The Passionate Queen (Dark Queens Book 2) (7 page)

I did not fit into this family; I was not of the same steely stock as they. Those were her very words to me, over and over and over, for years it’s all I’d heard.

You’re not as smart as Alwyn. As brave as Alwyn. As handsome as Alwyn. Why can’t you be more like your brother, he’s such a good dragon...

But I was less interested in hoarding treasures and stones, the only thing that brought me joy in this life was lying beside a girl who glowed blue as I watched her speak to the birds in the trees and smile as she told me of her day.

But I couldn’t shake the gnawing worry now. What if I couldn’t disrupt this binding of hers to the king, would I become mad like old uncle Jayks?

No, I would not even think on that. I would break their pact, one way or another. I had to, there was simply no other choice for me in the matter.

Instead of fury or disgust, there was pity for me shining in his golden eyes. “Then you are a fool.”

Maybe I was, but asking me to walk away from Lena was the same as asking him to cut out his heart and hand it to me. One could not survive without the other.

“Why did you reject our parents’ match?” I’d never had a chance to ask him.

Inhaling deeply, he stared out the window and said in monotone, “I was not ready for that level of responsibility. And I did not love her.”

“What is love other than a petty emotion?” I responded to him as our father had often done to us. But no sooner had I said it than I felt the wrongness of it.

His eyes were thoughtful when he turned them to me. “You want this woman. Why?”

I knew what he was getting at. Wondering if I loved my Lena. And the only answer I had was, “I don’t know. I claimed her years ago.”

“And what is that, if not love?” he asked simply.

My brother was seldom given to maudlin fancy, so to hear him speak of this, it actually had me thinking. Did I love her? Were those the emotions I felt?

I thought of my parents and how cold, how distant their union was. It’d been one of convenience, of uniting two houses and making them stronger for it. Alwyn and I had been conceived out of a sense of duty; their part done, they no longer even shared the same tower.

I frowned. Could I do that with Lena? Take her and squire her away, separate myself from her by miles of stones and halls between us?

When I thought of touching her body, it was not out of a sense of duty either. I wanted to imprint my scent on her flesh, wanted to let it be known to one and all that the female was mine and mine alone.

Alwyn shrugged. “Ragoth, if what you feel runs deeper than it should, do not return to her. Cut ties now. It is not fair to you or to her.”

There was so much my brother still didn’t know. Not only was Lena not of Olympus, she was human. Not even dragonborne.

So much of who I was as a people I still didn’t know; I wouldn’t know all of it until my pledging. I’d not known I couldn’t kiss her, but what if it was more than that? Could a dragonborne and a human even bond? What was it that I felt?

My brother didn’t speak another word, simply turned and returned to his room. I walked over to my window, brain fogged by exhaustion and questions. So, so many questions.

Maybe I should leave her. If I could never have her, then what was the point of continuing to spend time together? But then all I had to do was think about her coming nuptials to the king and I wanted to choke something. Wanted to rend it limb from limb with my sharp, vicious teeth.

Grinding my jaw, I watched as the sun set, watched as the goddess Nyx floated over the sky, bringing her darkness with her. Watched as the night twinkled with the light of millions of stars, and felt frozen by indecision.

Only a few hours ago I was sure I had no choice but to release her. Now, I couldn’t seem to stop shivering at the thought of it.

“What if Alwyn lied?” I whispered to the breeze.

In an instant I knew I was no longer alone in my room. The pressure of power pulled at me, made my flesh tingle.

Turning, I lifted a brow, studying the woman before me.

A woman of myth and legend. Her blond hair hung like a fall of golden water down around her feet. She wore no clothing, and the hair—as though charmed with a life of its own—always seemed to be strategically placed in such a way so as not to reveal more than tantalizing peeks of her radiant flesh.

Dropping to a knee, I bowed before the goddess of love herself.

Aphrodite’s violet eyes shimmered with laughter. “I heard you call for me, Ragoth Nur. Why?”

Wiggling her fingers, she motioned for me to stand. I did, leaning against the windowsill. “I did not call you.”

“Oh, but you did, dragonborne. I felt the weight of your heart; it grieves me to see one so loyal as you in such a state.”

