Page 32 of The Death King

My eyes shifted to the black dragon, seeing his luminous eyes locked on mine.

You won’t always feel this way.

7

TALON

I sat in the armchair by the fire, watching the logs slowly turn from wood to ash. After I’d returned her to her chambers, I’d ordered the guards to board up her windows completely so she wouldn’t pull another idiotic stunt and get herself killed.

I couldn’t go back to sleep, not when I was wide awake like this.

You made me break my word. I wished there was a way for Khazmuda and me to be together, to have these conversations face-to-face, but he was too large to fit inside the castle walls. Sometimes I camped with him in the wilderness, but I did it sparingly because I didn’t want anyone to know that the king had stepped away from his throne.

You wouldn’t have killed her, Talon.

She was too valuable to end up dead, but I had to keep my word if I wanted to keep my self-respect. I didn’t expect her to run.

You bluffed.

I meant the threat when I made it, so it wasn’t a bluff. But I took a gamble and lost my hand.

Khazmuda’s powerful voice continued to boom in my mind, deep in tone and seeped in wisdom. You wouldn’t have killed her, Talon. But at least I gave you a reason to justify it.

The bottom of my chin was propped on my knuckles, my knees wide apart, a faint blue light filling the windows as sunrise made its initial crest over the horizon. Why did you ask me to spare her?

Because we need her.

I know that’s not the reason. I had been prepared to pull out my blade and slice her head clean from her shoulders there on the spot, but his request steadied my hand and my rage. He told me we needed her, that she was too valuable to squander, but it felt insincere. Tell me why.

Khazmuda answered my demand with silence.

I continued to wait, my eyes on the flames.

I like her.

You were in her presence for fifteen minutes.

And that’s all it takes to know someone’s heart.

My eyes flicked away from the fire, wanting to meet his gaze, but he wasn’t in the room. And what do you know about her heart?

It’s broken…like yours.

It took me a few days to process my rage.

She’d crawled out of the window and climbed halfway across this tower, balancing on a ledge that had to be no bigger than two inches across. Her little fingers held onto the nonexistent grooves for support.

It was no surprise she fell.

If Khazmuda hadn’t been hunting, she would be a bloody puddle of broken bones right now.

Fucking stupid.

I left my bedchambers and walked down the hallway until I found her door. Without knocking, I let myself inside, finding her on the couch in front of the fire. She didn’t even turn to look at me when I walked inside.

The angry spark had burned out.

I moved to the armchair, wearing nothing but my trousers, the heat from all the fireplaces keeping the castle too warm for my liking.