Page 122 of Beneath the Flames
He pointed at the beast.
Fear like I had never experienced before snapped through me, bringing me to my knees as I watched the beast breathe fire toward the moons.When I finally dared to meet Nico’s gaze, I saw the truth I should have seen all along.
The hints were all there, spread out over the weeks.I wasgiven all the pieces.I just hadn’t put them together.I was a fool.
Why hadn’t I seen it before?
Carrow was right.Avalea was doomed.
The Dark Fae that had kidnapped me.The Fae I had fallen in love with.
Rhydian…
Rhydianwasthe Beast of Eroth.
The bitter air engulfed my body, but for the first time in years, centuries, eons, it didn’t bother me.
Not when I was covered in scales.
Not when lava dripped from my mouth, heating my core.
No, nothing bothered me now.
My wings stretched open to their full length, deliciously aching after being confined for so long.
Power, unbridled and unrestricted, poured through my veins, and I couldn’t help but roar toward the moons, breathing fire at the sky.
I was finally free.
How long had it been?The moons still appeared the same, the landscape was still winter, though everything looked a bit…dead.What had happened?
I could only remember those blasted queens…and then blackness and deep, deep cold.
Rage consumed me.Those queens…I would have my revenge.They would pay for what they had done to me.I would raze their kingdoms to the ground until there was nothing left.
I looked down at the volcano that was my namesake, taking in the winter tundra of Eroth, my home.I had ruled over this kingdom for millennia, and I would remain for many more to come.Those wicked Fae had tried to curse me, to trap me, and keep me from razing their world to the ground, but in the end, I won.It was a clever plan, I would admit.But they failed.
Now I was free, and they would rue the day they tried to cage me.
I was a beast that could not be caged.
Without me, Eroth would perish.Butwithme, it would become the most powerful kingdom in all of Avalea.The others would bow.
Or burn.
Their choice.
Movement caught my eye, and my gaze snapped to the two figures near the edge of the lava.A girl stared up at me with piercing gray eyes, her face wet.Some string inside me felt like it was being plucked, drawn toward her, but it was quiet and faint and easily ignored.A single sniff told me she was human.A human in Eroth?My nose curled in disgust.The Fae have let filth into their lands once more?
A smaller boy tugged at her arm, pleading with her to go with him.
I felt a sharp pang, like maybe I had met him before, but there was no memory of him.Only the darkness of the time trapped in the curse.
Who were they?
I looked once more at my domain, snarling at the barrenemptiness I found.There were no Fae traveling through the valley, there were no animals, not even plants.Everything appeared dead.How long had I waited in the dark?
And who were these two?
