Page 188 of The Forbidden Dragon King
My lungs burn from lack of oxygen.
My vision grays.
I love you, my soulmate. I shall love you into the next life, forever into the shadows.
Freya…
“Stop this. You’re killing him,” Freya howls.
Her voice helps me to focus and draw in slow breaths again. My burning lungs struggle to rise and fall sharply.
I hear a scuffle behind me, but it’s far away, as if I’m floating above my body.
“Don’t.” Ignatius sounds distressed. “You’re making things worse.”
“Look at him. How can they be worse?” Freya demands, anguished.
My head is yanked back by the curls. My eyelashes flutter.
I groan, as the skin of my shoulders is stretched.
“Number one hundred coming up, fucker.” Caligo’s hand raises the whip to rest its hissing length like a caress against my bleeding skin. I arch away from it, as it shocks me fully present into the moment again. “You’ve lasted longer than I expected you would. Don’t worry, I’ll make this one memorable.”
My chest is rapidly rising and falling, as I hear Caligo take a step back, readying to land the whip heavily.
One hundred.
Fifty to go.
I clench my hands.
I can do this…
“One hundred,” Caligo says with glee.
I brace myself, grimacing at the sound of the whip being raised.
Yet it doesn’t land.
“How dare you use cursed iron metallicum magic on my pet?” Aurelius’ hard voice slashes through the air sharper than any whip.
My eyes widen.
I didn’t want Aurelius to see me like this.
He’s witnessed me shoved to my knees in the dirt, chained as a sacrifice over an altar, and dressed up in silks and satins as a courtesan, prostrating myself in front of him.
Yet him seeing me stripped and whipped bloody is worse.
On the other hand, I’ve also faced him in battle many times. I dreamed that he saw me as a rival but also as an equal.
Deep in my soul, I dreamed that one day, I could make a peace deal with both my fellow kings, Aurelius and Lanlin. I hoped that they would understand the past sins of our families aren’t our own. The cycle of this unnatural war could end with us.
My sins, of course, are my own. I’ll atone for them in the next life. I never can in this one.
“He’s only a fucking fae,” Caligo replies.
“He’smyfae,” Aurelius says, simply.
