Page 123 of A City of Flames

Erion stares at me, observing any little twitch, any form of emotion on my face. “I wouldn’t say new.” He puts his hand behind his back. “I’ve been this way for years.” When he starts slowly pacing to the sides my feet stumble backward. “Though I can no longer shift.” He stops and twists to face me with a narrowing gaze. “I suppose there’s still downsides to a newly made breed.”

I should have known. If the general is capable of killing even the mother of his child, then he’s capable of so much more. “How—”

“It’s simple Nara, I got bitten by a rümen and I didn’t want to die so my solution?” He lifts a brow, sounding smug before a smile cracks the corners of his lips. “Test out if I would survive a shifter’s bite even if meant I would be one of them.”

“And you did.” I’m unable to keep the control in my voice. Bouts of fury curl against my fingers. I’d thought Darius, other leaders such as the Elven king could be behind this, yet it turns out to be the very people we thought protected us.

“It came out with some interesting results. Two different bites, one outcome.” He looks bored now, and I know this can’t lead to anything in my favor. I carefully move around, bringing my hand to the blade strapped around my thigh just as he glances at the other cells without a care. “We aren’t immortal, we do have an acute sense of smell, hearing… heal quicker than usual but we still scar, die and share all the horrid traits of a rümen.” His brown eyes cut across to me, so sharp and animalistic that I freeze. Unease creeps in my veins at the soullessness reflecting in his gaze.

“What do you gain out of this?” I ask, is it satisfaction, is he that cruel and delusional to want to do this? “Out of turning humans against their will? The queen—”

“Is desperate for a bigger army than just humans.” His words stun me into brief silence, and I can tell by the spiteful smile on his face that my expression must be one he’d love to see every day. “So,” he proceeds, “Around the time I was bit… Seers told her of a great battle in the near future, one that will create enough destruction to destroy a world.”

The knots in my stomach tighten. There’d already been battles within Emberwell in the past, another one now that’s even greater could jeopardize Zerathion as a whole.

“And for someone without power,” Erion points out, shooting me a stern glance. “She is prepared to go to any lengths.”

Even if it goes against her beliefs…

Erion continues speaking, walking up to Adriel’s cell and tapping the bars. The metal clinks and rings for what seems like an eternity as he explains how venator leaders know, the ones who are trusted enough not to defy him. I think of the queen and how her fury for Aurum led her to what is happening now. Despite him she still detests shifters, dragons. It’s no longer hypocrisy, it’s fear, even if she will never admit to it.

Thoughts pile up inside my head, one after the other. And when I come to a conclusion I’ve dreaded, have avoided thinking about since that night in the woods, I look up through narrowed brows. My stare is anything but kind as I grit my teeth, cutting the general off, “You killed my father.”

He puffs his chest as he sighs. There’s not a single bit of emotion in him. “Perhaps,” he says, not even denying it for one second. “But I wasn’t the one who ended up with his blood on my hands.”

My brows knit at that, and my grip on the blade doesn’t lessen as he clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “Nathaniel was always favored by everyone, he was good at capturing creatures, but his views...” He winces in mockery. “He didn’t believe it was moral to kill dragons, send others to slavery even though that’s what humans once were to Zerathion. You can imagine we never saw eye to eye.”

“So, you sent someone else to kill him, another one of you,” I spit it out. The words cause a stir of revulsion in my stomach and if it weren’t for Freya, I’d delight in torturing him just how he’d done with Darius.

Erion hums almost too gleefully. It’s sickening. “When he found out about my plans to use humans as weapons, I had no other choice. I’m trying to protect Emberwell, Nara.”

I want to laugh at how paradoxical that is, but I shake my head, fixing a glare on him. “Just like you were trying to protect Freya by killing Brigid?”

His eyes flash in rage. “Do not think Brigid’s death was something I wanted. She signed onto that wish the moment she fell for a pitiful shifter.”

It doesn’t excuse anything. He’s a murderer, out of his mind and a poor excuse of a man. “You’re sick and so is the queen.”

He’s unaffected by my words, instead he chuckles, cocking his head to the side. “And what do you think of, say… the deputy?”

My muscles tense up. “Leave him out of this.”

The general can’t contain his smile of vile amusement. He inclines his head forward and says, “oh but why should I when he is at the center of this all?”

As soon as those words flow out of his mouth, it’s like everything and everyone stills. I’m too afraid to ask the question but I do so anyway, my voice trembling in the process, “What do you mean?”

He rolls his eyes, drawing closer. “Come on Nara, think.”

I don’t want to. I don’t want to at all.

Every step he takes toward me has me inching closer to the walls. “I told him bringing you here would be a mistake.” He sighs. “But he couldn’t help it even after everything, you just seem to fascinate all creatures.”

Creatures, creatures, creatures.

All creatures.

My heart drums like thunder in my ears and I beg for my thoughts to be wrong.

“Lorcan…” Erion’s smile turns into a sneer. “Was the first to get bitten by me, the one to stay strong, shift, unlike me and everyone else down here, weakening by the day.”

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