Page 52 of The Blade in the Ashes
“Died.” Jonan nodded, his gaze still locked on that table in front of him. I watched his jaw work. Watched the skin on his fingertips darken for amoment before fading back into pale skin. “She would never pledge loyalty, knowing that her children are heirs.”
“My generals have gone to retrieve my sisters from their school. You have my word that I will protect them.”
Amber eyes lifted to meet mine, a seriousness in them. “Thank you. They are important to me.”
“Jonan.” I held his gaze, my fingers clasped together so tightly that the whites of my knuckles were showing. “I know you are a good man. And I hope you know I am not the man my father was. I love my people, and I will fight for them regardless of how I leave this room. You must know, though, that this isn’t just my battle to fight. Hyrax doesn’t just seek to claim my land; he seeks to claim us all. We cannot allow this.”
He scanned me, taking in my own disheveled and tired appearance. I’d done my best to dress the part, but there was only so much I could do when I’d been staying at a war camp and unable to find a peaceful night’s sleep. The shadows that hung around me for far more reasons than just the weight of my crown.
And as if he could see exactly what haunted me, he pursed his lips and asked, “And what of the Hyraxian girl?”
My heart sputtered in my chest, beating out of time for a moment before speeding up. Just a mention of her was enough to bring a picture of her to my mind’s eye, enough to make me remember the way she had felt beneath me, enough to bring a pang of longing for the look in her eyes when she had said she loved me.
I remembered that as clearly as I remembered the look in her eyes when she’d vowed herself to be Caldrius’ wife.
For me.
To protect me.
“She remains at the castle.”
There was pain in those words—pain and longing and a million other things that were un-kingly. If my father had been here, he would have scolded me. These were emotions that didn’t lend themselves to convincing this man to ally with me.
Jonan tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “Are you surprised she remained loyal to her father?”
I swallowed. Apparently, the rumors he had heard had extended to her divinity as well.
“She is loyal to me.” A growl laced my words.
“So you think.”
“So Iknow.”
He knew what I meant. I know he did. Gods, he would have had to be blind not to see the love that had existed between the two of us. We’d been so terrible at hiding it.
Even then, the night of the Peace Ball, when I’d still found her to be grating and disregarding of tradition, I’d been so undeniably drawn to her. So desperate for her wit and humor that I’d broken every expectation of me and pulled her away from her mingling to dance with me.
And she had looked so beautiful in my arms, I could only marvel at how such a stunning creature had just happened upon my castle.
I’d thought myself… lucky then.
I wasn’t sure what I considered myself now.
“If that is the case,” Jonan mused, drinking deeply from his wine and setting the emptied glass on the table before continuing. “You are not asking me to ally with you in just any war.”
No, I wasn’t.
“The daughter is to fight the father.” Again, his voice cracked, and his face flashed with such unabashed grief that my chest twinged with it. “The Goddess against the God.”
I nodded, unable to voice the implication of his words. It hung between us, though, just as it had been hanging over me since the second Hyrax had stepped through that golden portal Pasnia had forced her to open.
Hyrax against Thea meant only one thing.
“You are suggesting there is to be a third War of the Gods.”
His voice was quiet, but he might as well have been screaming at me for the way his words rattled my bones, filling me with the sudden urge to shift into my dragon form so that I might be better prepared to face a threat.
This threat did not need the beast inside of me, though.
