Page 5 of The Dragon King

I shifted down until I was flat on the bed beside her, listening to the sound of the croaking frogs from the ponds and the chirping crickets hidden in the tall grass. I’d had no expectations when I’d walked into this forest, so I certainly hadn’t expected it to remind me of home. But it did.

On summer nights, it used to sound just like this, the critters coming out now that the sun was gone. Enjoying the warm darkness and reduction in predators. The window was closed, so I couldn’t feel the breeze, but I could imagine it through my hair and I could hear the waves against the base of the cliff, even though I was nowhere near the sea.

She opened her eyes and looked at me.

And time stopped. Her green eyes could command me the way a king commanded an army. I’d never felt inferior to anyone, felt like a pawn in someone’s hand, until I met this woman. I was the darkness, and she was the light. I knew I didn’t deserve her, but I also knew I wouldn’t let her go, even if she wanted to walk away.

She continued to stare at me. “What’s behind those dark eyes?”

Black riptides of death. Bottomless pits of brokenness. Sheer nothingness. “You.” She was the only thing left in me.

The corners of her eyes dropped in heaviness, and I saw a mixture of affection and pity in her gaze. Then she smashed against me, the way butter met bread, and she crawled inside me until we were a single person.

My arms hooked around her and held her close, my lips resting against her forehead, smelling her scent because it reminded me of jasmine flowers on a spring afternoon. When her heart was close to mine, I felt better. Everything felt better. A month of loneliness and solitude had shown me that the light in my life didn’t come from my fireplace or the fire in my dragon’s belly.

It came from her.

“What do you think of the forest?” she whispered.

I stared at the fireflies through the window, their yellowish glow so bright it masked the stars up above. The place was beautiful and full of serenity, but there was a sense of discomfort that pressed against me like the tips of a thousand knives. The air around me was tight, like the forest wanted to eject me from its home with all the force it could muster. I didn’t belong there, and for as long as I remained, the trunks of the trees would feel brittle like old bones. “It reminds me of home.”

“You lived in a forest?”

“No. Late at night, I could hear the crickets in the grass and the frogs in the pond.”

“You still call it home after all this time?”

I’d spent twenty years traveling to different places, taking up different trades, until my destiny could no longer be avoided. “It’ll always be my home.” I wondered how much it had changed, if the castle was still at the top of the cliff above the city, if the white stone of the buildings remained untouched or if it was scarred by soot and ash. Uncle Barron would have been dead by now if he were a mortal, but after being fused with Constantine, he wouldn’t have aged a day. No doubt, he’d destroyed every piece of history that suggested my line had ever lived. The family portraits had probably been burned or thrown in the sea.

“You’ll have to show me around…when this is over.”

My fingers moved through her soft strands, gliding to the tips before I let it fall back to the pillow. I repeated it, caressing her hair over and over, the way a sailor dragged his oar through the water.

“I wish I could show you the forest, but I know Queen Eldinar would be furious.”

I’d been apart from Calista so long that I didn’t want to entertain a separation. My nights had been spent in a silent rage, gripping a glass in front of the fire, seeing another man in her private chambers as if he belonged there. “You’re all I care about, baby.”

I was up before she was.

In just my underwear, I walked into the kitchen where the dining table sat in the center, remembering one of our conversations when she’d had Commander Luxe over for dinner. I found the chopped coffee beans on the counter and boiled a pot of hot water to make myself a hot cup of coffee. I was used to servants doing this for me, but I was resourceful enough to figure it out on my own.

I sat at the dining table and looked out the window, seeing the flowers growing on the vines that hung from the roof. A hummingbird had just slipped its tongue inside a flower, but when it spotted me, it took off so quickly I couldn’t see which direction it went.

Distance has never compromised our connection in the past, but the forest has muffled it. I don’t feel you as strongly as I normally do.

I watched the steam rise from the cup of coffee.We’re deep in the forest, and the trees are thick.

Are you well?

Yes.

The trees may be too big for me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t burn them down to get to you.

That will be unnecessary, Khazmuda.

I appreciate what the elves have done for my kind, but their prejudice against you blinds their sight.

I don’t blame them for their hatred. I’m an easy man to hate.

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