Page 114 of The Heart of the Dragon

"You heard your king. Move!" Kitra yelled, marching into the middle of everyone with her arrow still at the ready.

"Kitra," Isaac roared.

Everyone stared at my brother and then turned back to face me. It seemed two dragons in the room was at least one too many.

"Don't, Isaac," Kitra warned. "These men need to listen. The old King is dead. Like it or not, that makes Magnus the new king, and I don't care if they don't like it. So many have suffered at thehands of that bastard, including meandhim. He is the rightful heir, and I dare anyone now to challenge that."

Rose whirled to Kitra before I could stop her, and at the same time one of the guards moved forward with defiance shining in his eyes. I recognized him as someone who'd had trouble with orders during his training and I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought he could make some kind of move.

"Don't you dare." Rose raised her finger and shoved it in the guard's face. "Just because you know he's been poisoned doesn't mean your challenge would be remotely successful. Magnus will do the honorable thing because that's who he is, but—" She bent and pulled one of her many daggers from her boot. "You will have to get through me."

"Us," Kitra said, taking up her place next to Rose.

Both Isaac and I were about to lose our minds. If that guard so much as flinched, he was dead.

"Since when is he honorable?" the guard snorted in my direction.

"Since the spell the old king had on him was broken three months ago." Kitra raised her arrow and aimed it directly at the guard's heart, daring him to move.

It was sweet they thought I needed their protection, and that they would go to such dangerous lengths to ensure my safety.

But enough was enough.

As if on cue, the burning in my side intensified. Maybe this was worse than I thought. I dropped the King's head and grabbed for something instead to steady myself.

I heard Rose curse under her breath, and I would have laughed, if I didn't suddenly feel like I was on fire from the inside out.

I staggered sideways but couldn't make my way around the debris of bones and ash, and ended up stumbling and slamming down onto my knees. There was a commotion behind me. Or maybe it was outside. It was hard to determine. All I could feel was heat and it wasn't normal. I had a high tolerance for a lot of things, but this was something else.

"Magnus," Rose whispered as she dropped down next to me. "How bad is it?"

I blinked up and her unable to form the words I needed to say. The apology I owed. I tried anyways and managed nothing more than a grunt.

"Goddamnit," she swore, trying to move my shirt so she could see the wound better. "I need some scissors."

"No, you don't." One second, I was looking through the haze of pain at a beautiful woman, and the next Isaac and his grumpy frown filled my vision. I recoiled, hoping he would go away.

"Yeah yeah. You're not happy to see me. What's new? Even though we helped save your ass."

I tried to argue back, the words were on the tip of my tongue, until he ripped at my shirt and that slight touch against the wound sent what felt like a thousand tiny blades of heat racing through my veins.

"What the fuck?"

What? I couldn't see shit other than his face, but whatever he was looking at, he looked scared as hell.

"Goddess," he swore. "It's fucking bubbling and turning him black."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

I tried again to question what they were talking about, but coherent words refused to come.

"Shit. Shit. Shit," Isaac yelled. "Don't try to talk. You'll only make it move faster."

"What's happening? Is it bad? Is he going to die?" The frantic rapid-fire questions from Rose tore at my mind. I could taste her fear and it turned my stomach. This is not how this was supposed to end.

As my mind raced, my heart beat frantically in my ears. Louder and faster than I'd ever heard before. Which made no sense because the poison was slowing my heart, not making it race.

"You need to get him out of here," one of the guards harshly whispered. "He may be the king now, but everyone in this room is in a state of shock and not all of them are thinking clearly."

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