single, halting step back. "If this is wrong, I don't want to be right."

His gaze goes past me again, and the clear gray of his eyes flashes a blinding, rage-filled white. "It's her, isn't it? You're willing to betray everyone else in your life for her. The defective reject--"

"She was never defective," I roar, my dragon breathing smoke into my lungs. Harsher winds wrap around me, summoned by the painful crush of my guilt.

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