Worse, he’d had to watch as his friend received the same from the cook. There was no mercy in those blows, and Colin had witnessed the twinkle of something innocent and pure extinguish from his playmate’s eyes with every strike. The punishment was enough to permanently end their young kinship. The cook, after all, must have feared that his son would cost him his job in the palace. Colin rarely saw the boy after that.
When Colin was fourteen, during one of the family’s many royal balls, he’d been tempted to lead a Highborn’s daughter out into the same garden for a different sort of play. Perhaps it was a testament to how hormonally distracted he was that he thought things had changed, that being last in the birth order would allow him more freedom to do as he pleased. After all, he never expected to be king. At any rate, his choice of destination could only be chalked up to youthful senselessness. It was arguably the worst hiding spot in the palace.
Surprisingly, when Colin was caught with his hand up her dress, Killian didn’t punish him. Instead, he was given a long lecture on the realities of his royal responsibilities. Although the girl might be a temporary distraction, she was not marriage material, and therefore he must be careful not to attach himself. No political gains could be had by the match, after all.
Later, Colin noticed the girl’s eyes refused to meet his, and his heart broke at the loss of something—he wasn’t sure what—that never had a chance to become.
At twenty and as a fully grown dragon, Colin was tempted to pummel Marius in the pits. All his life, he’d been warned that the younger heirs must never win against their eldest brother. As the one destined to take the throne opposite his sister, Rowan, Marius must always be presented as the strongest and the smartest of the royal clan. Truthfully, Colin thought he was nothing but the haughtiest. But the night Colin gave in to temptation and knocked him on his pompous ass, he was disqualified, accused of cheating, and banned from the pits for an entire season.
And finally, three hundred years ago, a new temptation caught his fancy. It happened after Colin witnessed his uncle Brynhoff murder Marius in the Great Mountain Hall of the Obsidian Palace. Everything changed after that. Scattered to the winds, he and his siblings were suddenly free of any whim other than their own. Oh, he’d followed Nathaniel for a time and then settled in Romania for a few decades, but when temptation struck again, he disobeyed his mother’s warnings and returned to Paragon.
That was when he’d learned what she’d done. That was when he’d been tempted to destroy her and his wicked uncle too. It took centuries to build a solid network of resistors across the five kingdoms, and when he caught up with Sylas on the island of Aeaea, he allowed himself to give in to temptation once more and dream of vengeance. He vowed to bring their mother and uncle to justice.
If history was any sort of teacher, he should expect to fail at this too. He was prepared to fail. Prepared for disappointment. But he’d never give up on the Defenders of the Goddess. Not until either he or Eleanor was dead.
After all that, he should be an expert at dealing with temptation. But he found himself experiencing a different sort than he’d ever experienced before. His dragon wanted Leena. Wanted her like he’d never wanted anyone, like a bird longs for the sky. Unfortunately, his feelings for her were doomed to be unrequited.
Leena was a scribe, part of a religious order that took a vow to devote their lives to chronicling the history of Ouros. He’d been lucky even to have these weeks alone with her. Normally the scribes never left the temple. Leena might have spent her entire life gazing into a pool of tears and chronicling what she saw in its reflection if he hadn’t ended up at the temple library and employed her help in researching ways to stop Eleanor.
But she was here now, on Aeaea, at least until the three sisters translated Medea’s scroll. She’d been assigned to protect it, and he knew she’d guard it with her life until it was safely returned to the temple library.
So when she didn’t come to dinner, he simply had to know why, and although on some level he understood she must want to be alone, he couldn’t resist the temptation to seek her out. He found her on the beach, watching the suns set over the horizon, the sky painted with turquoise and amethyst in a fantastic display of color that was unique to Aeaea.
“Good news about the three sisters.” He cleared his throat and watched her dark copper braid slide off her shoulder as she turned her head to look at him. Her violet eyes sparked as if they were ignited by the sunset behind her. Fragments of the same color purple that streaked the sky flecked her irises, almost as if the heavens had leaked into her. It left him breathless.
“Colin! You startled me. I thought you were at supper?”
“I was. You weren’t. I was worried.” He searched her face. “The sisters and their mates send their goodbyes. They left right after the meal.”
Leena adjusted the neck of her robe and stepped closer to him. Mountain help him, a whisper of blackcurrants and wild primrose wafted through his senses, sending his inner dragon into a frenzy. He schooled his features and tried not to breathe.
“I wasn’t hungry.” She toyed with her collar again. “I was thinking about what Raven said. If they find the tree, they’ll translate the scroll.”
“Exactly what we’ve been waiting for. This could be the break we need.”
The corners of her mouth lifted into a shallow smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She turned her attention to a shell in the sand. “It is great news. How long do you think it will take?”
He sighed. “Days. Weeks. Who knows? This island was created to be a prison for Circe. That means the only way off is by ship to Crete. They can’t simply open a portal between realms as they could if they were in Paragon. Once on Crete, Nathaniel can help them travel by magic, but I’m not sure how far or how fast. And once they’re there, they’ll have to find the tree—what’s left of it anyway. Even if I could estimate how long all that would take, time flows differently on Earth. Makes it impossible to guess when they’ll return.”
She sighed and turned away from him, back toward the sea, looking almost saddened. It didn’t make sense. She should have been ecstatic. She’d repeatedly mentioned her desire to return to Rogos. “Are you disappointed it won’t happen faster?”
Her brows knit as she answered him. “Not exactly.”
“Then what is it?”
“I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have left the temple.”
“What are you talking about? Do you even realize how much you’ve helped us?” Perhaps it was ill-advised to move closer to her, but he took her by the shoulders, wanting to make her believe that every word he spoke was true. “I would have never found the first orb without your help… or the scroll. You are the reason we have a fighting chance against Eleanor. We needed you, Leena. We still need you.”
A low, feeble sound came from deep in her throat, and she shook her head. “You don’t understand, Colin. I took an oath to devote myself to the goddess. Being here has distracted me from my calling.”
Was that a tear in the corner of her eye? Colin frowned. Why was this affecting her so strongly? “Leena,” he said softly, “we are called the Defenders of the Goddess for a reason. We’ve learned that Eleanor’s ultimate goal is to kill the goddess and take her place. While I have my reservations about whether that’s possible, she’s a threat to everything the goddess created and a threat to Ouros. How is it that you believe you’re not devoting yourself to the goddess when everything you’ve done these past weeks has helped us take a giant leap forward in defending her and the traditions she set in place?”
“It’s not that what you’re doing isn’t important. I know I’ve helped, and I know… You’re going to change the world, Colin.” She lifted her gaze to his, and her tears made the violet color of her eyes go electric with inner light. “It’s just… It’s just…”
He lowered his voice to a soothing whisper and swept his thumb under her eye. It came away wet. His chest sank with a deep protective instinct. What was hurting her? How could he stop it? “You can tell me anything, Leena. I’m on your side. Are you homesick? Are you afraid you’re missing something in Rogos?”
“No.” The word pinched off in her throat, her gaze darting sideways as if she couldn’t bear to look directly at him. “I… I fear that I have enjoyed my time here a bit too much.”
