The Dragon Queen (Death #4)

31. Talon

Chapter 31

Talon

He beat me bloody, ripped my armor from my skin, slammed me into the forest floor, and then made my chest curdle from the heat of his flames. He burned me white-hot and made me scream in agony as the flesh melted into bone, as I died a slow and painful death. I felt him tug on my soul, felt him grip it with his sharp talons and tug like meat straight off the bone.

I felt Khazmuda hold on—but not as strongly as he did last time.

Bahamut growled as he slammed me down again. “I will eat you, Talon Rothschild. And before I eat your woman’s soul, I will tell her how good yours tasted. When I make her my private servant in the underworld, to please me for all eternity, I will tell her how sweet it was.”

A surge of strength came from nowhere, and I slammed my fist into his face, breaking my knuckles in the process because his face was hard as stone. I punched him again and made him release my chest, made black blood ooze from his wounds.

He released a demonic growl then grabbed me again. Rain poured down and put out the fires. It soaked the earth and made the blood run. The fight continued, but I had no idea who was still alive at this point.

He slammed me down into the dais, and my world spun. But up above, I saw the silhouette of a dragon, a black shadow that descended through the darkness, coming closer to me.

“Khazmuda…no.” I feared he would come for me. I feared he would bring Calista and hand her over to a demon.

Bahamut grabbed me by the throat and squeezed.

Thud . “ Roooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrr! ”

I knew Khazmuda’s roar, and that wasn’t it. It belonged to someone else, a dragon I didn’t know well.

Bahamut punched me hard in the face, so much blood caked into my skin I could barely see out of my eyes. He rose to his feet and left me there, the cold air splashing onto my bare skin and the injuries that oozed blood.

“Talon!”

I gasped for air when I heard her voice—Calista. “No. Run!” I forced my body to roll over, to see through the rain and the battle.

It was Constantine, far too big for the space, cramped in the air without much of an ability to fight or evade. He was already being attacked by the army of the dead, soldiers crawling all over him as he tried to bite them off.

Then I saw her in the haze, moving toward me.

“Calista…” I barely had a voice. I barely had anything left. “Run!”

But she ignored me and stood her ground. “Leave him alone!”

“No!” I’d accepted my death, but I couldn’t accept hers. When I thought I couldn’t move anymore, I managed to get myself to my feet. I managed to stand when I thought I couldn’t even lift a finger.

She stood with her blade in her hand, facing off with a huge demon nearly three feet taller than her.

“Bahamut!” I screamed. “You want me, here I am!”

But he continued to move toward her.

Talon . Constantine’s voice reached me. I need you to come to me. Now.

I need to save Calista ? —

You can save her—but you need to come to me first. Now .

Calista backed up as Bahamut came to her, holding her ground even though she was visibly scared.

You can save us all, Talon. Run.

My chest had caved in on itself. Even if I survived this battle, it wouldn’t be for long. It amazed me that I stood at all. It amazed me that I could listen to Constantine. And it amazed me when I ran to him like he asked.

The dead crawled all over him and pierced them with their blades, drawing blood when they broke the scales. But he stayed focused on me. You’re almost there, Talon . He was the one being stabbed, but he only focused on me.

I reached him, my hand extending toward his snout and making contact.

He closed his eyes—and then I felt it.

A rush of power unlike any other, like I was being fused with not one dragon, Constantine, the king of dragons, but fused with all dragons . I dropped to my knees as I kept my hand on his snout, feeling an avalanche of power slide out of his body into mine. I trembled and heaved, tears burning in my eyes because of the pain and the relief. It was so much for my body to carry, to feel the might and ferocity of over a hundred dragons at once. My vision changed. My body felt unlike my own. I felt like a dragon, felt the slit of my pupils, felt fire in my broken chest.

It was indescribable.

I dropped my hand and stepped back, hearing and seeing the world in a new way. I processed everything with a fraction of the energy it cost before.

Constantine focused his eyes on me. He may be the God of the Underworld, but he’s nothing to the might of all dragons. Defeat him, Talon.

