Brutal.
Single minded about war and determined to keep order.
You should learn to smile, big brother. It won’t break your face, and who knows? It might even let others see the wonderful unicorn I know you to be. I promise it won’t hurt you. You might even find that you like it.
How many times had Renata said those words to him?
God, how he missed her. Yes, she was aggravating as hell. Almost as challenging as his dragon.
But she’d been his little sister. Pissing him off was just part of her role. At times, he’d been convinced it was her raison d'être.
They were supposed to clash from time to time. And they had, in that way that only siblings could.
Dash sighed as he remembered their last night together. The harsh words they’d exchanged.
Why did their last encounter have to be a fight? Until Keryna had come into Renata’s life, they’d seldom ever clashed over anything. And then, only over the fact that he’d been overprotective. Which he admitted freely. He was an overprotective asshole where his sister was concerned. He had stifled her. That was very much true.
Because he’d been so afraid of something happening to her. Of having to live out the rest of his life knowing that he’d failed to keep her safe.
And as they walked, Dash kept seeing his sister’s body in his mind. The way Renata had been left by the old ruins from the Unicorn-Dragon Wars as if she was nothing when she’d been everything to him.
How could anyone destroy such a beautiful soul?
“Was this why she died?”
“What?”
He hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud. He started to ignore the dragon, but he was too upset. “The wand I’m after belonged to my sister. She ran away to join Lorencian rebels againstQueen Meara after I refused to allow her any troops to donate to their cause. She wanted to be a commander and I didn’t want her to see the ugliness of battle. I just wanted to protect her.”
Tanis sucked her breath in sharply as she realized who he was talking about. “Princess Renata.”
He inclined his head to her.
“I’m so sorry.” While everyone called him a monster, Renata was said to be the noblest of creatures. Kind-hearted and generous, she was celebrated for her beauty and charity. “She was planning to fight with rebels?”
He let out a bitter laugh. “Exactly. It wasn’t like her. But she’d been talked into it by her puerile advisor who convinced her what a great idea suicide would be.” Then he screwed up his face as he mimicked Keryna’s words and voice. “Your brother won’t let you have any fun... You’re grown... You can do what you want... I wouldn’t let him dictate my life.Fucking idiot bitch.”
His eyes flared. “Why couldn’t my sister see through her? I will never understand it. She was a jealous dart donkey, who wanted what Renata had. All she did was insult Renata and try to move in on her life. She was always wearing her dresses and jewelry. Trying to be Renata. It was nauseating.”
Tanis understood that a lot better than she wanted to. There were plenty of courtiers in her father’s court who’d done similar things. Or worse, if they couldn’t have what they wanted, then they sought to tear it all down.
Anything to destroy the life of the person they envied and wanted to be.
It was terrible, and it was why she’d happily withdrawn from court life.
But the one thing that didn’t make sense...“Why did either of them want you to fight with centaurian rebels?”
He shrugged. “No idea. I had no intention of getting involved in centaur politics.”
She couldn’t blame him for that. TheThassalians and Licordians had been at war for even longer than her race and his. Had Dash not forged a treaty with Queen Meara when he took the throne, they’d probably still be fighting it.
The only other time in their history that she knew of a truce had been years ago, when Dash’s father had sent hostages to Meara as a guarantee his army would stop fighting hers.
Tanis had been a hatchling at the time. But she remembered the horror stories of the battles and wars. Several kingdoms, including her own, had sent noble hostages, mostly children to Meara as an assurance that there would be no more attacks on Thassalia. In turn, Meara had sent her own children and other hostages to them as a guarantee that she’d abide by the ceasefire.
What they hadn’t counted on was that Meara would use the hostages sent to her as a way to thin the heirs and nobles of her enemies. She hadn’t cared what they’d done to her own children or relatives. All that mattered was her ego and ambition.
Meara had abused, then slaughtered her hostages. And after she’d done her damage and lulled the kingdoms into a false sense of peace, she’d attacked, intending to destroy them and become High Queen.
