He was right. She should have stood by him, instead of surrendering him for something she’d known even then was wrong.
And that just made her all the angrier. Not at him, but at herself… which she took out on him for making her feel this way, for reminding her of the shame she bore for her own part in the travesty of his wrongful trial and punishment.
“I hate you! If not for my children, I wouldn’t be here.”
Max gave her a cold, dry sneer. “If not for my dragonets, I’d have already killed you.”
The saddest part was, she didn’t doubt that. He was, after all, an animal. A reptilian serpent. His cold-blooded, merciless nature was what had caused him to be branded the Dragonbane.
Mistaking him for human was what had gotten her into this mess. She couldn’t let herself ever forget again that at the end of the day, there was no real human in him. Though he might wear the skin of a man, his heart was and would forever be that of a winged dragon serpent.
One born not of a mother’s warm, nurturing womb, but from a cold, empty egg.
He hadn’t been held and nursed as an infant. Never protected or loved. Within minutes of his solitary birth, he’d clawed his way from his egg and made his first kill so that he could live. Had crawled into the corpse of his prey so that he could be warm for a bit as he gnawed on its entrails.
Maxis had been spawned with no understanding of love, compassion, or decency. Only pecking order, and where creatures fell on his food chain – a food chain where he reigned supreme. Every creature that walked this planet was on his menu, and subject to his invincible martial skills. Nothing and no one was sacred to him. And he’d left a bloody trail of human and Arcadian bodies in his wake.
Trying not to think about that or else she’d be sick, she looked to the newcomer who appeared to have somewhat more humanity in him than Maxis. While his species of dracokyn was familiar to her, she didn’t know much about the mandrakes. Yet the aura of magick he could command was unmistakable. He, like Maxis, was a sorcerer of supreme skill. “What is this great evil that you spoke of?”
“Morgen le Fey. You know her?”
She shook her head.
“Lucky you,” Blaise said under his breath, then louder, “She’s related to the Tuatha Dé Danann, and is a dark sidhe queen.”
“Should you ever cross her path, you will want to avoid her.” Maxis’s tone was flat and dry. “Even though you’re Arcadian, she’ll take your heart same as ours and use it for her spells.”
“Speaking of… where’s Illarion?”
Maxis cut a chilling sideways glare to her before he answered Blaise’s question. “Resting. And since you’re here, can I ask a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Will you watch over him while I attend a matter with my dragonswan?”
Blaise frowned. “What matter is this?”
“A personal one I’d rather not involve my brothers in.”
Seraphina saw the dragon light flash in Blaise’s lavender gaze as he realized Max was about to do something extremely dangerous. Alone.
“Max —”
“No lip. This is something I need to do without either of you getting in my way and annoying me in the process. Illarion is still adjusting to this world and time. He doesn’t need to be left on his own right now.”
Blaise screwed his face up. “With the exception of Monty Python and a few other movie franchises, I’m not real fond of this time period, either, you know.”
“I know.”
As Maxis turned back toward her, she hesitated. Don’t do it. He won’t forgive you.
Then again, he already hates me. What’s the difference?
And in her mind, she saw him down in the pit as she’d left him the last time she’d seen him in her village. Nearly dead. Bleeding because of her and what she’d done.
Yes, he was immortal, but he could be killed.
That was what they’d almost done to him then and it was what they intended to do now. To take his powers and his dragon’s heart and to use them against this Stryker.
He’s an animal. Sacrifice him for your children and be done with it.
Cold-blooded. Ruthless.
Like him and all of his kind.
Yet in her mind, that wasn’t what she remembered of her mate. It wasn’t the dragon beast who haunted her dreams and brought tears to her eyes whenever she remembered their past together. It was the bashful male who’d been so curious about her world. So kind to her and thoughtful in spite of his cold beginning. The one who’d tried to fit in with her tribe and please her. To that end, he’d shed his clothes and dragon customs, and had adopted their style of dress and manner of doing things. For three years, he’d laid aside his claws and wild ways, and done his best to suppress everything he knew and was so that he wouldn’t anger her sister tribeswomen.