Page 51 of Merciless Is My Crown

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you before now. I thought about you, Zeph. Every second of every day.” I buried my face in his neck and let every shudder flow through me as if his pain were my own. “We’re getting you off this island.”

Then my sobs turned to teary laughter, anger turned to relief, and we held each other until he finally pulled away, some clarity in those dark eyes as they scanned me over as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“What the fuck happened to your eyes?” he snarled, and everything shrank down to that consuming fury in his voice, his fiery breath fogging the air between us. He dragged his blood caked hand gently down my face, broken nails catching in my hair.

“It doesn’t matter now.” I leaned into the cradle of his palm. “None of that matters.”

“It was her, wasn’t it? Punishment…or revenge.” Zephryn’s body shook with anger. “I know it was her, Torin. And for hurting you…I will rip her to pieces.”

The mountain demons stalking us fled when they caught Zephryn’s scent, turning and scampering away from the threat, back up the steep cliffside. From the sheer number of bones in his den, I expected enough had slipped through over the years, that reputation was well-earned.

“We’ll talk about this later. For now, we have to get off this island.” I slowly took his hand. Still beautiful, even with those too long nails, sharpened down to points. “We’ll catch you up on everything. I swear.”

Zephryn’s eyes flicked over my shoulder, narrowing. “Simon. You look the same.” He sneered the last word, almost as if he held that against him.

“Don’t. We’ve all changed, Zeph,” I corrected him gently. “Some of us don’t show our scars on the outside.”

He studied my face again, his jaw clenching before he dragged his murky stare over to Zor and Raz. “And them?”

“Zorander Vayle and Raziel. Allies in the war against the kings and the Oracle. They brought us here, and they’ll fly us out. First to Storm Watch, then to Caladrius, then somewhere safe where we’ll rendezvous with the rest of our…friends.”

He blinked and suddenly his eyes cleared to their usual midnight black, and I choked back my sigh of relief. That was his third eyelid, meant to keep the wind out when he flew. Thank the gods for that.

“We’re safe enough now that I’m free.” That commanding snarl was all alpha male, bitter and proud and unbroken, and still…a shadow of the male I’d known.

But Zephryn’s expression shifted from rage to shocked despair when he beheld what had become of his once-great kingdom, the skeletons of his kin littering the crater floor, the creeping demons poised above us like a gathering flock of carrion crows.

Darkhold was ruined, just as the Oracle promised.

His people dead, just as she’d planned.

The once-great empire of Darkhold would never rise from these ashes because there was only one dragon left. A king without a kingdom. Without a people.

“There is nothing left, Zephryn,” I explained, his eyes catching on mine, a flicker of helpless anger simmering in his gaze before he looked away. “But we could build something new now that the magic has returned. When you see what happened in Caladrius…” I stopped right there. This devastation could not be undone and telling him of Calarius’s resurgence would only rub salt in fresh wounds.

Thunder boomed in the distance, echoing off the mountains and sending the demons scattering. “We have to be off this rock before nightfall,” Zorander muttered, scanning the clouds gathering above us. “Or we’ll be fighting our way out in the dark.”

“Afraid?” Zeph murmured.

“Yes, I am. You would be, too, if you knew what we went through to come here. What she went through.” Zorander’s voice took on a vicious tone, harsh and brutal and unrelenting.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. Zorander Vayle defending me was surely the last thing I’d expected to hear today, and he wasn’t done.

“Torin would have crawled here on her hands and knees to save you, and you’re acting like a proud fool. Can you travel?” Zor’s gaze traced down Zeph’s ruined body and landed on his twisted leg. “Can you shift?”

“Not in two hundred years.”

“This place is leaching away our magic, but Raz will do what he can, and then we’ll see how far we get tonight. So long as it’s off this rock, I’ll call that a win.”

As if to mock us, a cold, steady rain started to fall as Zeph painfully lowered himself onto the ledge, as if the marrow in his bones ached. He bared his teeth at Raziel, and I took his arm, brushing my fingers over the horrible raised scars, his once-tan skin as white as bone.

“Raziel will heal him enough for us to reach Storm Watch. He’s a good battlefield healer, Zeph. One of the best.” I met Raziel’s eyes, giving him a subtle nod as Simon braced his hands on Zeph’s shoulders to pin him down.

Raziel’s dark eyes shone with regret, magic crackling at his fingertips as he leaned in and grasped Zephryn’s twisted ankle.

“Not going to lie, dragon, this is going to hurt like a motherfucker.”

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