Page 63 of The Dragon King

The two of us walked to Queen Eldinar’s royal chambers and waited outside until she was ready to join us.

“Do you know what you’re going to say?” Calista wore the same olive-green dress she’d worn when we arrived here, the color making her green eyes stand out. The queen was always regal in her presentation, a woman whose beauty rivaled that of the natural world, but she didn’t have the fire that burned within Calista. She didn’t have her strength or grit. She didn’t have her heart. Perhaps my vision was skewed by the beat of my heart, but Calista’s beauty was so powerful, it was like staring straight into the sun.

Calista stared at me.

I stared back.

Her eyebrows rose.

My eyes narrowed in confusion.

“I asked if you know what you’re going to say.”

If I’d heard her, I must have forgotten, lost in the eyes that looked like emeralds. “Yes.” I hadn’t given it any thought, spending all my time with Calista by the sea. Choosing to cherish the present rather than worry about the future.

The double doors opened, and Queen Eldinar appeared with General Ezra at her side, the personal guard who never left her presence, who guided her as his monarch but also, selfishly, as his wife. “Follow me.” She stepped off the deck that led to the front door and made her way to the dirt path between the trees, going in the opposite direction of our seaside cabin.

Calista and I followed her for ten minutes, walking along the shore as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

She stopped on a vacant beach, a circle of large bonfires lit to illuminate the area for the meeting. She walked onto the sand barefoot then stopped, her gown moving in the breeze that blew in from the ocean.

Khazmuda landed behind me after I told him where we were. Inferno landed beside him then stepped to Calista before he dipped his head to look down at her, like she was his hatchling.

She tilted her head back to look up, and the biggest smile entered her face. A smile so beautiful and genuine that I couldn’t do anything but stare. Couldn’t do anything but memorize it to savor it for the hard times ahead.

Inferno rubbed his snout against her cheek before he stepped back.

Calista looked ahead, and slowly, her smile disappeared, but a hint of it was still in her eyes.

I continued to stare.

She must have felt it because she turned to look at me.

Her green eyes reflected the fires, looking like brilliant emerald flames dancing to the beat of her heart.

Another moment I wanted to memorize.

“Macabre approaches.” Queen Eldinar continued to stand several feet in front of us, prepared to greet the mighty dragon with scales of smoke.

I looked forward and waited, the blue sky deepening into shades of pink and purple. In the next twenty minutes, it would be dark, and the temperature would become cool and pleasant. I turned to the sky and saw him above, only noticeable because the sky had hardened in the sunset. His scales truly were dark like smoke, but still iridescent like a pearl. With a wide wingspan that rivaled Khazmuda’s, he was a large dragon that could terrorize an entire village on his own.

He dropped to the ground with an increasing speed like he didn’t intend to slow down before he landed. He didn’t widen his wings when he was close to the earth, choosing to land with enough force to send a tremor through the ground. Sand splashed around his talons like disturbed water.

In the light of the torches, he looked even more incredible, his scales shining from every angle. He had the same kind of elegance as Queen Eldinar, holding himself fully upright like an invisible crown sat upon his head.

He stared at Queen Eldinar for a short moment before he shifted his gaze to me. It instantly turned hostile, like I was as unwelcome in his lands as Queen Eldinar claimed. He didn’t need to speak a word to tell me how deep his disdain burned, how much he wished he could kill me for threatening the only home he had left.

“Macabre.” Queen Eldinar was a speck in comparison to his height. She was normally the biggest person in the room because of her power and beauty, but she was quickly dwarfed by this powerful dragon.

He resisted her voice for a moment before he switched his gaze back to hers.

“Thank you for coming,” she said. “I understand how difficult this is for you.”

He projected his voice outward and included me, probably because Queen Eldinar told him I had the gift for speaking with dragons.It is.His gaze shifted back to me.I like him even less than I thought I would. I can smell his arrogance the way I can smell a horse in a stable. Just because one dragon was naïve enough to fuse with him doesn’t earn him any allegiance from us. I’m disappointed that you allowed him to come here.He had a tougher spine than most men I’d fought, speaking his mind right to my face without even giving me a chance to speak.

“I didn’t like him either.”

Macabre turned his stare back to her.

---