Twisting my lips, I shook my head. “You can only listen to a soul in love. I am not—”

Her smile was knowing. “Aren’t you? If, as you say, I can only listen to a soul in love, then why else would I be here?”

I turned my face to the side. The knowledge of what I felt, confirmed to me from her lips, brought not a measure of peace. In fact, it made me feel ill.

“Zelena Hermosa,” she whispered, “a morphling due to marry the king of hearts. Yes, I know all about her.”

I wasn’t sure why she was here. Wasn’t sure what pearls of wisdom she could possibly impart to me. “Alwyn says I cannot mate a woman not of royal blood.”

She shrugged. “What does your prig of a brother know about love anyway?”

Aphrodite swatted at my words as though swatting at a gnat.

My heart trembled. “Are you saying I can?”

Looking upon the goddess of love, it was hard not to find myself attracted to her. But my attraction to her was unlike what I felt around Lena. There was a heated passion that burned through me with the goddess in my room, a desire to strip her down and mate with her.

But even as I felt it, I knew it to be a result of her glamour. Of who she inherently was. Aphrodite was the epitome of female beauty and sexuality. You’d have to be dead not to want her.

Beyond the attraction though, there was nothing else. I did not wonder about her life, did not care to ask her how her day had gone or who she’d spent it with. I did not worry that someone had treated her ill.

I merely wished to slack my lust upon her.

With Lena, it was just the opposite. I wanted her body, but I wanted her soul too. I wanted every part of her.

“There is a season for all things. A season to love, a season to lose, and a season of rebirth. None can happen though, without that first step. And between you and me, she’s hawt!” She winked, and her laughter sparkled like golden threads through my room.

My lips twitched. I wasn’t exactly sure what she’d said, but I thought I understood the meaning. I bowed my head.

“Thank you, Goddess, I have much to consider.”

“Well”—she laid a hand on her hip and cocked her leg out to the side—“don’t take forever. The night is short and soon your chance will be gone. What you do tonight, decides the entire course of your future. So, my darling dragon, choose wisely.”

Then with a wink and a finger wave, she vanished in a plume of magenta-swirled smoke.

I’d be required to meet with my tutors in only a few minutes. Burying my impatience, I knew I would go to her. Knew what I would do.

If Aphrodite was behind me, then I could not lose.

Grinning, I planned it all out in my head. I would offer myself to the hag in the king’s stead, tell her of my not-so-insubstantial worth, and have Lena as my very own from now until eternity. This would work.

Of course my mother would try to kill me and eat Lena. Not to mention Alwyn’s displeasure, but as my English tutor would always say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, dragonborne.”

Humming the song Lena sometimes would when she walked up the path to meet me, under my breath, I ran a talon across my palm, bleeding myself. Thick, black blood flowed free. Grabbing a glass vial I kept hidden behind a stone in my wall, I tipped my hand over and filled it to the brim.

None of my tutors would wake for hours after the dose I gave them.

Zelena

I
flew as fast as my feet would carry me to our place. I’d stayed away, mainly because I was scared of the things I felt when I was with Ragoth. He was unlike any male I’d ever known before.

With one swipe of his fist he could end me, and yet he’d never shown me anything but kindness. I came tonight to tell him one thing.

We could no longer continue on as we were. I was two weeks away from my nuptials to the king. And it was becoming a struggle to remember that.

But I had to be fast about this. I’d given Hagar all I’d had left of the wolfsbane, which wasn’t much. He slept, but only very fitfully. Should he awaken and find me gone, I did not wish to even entertain the idea of it.

“Boy,” I whispered to the breeze the moment I stepped into the thicket of trees.

And my heart sank to my knees when he stepped into my line of vision.

This was no boy standing before me. Days away from his pledging, he bore every hallmark of a man.

The beautiful burnished hue of his skin practically gleamed like molten bronze in the ghostly moonlit night.

Wonderland’s woods were a maze of the fantastical, the bizarre and strange, and yet, when he was with me, it was like he leeched all the magic from the place. He was a glittering jewel that somehow managed to stand out even amongst the sea of madness.

Tree vines twisted in the gentle breeze above his head as he stepped boldly out into the path.