All the injuries I sustained seemed to have healed. I felt no pain, felt rested like I’d slept the last year without waking up once. My muscles possessed more strength than physically possible. I was a dragon without wings, without scales, without talons—but a dragon, nonetheless.

Calista continued to flee Bahamut, choosing to run rather than engage because she knew if she got too close, she would be dead. I realized now that she had only served as bait, a distraction for Bahamut so I could get to Constantine.

“ Bahamut !” My armor was still ripped in places. My bare chest was still exposed. But my bones had healed and fortified. They were so strong that I banged my fist against my chest and felt nothing at all.

He turned back to me, forgetting Calista when he realized something had changed. The ground was muddy, and the rain continued to pour down. Constantine was only able to bite the dead and whip them with his tail, but he was too overencumbered to fly. Calista returned to him, slicing her blade through the corpses that tried to take Constantine.

I spun my sword around my wrist, and it felt weightless.

Bahamut’s demonic smile was gone. Now he sized me up differently, trying to distinguish what had changed in the few seconds he’d been distracted. I was not the same man he had slammed into the dais, but he didn’t know who I was.

“You asked who I am, Bahamut.” I moved toward him. “I am Talon Rothschild, the King of the Southern Isles, friend of men, dragons, and elves. I can’t defeat you alone, but that’s the difference between us. I don’t have to . You will not take my soul—but I will take yours.” I spun my blade around my wrist then banged my fist into my chest. “ Come on .”

Bahamut gripped his sword and took his steps, trying to circle me as the battle raged on around us, his expression serious, even as a monster. The arrogant gloat had left his persona. The eyes that showed the underworld were now focused—and afraid. He tensed as he watched me, waiting for me to make the first strike to size me up.

The rain washed the blood from my face and chest, my body whole from the dragons in my veins. My skin remained soft but felt hard like scales. My throat burned like a fire released from my lungs. I made my move, one leg digging into the slick mud, and I launched forward with a speed I didn’t anticipate. I felt like I could fly even though I had no wings, felt a command of the world like I had built it with my own hands.

He hesitated when I came at him, but he threw his sword up in time.

I struck him, again and again, my blade dancing and flying, moving so fast that it somehow felt slow.

He kept up with my attacks, but barely. He clenched his jaw and grimaced as he focused on my movements, but his position was entirely on defense. There was no opportunity to strike me when I bore down on him with no mercy. I had no moment to draw breath, no moment to pause and think. I tortured his mind as I tortured his body, driving him back toward the dais, watching him sweat while I smiled.

I slammed the hilt of my sword into his chest then punched him in the face, packing so much strength in the hit that his head nearly snapped off his neck. He was pushed back from the momentum and lost his footing, stumbling backward until his back hit the dais. “And now I will be known as Talon Rothschild, the mortal who killed a god.”

When I moved over him, he tried to stab his blade right through the exposed part of my leg, but I somehow sensed it before he even thought it. I sidestepped the attack, and then I slammed my boot down on the center of his chest, using the force of a hundred dragons, cracking the bones of his monstrous physique.

He let out a demonic roar as he swiped at me.

I stabbed my blade into his arm and pinned it to the dais before I kicked his sword from his grasp.

He quickly reached for the hilt of the sword that pinned him, but I was faster. I slammed my hand into his face. I hit him again and again, black blood oozing from his every orifice, striking him with such power and speed that the features of his face began to melt away.

His body grew weaker as he received the beating he’d given me, his eyes flickering in and out of consciousness, the blackness taking him. He would reach for the sword again, but he’d lost his orientation of the physical world. Even if I didn’t stop him, he would miss the blade.

I punched him again—and then he changed.

He was no longer the monster with a broken face. Now he was the man, blood covering all of his skin because it oozed from his broken eyebrows, his bloodied eyes and broken nose, from his cut cheekbones. He was no longer the handsome man who offered deals without explaining all the stipulations. Now, he was just a broken man on his back, looking up at the sky as he breathed his last breaths.

