Page 139 of The Forbidden Dragon King
We both know that we’re not only talking about the sword wound.
“The first time,” Daire’s voice is flat, “I was surprised. This sense of violating wrongness that iron was in my body, shocking, stinging, and burning. Then the adrenaline rushed through me in a whirlwind, along with the desperate need to survive. It was afterward, when it was slowly healing, that the true throbbing agony hit me. After that, however, I barely noticed the injuries.”
“How?”
He gives me a long look. “You get used to pain.”
“You’ll never have to become used to it again,” I swear, urgently. I’m shaking, and it’s not from the cold. “Aurelius can’t announce it publicly but he wants me to be his secret Queen.”
To my relief, Daire focuses on me with a sudden bright smile, as I’d hoped, fully back in the present. “My smart Omega. That’s brilliant. It means that he fully trusts you.Our plan of me playing the bad pet, while you play the good one has worked.”
Why does that make my heart ache? Something sick coil in my stomach?
I disentangle myself from Daire, carefully pushing myself out of his lap.
Confused, he watches me.
I stand, stepping around the tray.
Then I pace the small cell. “I don’t know that I want to play this game anymore. Look how much you’ve been hurt already. Aurelius too. And by ancient grudges and wars that you didn’t even start. We’re each other’s fated mates. Why can’t we end this cycle here?”
With a snarl, Daire leaps to his feet, knocking over the tray and spilling the porridge across the floor. His wings, which I stroked earlier, extend out like weapons.
He looks deadly and glorious.
“We had a deal,” he hisses, icily. “No one dares to break a deal with the Raven King. How bloody lovely that you canchooseto step away from the board. Yet my people are still oppressed and their lands stolen. I am still a prisoner. Aurelius is still under the control of his uncle. Have any of the cages vanished because of love?Fate?”
“Then we do this as a pack.”
“We try not to hurt Aurelius,” Daire concedes, “who I don’t entirely hate. But don’t go thinking that makes us two Alphas on the same side. We’re not. This is war, and you should think about how to raise your status from servant to cadet in the Shadow Military Academy.”
I blink. “Sorry, what? Isn’t that really dangerous?”
Daire’s eyes glitter. “In this court of shadows,we’rethe danger. Look, you’re the one who said it. You’re the shifter’s special Omega andQueen. I’ve been figuring out how things work in Bael, and status comes for an Omega from being trained in the academy, then becoming a dragon rider.”
“You want me to become a dragon rider,” I deadpan.
Daire winks. “You already ride one dragon.”
I flush, crossing my arms. “Not yet.”
“You ride his face.” Daire is enjoying this. “It shouldn’t be hard to con him into sending you to the academy.”
“Only if he’ll send you with me.”
Daire’s expression closes off.
He turns his back on me, curling his wings protectively around himself. “He’ll never allow me to train as a soldier again. I’m the bad pet.”
I rest my hand on Daire’s shoulder. To my surprise, he shrugs me off.
Something is wrong.
Fear shoots through me.
Daire’s shoulders are slumped. I run my fingers through his curls, but he doesn’t relax.
“Shouldn’t I try?” I ask.
