His eyes fill with sadness. “Girls need their mother, and I was a poor substitute. Tysanthia never recovered from losing our parents. She grew weak and sickly. And she suffered terrors that kept her from sleep.” He shakes his head. “When Tysanthia had but five and ten, she took her own life. She returned to our family home and drowned herself in the very pond where the wyvern tried to kill me.”
I gasp. “That must have been so painful for you.” I mentally calculate his age, at that time. Based on what he said earlier, he would have been about five and twenty, not much older than Tynan and I am now.
“It was a very long time ago.” His fingers lightly trail over my arm. “Over the centuries I was trapped in dragon form, my body may not have aged, but the years still passed. I’ve come to accept that Tysanthia was never meant to be queen.”
Cupping my chin, he smiles. “Tysanthia wasn’t strong. Not like you.” He brushes some hairs behind my ear. “You grew up without a mother, and yet you became strong, worthy of becoming a queen.”
My chest swells as I absorb his words, but even if I accept his compliment, I couldn’t begin to have the strength of a dragon. And while I may have the title, I am not a real dragon queen. I want to ask why Surath’s not the queen, but I’m also not sure I want to hear the answer.
Zogar is driven by doing what’s right, and yet somehow he claimed his sister’s crown. “And Surath?” I ask softly, with no accusation.
“After Tysanthia’s death, Surath grew rebellious.” His expression turns sad again. “I did my best to keep her safe, to keep her hidden from our aunt. To prepare her to be queen. But she acted out. She blamed me for Tysanthia’s death.” He shakes his head. “Whatever I asked of her, Surath did the opposite.”
“That sounds like Surath.”
A slight grin catches the edge of his lips. “On the day Surath turned six and ten, she ran off with Xendus, and they married.” His eyes narrow. “She was far too young for marriage. Plus, she was meant to be queen! She wasn’t free to marry just any man. There were factors beyond attraction to consider.” He growls, deep in his chest.
“She was young,” he continues. “She was grieving, but Xendus knew better, and I wanted to kill him. He knew the consequences of his actions. He knew their marriage damaged her chance of ever becoming our sovereign.”
“Why?”
Shifting me in his arms, he looks directly into my eyes for the first time since he nearly drowned. “Do you remember the day we wed?”
I nod and heat flames in my belly. “How could I forget?”
“The marriage between a future dragon queen and her mate is sacred, just as our marriage was.”
I nod, wishing I could better understand.
“Because of our unusual circumstances—” a smile twitches over his lips “—our marriage didn’t follow every one of the sacred traditions, but I did the best that I could.” He presses a soft kiss against my forehead. “And it worked. The ceremony forged our marriage bond even more strongly than I expected, given my makeshift compromises and the lack of witnesses to our consummation.”
“Witnesses to our consummation?” Surely, he misspoke. “There were supposed to be witnesses?To that part?”
He nods. “The entire court is meant to bear witness to the consummation ceremony between a sovereign and her—or his—mate.”
I’m speechless. It was bad enough when Zogar drilled me in full view of Tynan and Saxon. I can’t even imagine being bound to that throne, with strangers watching him penetrate me for the very first time. My mind flashes to the women in Lucian’s club, and heat rises in my cheeks once again.
“Xendus and Surath eloped,” Zogar continues. “They ran off, spoke their vows, and didn’t return for over five years. I searched everywhere.” He shakes his head. “And when they did come back, she acted as if her actions were nothing.”
“She was very young when they married.”
He growls. “Too young. I held Xendus responsible. He was seven and twenty when they wed. I challenged him to a death battle, but Surath stopped me. She told me that if I spared her husband’s life, she’d support my ascension to the throne, once our aunt died.”
“That’show you became king.” I’m so relieved to hear that he didn’t fight his sister for the crown or directly steal it.
“There was more to it than that,” Zogar says. “When my aunt died, I was forced to battle the champion put forward by my aunt’s chosen successor. Because we lived far from court, I lacked many battle skills, but Xendus and I had fought many times.”
“You and Xendus fought? Even after Surath’s—” I don’t want to say the word sacrifice. But that’s what Surath did. She sacrificed her claim to the throne for her brother, and for her husband, for her marriage. This deepens my understanding of Surath. It explains her strong sense of pride, and also her pent-up anger.
“Xendus and I never tried tokilleach other—not really,” Zogar continues. “I promised Surath that I wouldn’t kill her husband, and…” He shrugs.
“It’s possible that Surath extracted a similar promise from Xendus. In any case, I’m grateful for our many battles. My fights with Xendus, both in human and dragon form, made usbothstronger, more skilled in battle. He prepared me to take on the usurper’s champion. And it helped us work out our resentment toward each other.”
I nod, although I’ll never understand why males think hurting each other is an acceptable way to resolve conflict.
“Now, my wife.” Zogar’s fingers stroke down my cheek as he gazes intently into my eyes. “If you’re done grilling me with questions?—”
I open my mouth to object, but he touches my lips with his finger, so I stop.
