Page 138 of The Forbidden Dragon King
“Aren’t we still two pet conspirators working togetherto survive in this enemy kingdom? Have these golden threads changed everything?”
“There’s a prophecy attached to them,” I burst out, as if the words that have been coiling in my mind since I saw them have just been waiting to be birthed. “Golden fated mates, an Omega and her Alpha Kings, destined to bleed.”
Daire stills. “And what do you believe that means, love?”
I don’t like the wary way that he’s studying me. He’s withdrawn from me; I can sense it through the bond.
It’s unlike him.
“Maximinus believes that the prophecy means that one of us will die if we bond,” I say in a small voice. “War thinks it implies that we will kill each other.”
Daire has become ashen.
He avoids my gaze. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Everybody dies, eventually. I expected it before each battle. It’s a miracle that I’ve lived so long. You know how impulsive I am. It’s probably about me.”
I slap his chest, and he winces. “Don’t say shit like that. It doesn’t make me feel better.”
“Maybe it is a good thing that the dragon shifter and you do love each other,” he says, as if to himself.
I grab Daire’s cheeks, forcing him to look at me. “You’re not going to die.”
For a long moment, his eyes are unfocused, as if he can’t see me. He blinks hard, before he uses his wing to caress down my back.
“Sweet Omega, would you fight death for me? How brave. You should forget this bloody prophecy. Fae knowthat all prophecies are greater tricksters than we are. You can’t trust them. They make you think that they mean one thing, so that you try to outrun them. But then, they bite you in the arse because they actually mean something entirely different. By the time that you work it out, it’s too late.”
“I suppose.” I thumb along a bruise on his cheekbone.
“Haven’t we all bled, one way or another, already?” He continues. “Who knows if the prophecy isn’t already fulfilled.”
“Hmm,” I say, unconvinced.
I caress down his neck. When I reach his collarbone, however, his torn tunic falls open, and I gasp.
His chest is revealed through the ripped tunic, along with the silver lines of scars crisscrossing his pale skin.
I trace across one in horror, and Daire sucks in a breath.
“See? I’ve already bled,” he says.
My eyes burn with tears. “Why didn’t these heal?”
“A fae’s magic isn’t fully developed at the age that I started to fight. Iron weapons burn their poison deeply into us, as well as slash wounds. None of usrebelsare fully healed. I’m proud to wear my scars alongside my brothers and sisters.”
I glance up at Daire, as my eyes well with tears, thinking of the scar beneath my golden bracelet.
But that’s only a single scar. Daire’s body is covered with them.
“When was the first one?” I ask.
Daire grabs my hand and guides it further under histunic to a jagged scar across his heart. “War’s sword. I was thirteen, and it was my first battle. It should have been a killing blow. I would have died that day, if not for my best friend, Ciara, who saved me.”
I trace over the edges of the scar, as if even now I can share his pain. “Can I meet her? Thank her for saving my Alpha?”
Daire’s gaze becomes distant, haunted. “She’s dead. She died trying to save me again in Rune Forest.”
His eyes are red-rimmed but dry. Mine aren’t.
I clasp Daire’s hand tightly, as it lays over his scar. “How did you take this much pain?”
