I go to my knees on the bed before him, taking his hands in mine.
There’s a knot in my throat, and it tastes of treachery.
I’ve told myself a thousand times that he knows better than to expect anything else from me. But this…. How do I steel my heart against this?
“And the cauldron?” I ask, for it’s a safer topic to speak of.
“As I said, I had my suspicions. Igrainne was growing in power. I could no longer blind myself to what was going on when servants came to me, desperate for mercy.” He clasps both hands between his thighs. “Some of them were vanishing. At first it was one or two. But soon it was nightly. And Igrainne would lock herself away in her tower with her squadron of guards every night.
“I hid myself within her tower and that night her guards brought one of the servants, kicking and screaming, into her solar. They bound him to a heavy marble slab in the center of the room and Igrainne entered with a knife. She intended to cut his heart out with a knife and eat it. It’s what she’d done to all of them.”
It’s the same thing Calliope intended to do to him.
“A dragon’s heart wields its power for only so long. Igrainne’s hunger grew, but without the ability to constantly renew her magic source, her power would eventually fade. And then Prince Theramon fell to her in battle, and she consumed his power. This time it was different. A dragon prince—a king in the making—is not a mere servant. She’d finally found a source that could renew her.
“The fae flocked to her banners. The echoes of war filled the skies. I could hear the stars screaming. Hear the prophecy they’d once proclaimed echoing through the air. War would come. The world would be torn apart. Both peoples would suffer. And the dragons would die.
“Igrainne blazed like a supernova. If one more of us fell, then she would be unstoppable. I asked the goddess how I could end this madness. And she gave her answer.” He sighs. “The age of dragons must come to an end. The power of the dragon kings must fade from this world. We were to give up our magic to a cauldron forged from the metal that came from the skies. And I was to kill her and end her line.”
Arianna. The heat drains from my face.
I know how this story ends now.
Keir gives me a merciless look. “And so I did. We gave up our magic so that if Igrainne took one of us, she would no longer be able to consume our power. We marched to war and I faced her across the field.” Another hint of anguish. “I slew her. I broke her armies. A queen faded on that field and a king arose, as is the way of my people. The prophecy came to pass. One would rule over all of us, and yet he would have nothing. The High King fated to destroy his people. It was me. It was always meant to be me.”
“And Arianna? What happened to her?”
“It was what I had promised the other kings. I would end Igrainne’s line.” His voice roughens. “I swore I would do it myself. I swore…. And I went to Igrainne’s keep, and I cut down all who stood before me until finally I was at the door to her chambers. And he was there. Theomides was there, Arianna in his arms and a sword held against me. There were tears in his eyes. And she looked at me, and her little face lit up, and she called me ‘Da.’”
And he couldn’t do it.
I slide a hand down his face. “You were never going to be able to do it. I know you, Keir. You are honorable and loyal.” And you love so fiercely. I close my eyes, unable to let him see the truth in my face.
“I told him to flee,” he grates out. “I told him to take Arianna and raise her far away from these lands. To never even breathe her name. To never tell her of her mother. To protect her and love her… for me. And that was the last time I saw her. I made a promise to my people, to the goddess—and I broke it.”
I ease out a breath. How hard must it have been for him to kill Calliope? Knowing she came of Arianna’s line.
“There’s something I haven’t told you.”
Stillness creeps through me. “What?”
Keir’s look slays me. “Do you remember when Calliope came into the Court of Dreams and sought to kill me?”
The wall. Narcissa’s lifeless hands reaching out of them forever, desperate to be saved…. I close my eyes. “I’ve been trying to forget it.”
“Calliope was dragonborn, Mira. She could manipulate an Other World. She could manipulate my world and conjure monstrosities to life.” He rubs his knuckles against the sheet straining over his thigh. “Did you ever think her death came too easily?”
There’s a dull, throbbing beat in my chest. My heart, kicking like a mule. “What?”
Our eyes meet.
“She died with a single strike of my sword,” he murmurs. “Or did she? After all, the Court of Dreams is a place where one sees what I want them to see…. And Calliope has the same abilities I do. She could warp the dream.”
I shove up onto my knees. “She’s still alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” All I can feel is stone around me, my body sinking into it like quicksand. “You killed her.”
Thick lashes paint over his eyes. “Sometimes I hear whispers through the court. A mocking laugh. A pair of claws trailing over the stone walls of my palace. I thought at first it was her spirit haunting the court, but there’s no sign of anything unnatural. And yet….”
“And yet?”
A dark heated knowledge fills his amber eyes. “There’s one line of the prophecy that has always stayed with me: A queen will Awaken, and the