I steadied my fist and stared.

He stared back, just seconds from the veil.

“You will no longer haunt me, Bahamut. You will not linger in the corner of every room I enter. You will not rip me from the warm bed I share with my woman. You will not destroy my happiness with your darkness.” I grabbed the blade that pinned his arm to the dais and gripped the hilt with both hands. “ And you will not take the Realm of Caelum .” I slammed the blade into the center of his heart, exerting so much force that the blade dug nearly a foot into the wooden support beneath him.

He gasped for breath when he felt it. His arms dropped to either side of him. His eyes found mine and stared for several hard seconds, his contempt as fiery as the black sconces that lit his halls. But then he turned his head slightly and looked at the sky, the rain continuing to come down and splatter his bloody and broken face. “You are nothing without your dragons.”

I grabbed the hilt and twisted it, digging into his black heart and tearing the flesh. He took another breath, and just as a raindrop splattered on his nose, he went still, eyes open but locked on my face. I stared down at him as my fingers loosened their grip. “And you are nothing without love.”

Once Bahamut was gone, his army of the dead dropped where they stood. The dark elves who followed him were immediately outnumbered and slain within seconds. With the God of the Underworld gone, I didn’t know where their souls traveled. Perhaps they traveled nowhere.

I looked across the clearing and spotted Calista, who was unhurt and coming to Constantine’s aid. A blade had been stabbed into one of his legs, and she helped him remove it. Once I knew she was unharmed, I rushed to Riviana where she continued to lie on the dais, taking her labored breaths.

I kneeled down beside her and looked at the dagger I had handed to Bahamut, the weapon that had caused the killing blow.

Her hair was wet from the rain, and her blood was golden rather than red, bathing her armor in a beautiful shine.

Helpless, I stared down at her. “I’m sorry…”

She looked up at me with weakness in her eyes but without a hint of cruelty. “Bahamut, God of the Underworld, has been defeated because of you. Do not be sorry.”

“I didn’t do it alone.” I still felt the power of the dragons rush through me. Still felt the difference in my strength and focus. But none of those gifts could help her. “I wish I could help you.”

“You can. The light in the Realm of Caelum heals all wounds, emotional and physical. But I can’t get there on my own. If I remove this blade, I will bleed out before I can heal. It must be done in the golden light.”

My arms gently scooped underneath her body, and I lifted her, cradled her into my chest. She was a tall woman, matching my height of over six feet. Without the influx of power I possessed, I wasn’t sure if I could carry her this way. If she were a man, I would have thrown her over my shoulder, but with the dagger so precarious, that I wasn’t an option.

I carried her to the tree, which had remained untouched by fire and violence. The door was sealed.

She reached out slowly, her hand shaking before it touched the bark. She closed her eyes and her breathing increased, becoming labored and shallow. But then a light burst in the outline of a door, shining bright before the opening appeared.

She rested her head against my chest, like opening the door took more energy than she expected. She didn’t tell me what to do, breathing harder and harder against me.

I stepped through and carried her to the other side, walking through light so bright I had to close my eyes as I carried her, unsure which direction to head because it seemed like a plane with no direction at all.

“Here.”

I stopped and looked down at her, the light around us blinding, so bright it saturated our surroundings and made everything disappear. I took a knee with her in my arms then placed her on the ground. It was too bright to see any details, but by touch, I knew it was grass.

She grabbed the hilt of the dagger and continued to breathe in anticipation.

“Let me.” I waited for her to remove her fingers before I grabbed the hilt. I squeezed it before I pulled, getting it out of her flesh in one fluid motion.

She gasped when the blade left her body then tensed, holding her breath as she waited for the pain to pass.

I dropped the dagger then placed both of my hands against her wound, applying pressure to stanch the bleeding before she lost too much of her life-force. I kept the pressure and studied her face.

Slowly, her breaths became calmer, easier. Her eyes closed, and she looked like she was asleep.

I pulled my hands away and saw that the bleeding had stopped.

