Page 60 of The Dragon Queen

Once the children were released, they fled back to their mothers, who clutched them with choking sobs.

I watched them as resentment burned inside me, wishing that outcome had happened for me, that I had watched Vivian live so I could die in peace. It was a mercy I hadn’t thought I was capable of extending.

You made the right decision, Talon Rothschild.

“Thank you…” Barron could barely speak through his sobs.

“I’m not the one you should thank.” I gestured to the dead. “Jairo first.”

The women and children began to cry again. The mothers made the right decision to pull them away, knowing that couldn’t stopthe inevitable, but they would rather shield their children from the horrors that were about to take place.

Barron sobbed once more. “Not my sons…”

Jairo was secured to the wood with a grim expression, calmly accepting his sentence.

“Any last words?” I asked.

Jairo wouldn’t look at me.

“You’ve committed treason against King Bolton Rothschild…” They were words I’d never thought I would say out loud, vengeance I’d never thought I would feel. It gave me some peace even before it came to pass. “You conspired against the throne and murdered the royal family. Your punishment is death.” I stepped back to Khazmuda and gestured with my hand.

Khazmuda inhaled a breath before he released the line of fire that immediately engulfed the stake and caught it on fire. Jairo was swallowed by the flames, writhing in the searing heat and doing his best not to scream in anguish.

Barron dropped his head and screamed, unable to watch the horror.

Finally, Jairo’s body went limp, and the fire continued on.

Barron cried and heaved and screamed all at once.

I came to his side then gestured for the dead to take Kael next. “I’ve watched my daughter burn—and now you’ve watched your son burn. After all these years, we finally have something in common.” I gestured to Khazmuda once Kael was secured to the stake.

Khazmuda unleashed his flames and burned the second brother, the one I’d spotted in the storage room as he conspired with his brother, the one who’d helped his father tie my family to the stake. They thought they were invincible, untouchable.

But they were wrong.

Kael didn’t have the same spine as his brother and gave in to the anguish and screamed in agony, his cries so high-pitched they sounded more animal than human. He fought against the ropes until his body gave out, either passed out from the pain or because his blood had boiled and congealed.

The flames continued to burn, a beacon in the courtyard, a pyre to unleash his soul to the afterlife—if he were welcome through the gates.

Barron looked exactly as I had on that night, so defeated he had nothing left. He didn’t care whether he lived or died. Didn’t fear the flames that would char him like a roast left over the fire too long.

“Up.”

Barron remained on the ground, his face to the stone, trembling with his tears.

“I said, up!” I grabbed him by the back of the neck and forced him up before I shoved him ahead.

He stumbled and hit the ground.

“I should have done more.” I grabbed him and forced him up again. “I should have stopped you, and I’ll regret that as long as I live.” I shoved him into the stake, the flames still burning. “But this will have to do.”

The dead were immune to the fire, so they tied him to the blazing stakes as he writhed and burned from the heat. His clothes had already caught fire before the dead stepped away. His cape lit up then brought the flames into his hair and down his spine. He was set ablaze seconds later, his cries echoing in the courtyard, not from physical pain, just misery.

I watched him burn and felt the heat on my face. I watched my final adversary pass on from this life, his soul turned to ash and taken on the wind. Even when he was long dead, I continued to stare, continued to watch the flames burn and slowly fade as they lost their fuel. I wasn’t sure how long I stood there. Time suddenly felt different to me. I’d worked toward this moment for a lifetime, and now that I’d finally achieved it…I felt nothing.

Maybe this was peace.

The sky had lightened from its blue tint to slightly pink, the sunrise approaching over the horizon, the mark of a new day, a new era for this kingdom.