Page 25 of The Death King

His eyes remained on mine, but he held his silence.

“I asked you a question, General Titan.”

“She chose to grant that freedom to another.”

“Because she wanted to, or because she had to?” She’d told me that he’d denied her freedom when she found the black diamond, but she’d failed to mention this part of the tale. She’d fulfilled her obligation—but had to watch someone else reap the rewards.

General Titan fell into silence.

“If a man doesn’t have his word, he has nothing. You violated my reputation when you denied her what she earned. Now, you’ve abandoned your post and selected another to replace you. You’ve come all the way here to ask for a woman who is now mine. Do you have a death wish?”

He stared, the fear and frustration mixed like a cloud in his eyes. “With all due respect, if I hadn’t made that decision, your paths never would have crossed.”

I stared as the fingers on my right hand tightened into a fist. His rationale annoyed me, not just because I didn’t like it, but because it was true. “And I suppose I should thank you for making her existence so unbearable that she risked her pretty neck to steal my dragon?”

He said nothing to that.

“You’ve served me well these past ten years, so I will pardon you—but just this once.” To find his replacement would take time and resources I didn’t have at the moment. My focus had shifted to the woman who spoke directly to my dragon. “Return to your post, and don’t come back. Your claim on this woman is severed, Titan.”

5

CALISTA

I had to get out of here.

I didn’t know what King Talon wanted from me, but after our last interaction, I suspected he might kill me. Now that I was in the Empire instead of surrounded by a lethal desert, I would survive if I managed to escape the castle walls.

I just had to escape.

It’d been days since we’d last spoken, and a part of me wondered if he’d forgotten me, or perhaps he’d left the castle and gone elsewhere. If he did leave, then it was the perfect opportunity for me to run for it.

If I were caught and he wasn’t here, then he couldn’t kill me, and I doubted the guards would do it themselves. They’d wait until their king returned and gave his orders. I looked out one of my bedroom windows, trying to determine the best path out of the castle. The castle at Shadow Stone was different from the one I’d grown up in—because it was massive. With ramparts and towers and bridges, it was easy to get lost. I’d been there a few times as a girl, but I’d been too young to memorize all the different pathways throughout the castle.

All I knew was I had to go down.

If I left this part of the castle and made it to a different section, those guards would probably have no idea who I was. If I just acted normal, pretended I belonged there, they probably wouldn’t find me suspicious.

I could just walk out the front gate.

Ever since I’d arrived here, I hadn’t left my bedchambers, and I was certain I was allowed to come and go as I pleased, so I put on a long-sleeved dress I found in my closet along with a pair of boots and stepped into the hallway.

Guards were posted on either side of the door, and they both stared at me.

“Gonna go for a walk.” I stepped away and moved down the long hallway, my boots on the rug. I looked up at the high ceilings and noticed the statues of soldiers placed on either side. I didn’t make it very far before I realized the guards were both right behind me, watching my every move.

That meant I’d have to lose them before I could run for it.

I moved down the different hallways and entered the different rooms, admiring the paintings on the walls, the chandeliers that hung in rooms made to entertain hundreds of people but only collected dust. The sheer scale of this place was indescribable, a castle that must have taken decades to complete.

It was winter, so the sunlight faded earlier than anyone wanted, except in the desert where any amount of sunlight was too much. I stood on one of the ramparts, pretending to appreciate the view while trying to piece together an escape route. It was hard to memorize all of this and not write it down, but I would remember bits and pieces and jot it down back in my room.

All I had to do was make it out the front gate and get lost in the city. They would never find me then. I could start a new life, work for myself instead of someone else, be in control of my own destiny for once.

I headed back toward my bedchambers, seeing both guards standing a short distance away, both watching me with intense gazes, as if they expected me to jump over the edge or something rash.

I walked past them and followed the path that had brought me there, testing myself to make sure I remembered this portion of the route. I used paintings and sculptures as markers to outline the path. If I didn’t see the golden phoenix statue in the corner of the hallway, then I had taken a wrong turn somewhere. If I didn’t see the paintings of the germaniums outside of a cottage, then I was lost.

It was a long walk back to my bedchambers. Probably ten minutes. Dinner was served by this time of day, so I would probably walk in to see my meal on the dining table. I didn’t want to be a captive of King Talon’s, but the food and accommodations were so good that it sometimes felt like a vacation—at least, when I didn’t have to deal with him.

---