Page 71 of Queen Takes Triune
He lifted his head slightly and then lowered it with an oomph, smoke curling from his nostrils.:Hurts.:
I’d promised our queen that I’d take care of him. Grudgingly, I used her bond to check inside him, just to see how bad his pain was.
Surprisingly bad. It felt like he’d swallowed a large grenade full of glass shards that had suddenly gone off inside him. He wasn’t actually bleeding, and his organs were fine, but his internal sensors were frazzled like a fried circuit board.
Lightly, I said, “Dragon sonar hurts like a bitch, huh?”
He blew out several plumes of smoke. A dragon chuckle.:That was more like a nuclear bomb’s EMP. Totally wiped me out.:
We sat in silence a few moments, waiting on the other Blood to arrive. We’d flown further from the nest than I’d thought. Mountainous hills rolled across the countryside, carpeted in trees. We’d come down on a fairly flat plateau, providing a good view of the land surrounding our queen’s nest.
In fact, I could see the light down in the valley miles away, overlooking the river. She glowed. Not just the lights from her manor house, but the warm, soft glow of her power.
:About earlier.:He heaved out a heavy sigh, his lips curling as if he’d eaten something foul that even a carrion bird wouldn’t touch.:I’m sorry.:
My eyes widened, and I kept my face averted so he couldn’t see the shock on my face. I could count the number of sincere apologies I’d heard from a man on one hand. Easily. Because it was never. Let alone an apology from someone like this arrogant asshole.
:Our queen asked us not to be naked in front of other queens, and there one stood. The only thing I could think to do was cover you up. Since she welcomed you with Mayte, maybe it wouldn’t have been a big deal. She’d skin us males alive before she’d ever let us touch another queen. Not that we would ever want to.:
I couldn’t remember him ever saying so many words to anyone—especially without a fuck or two thrown in—and in an apology, no less.
He didn’t make excuses or jokes. He didn’t bitch and moan about me being different or female. Despite being an obnoxious jerk, he actually knew how to apologize without making it seem like it was my fault in the first place.
Maybe that’s why the tiniest crack in my heart opened and allowed a tidbit of my past to slip out. “In Heliopolis, we weren’t ever allowed to be nude. The sun god’s priests all had weird hang-ups about women’s nudity being the root of all evil. Fuck, I can remember taking baths with a robe on to cover up and hide my perfectly natural body from the males. Not that it kept Ra from raping and brutalizing any woman he wished to have. Nothing stopped him. After I left Heliopolis, I realized the truth. The clothing and nudity rules were just another way to control us. So I vowed to never cover my body out of shame again.”
Maybe something inside him really had been injured. Because the dragon’s heart cracked open and let me have a secret too.:I found Arthur, but he’s with Tiamat, the Mother of All Dragons. Even better, She’s the one who cursed me and fucking locked me up all those centuries ago.:
:Why did She do that?:
His lips pulled away from his teeth, but he didn’t make a sound, so I wasn’t sure if it was a snarl or a draconian grin.:Because I fucked Her daughter instead of Her.:
I humphed out a disgusted breath and pushed to my feet as the gryphon neared. I thought Mehen was trying to be sincere, but in the end, he was just another asshole making a poor excuse of a joke at a female’s expense.
:No, really.:He lifted his head and shifted his clawed feet beneath him.:It was a breeding thing. She’s desperate to sire more dragons before we all die out, and I was young and stupidandarrogant.:
:More arrogant than now?:Llewellyn asked as he landed beside the dragon.:I find that difficult to believe.:
:I was an unbearably large asshole the size of the Titanic and just as doomed to destroy myself. I thumbed my nose at the Mother of All Dragons and snuck off with Her wild-born dragon daughter. Goddess, she was a fighter. She practically gutted me, and that was just her idea of foreplay.:
The gryphon clicked his beak.:I’ve heard a wild dragon will kill a male who isn’t strong enough to force her into submission.:
:Fucking truth. Tangling with her almost killed me, but then again, that’s what I wanted.:
I blinked, surprised again at the nugget of truth slipping out of Mehen’s mouth. Maybe he really was severely injured.
He cautiously stretched out his wings and lifted them, testing the complex muscular system across both shoulders to be sure he hadn’t damaged anything in the fall.:When Tiamat cursed me to live as a dragon imprisoned beyond this world until a queen could free me, She told me She was saving my life, not destroying me as I deserved. I didn’t understand what She meant until Shara was the one to free me.:
I clenched my jaws, suddenly overwhelmed with a raw flood of emotion that almost brought me to tears.
Even after I’d been allowed to leave the hellacious sun palace, I was still doomed to death and destruction. Just like Mehen.
I’d been sent out into the world to kill as many queens as possible by letting them have a taste of my fiery blood. Queens had died in my arms, burned from the inside out by my blood until they were piles of sooty ash. I’d been free… but also enslaved as surely as Mehen’s dragon had been trapped.
Until Shara had sipped my blood and conquered the fires burning in my veins.
:She freed me too,:Llewellyn whispered fervently.:She freed us all.:
Rather than agreeing with him—and probably bursting into messy tears, which I did not do, ever—I embraced Smoak’s form and sent a red-hot glowing poker jab into Mehen’s ribs.:Can you fly, fuckface?:
