Page 29 of The Dragon King

“My uncle and the others manage?—”

“Did you see the dark elves?” he snapped. “They’re much bigger than your uncle because they have a human diet. Even without the Behemoths and the goblins, I doubt your people would have survived.” His foul mood was the cumulation of hunger and lack of sleep, so I didn’t snap back. “I’ll need to leave the forest soon to have a real meal. I can’t exist on rabbit food much longer.”

I remembered how angry my father would get when I was a child. Then my mother would put food in front of him, and within a couple minutes, he was back to his old self. She told me the best way to keep my husband happy was to never let him go hungry.

“We should be leaving soon—if your queen keeps her word. But I’m not entirely sure she will.”

“She will.”

He slouched in the chair, arms across his chest, the foul mood still circling in his eyes.

I finished his lunch and placed it in front of him, trying to make something as hearty as possible with potatoes and root vegetables in a tomato sauce seasoned with rock salt and spices.

With his whole body leaning forward over the table, he ate without complaint. Devoured an entire loaf of bread by himself. Drank a gallon of water like it was a single cup. And when he was done, his stomach was still hard and flat. He was polite enough to remain at the table as I ate my meal, his tired eyes watching a hummingbird that floated out the window.

“You can go to bed, Talon.”

He continued to watch the bird move from flower to flower, drinking the nectar inside the petals.

I couldn’t eat as quickly as he could, nor could I eat as much. “Did you see her?”

His eyes moved back to mine.

“The God of Caelum.”

His stare remained hard as a wall.

“Her wind snuffed out all the fires. I thought you may have seen her.”

He let the silence pass with heft, a moment that felt as solid as a mountain. “I did.”

My memory of her was still sharp, as if it had just happened. “She’s beautiful.”

“Yes.” His eyes remained on me with calm stillness. “But not as beautiful as you.”

A slight smile tugged at my lips. “That’s nice of you to say.”

“You think I’m disingenuous.”

“I think you’re smooth.”

“I can have you whenever I want you without being smooth,” he said. “I meant what I said. She was a sight to behold, a world of color and vibrancy instead of a land of gray scale, but her beauty burns like a candle to your inferno.”

My eyes dropped because those words got to me. “Did you speak to her?”

He turned quiet again, the silence suddenly heavy.

I looked at him when he didn’t speak.

His eyes had a blank stare, hard as stone. “No.”

We both fell asleep the moment we were in bed, and feeling his thick arm hook around my body was the intimacy I’d craved. When the bars had been between us, all I could feel was his hand. When I was forced to leave his prison and stay at the queen’s side, I had been desperate for his protection. He was the one person I could count on, and he was taken from me. I’d never allowed myself to need anyone because no one could be trusted, but I knew I could trust Talon with my life.

We slept like that for hours, my leg hitched over his hip, his muscular arm hard around my body. Both so exhausted we didn’t move throughout the day, our bodies occasionally twitching because the fatigue had infected our nerves.

When I heard the sounds of crickets and frogs, I knew it was nighttime. My eyes opened to see Talon dead asleep beside me,his face so handsome when it was calm, his jawline less sharp as he relaxed.

After sleeping all day, I was ready to get up, but I hadn’t exerted myself and fought the way Talon had. I hadn’t saved Riviana Star with my sword and my powers. So I lay there and didn’t move, wanting him to sleep as long as he needed.