Page 68 of The Dragon King
“I don’t want to assassinate him. I want him to watch his world fall apart before I burn him alive. Before I make him watch his sons burn alive.”
An unease prickled my skin. “You—you wouldn’t do that, would you?”
“They were responsible for everything, just as much as he was,” he said. “And even if they weren’t, I would still do it. He burned my mother and my sister and…” He clenched his jaw and stared at the fire. “I feel no empathy for him or his kin.”
I watched the side of his face and let the conversation die. “Should we make another attempt to convince him?”
“I burned that bridge.”
“Then maybe I could try.”
“He won’t listen to you either. He knows you’re my woman.”
I would never grow tired of hearing that. I’d been the possession of a man once before, and it was the most horrible experience of my life. But being Talon’s possession made me feel safe, cherished, and protected. “I like being your woman.”
His eyes remained on the fire.
“I love it, actually.”
He continued to stare like he didn’t hear me.
Maybe now wasn’t the best time for a confession. We’d come so far, and now we were lost at sea. Talon had never looked so defeated. But light shone the brightness in the dark, and Iwanted to be that light. Pressure had built up inside my chest like water in a geyser, desperate to shoot into the sky and release. So much emotion with so little room to store it. “And I?—”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
I flinched at the coldness in his words. Felt winded like I’d been knocked off my feet. The unbridled confidence I’d felt just a moment ago had been destroyed by the tone of his voice. Fear came next, the anxiety and the uncertainty. “I’m listening.”
He took his eyes off the fire, not to look at me, but to look up at the stars in the sky. He stared at them for a long moment before he dropped his chin once again. When it seemed like he would speak, another wave of silence passed, this stretch longer than any other one we’d had.
It made me feel worse. I believed Talon would never hurt me, but the seed of doubt dropped into the earth…and it started to grow. “Talon, you’re scaring me?—”
“I was married.” Both of his hands tightened into fists as if he squeezed invisible swords.
I was winded again, in absolute confusion because it was the last thing I expected him to say. He’d had another life before our paths crossed in the Arid Sands, but he’d never hinted of a past love. When I’d asked him if he’d ever loved someone, he never answered.
“My father didn’t want me to marry her because she wasn’t of noble birth, but I loved her, so I married her anyway. We were married for a couple of months before we started our own family. She was six months pregnant when my uncle came for the throne…”
I knew the end of the story the second it began. I braced for it like I was riding a horse over a cliff.
His hands tightened even further. “I tried to save her. I sent her on a ship out to sea. But after my uncle had killed every one of my family members except for me, he dragged her out. Tied her to the stake and…” He started to breathe hard, his fists so tight his knuckles turned white. He didn’t speak again, and I was spared the horrific details.
I expected to feel jealous that he’d been married, that he loved someone so dearly, that his love still endured because he couldn’t finish telling the story. But I didn’t. All I felt was pain…horrible, throbbing pain. “Talon…” My hand grabbed on to his arm, and I felt tears burn in my eyes.
He held his breath to stop his tears and locked his gaze on the fire as if that would make him forget. “She screamed my name until the very end…and I couldn’t save her. I failed both of them.”
My hand remained on his arm to comfort him, but nothing could soothe such a loss.
“I’m sorry I kept it from you.”
“Don’t apologize,” I whispered. “You weren’t ready.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to breathe again like an invisible weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “I have to finish this.”
“I know.”
“I have to butcher him and burn him.”
“We will.”