Her heels tap against the cobblestone ground, and her gown drifts behind her like a rumbling wave. “I’ll send Octavian to you soon, we need to find out what the stones do. If anyone would know, it is him.”
My finger glides around the stones, tracing the black marks that lead to each one. “Will he have a way to remove them?”
Her scrawny shoulders rise before falling. “Unsure.”
“Who will be training me?” I gesture my arms out to the side. “I can’t train by myself, I doubt the chosen eight will want to help me continue in the games.”
“Your two favorite men.” Her brows lift with amusement, as if the very thing she is going to say will either make me fume, or make my heart leap. “Florian and Koen. And you must learn to ride the four, or you shall die in the games.”
Shit.
Chapter 26
“A hundred centuries ago, the Realm was given the first ever dragon. This dragon was the protector of the Realm Eekatia. But when the first Royal died from a dragon’s breath, the Gods knew they needed the hunters.” - Book of Azure
I HEARD THEY FINISHED THE rest of the first game.
Twenty-nine men are left. Then there is me.
Thirty in total will compete in the rest of the battle games.
Only eight will remain.
Only eight will live.
My heart and mind cannot understand how these men willingly give up their lives to fight in the games… for what? The chance of their Realm holding the Light Stone for a year?
There must be something more I am missing.
I want to understand why these men continue to fight in the games after they have been chosen to be a part of the eight in prior years. They survived the brutal games, yet every year, they join them again.
I’d be done. I’d never compete again.
Unless,I suppose, the Queen makes them.
I wonder if the Queen forces the Royals to compete.
I still can’t believe the Queen is making me continue.
The other dragons they threw in, burned the rest of the men.Ate a few. But also, their tails crushed many. The dragon from the Darklands escaped after the gray one burned me. The only one they have ever seen before, and now it’s gone. I doubt they will be able to capture it again, or see another. Theon once told me how rare they are.
Truthfully, I would be glad to never see one again in my lifetime.
As I stare at the cobblestone floor, I begin to contemplate if Dryden and Death survived, since I am now locked away in the Kingdom courtyard known as the Pyre. But if the Gods listened to me about never wanting to love… maybe they listened to me about wanting Dryden gone.Far away from me.
As well as Lykia.
The siblings now both hate me.
But the note this morning at my door—unsure who it is from—explained how the Queen continued after she took us here, calling out the rest of the names to fight the dragons. No one has yet come to get me, and my knee shakes impatiently as I rest on the side of my bed, dying to check on Kaine. The bookshelf in the far corner, filled with cobwebs, seems as if it has been untouched by the men who have rested here before me. I supposed they had better things to do than to read. But I have an itch inside me that is longing to take one of them and open it up. My eyes crave to read about their world here. To learn more about them.
But I don’t.Not yet.
The cobblestone walls kept the chilly night air out, and the soft bed with silky, dark sheets did keep me warm.
I slept well. Most likely the best night sleep I have had since arriving into the Realm of Azure. The small candlestick with bronze handles in the shape of a dragon's body rests next to my bed on the round table. I gaze at the fire, watching the wax slowly roll into beads, dripping down the long, black candlestick.
The fire whips, and I watch the small embers pop and float into the air before disintegrating. I gradually let my finger hover over it, feeling nothing.No heat.
