Page 99 of The Dragon King

He has the same love for you that I have for Talon. I know what his answer will be.

The elven army began its progression out of the forest to reach the open fields with the mountains in the distance. They had been instructed to bring only what they could carry. The horses were left behind, and they traveled on foot so their mounts wouldn’t be abandoned once they arrived at the harbor.

Queen Eldinar had been with Macabre for hours, alone in their spot on the field, her sitting on the ground as Macabre lay on the grass and faced her. From a distance, it seemed like their conversation went fine, but she wouldn’t have been there for hours if there weren’t conflict.

Talon and I sat together with Khazmuda in front of a campfire, the sun almost set over the mountains.

He sat with his arms resting on his knees, looking over the campfire to the field beyond, littered with dragons.

“They’ve been talking for a long time.”

Talon gave no reaction. “He’ll say yes.”

“I thought so too, but now I’m worried.”

“They’re probably discussing other matters. Or he was appalled by the armor.”

“I hope not…since it was freely given.”

Khazmuda closed his eyes as he grew tired, like a dog on the rug in front of the fire.

“That was nice of you to give that to her,” I said quietly. “You’ve grown so fond of each other.” I was slightly jealous, but I neverallowed it to consume me. Queen Eldinar was loyal to my uncle, and now that Talon had confessed his feelings, I knew his heart belonged to me. Whatever they shared was platonic.

“It’s hard to earn my respect, but she did it without trying,” he said. “I don’t have any friends besides Khazmuda, so it’s nice to have someone.”

I felt a twinge of pain at his statement. “Are we not friends?”

A smile moved over his lips. “We are definitelynotfriends.” He turned to look at me, that handsome grin lighting up his face. “And I would never want to be your friend. If I had to settle for that, I would lose my fucking mind.”

He dissipated my insecurity and even made me smile.

He watched me, his smile slowly fading as he got lost in my eyes, staring at me like we were alone in the world with no one else around. Then his eyes turned sad, as they often did whenever he looked at me.

“Why do your eyes do that?”

“What?”

“Look so sad.”

His eyes flicked away, and he looked at the horizon once more, the sky already almost dark because the sun seemed to sink into the mountains as if into quicksand. “When you have something you love, you have more to lose. Plunging that dagger into my heart was easy because I had no reason to stay alive. Death was preferable to my misery. But now…my life has meaning again.”

“I think that’s a good thing, Talon.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. “Perhaps. Just wish it’d happened sooner.”

“It happened when it was supposed to happen. You needed time to grieve. If we’d met too soon, it wouldn’t have worked.”

“I think I would have fallen in love with you at any time, under any circumstances.”

This was a side to Talon he rarely showed. He was completely open and transparent, speaking his mind rather than masking his thoughts.

“When I met Vivian…” He hesitated before he continued, because anytime he spoke of her, it was like a knife was held to his throat. “I was smitten at the sight of her. I chased her and she ran, and I liked it because no one had ever denied my pursuit. There was an attraction there and I knew she liked me, but she still did whatever she could to avoid me. I cornered her and threatened to never let her go until she told me why. I just needed a reason.” He stared at the fire as he swallowed. “That was when she told me she’d been raped…”

My heart broke for a woman I never knew. Didn’t even know what she looked like.

“It had happened recently. By her own uncle…” His mood started to darken because it still bothered him after all these years. “She was still shaken up about it and not interested in me because she knew all I wanted to do was fuck around then move on to the next girl—which was a fair assumption. And if she hadn’t been raped, she probably would have been fine with that, but she was a different person as a result.”

“What happened?”