Page 26 of The Dragon King
The only peace I felt was in the quiet moments with Calista, when she looked at me and I looked at her. When I didn’t have to hide who I was. When she believed I was the hero and everyone else thought I was the villain. “If you hadn’t cursed the elves, I wouldn’t have lost my family.”
She stared at me.
“My uncle wouldn’t have used the power of the dark elves to subjugate the dragons. Everything I’ve lost…is because of you.”
Her stare lingered for seconds. “But you still raised your sword and fought in my name. Revenge has sustained your ambitions all these years, but there is also love. Even with a broken heart, you still love a woman with all of yourself.”
“I will always love my wife?—”
“That is not who I speak of.”
A new pain washed over me, a high tide over a dark shore.
“Do not feel guilty, Talon.”
I looked away, her words hitting my most sensitive tissue.
“If you achieve all of your desires, your time together will be very brief. Make sure she knows your love before you can no longer share it.”
“That’s cruel.”
She stared at me once again. “She does not know…”
“No.”
“And Khazmuda?”
I didn’t know how she knew that either. “No.”
She turned quiet, her eyes judgmental and piercing. “That is cruel.”
I looked away, ashamed to meet the gaze of an all-knowing god. She was very different from Bahamut in her temperament, but also similar in her presence and stature. If I closed my eyes, their auras would feel the same. “I wish to speak no more of this.”
“Bahamut gave you a curse. Let me bestow upon you a gift.”
I looked at her again.
“I want you to feel my gratitude.”
“What is a gift from a god?”
“What your heart desires most,” she said. “And I can feel your heart much easier than most because of how true and kind it is.”
I waited for her to present it.
“It breaks my heart to know that a soul so good will never enter my kingdom.”
“I said I don’t regret my decision.”
“Even when you leave behind the woman you love and your best friend?”
I said nothing, not wanting to think about it.
“I suspect you’ll regret it then.”
My voice came out weak. “I can’t change it now.”
“No.”