Page 7 of The Dragon King
She must have watched my eyes fall because hers did too. “You disappear so quickly…”
“There’s very little left of that version of me.”
She didn’t ask why, and I appreciated that.
“If we find the dragons and they agree to fight for our cause and we take back the Southern Isles…then what?”
Taking back the Southern Isles wasn’t the ambition. Just usurping the ruler who’d taken it from me. “The dragons will be free. Scorpion Valley will be yours once again. The world will be as it should be.”
“You expect me to stay in Scorpion Valley while you’re in the Southern Isles?” she asked with pain in her voice.
No, that wasn’t what I expected at all. “I don’t know what will come, Calista. It’s hard to think about the aftermath of a victory that I haven’t earned yet. That I may never earn.” I might gamble the lives of free dragons and Calista and lose it all. Then my life and soul would be forfeit…all for nothing.
She turned quiet, her pretty eyes contemplative.
A knock sounded on the front door.
I immediately rose to my feet and headed to the front of the house.
“Aren’t you going to put something on?” she asked as she stepped out of sight of the door.
“No.” I opened the front door and came face-to-face with Commander Luxe, who was completely adorned in his dark green armor and his black cape.
I’d hoped it would be him. “Yes?” I was taller and more muscular, probably because I ate a man’s diet instead of foraging for berries and nuts like a fucking rabbit.
His eyes flicked back and forth as he recovered from his surprise, as if he’d expected Calista to open the door in appropriate attire. “Queen Eldinar requests your presence in the royal palace. I’ll escort you there.”
I shut the door in his face without saying a word.
Calista left the kitchen and came into view. She must have heard what he’d said because she went into the bedroom to get dressed.
“Hold on.” I came up behind her and shoved her onto the bed.
She hit the mattress and looked at me in surprise. “What are you doing?”
I moved on top of her and pulled her panties off her ass so I could sink into her tightness. I shoved my boxers down before I adjusted her underneath me.
“They’re waiting for us?—”
I sank inside her, greeted by her slickness. “And they’ll wait.”
We walked down the path, Commander Luxe in the lead while flanked by two of his men. The rest of the soldiers walked behind me, keeping a tight formation all around me like I might snap and destroy this forest with my bare hands.
Calista walked beside me in an olive-green dress with flat sandals, her hair combed back to reveal her beautiful face on this sunny day. I felt the attraction the first moment I saw her, but she was in her element here, looking like a princess of the forest. I understood her affection for this place.
After a short walk, we approached the entrance to the royal palace, a building that had ivy and flowers growing up the sides, a statue in the front, either of Queen Eldinar or the Riviana, the God of Caelum. It was hard to know which.
We were escorted inside, Queen Eldinar sitting upon her throne with a spine stiffer than the trees outside the dwelling. In a white dress with the image of flowers interwoven in the fabric and white flowers braided in her hair, she was a woman of unnatural beauty, her appearance blessed by the nearly immortal blood that ran through her veins.
But she was still no match for Calista.
The General of Riviana was at her side, sword on his hip while his palm rested on the pommel. His resemblance to Calista was obvious in that moment. Their eyes were the same. Same colorand shape…and same heart. He seemed to have recovered from the battle, with the exception of the scar on the side of his head.
Queen Eldinar stared at me with her nose turned up like I was a cockroach that had crawled into her bed.
As the ruling monarch, she refused to speak first, so I folded just to get the conversation going. “How may I be of service, Your Majesty?”
Her nose upturned slightly less at my gesture of respect. “We hoped to have more time to recover from the battle, not just physically, but emotionally as well. But according to our scout reports, the dark elves approach our border with the unmistakable intention of breaching it. Tension has existed between our two races, but it’s been a very long time since they tried to infiltrate our borders. They must know that we’re weary from our battle with the Behemoths at the border and have taken this opportunity to strike.”