Page 150 of The Edge of Dawn

The infernal appendage was unnaturally strong, forcing Dragek to channel ka’qui into his grip.

But his ka’qui wasn’t as plentiful as it should be.

He was finally starting to tire.

Even the strongest of warriors could eventually be brought down by fatigue.

All the while, he maintained Tarak’s blade at Amun’s throat. That required the most ridiculous amount of control.

Is he completely mad?

Dragek could have killed him at any time.

And he’d had enough.

“Don’t move,” he growled. Then, he altered the angle of Tarak’s sword, slamming it through Amun’s left shoulder.

Amun let out a harsh grunt and whipped his tail around, wrenching the dagger out of Dragek’s grasp. Suddenly, the cursed thing was coiling around Dragek’s neck, dagger and all.

Dragek grabbed the hilt of the dagger and pulled it out. In an instant, he had it pointed directly at Amun’s remaining eye.

They were caught in lockstep—Tarak’s sword in Amun’s shoulder, the metal tail coiled around Dragek’s neck, and Dragek’s own dagger poised to enter Amun’s head at a nasty angle.

“You’re insane,” Dragek hissed.

Amun laughed. “I’ll kill you, katach.”

“Then we’ll end up killing one another. What do you want?”

“I just lost a very large piece of leverage, so I had to find another. Relent, or I’ll destroy this entire fucking ship. All it takes is one command.”

Dragek didn’t notice Tarak moving in on them until he was standing right in front of them, staring down at Amun with an unreadable expression. “You won’t.”

“You think I’m bluffing? Try me.”

“You won’t because they are far too important to you,” Tarak said calmly. “The females. The children. They are still onboard this ship. All of them are your offspring, aren’t they?”

Amun froze. “They are not.”

But there was a quiver in his aura; the mad prince wavered ever so slightly.

He was lying.

That made Dragek furious. “You forced those human females to…” His hand twitched. He was so close to killing Amun.

“I did not.” The prince’s metal tail tightened, and Dragek’s breathing became hoarse.

This time, he was telling the truth.

How was it possible, then?

That he could have sired that many offspring and those human females would have done so willingly?

Impossible.

Something was terribly wrong.

“They… they took it from me,” he uttered, his voice cracking, revealing a side of him that Dragek could never have predicted—a part of him that was broken. “Before, when they fixed my body… they took it—my seed. They used it to create the hybrids—my descendants. I didn’t even know until later, when I’d become powerful in my own right. It was… difficult to protect them without revealing my true intentions. You have no idea how hard it is to pretend to go along with some of the utter drivel those nobles believe in.”

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