Page 17 of The Dragon King

He didn’t hesitate before he answered. “Yes.”

“And did you take it?”

Now, there was a hesitation, a long pause. “I told him to leave.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“I told him to leave, and I returned in the hope that your queen would honor her obligation. But she didn’t. I’m treated as the villain in this story when your queen is a manipulative liar. I didn’t take his offer, but now I wish I had.”

“Why don’t you tell her this so you can walk out of here?”

He tilted his head slightly, almost as if he didn’t understand the question. “Because she wouldn’t believe me and would try to kill me—so I’d have to kill her.”

Chapter 4

Calista

“Release him.” I stood before Queen Eldinar in the royal chambers where she sat upon her throne, wearing her armor and short swords at her hips instead of her elegant dress. It was clear she expected Alaric to march on her forest rather than leave like Talon had asked. “You must realize that he could escape that prison whenever he wishes. He could call upon the dead to rip off the door or have Khazmuda come to his rescue. But he refrains from doing both out of respect for you and your kingdom.”

She listened to all of this with a bored look on her face.

“Queen Eldinar?—”

“Yes, I heard you.” She sat with her legs crossed, her fingers drumming on the armrests. Uncle Ezra wasn’t present at her side, so he must be preparing for the battle that might arrive at their doorstep. “If he wants out, all he has to do is tell me what was said. His unwillingness to share information makes me question his intentions.”

“I think your questions are questionable, Your Majesty.”

Her eyes narrowed so fast.

“We both know you sent him out there in the hope he would die.”

Her fingers continue to drum on the armrests. “I still believe the world would be better off without an angry necromancer.”

“Then your forest would be ruled by Behemoths as we speak.”

“Your father would be alive and you would rule Scorpion Valley if he hadn’t taken power, so your argument is untrue.”

“He still saved your forest?—”

“Because you nearly destroyed it.” She raised her voice, her words echoing off the stone walls covered with ivy. “I don’t trust him. I can’t escort him to the dragon haven when such a doubt festers in my heart. I fully understand that our cell won’t hold a man such as the Death King, but I must restrain him until the battle is finished.”

“What battle?”

“Did you really think Alaric and the dark elves would leave this forest?” she asked incredulously. “I suspect they forged an agreement that will compromise the gateway to the Realm of Caelum. We’ll be subjugated and killed. And if the Death King is free of his prison, he will raise his sword and his army against us.”

“How many times do I have to say it?” I snapped. “He wouldneverdo that.”

“You’re young and deep in the forest of lust. Even the weeds look like roses in a garden.”

My physical attachment to him went deeper than the flesh. I felt cleansed by his touch, made whole by the healing powers of his eyes. “It’s more than lust.”

She stared at me for a long time, her thoughts locked behind the gates of her intelligent eyes. “Then he must have told you the details of that conversation.”

My heart squeezed when it missed a beat, and a cloud of suffocation moved over me and blocked out the sun. Talon hadn’t asked me to keep his secret, but I knew he’d shared it with me because our trust was ironclad. “No.”

She cocked her head slightly, her eyes homing in on my face. “And you didn’t ask?”

“I knew he wouldn’t tell me.”