Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 138(@300wpm)
“Jesus, Giselle.”
I tear my eyes away from the window when I realize I’ve been watching his sculpted ass as he walks away.
Eight
FIRST
Insolent. Ungrateful. I’m offering her the chance to be mother to a new race, Queen of the entire—
But does she thank me? Does she bow and scrape like she ought to?
No, she spits in my face.
My face flames even remembering the insult.
My mother would have had her head chopped off.
But Mother is gone.
I come across a herd of deer in the scrub brush pasture. Giselle thinks she’s going to starve? I am her provider and I will force feed her if I have to.
Mother’s face floats across my mind again and I open my mouth and release the fires of hell from within. The buck has no chance.
Failure.
The word pings through my head along with mother’s face. She accused me of it often enough.
“How dare you be such a failure? You are my son and the son of the King. One of the last live births among the Dragon. And yet you humiliate me by bringing home second best marks from Academy and third best trophy in military exercises. Do you know how the other Dragon mothers are sniggering at me?”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I made a mistake on my maths, and my wing got tangled on the third turn—”
The blow to my face wasn’t unexpected. I knew as soon as I received my marks and trophy, I wouldn’t come out of this meeting with my mother unscathed.
“Don’t give me your pathetic excuses. I know why this has happened. It’s that low caste Baker boy you’ve been spending time with. Well, no more.”
My eyes flew wide. “No, please. Not Peotr. He’s my best friend! I’ll study harder. Twice as hard, I promise!”
“Are you crying?” My mother looked down at me in disgust. But then she perched down so she was at eye-level with me on my knees.
“Do you love me?”
I nodded fervently.
“Well, if you love me, then you will never see that boy again.”
I release my fire and look down at the animal I have roasted. It is little more than charred bone now, I released my furious fires upon it for so long.
I turn away and stare out at the sky, breathing out harshly, the steam of my breath fogging the cool night air.
That was Mother’s familiar tune throughout my life—if you love me, you’ll do this or that. Like my love was always being tested and I had to prove it.
And in that final test?
After she’d killed my father and stood there in front of the assembly, ready to kill my brother, going so far as to put the swords in my hands and ordering me to do the deed…
Who can say that even that would have satisfied her? I was never enough. The test of loyalty never ended. Right up until the end and my moment of madness that cost my own mother her life.
The moment of madness where I finally told the truth.
And proved her right—I was the ultimate failure as a son.
I scrub angrily at my cheeks. I can’t change the past. But I still remember the lessons she fought so hard to teach me. Sentimentality is for the weak.
I will soon be the greatest king, greater even than she could ever imagine.
And then I turn to stalk another deer, leaping into flight and then taking it as it flees, no match for me.
Nine
GISELLE
He comes back in the house an hour later and throws a hunk of grilled steak on the table. I’ll be honest. It smells amazing.
But then I take one look at First and my stomach turns. He’s covered in blood.
“What the hell happened?” I jump to my feet. “Are you okay?”
“What?”
“The blood!”
Only then does First looked down at himself. Then he laughs. It is just from my kill. He gestures back at the steak. And any appetite I had is officially gone.
“Wait, you mean you just went out and… And slaughtered that thing?”
“Now you don’t have to starve.”
My hand shoots to my stomach and I back away. “Sorry, but I can’t.”
His eyes narrow, all the more menacing now that his face is specked with blood. “Eat,” he commands in a voice that brooks no argument.
“No, thank you.”
He stalks toward me in that predatory way of his. “I said, eat!”
“I’m a vegetarian!” I say, lifting up my hands. It’s the truth, too. Well, I haven’t been one before now, but after this, I’m definitely a vegetarian.
“Then I guess you will starve!” he roars in my face and I cower back, eyes closed, shivering at his rage.
The next second, though, he’s gone again, and moments later I hear the swoop, swoop, swoop that means he’s really gone.
I breathe out and flop back on the couch, but only for a moment.
It’s a good thing if I keep driving him away from the cabin. Because the next second, I’m up and reaching for the heavy bookend.