Page 100 of The Last Slayer
“I’m entitled to voice my opinions. After all, I’ve been around since before that Trojan fracas the Greeks were always going on about.”
Before the Trojan War? Holy shit. How powerful was he?
A glass clinked. “And I’ll give you some advice, as your elder. I know you’re trying to be honorable and all that, but if you try to help that girl, you’re going to lose. It won’t change the fact that you aren’t a pure-bred demigod, and it won’t grant you the sense of liberation you think you’re going to get. Your precious sense of honor will suffocate you, and one of these days, you’ll die from it.”
“You’ve made your position very clear already. No need to repeat yourself.”
Uh-oh. Ramiel’s voice had taken on that silky tone, which meant he was trying to control his temper. Maybe he would kill his guest or something. That would call for a celebratory banquet.
“Oh, very well. Have it your way.” Alexandros sighed. “Contrary to what they say, women don’t want honor or pure blood or any of that nonsense. They only want three things from men. More money than they can possibly spend. More power than they can possibly control. And a fucking so good it leaves them panting like a bitch in heat.”
I ground my teeth. I was starting to want to get my other heartstones just so I’d be able to kill this guy.
“Alexan—”
“You think you can make yourself worthy by doing all this, this nonsense? The girl will want you if you can give her those three things, even if you did kill her uncle in cold blood.” Suddenly Alexandros laughed. “Oh no. You didn’t tell her Kyran was her uncle?”
What?
“Ramiel, Ramiel. She’s going to find out.”
If Kyran was my uncle…then Leh was his sister? My god. That made me the only living descendant of the slayer overlord line. No wonder Nathanael, Semangelaf and Apollyon were determined to kill me. The overlords were supposedly the strongest and the most powerful of the slayer lineages. But why was Ramiel trying to help me then? What was the history behind the vow?
From what I’d gathered so far, he had failed to honor it the way he was meant to. Given this new revelation about my mother’s side of the family, maybe he had been tasked with saving someone from the slayer overlord line, which at this point would basically be me. But the chances of Ramiel—or any dragonlord or lady—swearing to do anything like that were nil. I was the enemy by birth.
And what the hell did Alexandros mean by Ramiel wanting to redeem himself for killing Kyran? Kyran had been the dragonlords’ archenemy, the key figure in the Fall of the Dragons that defeated and humiliated the dragonlords. Ramiel had killed him during the Twilight of Slayers. For Christ’s sake, it’d made Ramiel a hero, not some pariah.
The only possible motivation he could have would have been his love for my mother. A cold wash of despair went through me as I put it together. Love was one thing; it flourishes and, usually, after a while, fades. But demigods live and die on their fidelity to their oaths, and the idea that Ramiel loved Leh so much that he would swear himself into an obligation like that was more proof than I needed about where his affections really lay.
Maybe I was being unreasonable. I couldn’t expect Ramiel to have never cared for anyone until he met me. He was centuries older. I had to be practical about this.
“It isn’t necessary for Ashera to know,” Ramiel said.
I started to get angry. Why wasn’t it necessary for me to know? It was about me, wasn’t it? It was killing me inside, but I continued to stay still and listen.
“Do you think she’ll care?” Alexandros said. “I’m telling you, you don’t know women. Svetlana is still with me, and I ripped out her father’s heart with my bare hands right in front of her. She was rather fond of him too.”
“A bit different, don’t you think? Svetlana won’t kill you.”
“Oh, she’s been trying for years. It does get amusing. But when I tire of it, I’ll rip her heart out too. Like father like daughter. Which will be unfortunate. We look good together.” A chair scraping and clothes rustling. “By all the gods, will that girl ever arrive? I’m so hungry I could eat an entire wyvern stewed in its own piss!”
The conversation turned to food after that, and mostly consisted of Alexandros complaining. I crept back down the hall a few yards and brought Toshi up to eye level to give him a hard look. “The fact that we overheard that conversation is going to be our secret. Right?”
The poor little dragon hesitated, but nodded when I tightened my hold on him.
“Swear it. On your father’s grave.”
It’s a powerful oath—not even Ramiel’s displeasure would be able to loosen Toshi’s tongue. The fairy dragon didn’t want to swear, but finally he nodded and I let him go.
We covered the same few yards of hall for the third time. At the doors Toshi announced, “Lady Ashera!” in a slightly wheezy voice, and they opened.
As I walked inside both men rose to their feet. So Alexandros wasn’t a
complete barbarian, but I wished he’d remained seated, so there would be another reason not to like him.
“I apologize for keeping you waiting.” It was an effort not to toss off some comment about the epic struggle I’d had selecting a suitable dress.
The room was new—at least to me—and the simplicity and coziness of the chamber was surprising. An unadorned cloth covered a round table, and three blue-green candles burned in the center. Both men had half-empty glasses of wine before them.
