Page 71 of Ash and Roses

Jade pulls away from me and turns to face the carved doors. Quinn stands there now, leaning a shoulder against the wall in an attempt to look casual. That is, as casual as he can be while drenched in blood with a sword at his side. Just underneath that calm exterior, rage radiates out of him like violent waves crashing against rock.

Jade smiles and stretches out his wings wide behind him, as if showing that he’s the larger creature here. He steps to the side, so that he can talk to both Quinn and me, while ensuring that he’s still positioned between us. “One of the last surviving descendants from Dragoria.” He flashes me a smile, but the warmth the action used to spark in me is gone. “I told you some myths were based on truth.”

It takes effort to will my lips to move, and the word that comes out is little more than a whisper. “Drakling.”

“We prefer to think of ourselves as evolved dragons. Drakling is so…”

“Fitting?” Quinn mutters.

“Uninspired.”

Quinn scoffs. “I always imagined dragons would be arrogant. You should have stayed extinct.”

“Care to rectify that?” Jade takes a step closer, and Quinn straightens off the wall. A twitch runs through him—a sure sign that the change is close.

I won’t see them tear each other apart, so I step between them. “Stop it!”

There’s curiosity in Jade’s eyes before he looks back at Quinn. “Why does she defend you? Have you not told her?”

“Told me what?”

“Who his parents were.”

Why does that matter? “Roald and Sierra,” I say. Those names were familiar, but I never really stopped to think about it. A memory from early childhood appears in my mind. A memory from when the Commander took over. He was replacing someone named Roald because he and his wife deserted. I study Quinn’s face, but it reveals nothing. “You’re from Lunae? But this kingdom, all of these people—”

“All deserters,” Jade quips. “Tell her why they deserted.”

There’s pain on Quinn’s face, but he keeps his chin high. A hand runs through his hair, and I know the truth is coming. “My parents served your father loyally. He ordered them, alongside Lunae’s army, to attack Marein and slaughter all who lived there. My parents were duty bound, but when the children were rounded up…” He trails off.

“Tell her.”

“They left. They took those loyal to them and fled to the forest.”

Jade spits in disgust. “They left children to die.”

“It wasn’t like that,” he insists, but something in his eyes tells me it may as well have been.

“Then tell me,” I say. At least if we’re talking, Jade and Quinn aren’t killing each other.

“It was by chance that they stumbled upon this castle—don’t ask me who built it, because I don’t know. They made a home here. Called themselves King and Queen. Raised Evan and I to—”

“To what?” I urge when he abruptly cuts off. I’m tired of the secrets and lies, and his hesitation only tells me that this is something he’s been keeping from me intentionally. I thought we were beyond that.

“We were building our forces. My father wanted to inflict Lunae’s own sins upon herself.”

“You were going to slaughter my people?!” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. They saw the horrors that happened in Marein, and their solution was to replicate it somewhere else? That isn’t justice.

“I was meant to fight alongside my brother. You—the eldest daughter and the one true heir—were to marry Evan, so anyone left alive couldn’t contest his right to Lunae’s throne.”

“So he would rule and I would, what? Provide him with a son?”

“Or daughter. We don’t discriminate based on gender.” Is that supposed to make this better?

“And when your father died?”

“The curse complicated things, but Evan still planned to fulfill his oath.”

I can’t believe this is the first I’m hearing of this. To think that I trusted this man with my past, and he couldn’t even share with me the full truth of his. “And you would have fought beside him?”

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