Page 60 of Zar

Everyone looked in the direction Therius indicated and Zar saw what his brother was picking up on. “Larz. He’s watching.”

“Where the hell is Naxon? He hides like a coward,” Zadoc ground out.

Zar scanned the woods once more before he finally saw it. It was faint and high up, as if he were perched in a tree, watching. “About a hundred yards to the right of Larz,” he said, keeping his voice quiet.

Kade said a few choice words before asking, “What the hell is that bastard waiting on?”

“For me to rush to Callie’s side,” Zar answered. “He anticipated I’d be too lost in my creature to think rationally. I believe he hoped to take us both out at once.”

Dyre snorted. “He thought wrong. Your creature is every bit as protective of Callie. He would not harm her.”

Zar replaced his daggers, then reached over his shoulder to the Sword he had strapped on his back. He pulled it out and slammed it into the ground in front of him. “You wanted my attention, Naxon,” he yelled loud enough that he was sure Naxon would hear. “I’m here.”

Venn cursed. “Why isn’t she moving?”

It was Flare who answered, since Zar’s focus was on Naxon and Larz. “She’s been drugged. A paralyzing agent I suspect. It must have been the champagne.”

“The champagne Larz delivered,” Dyre answered. “I trusted him.”

Zar would not let Dyre take the blame for what happened to Callie. That burden was his alone bear. “We all did, my friend.”

Suddenly movement from the treetops caught all their attention and Zar watched as Naxon flew across the clearing and landed on the other side of Callie. He’d put her body between them.

Zar’s wings flexed and contracted as he stared at the man who held so much contempt for him that he would dare take his ofelia, his heart. “You wanted me, Naxon, yet you hide behind an earth-born female. Have you no honor left at all?”

The hatred on Naxon’s face was clear for all to witness when he spat out, “Any honor I had was taken from me the day your father threw away my mother and I.”

Zar frowned, confused by Naxon’s words. “What does King Arlias have to do with this?”

He grinned, but to Zar it seemed off. Now he understood what Callie had meant when she said something wasn’t right about Naxon. He did appear unhinged. How had he never noticed it before?

“You really don’t know, do you?” He crossed his arms over his chest, as if they were sitting down having a nice chat. “I suppose I’m not surprised he never told you. Wouldn’t want anything to tarnish his perfect royal name.”

Zar noticed Callie move her hand. The drugs were wearing off. He needed to stall a little longer. “I am well aware that my father wasn’t perfect. But you would punish my ofelia for his mistakes? How does that make sense?”

He glanced down and his grin fell. “It isn’t her that I have a problem with, Zar. It’s you.”

“Obviously, but why?”

“You were never curious about my connection to Queen Lyria? We formed an alliance against you. It was right after the death of our mother, Mordana.”

“Our mother?”

Naxon pinned him with an ice-cold stare. “Yes. Can you guess who my father was?”

Zar searched his face and the truth hit him like a sledgehammer. “King Arlias,” he hissed.

Kade cursed. “That’s not possible.”

Naxon glared at Kade. “On the day I was born your precious king told my mother that she should smother me in my sleep because it would be better than bringing a bastard into the world. She begged him to claim her as his ofelia. He laughed at her. Laughed!”

Naxon spoke the truth. Zar could see it in his eyes. The pain of knowing your own father wanted you dead would have been agony. Living with that knowledge had obviously twisted Naxon into the creature Zar saw before him. “If what you say is true, then King Arlias wasn’t the honorable man I thought he was but punishing Callie for his mistakes will not change the past.”

His wings stretched wide as he shouted, “I should’ve been king upon his death. You sit on my throne and now I will take everything from you!”

Zar braced himself when Naxon rushed forward, slamming into him with enough force to knock him back a few feet. He spared Callie a quick glance and saw her attempt to get up. She was alive, and the hour of Naxon’s execution had arrived. Zar lifted his sword from the ground and shoved it into the man’s stomach, then pushed it upward. The six-inch-wide gash had Naxon stumbling. He threw a dagger at Zar’s head. He managed to dodge it and it landed several feet to the left. The battle was on.

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