Page 16 of Blood of Dragons

I know.

She betrayed me.

She has no issue with you, Khazmuda. Only me.

I was the one who helped you take these lands. I’m equally responsible.

That’s not how she sees it.Her hatred was reserved only for me.

She planned this from the beginning. Was just waiting to make her move, waiting until we gave her a dragon before she backstabbed us. The betrayal is unforgivable after everything we’ve done for her, after everything you shared with her.

I watched the flames in silence, my fingers wrapped around the cool glass.I don’t like what she did, but I respect it.

Khazmuda turned quiet, his shock evident.

She’s right. What I did to her is exactly what Barron did to me.

He remained quiet.

I didn’t kill her father, but I would have…and she knows it. I told my lieutenants to harvest slaves to work in the Arid Sands, and that was how she ended up a prisoner under General Titan’s regime. She lost her innocence and her dignity…because of me. If I hadn’t come to these lands, she would be happy and unscarred. She would be queen of her people when her father reached old age, but I destroyed her castle with fire and the army of the dead. I’d be a fucking hypocrite if I said I didn’t understand.

Khazmuda seemed lured into silence.

I understand better than anyone.

I can tell she hurt you.

My eyes dropped down to my glass.

I can feel it.

I learned not to trust anyone a long time ago, and I forgot that lesson. That’s my own fault. I knew she was hiding something from me, but I chose to ignore it. I learned my lesson again—and this time, I won’t forget it.

A stretch of silence passed.

The conversation seemed over.

But then Khazmuda spoke again.What do we do now?

Lieutenant Abernathy reported her appearance in Scorpion Valley. I knew that was where she would go first. But I think it was for more than to visit her old home and her father’s grave. Now that she knows her father was connected to the dragons, she probably returned to search for information…because she knows where to look.

You think so? She gave no indication she knew anything of dragons when we met, not even the gift.

She was sincere. I doubt her father ever shared that information with her because she was too young. But I’m sure he shared his secret hiding places with her…

Then we need to follow her…but she’s probably already left Scorpion Valley by now.

We don’t need to follow her to know where she is.

We don’t?

No. I have another idea.

Bahamut. I sat in the armchair in front of the fire, waiting for his apparition to come from the air itself. The only answer to my command was the crackling flames and the silence that surrounded it. Minutes passed, and nothing happened.

Then I blinked—and there he was.

Sitting in the other armchair, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, making himself comfortable like it was his own bedchambers. “The prisoner you bedded betrayed you the first chance she got…what a surprise.” He stared at the flames for a moment before he turned to look at me, a knowing stare on his face.

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