Page 59 of Hearts on Fire
Everywhere I looked was devastation and death. Dead dragons littered the rocks below me. Huge and intimidating when alive, their bodies looked far more vulnerable as they turned into men upon their death. Pale, tanned, black, gray, and brown, they lay naked, impaled on the sharp rocks. Their perfect, beautiful fae bodies were broken and crushed.
What was this war for? Who needed it? Did it matter who won and who lost in the end? What did any of this prove?
Nothing made sense.
My grief brewed into anger.
“Let me go!” I slammed my fists into the claws of the dragon who had captured me. “If you’re taking me to your king, you may as well drop me down right now. I’d rather be dead than come back.”
“I won’t drop you. I made you a promise to never let go.” The dragon’s voice sounded strangled. But I recognized it, nevertheless.
“Elex?”
He found me.
“You’re alive. Thank God,” I breathed out, gripping his claws tighter.
The relief was intense but short-lived. Anger burned brighter than ever, refusing to subside when faced with the horror saturating the sky.
“Do you see this, Elex? All of it? Take a good look. Count the bodies. This is all the king’s doing. This is the war you wanted him to win.”
Wind swept through the mountains. It carried the pungent stench of death. I buried my face into my hood, but it helped little.
Spreading his great wings, Elex glided along the mountain ridge. He wasn’t taking me to the valley, I realized. But he also kept away from the castle. Instead, he headed toward the tall spear of a mountain jutting out into the blood-red evening sky like a rugged sword. The Desolate Peak.
Circling it, he flew toward an opening in the side of the mountain—a cave. Just before flying in, he shifted into a man to fit through the smaller entrance.
“Amber. How are you?” He set me down on the ground inside the cave.
Anger kept boiling inside me. Uncontrollable.
“How am I? How do you think?” I shoved against his chest, shaking with tears streaming down my face. “Did you see thesalamandrasburn? All of them! Every single one… Do you know why? Because the king told them to be there. He needed their help. Then he left them on that mountain to die…”
“I saw. I’m so sorry.” He tried to pull me closer, but I flexed my arms, pushing with my fists against his chest.
“Did you know it would happen? Was that the king’s strategy all along?”
“I had no idea.” He shook his head, his expression sincere. “The records have no mention of thesalamandrastaking part in the Battle of the Bozyr Peak.”
They all died today. And history kept not even a mention of their sacrifice.
“This is the man you protect,” I cried. “This is the king you wish to keep on the throne. The king you’d die for—”
“No.” He grabbed me by my upper arms. “Youare the only one I’m willing to die for, Amber. No one else. Do you hear me? Only you.”
He reached for a kiss, but the anguish inside me could not be extinguished by tenderness. It burned way too bright.
I needed a torrent of stronger sensations.
Unclenching my fists, I splayed my hands on his bare chest—smooth, strong, and solid. The contact was one stable point in the hurricane of darkness and ashes that raged inside me. Elex was my rock. He kept me grounded and sane.
I kept one hand on his chest, tugging at the ties of my robe with the other.
“Help me,” I said.
He yanked at the ties, ripping them off. I dropped my satchel and my quiver to the floor, then shrugged out of my robe, letting it drop to the ground, too.
“And these.” I fumbled with the laces of my pants,hispants, that I took from his room. I’d had to tie the laces all around my waist to keep the pants on and roll the bottoms up a few times. They looked like harem pants on me.