Page 48 of The Dragon Queen
“Barron!” The dead soldiers lay around me in the courtyard, and I had no doubt more would head to the castle to protect their king. The only reason he’d overpowered me before was because it had been an unfair fight.
But now, it would be fair.
“Face me like a man rather than hide like a coward—for once in your miserable life!”
Khazmuda landed on the top of the castle and released a roar so powerful it made the stone of the keep shake. “Roooooaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr.”
It was so loud my eardrums nearly ruptured from the volume, but my focus didn’t waver. I gripped my bloody sword and stared at the double doors, a faded blue where my family’s crest had once been carved into the center. But the symbol had changed, a sharp knife changing the name from Rothschild to Augustus.
I came closer to the castle, my hand still gripping the hilt of my sword with the same tightness that I gripped the pommel of Khazmuda’s saddle. The castle was lifeless, and the double doors were barred. That meant Barron knew I was there, probably watched me from one of the windows in the place that had been my home. “Face me like a man, or I’ll burn this castle to the ground with you inside it!”
“Roooooaaaaaarrrrrr!”
I stood there and waited, the dead idle around me, anticipating their next order. They’d grabbed the swords dropped on the ground and brandished them as if life and purpose still flooded their veins. My family had never been buried because there had been nothing left to put in a grave, but now I was grateful for it because my dead father and brother wouldn’t be there beside me, nothing but skeletons because they’d been dead for so long.
I continued to stare at the castle and wait for the doors to open or something to happen, but it remained quiet, like no one was home. Minutes packed with tension passed, the air too thickto breathe. “Then die like a coward! Khazmuda, burn it to the ground!”
“Roooooaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!” Khazmuda opened his wings and took flight.
There was an audible click, and the doors slowly swung open.
My inherent calm faded as adrenaline and rage took the forefront. The anger I’d carried for decades had simmered beneath the surface to a boil, but now, I lifted the lid off the pot and let the steam escape. The rage reached an intensity I’d never allowed myself to feel, a crescendo so potent it made me shake. As I stood in the spot where my family had drawn their last breaths, I heard their screams of terror, smelled the ash that burned my lungs, remembered the way I’d begged him to spare my wife…and he’d refused.
The doors opened completely and someone was visible, fully covered in midnight-black armor that took on a shine from the torches. A cape was visible behind him, a blade across his shoulders. I assumed he’d gotten fat and lazy from sitting on his ass these last decades since he’d let his kingdom fall to ruin, but he seemed to still fit in his armor.
He marched through the gates, and that was when his sons became visible, trailing behind him in similar armor and capes. I’d assumed they were commanders in the military, but I guessed I’d given them too much credit.
They continued forward, Barron’s features becoming more distinct as he stepped into the light of the torches that burned around the courtyard. He stopped twenty feet away, a gust of wind brushing his cape from the ground.
His sons stopped behind him, their features matching my memory perfectly. They were both fused with dragons and preserved in time.
Barron hadn’t changed either, except for the gloating smile. But that was nowhere to be seen tonight. Eyes the same color as mine looked into my face, our shared blood visible in our mutual features. But he didn’t have the honor my father possessed, didn’t have the characteristics required to be a noble king.
I’d worked so hard to come to this moment, and now I needed to savor it, savor the calm before the storm, savor the fear in his eyes at the sight of me. My chest rose and fell from the labored breaths my chest needed to take. So much rage was bottled inside me, and now it erupted like a geyser. Hatred spewed forth and drowned me from the inside. I gripped the hilt of my sword so hard I nearly popped every knuckle.
“I look upon the Death King, a necromancer who’s taken the Northern Kingdoms with fiery death,” he said. “But I still see Talon Rothschild—a boy.”
The sound of his voice made the world pause. It was exactly as I remembered it, but I still couldn’t believe I heard it. The insult didn’t provoke me because any word he spoke was meaningless.
“You’ve come all the way here to join your kin—how touching.” His serious expression faded when a smile came through. “I knew you survived. I knew this moment would come. The last surviving Rothschild will burn like the others—and your line will truly be gone from this world.”
I gripped the hilt of my sword before I spun it around my wrist. I repeated the action, feeling the sword slice through the air, feeling it fall over my wrist before it came back around. My focushad never been this unmatched. He couldn’t provoke further anger from me when I’d already reached my full capacity long ago. “I wish you the best, Uncle Barron. Because when you’re beaten and bloody, I’ll burn your wife. Then I’ll burn Jairo.” I turned my gaze to him behind Barron’s shoulder. “Kael.” I looked at the other brother before I looked at Barron again. “And then I’ll burn their wives, their children, your mistresses, every friend and family member who carries the Augustus name. You’ll listen to their screams of sheer agony pierce the night. Listen to them beg for the mercy you never gave me. And once there’s nothing left but their ashes…you’ll be next.”
The smile was wiped from his arrogant face. We shared a hard stare, his dark eyes showing all his unspoken rage. “You have no chance, Talon. I’m sorry you came all this way just to say a few words.”
“I disagree.”
“As impressive as your army of the dead may be, it has no chance against our dragons.”
“And that’s why I brought my own dragons.”
His eyebrows furrowed slightly and gave away his hand.
“Your kingdom is being taken by an army of dragons, and you’re none the wiser. Perhaps Astaroth isn’t as loyal to you as you believe.” I didn’t know what was transpiring with Calista and Queen Eldinar down below, but I assumed good things were happening if Barron didn’t know this.
His features hardened into an anger he couldn’t control. He probably couldn’t figure out how I knew Astaroth’s name, but he was far too proud to ask. His confidence was undermined in that moment, and it showed.
“My dead kin will watch me reclaim our kingdom. I can slay three of you at once on my own.” I spun my sword around my wrist and moved forward, prepared to take on three fully armed men protected by dragon armor.