"I've heard stories." I keep my voice casual, like this is idle curiosity, like I'm just making conversation while we trade blows. "About the king's blood. What it does to warriors who drink it."
Carter parries my next strike, but he's watching me differently now, a new wariness creeping into his expression. "Where'd you hear that?"
"Around. The archives." I shrug, feinting left before striking right. "Is it true?"
"Some of it, probably." He attacks with a quick combination that I deflect easily, his mind clearly not fully on the fight anymore. "The king's blood is... potent. Cursed, but powerful.Warriors who drink it become stronger, faster, better fighters in every way that matters."
"So people want it?"
"Some do." He grunts as I land a hit on his ribs, hard enough to bruise. "There's a ceremony for the inner guard—a blood oath. You drink from the king, swear yourself to him. Binds you together, makes you more than you were."
"And then?"
"And then you're stronger, more connected to the beast, better able to shift and fight." He feints left, strikes right—I block it without thinking, my body moving faster than my mind. "But there are risks."
"What kind of risks?"
"Lose yourself, if you take too much." He's breathing harder now, sweat darkening his hair, the conversation clearly unsettling him more than the sparring. "The beast gets louder. Harder to control. Some warriors get addicted to it, keep drinking until there's more beast than man left in them."
Interesting. So dragon shifters pursue contamination deliberately, seek out the power it brings even knowing the price. They want what I'm getting whether I asked for it or not.
"What about omegas?" I ask, keeping my voice light, like it's just another idle question. "What happens if an omega drinks the king's blood?"
Carter's sword dips. His eyes go wide, shock and something else—fear, maybe—flashing across his face before he can hide it.
"That's—" He stops. Resets his guard with deliberate care. "Why are you asking about omegas?"
Too direct. I pushed too hard, let my desperation show.
"Just curious." I attack before he can press further, driving him back across the yard with a flurry of strikes that leave no room for questions. "Forget I asked."
But he doesn't forget. I can see it in the way he watches me for the rest of our session, the new wariness in his eyes, the questions he's not asking. He's putting pieces together, and I don't know what picture they're making in his mind.
Stupid. I shouldn't have asked, should have found another way to get the information.
Now he's going to wonder. Maybe mention it to someone. Maybe mention it to Rhystan.
We finish the session in near silence, the easy camaraderie we've built over weeks gone quiet and strange. When Carter yields for the final time, rubbing his shoulder where I landed a particularly hard blow, he doesn't quite meet my eyes.
"Same time tomorrow?" I ask.
"Sure." He hesitates, and I can see him wrestling with something, trying to decide whether to speak. "Kess..."
"What?"
"If something's wrong—if something's happening—you'd tell someone, right? You wouldn't just..." He trails off, leaving the sentence unfinished, the concern in his voice almost worse than suspicion would be.
"I'm fine, Carter."
He doesn't look convinced. But he nods and walks away, leaving me alone in the training yard with my secrets and my black-lacquered nails and the growing certainty that I've made a mistake.
I spend the rest of the day in my chambers, thinking, turning the pieces over in my mind like stones in my palm.
Dragon shifters drink the king's blood to become stronger, accept the risk of losing themselves to the beast because the power is worth it to them. They pursue contamination deliberately, seek it out, build ceremonies around it.
But Carter didn't answer my question about omegas. Didn't even try—just got that wide-eyed look and changed the subject like I'd asked something obscene.
Which means either he doesn't know what happens to omegas who drink cursed blood, or he knows and it's bad enough that he didn't want to say it out loud.
