Draven had never ridden on the back of the Rhamocour before. It was a new sensation, feeling the wind on his scalp and wrapping around his body as the dragon’s wings cut into the air. He wondered if this was how Aydra felt when she would ride on the Aenean Orel.
The Rhamocour circled the kingdom. He watched people running in the streets, the same people he’d seen stone his love earlier in the day. An anger pulsed through him that he could not control, and he sent the fire bellow through the horn.
Her body heated beneath him, and purple flames filled the streets.
He had the Rhamocour drop him into the Throne Room after a few more turns around the kingdom.
His feet hit the stone floor. Arbina’s tree was blackened where Aydra had burned against it earlier. He brought the horn to his mouth—
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Arbina’s scream echoed off the Throne Room pillars. Draven tightened his fist around the horn, and he glared back at her.
“You’re the reason for all this,” he seethed. “The reason your children have all betrayed one another. The reason the love of my life had to die on the orders of her own brother’s… all because she loved me. All because you—you decided to take out your hatred for my giver on your own daughters.” A tear slipped down his face, and he swallowed hard.“How could you?”
Arbina’s arms wrapped around her chest, and she stared haughtily at him from the middle of her pool. “My daughters have never lived up to their full potentials. They—”
“Never lived up…” Draven shook his head at her, not believing what she was saying. “You arejealousof them. Of their strength. Of their freedom. So you had your sons torture them into thinking they were less than what they were.” He turned around full towards her as the Rhamocour’s cry filled the air, and a small smile spread on his lips. “I bet Aydra scared you senseless.”
Arbina’s nostrils flared. “Aydra should have learned her place.”
“What to sit on the throne as nothing more than a trophy? An accessory?” His jaw tightened, and his heart thudded in his chest. “She could have ruled over the entire Echelon.”
“Then maybe you should have kept your hands off her.”
“I loved her!” he cried out. His knees hit the rock floor at the edge of her pool, and his voice caught in his throat. “I loved her.” His words were barely a breath as the tears filled his eyes again. He could see Aydra’s face reflected back to him in the water, her smiling eyes…
As his hand clenched around the horn again, and he felt the emptiness of her death pour through him, Arbina’s slow laugh consumed his ears, and his body began to shake.
“You poor,poor,dear…” she mocked, now coming closer to him.
The Rhamocour circled the room.
“Begging for her life… You look just as your giver did before I had Haerland curse him.”
His eyes shot up to meet hers. “What?”
Arbina’s wicked smile filled her face. “He thought he could get away with what he did to me. With betraying our love for the love of his pitiful night creatures… Imagine my glee when Haerland caught us during an argument and took my side.”
Draven slowly stood to his feet, his heartbeat pulsating in his ears at what he was hearing. “Everything you’ve ever gifted your daughters with… the hearing of creatures, the child she could bear with only a Venari… all because he didn’t love you? For revenge? You gave two just so you could use your daughter as apawn?”
She gave him a deliberate once over, chin rising high. “And I will continue to do so until he is nothing more than a shriveled skeleton in the forest.”
Draven lunged.
—The phoenix shrouded around his body just as his skin grazed the poisoned waters. He was thrown back onto the stone floor, head hitting the steps.
“YOU!” he heard Arbina shout.
The phoenix landed at his feet and straightened, its black flames and smoke enveloping the floor. Draven looked through the haze of his stumble, seeing Arbina’s face paled at the sight of the black phoenix in her room.
“Where did she come from?How—how is she here?!” Arbina shouted, eyes flickering to Draven, but hardly leaving the phoenix. Draven had expected this reaction from Arbina. Of her seeing her mother Sun in her creature form.
The Rhamocour’s talons clenched onto the gallery above the Throne Room. The stone crumbled beneath its weight.
Draven stood deliberately to his feet, his hand trembling as he moved beside the phoenix, and the great bird nudged his arm. Draven met her searing amber eyes, and she gave him a slow blink. He took her nudge as a sign of her approving his deed, and his stomach knotted. He gradually brought the horn to his lips once more. Arbina continued to shout and scream, but he ignored her as she nearly stumbled in her own waters.
“Don’t you dare!”
