Darius ran a hand over his face, wincing at the still-bleeding cut on his cheek. He frowned, as if he hadn’t expected the wound to be there. Was his rate of healing slowing down? Was there an end to his power? Was fatigue finally fraying his magic?
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Darius said, tone clipped with impatience. His easy arrogance was gone. Hewasworried about something. “You and your wife can surrender to me.”
Larylis scoffed. “And sacrifice our son?”
“No. Your wife can relinquish her role as regent and turn it over to me. I will oversee the boy’s reign as Morkara and give you and his mother positions in my new government. You will be like a duke and duchess of the human world, second only to me and your son. It’s better than any treatment you’ll get from the Elvyn.”
Larylis said nothing, simply appraised Darius through slitted lids.
“You know I’m right,” Darius said.
“I know I can’t trust you.” Larylis’ gaze flicked deeper down the tunnel where slithering motion approached. An orange light began to grow, shifting the aqua hues around them. Larylis pressed himself close to the cave wall just as the dragon released a blast of flame toward Darius. Larylis squeezed his eyes shut as heat seared his face.
The flame cut off.
Larylis opened his eyes to find Darius down the tunnel, his sword dripping blood. The dragon’s body slumped to the cave floor, his detached head a few feet away. Tiny dragons crawled up and down the walls, hissing and screeching, but they made no move to get any closer to Darius.
“That’s unfortunate,” Darius muttered. “I have no intention of making an enemy of the dragons, as I’ll soon be their master. I doubt the Morkara’s mother wants to see me kill more of them either.” He raised his voice at the last part, letting it carry down the tunnels.
Larylis pushed off the wall and charged forward—
Darius disappeared.
Then his voice, too close to Larylis.
“I’ll have to try something else,” Darius said from behind him. He sliced open Larylis’ forearm, forcing him to drop his sword. Before he could retrieve it or launch away, Darius’ blade came to Larylis’ throat. Still behind him, Darius gripped his shoulder tightly. “Don’t move.”
Larylis froze.
One of Darius’ soldiers emerged from the rear tunnel—the man with the swollen eye. He now had a singed left arm and burns up one side of his neck. Yet his other arm still held a sword. He exchanged a stiff nod with his master.
“Walk,” Darius demanded of Larylis.
Larylis kept his upper body still as the three started off. They took only a few steps before their surroundings changed slightly. In a single heartbeat, they were farther down the tunnel, the aqua bioluminescence brighter and more condensed.
“I have your husband, Queen Mareleau,” Darius said. There was a slight quaver in his voice that suggested Larylis had been right. His strength was waning. He was growing desperate. “I will give your husband just a few more breaths before I cleave his head from his body. After that, I’ll do the same to every dragon in these godsforsaken caves—”
“Don’t!” Mareleau’s voice rang out from a short distance away. The panic in her tone was like a knife to Larylis’ heart. “Don’t hurt him, please!”
Darius and the soldier exchanged another nod, and the other man took Darius’ place as Larylis’ captor. It took all Larylis’ restraint not to act. Not to tilt his head and slam it into the soldier’s nose before taking his sword. The man was wounded enough to give Larylis a fighting chance.
But that hadn’t been part of Mareleau’s plan. Not that getting captured had been either…
“Then come to me now,” Darius said. “Surrender to me and you, your husband, and your son can live.”
“Don’t believe him!” Larylis ground out.
Silence echoed back. Then footsteps. They grew nearer and nearer with every thundering beat of Larylis’ heart.
“Don’t, Mare,” Larylis called. “Go back!”
She didn’t pay his words any heed. Instead, she emerged from the cavern just ahead, Ferrah behind her, their son in her arms. She trembled from head to toe. “I surrender.”
* * *
Tears poureddown Mareleau’s cheeks as she approached her enemy. She’d never seen him before, but she knew the gray-haired man was Darius. Her nemesis. Larylis was at the mercy of another man’s blade.
Her shoulders quivered, arms convulsing as she wrapped them tighter around Noah’s sling. A sob broke from her lips. “Don’t hurt him, please! I’ll do anything.”
