His eyes snapped open, their intensity making her want to cower. “I can no’,” he said tightly and dropped his hands from her.
Lily missed his touch instantly. It was like she went through withdrawal after being so near to him. His pain, however, was visible. Whether she believed him or not, he believed it. “Why? Why can’t you show me?”
Rhys paced away from her. He was silent for several moments until he stopped before her, his face set in hard lines. “Listen verra carefully. What I’m about to tell you isna told to humans unless they’re a mate.”
“A mate?”
He waved away her words. “Aye. The females who marry one of us. I’ll get to that in a moment. Whatever I tell you here can never be spoken to others.”
“All right.” Lily was intrigued, curious.
“The dragons were the first to rule this realm. We’ve been here since the beginning of time.” He glanced at the sky, a serene smile on his face as he delved into his memories. “Imagine looking up and seeing dozens of dragons in the sky.” He looked back at her, sadness filling his aqua ringed dark blue eyes. “We dragons were numerous with the smallest the size of an eagle and the largest bigger than you can fathom. Each species of dragon was designated a color, and within each color was a king. The strongest dragons, the ones with the most magic of that color were chosen as kings.”
Lily was enraptured by his tale and the way the emotions drifted across his face as he spoke. There was joy and delight, but it was tinged with sorrow and gloom.
“I was King of the Yellows,” Rhys continued. “The Yellows were daredevils, willing to fly higher than others, and laugh in danger’s face. The dragon world was structured so that no one dragon faction could rule the others. Which is why there is a King of Kings.”
In her mind, Rhys’s words were coming to life, creating a place that seemed fantastical and beautiful, vivid and magnificent.
“Out of all the Kings, only the most powerful could be King of Kings. Most times there’s a fight to the death to rule. Other times, the only one who could challenge decides not to.”
“Doesn’t everyone want to be King of Kings?” she asked.
Rhys shook his head. “I considered it for a time, but I doona have the patience to keep everyone else in line.”
“So the King of Kings rules the Kings?”
“He likes to think so,” Rhys said with a flattening of lips. “But, aye, in a way, he does. His decisions are for the dragons as a whole instead of mine which are thinking of only the Yellows.”
“What happened to change everything?” she asked.
Rhys looked away to the water. “Humans. No longer were we the only beings on this realm. Suddenly we had to share this planet. In response, every King was given the ability to shift to human form so we could communicate with the mortals. We were given the duty to protect no’ just this realm, but the dragons and humans living here.”
Lily had a feeling the tale was about to take a bad turn.
“For a time”—he turned back to her—“everything was fine. Some Kings took mortal females as their lovers, and some even as their mates. Things couldn’t have been better. Until a female decided to betray a King.”
Lily licked her lips and ignored the raindrops she felt. “Were you the King?”
“Nay. His name is Ulrik. He was the only one who could’ve challenged Con to be King of Kings, but he chose no’ to. He was happy with his duties and about to ask his female to become his mate.”
“Why would she betray Ulrik? Did he mistreat her?”
Rhys shook his head of dark brown hair, a lock falling into his eyes. He shoved it back by running his hand through his hair. “Ulrik never mistreated anyone.”
“Then she had no reason to betray him.” Lily couldn’t believe that she was talking as if she now accepted Rhys’s tale, but in fact, it was hard not to.
Rhys looked at his hands. “None of us know why she betrayed him, even all these millennia later.”
“You didn’t ask? I’d have wanted to know.”
“The female was going to start a war between us and the humans, and Con wanted to stop it. As soon as we discovered what the female was about, Con sent Ulrik on a mission, and every Dragon King descended upon her, sinking our swords into her.”
Lily was astounded at such an action. “You killed her?”
“In the hopes that whatever war she wanted to start would never come to fruition.”
“And?”
“And it all went to hell.” Rhys kicked at a river rock. “Ulrik returned and discovered what we’d done. He was … irate. His anger was ferocious, his rage vicious. He was enraged that he didna have a chance to talk to his woman, and that we’d killed her. That savageness found an outlet with the humans. Ulrik felt so betrayed by both his lover and the other Dragon Kings that he sought revenge on the very species who wanted the war—the humans.”