“My father had a harem. One of them gave birth to me. Nobody will tell me who.” He shrugs without turning back. “Not that anybody else knows. As soon as one of the women became pregnant, they were all secluded. Nine months later, I was presented to my people. When my father died, I thought the women would give me answers. But they wouldn’t speak to me.”
“What about your sister?”
He shakes his head. “We don’t know if we have the same or different mothers.”
I keep my distance, wary of this new tension in his hunched shoulders. “What did you do when the women wouldn’t speak with you?”
“What do youthinkI did? I made sure every one of the women was cared for. Given a home. An income. A place among my people.” His eyes blaze, the fire that was settling down rising again, as if he were daring me to scoff at him. “They are all my mother.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “Maybe that was the point.”
“The point of what?”
“Of not telling you. Until you made clear your intention to look after them, maybe they feared what would happen to the rest of them. Maybe your mother feared what might happen to her.”
His fire flares. Then fades.
He stares at his suddenly cold hands. “I, too, hurt what I love.”
His flames finally flicker out.
Crouching and carefully resting my mother across my lap, I reach beneath the top fold of the dragon’s hide, sweeping my hand along it until I encounter material.
Sliding out a pair of pants, I throw them to Maxim.
Within moments, he’s pulled them on.
He reaches for my mother. “It’s time.”
I cast aside my feelings, pushing my lingering grief away, and hand her over.
Swallowing past the constriction in my throat, I make Maxim a promise. “Next time I see you, I’ll kill you.”
“Likewise.”
Without a pause, he walks away.
Sensible. He needs to move while his fire is cold.
Azul rises into the air and glides after him, all three of them disappearing into the dark.
My arms are empty, and the hollow is deep.
My journey must take me east, back to the kingdom that used to be mine.
Before Thyra came into my life, I only loved my siblings.
Now I must go into battle with my youngest brother—a brother I would have once willingly died for.
Fury tightens my fists as I turn my back on the mercy my mother represents. I abandon the loyalty Azul once showed me, and I close my heart to the hope Thyra gave me.
It’s time to unleash the monster I am.
Chapter Thirty-One
Thyra
The Alak-Teah has fallen completely silent.
