Page 62 of Blood of Dragons
I sat there alone, a knife to my throat, watching the last of my kind get tied to the stake. “Please don’t do this.” I turned to Uncle Barron and begged. “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll serveyou in any way you wish. Put us to work in the fields. Exile us from your lands. I’ll be your stepping stool every time you get onto your horse. Just don’t do this…please.”
He stared at me with mirth, like my plea only made him enjoy it more. “Burn them, Constantine.”
The dragon inhaled a breath and released the jet of fire.
I immediately looked down, the tears coming out of my eyes when I felt the heat. My sister screamed in agony, but Silas remained silent. However, his silence only lasted a few seconds before the flames became too much—and then he screamed.
I clenched my eyes shut and tried to block out the sound, but I couldn’t. It was all I could hear, all I could picture.
When the screams stopped, I felt both relief…and utter devastation.
I was the last remaining member of my line, and now I just wanted it to end. I wanted to pass through the veil and be in the sky. I wanted to be with my family again, far away from our ash corpses, to know only peace. And one day…Vivian would be there too.
“Bring her out.”
My eyes were on the cobblestones beneath me, my vision a blur from the tears and the agony, but everything came into focus when I heard his words. My chin rose to meet his gaze—and now the sneer was a full grin.
“I’ve saved the best for last.”
“No…”
Then I heard her scream, a voice I’d recognize anywhere, and I felt a panic far more intense than any other.
They dragged her from the doors of the castle, her pregnant belly unmistakable, and she tried hopelessly to twist out of their grasp as they forced her forward. “Talon!” She screamed for me, screamed for me to do something.
“No!” I unleashed a surge of strength that defied my size and somehow pushed off the two men who held me down. My hands were secured behind my back with several knots, and I couldn’t twist free. I nearly popped my shoulder out of the socket because I twisted so hard.
The men shoved me back to the ground.
“No!”
“Talon!” They continued to drag her to the stake, her sobs louder than my mother’s.
“Don’t do this.” I turned to Uncle Barron, who enjoyed the sight with that same sickly smile. “She’s not my kin. She’s not my blood. Let her go and burn me. Please.”
They started to tie her to the stake.
I tried to jump to my feet again. “This is just cruel. This is how you start your reign? Burning an innocent woman?—”
“She may not be your blood—but her child is.”
My child. The child that would never be born because of me. “Please…” I broke down into tears, the drops flowing down my face like rivers because she somehow meant more to me than my entire family. “Wait until the child is born and then spare her…” I couldn’t believe my words, but I’d rather one of them survivethan neither. “Come on, please. Uncle Barron, please. Just…fucking please.”
He ignored me. “Constantine.”
“No! Please! Please don’t fucking do this?—”
The dragon released the fire—and she screamed.
I dropped forward and sobbed, my face to the cobblestones, and just like my mother had, I curled into a ball and sobbed as I listened to my wife shriek as she was burned away, as my child was consumed in the flames. My body shook violently, and the tears felt like fire on my cheeks. It seemed to last a lifetime, the agony, the screams, the terror…and then the world went black.
My mind faded because it couldn’t take it anymore.
I didn’t how long it lasted, seconds or minutes. But then I heard a voice I didn’t recognize.
Hold on.
My eyes slowly opened to the cobblestone, my knees in my line of sight, the reflection of the fires making the stone shine.