Page 21 of A Book of Royals and Deities

Foster pales. “U-understood. I’ll walk you there.”

It’s hardly Foster’s fault if Daegan tries anything, but it’s already awkward as we head through the forest. Foster can’t help but make small talk, unaware Ziven isn’t a fan. “It’s nice being outside, and the weather is good for riding. How has it been riding, Story?”

I elbow Ziven in the stomach before he can say a word that matches the bored look he gives Foster. “Amazing. Thank you for asking. What’s it like being outside?”

“I didn’t realise how trapped I felt until I stepped out. Until I rode my dragon into the skies and breathed.” He sighs low. “I guess we all went mad with pretending we were fine in there.”

Whether Ziven agrees with him or not, I don’t know, but he doesn’t stop Foster from chatting about everything from the food shortages to the tutoring lessons that the fae in the mansion have set up daily for the other fae from the city to learn about their history. I’ve stood at the back of a few of them, and I’m glad people are finally learning and knowing the truth. Foster stops speaking to me when we get in sight of the mansion and the doors, where a few dragon rider guards from the Sun Dynasty are standing. I don’t know them, but their faces are vaguely familiar.

The silent walk back through the mansion is as exhausting as usual. I’ve gotten used to the feeling of eyes on me nearly all the time now since I first came here. It’s a bit harrowing and unsettling, especially when so many of them definitely want me dead to escape, but Catherine’s been telling me that not all of them do. Some of them were massively in disagreement about killing me, no matter what the cause was, and think my death will signal a curse—not freedom. Some of them actually idolisedAtilia for keeping them safe from the vampyres, now that they’re learning how bad it was outside of here. I don’t want any of their attention and maybe that book is a way of getting all barriers down so I can get the hell out of here and away from all of this pressure. I’m not Atilia. I didn’t choose this.

The Sun Dynasty apartments are heavily guarded, the twins in the middle who look at me once with slight wariness before they move aside. They don’t give Ziven the same warm look.

“He’s in the living quarters by your old room,” Foster claims at the door, waving a hand forward. He pauses. “Come and catch up with me sometime. I’m glad you’re alive, Story.”

Ziven growls low in warning, and I tug him away before he can finish off Foster for being nice to me. “Stop being possessive.”

He leans down, touching my chin with his thumb and forefinger before brushing his lips across mine. A brush that sends heat spiralling through my body, and I flush. “Never, Storm. I’m selfish, possessive and an asshole when it comes to you. I won’t apologise for it. For loving you.”

Every time he says it, it makes my heart jump. It makes me feel more alive than I ever have before, and I softly smile at him. Ziven lowers his hand, almost like he is remembering where we are and what we have to do. He knows his way around, because I don’t have to tell him the way to the room, and we head in together. A flash of light shuts the doors behind us, leaving us in the warm lounge with a blaring fire and a betraying Sun king seated in front of it in a chair that looks like a throne.

I glance at Daegan sitting in a chair by the fire, and for a moment, all the times I trusted him flash before my eyes. Every time I let him kiss me, every time we held each other in front offires like this, and our dates in the greenhouse. Only everything is tainted now, like the greenhouse, because it is now the place where he tried to kill me. The warm fire casts a glow over his light hair, his golden skin still looking like sunlight even when I see nothing but a monster who doesn’t deserve the light at all.

When he turns to face us, I notice how he looks thinner. There’s a five o’clock shadow growing across his jaw, and his clothes are looser than he usually wears them. He looks up at me with those eyes that I once thought were beautiful and kind. Now I can’t see anything but darkness in the depths.

His eyes drop to our entwined hands, and something flashes across his face. It’s gone too quick for me to even register it existed. “I heard you claim she was your queen. Are you mated? Do you have a moon mark hidden on you somewhere to go with the dragons?” I almost touch my dragon markings on my wrists. I never liked being marked by anyone, not when my skin is littered with vampyre bite marks. I never wanted the dragons…but I am proud of them. They are earnt and mine. If I choose to join the Moon Dynasty, that will be another mark I want. I choose. When you’ve never been able to choose how your body is used and marked, getting the choice is everything to me. He looks right at me and smiles like we are friends. “Did you forgive him that easily?”

My heart hurts, not because of how he hurt me, but because I trusted another male. I should have learnt my lesson with Emyr years ago. I won’t be making a stupid mistake like that ever again. “That is really none of your business. Unless you have called us here to talk about the mansion, the people or something important…I. Do. Not. Want. To. Talk. To. You.”

He blanches a little at the hate he sees on my face. Good. I’m not naive, I’m not a fool, and he has tricked me once before. Sunlightmight shine off him, but if I look closer, I see it’s nothing pure. When he doesn’t say anything, I tap my foot. “You asked to see me. What do you want?”

“Story…” He stops and climbs off his seat to stand in front of us both. Ziven tenses, just slightly, and if I didn’t notice just about every little detail about him, I wouldn’t have seen. “I want to tell you the truth. I think we should all stop lying to each other before we destroy the dynasties for good.”

“Now you suddenly care about the people?” Ziven laughs, but it’s hollow and lacks any humour. “Fuck off.”

Daegan grits his teeth. “Every action I have taken was for the people here! For our people, trapped for hundreds of years and never changing. Never aging, never having children or being anything other than fucking trapped because of her?—”

I cut him off. “Stop with that bullshit. I am not her! I didn’t make her choices or lock you in here. You had every opportunity to just tell me the truth or use the magic book left here. You could have shown it to me?—”

“No one touches the book. Especially not you!” he snarls at me.

Silver moonlight dances around the room, and it’s beautiful as much as it is deadly. Silver might be slowly becoming my favourite colour. Like snakes about to bite, the light sharply lashes at Daegan until he is surrounded by the streaks of silver light. They are the very image of Ziven’s eyes, which glow with his power. The dragon markings on his hands move and glow silver too, and I struggle to even look away from him. Daegan’s eyes widen slightly, and he glows a bright, warm yellow that pales compared to the beauty of Ziven’s moonlight. Ziven’s voice is colder than the middle of a snowy night. “If you ever raise yourvoice at my queen again, Sun bastard, I will rip you apart and crush your crown under my foot.”

Daegan stares right at Ziven, who holds his stare. “Fine.”

The moonlight fades, and the room seems less without it. “The book…I wasn’t aware you knew of it, Story. It would be a bad idea to take you to it when I know it wants you.” He clears his throat. “The book talks of dozens of prophecies, it talks of magic older than time itself. It talks of truths, lies and everything else that makes this world turn around. It knows languages that have never existed and should not now. Yet it asks for you. Over and over.”

A shiver spreads down my spine. “What exactly did you want me here for, Daegan?”

“To warn you,” he answers.

Ziven’s hand tightens in mine. “That sounds like a threat. You threaten her, and you’re dead. You’re walking on a very thin line of sunlight right now. Careful, because there’s darkness all around you, and that’s where I play.” He sneers at him.

Daegan steps right up to Ziven. “It’s that easy for you, isn’t it? You’ve hated me after what my brother did, and now I did the right thing with Story, and somehow you’ve twisted me into a monster for that too!”

Their powers seem to spin around them, and I jump out of the way of the two powerful kings who seem to have crossed a line. Or Daegan has. Ziven looks ready to murder him for good this time. “I warned you never to speak about my sister.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Daegan shouts. “I am not my brother, and I did not like hurting Story!”

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