Page 35 of The Forbidden Dragon King
The soldiers hurriedly march on, when War turns her death glare on them.
Then Lucius and War huddle closer around me.
Lucius eyes me carefully. “Better now? Your eyes look…?”
I take a deep breath, playing with my dragon ring to help take control of myself. “Am I myself again?”
“Sometimes it frightens me that you need to ask us that question,” Lucius replies. “But yes.”
My chest tightens. “I don’t want to frighten you.”
“You don’t.” Lucius’ eyes are deep with a compassion that I know is never reflected in my own. How can he look at a wicked beast like that? “I said that thequestionfrightens me. You’re the one person beside my Alpha who has never made me feel anything but safe.”
War strokes one of Lucius’ curls behind his ear in a tender gesture, of which her legionnaires would never believe her capable. “You’re his hero, fucker. Can’t you tell?”
“He’s myKing.” Lucius flushes. “And one who I don’t want to die because he’s trying to protect a fae.”
“I don’t care what secret orders my uncle has given you,” I say, drawing back from them. “We will make our own plan to ensure that King Daire survives. That’smyorder. My uncle may once have been the Regent and still holds control of the Council, but I am now King, and I say that I won’t kill another royal unless I must. It sets a bad precedent.”
“And that’s all there is to it? Loyalty to the concept of kingship?” Lucius eyes me skeptically.
I glance away.
I admire Daire. I have every battle that I’ve fought the courageous rebel.I see myself in him.
There are only a couple of other people in the entire Shadow Realms who have any understanding what it feels like to have been thrust young and unprepared, an orphan, onto a throne and a battlefield.
One of them betrayed me.
And one of them is King Daire.
Daire may be my enemy, but we have more in common than anyone else in the realms.
How can I say any of that to my friends?
How can I also tell them that the golden threads sparked out and connected me to the Shadow Fae King almost three years ago, the first time that I fought him?
Unlike Lanlin, he didn’t appear to sense the shimmering threads. Yet I know that I share my Omega withtwoenemy kings.
Nobody knows that truth but me.
The secret is just another one of many in the Shadow Court.
It’s lonely, being the center of this golden web. I wish that I could be open about our fates.
I have no idea what would happen to either Freya or me, if I sever one of those threads by killing Daire. What I haven’t decided, is whether Daire will be worthy or not to be part of Freya’s life.
I don’t want her to be as lonely as I am. She does need an Alpha. I intend to test Daire first, before I’ll let him bond with someone as precious as my Spark, when she’s already been hurt by the wolf prince.
The thought of Freya with another man, however, feels like stabbing myself in the heart. Yet if that’s theright thing for my Omega, then I’ll kill myself a thousand times for her.
“My uncle wants me to become a true Golden Dragon like Emperor Hadrian was but only if he can control me,” I finally reply. “If he can make me slaughter the entire fae army tonight, even their king, then he thinks that he will tip me over the edge into becoming a true warlord, bringing back a second Golden Empire. But I won’t do that. Instead, we’ll win the battle, but I’ll save as many prisoners as I can. I’ll take Daire as a pet, a symbol of his people’s subjugation.”
“You’re taking him as a hostage king,” Lucius says, slowly. “His remaining people, who are scattered in the north, will have to behave and bend the knee because you’ll have hold of their king.”
“You could even allow him out of the dungeons and put the Unseelie bitch on display.” War laughs, deep and unrestrained. “I hear that the sly rogue is as pretty as an Omega.”
I frown. “I already have an Omega.”
