Page 54 of The Flame King's Queen

He turns and pushes his way through the crowd as everyone jeers at him. So that’s how he wants things to be for these Dragon Games. Not a friendly competition to bring out the best in the dragonriders, but a struggle for domination between two flares.

With the events revealed, the crowd begins to dissipate, and I struggle to hide my burning temper as much as I am able. I can feel the other dragons and riders on my territory, and it’s taking all my willpower not to leap onto Scourge and drive them out of Lenhale.

Isavelle joins my side and loops her arm through mine. I give her a smile and a swift kiss, but my insides are boiling.

“Zabriel? My father and sister have arrived.”

I don’t take in what she’s saying, and when I turn to her family, I must glare so fiercely because her father and sister both flinch. I take a breath and make myself relax. “Greetings. We’re so glad you’ve come for the celebration. You’re most welcome here.”

“The dragons are noisy today,” Anise says, peering past me toward the dragongrounds.

“Several wild dragons from the outskirts have arrived unexpectedly to compete in the Dragon Games. They’re still settling in,” I explain.

“Unexpectedly and aggressively arrived,” Isavelle adds.

“I hope you will be safe, Isavelle. Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to compete in the games?” her father asks.

She rests her hand on her belly. “I will be safe, Dad. I have Zabriel, Scourge, Esmeral, and all the dragonriders in Maledin to protect me.”

“Which events will you enter, Isavelle,” Anise asks her excitedly. “There are so many, and I have no clue what all the names mean. Shall we go and look at the board?”

The two young women disappear together, and Isavelle’s father and I stand side by side, admittedly a little awkwardly. I wouldn’t say that he dislikes me, but he hasn’t had many reasons to feel much confidence in me as a husband or father of her children. I’m the reason why she’s here in the capital and not safely at home with him. My people are the reason his wife and son are dead.

He watches Isavelle and Anise thread through the crowd and examine the board. “She was my little girl, then the Brethren took her away, and now she’s to be queen and has a baby on the way. I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to catch my breath. I thought one day I’d give her away.”

“Give her away?” I ask, puzzled.

“On her wedding day, a father walks his daughter down the aisle of the church to her husband’s side. But I suppose she’s already married, according to Maledinni customs.”

“Isavelle will walk through the Great Hall and up to the thrones where I will be waiting for her. I’m sure it would please her to have you by her side. It would please me as well.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t have to say that. You have your own traditions and Isavelle’s coronation is to become the Maledinni queen.”

“I enjoy Isavelle’s traditions as much as my own. She has taught me to sayI love you.”

“Is love not part of Maledinni culture?”

“It is, but the way we express it is more abstract. I like the direct human way as well. Isavelle isn’t only the Maledinni queen. She’s the human queen, the Omega queen, and the witch queen. It’s a lot for anyone.” I gaze across the cavernous room at her and smile as I watch her with her sister. “But I know she can do it.”

“Even when she was a baby, and even though she was my firstborn, I knew there was something different about Isavelle. She was impatient to get somewhere, and now I know where that is.” He thinks for a moment. “If Isavelle wishes it, I will happily be part of her coronation.”

On the eve of Isavelle’s coronation, the flare takes to the night sky and fills the darkness with fire, to the delight of the entirety of Lenhale watching below. Some dragons paint the skies with long streamers of dragonfire. Others shoot a multitude of sparks into the air which shimmer to the ground. Against the backdrop of fiery lights, dragons swoop, roll, and twist for the delight of the onlookers below.

Isavelle and I stand on the battlements with the other residents of the castle, watching the show, and the fiery lights paint my queen’s face and dance in her eyes.

“I can’t wait for the Dragon Games to begin,” she tells me excitedly.

“Just look at the sky. The Dragon Games have already begun. After your coronation tomorrow, the first event will be held, and I will show my queen just what Scourge and I are capable of.”

She traces my lips with a finger. “So this is not an event for a little dragon and a pregnant queen?”

I nip at her finger. “It is not. This is an event for Alpha dragons and their riders, and any Betas who feel they can keep up. But don’t worry, my queen. There will be plenty of events for you and Esmeral to enter, and you will have the advantage.”

“Then I will proudly cheer on my king,” she tells me.

We go to bed, and I hold my queen in my arms, anticipating the moment I will finally see her crowned.

A group of Temple Maidens collect Isavelle from our bed just after dawn to take her to the Flame Temple to get ready. They have to peel her from my arms as I plant kiss after kiss on her lips, her throat, her belly.

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