Page 81 of The Dragon Queen
Tears pricked behind my eyes, but not from the pain Bahamut inflicted.
“Release him.” He slammed his fist into my face, hitting me so hard that the world turned black for seconds. “Release your dragon.”
“I can’t. He’s the one with the hold, not me.”
He punched me again, more frazzled than I’d ever seen him. He was anxious and desperate for my soul, like a starving animal that hadn’t eaten in a week. “Then I’ll have someone kill your dragon.”
I felt a flush of pride for the way Khazmuda held on, the power of his fire and scales enough to challenge the God of the Underworld. “Good luck with that.”
He punched me so hard the chair knocked over and I hit the stone.
They are coming, Talon. Hold on.
Black blood dripped from my face to the stone floor. I spat blood from my teeth, felt my body grow so weak it didn’t want to rise again. I knew Bahamut wasn’t done with me, that he would never be done with me until he got what he wanted.
The ground trembled. My hands shook as the floor suddenly became unstable. In the years since I’d been a prisoner in this forsaken place, that had never happened before. When I turned over to look at Bahamut, he didn’t look at me.
His black eyes scanned the room then looked into the doorway that led to the hallway—like the shake of the stone concerned him.
They are coming.
Another force shook the castle, this time strong and long enough to make the bowl slip off the table and smash into pieces on the floor.
I pushed myself to my feet, blood dripping from my nose and my temple from where Bahamut had struck me. The weakness I had felt vanished into thin air when I knew something important was about to happen.
Bahamut left the room and headed down the hallway.
I can no longer feel her mind—so she’s arrived.
I’d vowed not to speak, not to engage in conversation that would torture my dragon, but I lost my strength.Who?
There was a long pause, as if Khazmuda was savoring the sound of my voice in his head.Calista.
I stood alone in the room and felt my body sway even though the ground remained even. My dead heart suddenly burst into an inferno of flames once I felt life return to my body. Tears stung my eyes and broke free, streaking down my cheeks to cleanse the blood that I’d shed. I’d had no one to speak to for years, and now that I had the chance, I had no words.
With Riviana and Queen Eldinar, she comes for you.
I’d never felt tears more painful. “Baby…”
Riviana is the only being strong enough to face Bahamut. While she engages him in battle, you’re to flee with Calista.
I can’t let her do that?—
Trust us, Talon.
She doesn’t understand what she’s up against.
As a god, I’m certain she does. Now move, Talon.
I wiped my tears and the blood with my forearm before I stepped on the shards of the bowl, leaving the room where I’d suffered endless torture, leaving behind the life that I accepted in exchange for the power of Bahamut himself.I don’t understand how this is happening?—
Because death is no match for the love of a dragon.
I rarely left the castle because Bahamut preferred to keep me as his personal servant. So the sight of the courtyard was still new to me, the stone and the decayed trees, the place that could hold dinner parties no one would ever attend.
When I arrived there, I saw Bahamut, no longer the monster that he showed me, but the handsome man in the midnight-blue armor with his heavy sword across his back. He could change his appearance instantaneously, but ever since I’d been down here, I’d only seen the hideous version of him.
A blackness appeared before him, the texture different from the rest of the darkness, a substance that looked like the surface of a dark lake that sometimes reflected the moonlight. With so much adrenaline in my body and nowhere for it to go, I stood there with shaky hands and heavy breaths, waiting for what was to come.