My lip pulled in a snarl I couldn’t bite back, and I stood, letting rip before I could stop myself. “This has nothing to do with my brother. Sorry I don’t enjoy looking another male in the eyes while he’s taking his pleasure. I have a job to do, and this is a waste of my time.”
Arkyn laughed menacingly. “Your job, General, is to do as I say.”
Instead of laughing out loud, I settled with imagining shifting right there and then and ripping his head from his body. “Yes, Your Highness.” I didn’t have time for this.
ONE
FAOLAN
“I’m not staying, and you can’t guilt me into it.”Every time I tried to leave, Jaxus attempted to pull me back in.
“We need you.” Jaxus wasn’t going to give this up easily, but I wouldn’t trade one prison for another.
“How quickly you forget we just did this.”
Confusion showed on his face. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve hardly been out from under the rule of Kerani for a year, and for what? Just to be forced into service here? For a King who only sees us as his property to direct according to his whim. Is that really what you want?” I knew I was beating a dead horse, but I had to try and talk some sense into him. He saw all the same problems in Kerani I did. How was he missing the similarities here? I’d thought him smarter than that.
“It’s bigger than you and me and our freedom, Faolan. It’s not just about resisting the control of the elders or the King. We are up against an army of the undead, which I’ve seen with my own two eyes. This isn’t just a threat to the twelve kingdoms. If we can’t win this war, Kerani will fall along with everything else. No one is safe. We have a duty to protect?—”
I held up my hand, cutting him off. “I feel no duty to Kerani, let alone this King. We were controlled by the same tactics athome. You traded one set of shackles for another. Can you not see it?”
“This is different.”
“If you say so.” I blew him off, and his expression told me enough, but I was done with the conversation. “I have a life here, a job which gives me freedom. Something I’ll never have taken from me again.”
“That’s not what I’m asking of you.” Jaxus’ frown deepened, and I hated doing this to him, but he was too idealistic, and it had blinded him.“I don’t want to go back to that life any more than you do.”
“So you can leave whenever you want?” I put my hands on my hips.He was delusional if he couldn’t see he was still living the exact same way, just with a different view.
His lip lifted in a snark. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s just the truth, Jaxus. You have people you care about here, so you are happy to be trapped. What isn’t fair is expecting the same of me.”
“We really need you, though. I need dragons I can count on.”
“Well, I’m unavailable. Maybe in the future.”
“What do you even have going on?” he demanded, like it was any of his damn business.
“Frankly, that’s none of your concern.” I quipped back, desperately hoping I in fact still had a job to go back to after leaving Captain Veles high and dry while also kidnapping a prisoner he was responsible for.
I needed to find the boat to make sure I didn’t ruin Captain Veles life, or worse, get him killed. The circles he worked in wouldn’t be likely to forgive and forget, and I wouldn’t blame him if he wouldn’t either. But I wanted to try. I liked working for him and being at sea. So if there still was a boat, and I still had a job on it, I was going back.
Jaxus leaned back in his chair, looking at me like a disappointed father figure.
I shuddered. “Don’t fucking do that. We are the same age.”
“Do what?” He glowered.
“Look at me like I’m some petulant youngling.”
“Maybe don’t act like one.”
“I’m going. If you need me, come find me. But only if it’s an emergency.”
“We’re already in an emergency.”
