Page 59 of The Last Dragon King
My heart pinched at the king’s kindness. I blinked back tears several times as my vision blurred. “What are you going to do?”
She chewed her lip. “I’m going to stay. It’s my duty to provide a royal heir and save the people of Embergate and so I’ll do it. Love or not.”
So he also told her about needing an heir to save his people. Her people. Our people. Ninety percent of the people in Embergate carried dragon magic in their veins and would succumb to death as the king’s magic eventually faded away.
I was suddenly flooded with so much respect for Joslyn. “You’re a good person. You’ll make a wonderful queen,” I informed her.
I pulled her into a hug and she wept on my shoulder. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my heart broke for the fact that I would never have Drae to myself. But I vowed right then and there to never again see the king as an object of desire. Out of respect for Joslyn, who clearly loved him.
When she pulled back, she wiped her eyes. “Tell me a story. Take my mind off of this.”
I nodded, starting to pace the garden, trying to think up a story from my childhood that would make her laugh. “When I was young, my father had just died and we didn’t have coal for the fireplace. Ironic considering where we live, but coal had to be bought just like everything else. Without my father’s wages, my mother feared it would be a terrible and cold winter.”
Joslyn looked at me with concern. “What did you do?”
“Well,” I murmured, pacing the grass, “I had heard that the people of Gypsy Rock kept warm by burning dried cow dung patties… except we didn’t have any cows in Cinder Village. Only dogs.”
Joslyn suddenly burst into laughter. “You didn’t!”
I grinned, turning to face her, delighted that I’d gotten her to laugh and lifted her spirits. “I am happy to report that dog shit burns pretty hot when—”
The words died in my throat. A man suddenly appeared behind Joslyn. His one hand went around her mouth and his other held a knife to her throat. He wore the Nightfall crest on his armor. The glint of steel from his mechanical wings flickered in the moonlight.
I stood there shocked for a split second and then reached for my knife at the back of my shirt. Then leaves rustled behind me and someone grasped my wrist, clenching it hard until I dropped the blade.
“Not so fast,” a male voice like scratchy wool said.
My heart hammered in my throat as I looked at a terrified and shaking Joslyn.
“Which one is the wife-to-be?” the man holding Joslyn asked whoever held me.
Small tendrils of smoke leaked from my nostrils and I pulled on my dragon power.
The male behind me squeezed my hand tighter, immobilizing me. “Yours.”
It happened so fast.
One second Joslyn was standing upright and the next the man was dragging the blade across her throat and her life blood was dribbling all down her gown before her body hit the floor.
“Take that one too. She’s the backup.” A man I recognized stepped out of the woods.
Bonner. A Royal Guardsman. A traitor.
I’d never liked him.
The man holding me pulled out his blade. The crushing grief and realization that Joslyn was dead slammed into me, tearing me in two.
An inhuman wail ripped from my throat as heat, and rage, and anguish, consumed me. A burst of blue fire exploded outward, and then everything went black.
FIFTEEN
“Arwen.” A familiar panicked voice roused me. “Arwen!” There was a light slap on my cheek.
My eyelids sprang open and I came face to face with Drae.
His panicked green gaze ran the length of my body. “Are you hurt?” he said.
I blinked a few times and then looked down to see that I was completely naked. My clothes had burned off. Little bits of ash and soot stained my skin. My gaze peered out around the garden, and the memory of everything came back to me.