Tonight, just as he had every night since I’d known him, he came to me dressed as the prince he was. His clothing tailor-fitted to his muscular frame, making me keenly aware of our uneven status in life.

But all that was forgotten when he rushed to me, took my fingers in his hands, and squeezed them.

“Do you love me?” he asked me boldly.

My jaw dropped.

“Boy, I—”

“Ragoth Nur.” His voice was a guttural growl. “My name is Ragoth Nur. And I will ask you once more, do you love me?”

He moved deeper into my body, his scent—somehow always making me think of the deepest darkness of the cosmos—enveloped me. Made it hard for me to breathe properly, let alone think rationally.

I meant to drop his hands, but instead I found myself curling my fingers tighter around his.

“Do you love me?” I asked.

I knew the answer before he ever even uttered a word. I saw it in the flicker of his eyes. But then, I’d always known the truth of how he’d felt for me. And how I felt for him. Though we’d never uttered the words, our actions had always spoken loudly.

“With everything that beats inside of me.” He traced my cheek with his knuckles, and I trembled.

I knew he waited for my words, but I didn’t know how to say them. Couldn’t seem to remember how to wrap my lips around them. So I showed him.

Wrapping an arm around his neck, I leaned up and kissed him.

At first it was the pinnacle of everything. The sun, moon, and stars clung to his mouth, and I wanted more and more.

He growled, his chest vibrating against mine, and I was in heaven.

Until I wasn’t.

Until the sharp prick of pain that was at first just a mere nuisance soon turned into a rush of agony that consumed me.

Screaming, I shoved him away, feeling as though my face had been ripped off me.

“Lena.” His big beautiful sea-glass eyes sparkled with worry. He reached out to me, but I couldn’t stop my screaming.

Dropping to my knees, I stared in horror at the river of blood trailing through my fingers to the earthen floor beneath.

He grabbed my face, and in my panic I slapped at his hands. Trying to get away from the fire of his touch.

“Stop fighting me,” he thundered, and then tipping my face forward, he settled his cheek against my own and cried his healing tears over me.

The rush of sweet coolness had me going limp in his arms. I’d thought that torment would never end, and now it was over and I could breathe once more without the sting of pain behind it.

“Oh, Lena.” His voice cracked. “I thought we stood a chance, thought that you and I—”

It was the hardest thing I ever had to do to stand up and move away from him. Looking down at his bent head, I whispered, “We can no longer meet, Ragoth. The fates have other plans for us.”

I ran, ready to turn my back on him forever, forget about the boy who’d become a man and made my heart beat with both misery and joy, but a sight worse than death stopped me cold. I shook violently as Hagar’s monstrous shadow came barreling over the ridge.

“You!” he roared, and quicker than I could even blink, he struck me. I was so shocked that I stood there, letting him take me down to the dirt path without much of a struggle.

Hagar’s fetid breath was in my face as he said, “I’ve found ye now, git. Just wait till Zerelda learns of yer foul treachery.”

He licked his lips, exposing what few teeth remained, and those blackened at the gum line.

I struck at him with my fists.

“Get off me!” I grunted, trying in vain to wiggle out from beneath his absolute, unyielding weight.

He slapped me. So hard my ears rang, and I tasted blood on my tongue.

“You lit’le whore, running off to meet wi’ a boy.” Something thick and hard bumped into my thigh.

I shuddered, my screams turning raw with fury.

He would not rape me; I would not allow this. I would kill him first.

But as I thought what I would do to him, suddenly his weight was thrust from me. Disoriented, I sat up to my knees, blinking back the sudden, shocking bright light of Ragoth’s dragon light.

Hagar gave a mighty shriek, rushing for my dragon with wildly flailing arms. But even a half ogre was no match for the King of Beasts.

Ragoth never even toyed with Hagar; he simply opened his mouth and swallowed him whole.

I stood frozen, my mind a swirl of absolute nothingness as I tried in vain to understand what it was I’d just witnessed.

Dragons ate meat. Humans—even half ogres—were meat. But I’d never seen Ragoth’s bestial nature on display before. I’d always known what he was, but seeing it for myself, I trembled.