“I will go on.” Her hand went to mine and gave me a weak squeeze. Her hair had dried in the light, and color returned to her face. A slight smile was on her lips. “But for now, I need to rest.”

I nodded.

“Thank you for your protection, Talon Rothschild.”

My eyes flicked away in shame. “None of this would have come to pass if I hadn’t been foolish enough to make a deal with the God of the Underworld. I knew what I was doing when I did it, so I have no excuse.”

“Do you know the difference between the living and the dead?”

Tempted by the question, I looked at her again.

“The dead do not sin, because they sinned in life. Mistakes and errors are the burden of those whose hearts beat. You have a long life ahead of you, Talon. So long that I’m not sure if or when we will see each other again. You will make mistakes and that’s okay—because that’s what it means to be alive.” She looked at me with a slight smile on her lips. “You’ve redeemed yourself in the eyes of all. Go be in peace.”

Her hand remained in mine, and she gave a gentle squeeze before she released it. “Return the way you came, but expect a visitor on the way.”

I inhaled a painful breath, unsure if I could face Vivian again after the tearful goodbye we’d shared. I’d buried her in my heart and locked the casket. My love for her would endure forever, but my heart now sang for someone else. Calista didn’t deserve to share my heart with anyone else.

“It is not her,” Riviana said as she read my mind.

I stared at her for another moment before I straightened, leaving her there to bask in the light.

“Goodbye, Talon.”

“Goodbye, Riviana.” I turned around and returned the way I came, moving through light so bright that I didn’t know if I headed the right way. There was no door in the distance. There was nothing but light.

But then I blinked, and I stood in the courtyard outside the castle. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue. The air was full of sea salt. A colony of sea gulls flew by in the distance. I looked around me, seeing that the trees were still there, not ash from the fires that burned them. Olive trees bloomed with their fruit. Flowers were everywhere. It was exactly as I remembered it…before the battle.

“Talon Rothschild, King of the Southern Isles, Lord Prick…”

I stilled when I recognized his voice, a voice that still came to me in my dreams. The breath I took burned like fire. My eyes burned too…with tears of acid. I turned around and stilled when I saw him there.

Silas.

The widest smirk was on his face, a sparkle in his dark eyes, like he was genuinely happy to see me. “How are you, brother?”

The tears filled my eyes until they spilled over my cheeks.

His smile didn’t drop as he came close, close enough to grip my shoulder. He didn’t mock my tears as he gripped me. “Death isn’t so bad, Talon. Have you seen Riviana?” He gave a quiet whistle. “I’ve always liked redheads.”

I chuckled through my tears, appreciating the emotional lift.

“I’m okay.” He turned serious, giving me another squeeze before he let me go. “Truly.”

I inhaled a breath and forced my tears to steady. “I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t expect this.”

“I wanted to talk to you last time you were here, but I knew you needed Vivian more.”

“You—you still speak with her?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “It’s not like we’re together all the time. It’s hard to explain, but because of the light, it’s impossible to feel sadness or anger or resentment, all that other bad shit. The second it comes is the second it’s gone. It’s like being high on the best substances all the time.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

“Not at all,” he said. “Riviana told me this is probably the last time you’ll be here—since you’re fused with an immortal dragon. Just know that we’ll be okay if you decide to never join us. If you’re happy, we’re happy.”

“My dragon can’t live without me.”

“And neither can your woman.” That boyish grin stretched across his face. “Vivian said she was quite the looker, and that’s saying something, coming from Vivian.”

“Vivian was always too good for me.”

“I always said she was out of your league.”

I felt the weight leave my shoulders, feel the despair lighten. “I remember.”

“But it sounds like this girl is even more out of your league.”

“I guess I have a type.”

His smile nearly turned into a chuckle.

I felt my mouth lift from a frown, felt like I was back in time before I’d lost everything. Perhaps that was why Riviana projected this surrounding…so she could give that to me. A moment I would cherish forever.

“I hear that you slew Barron and those idiots Jairo and Kael—and now you’re King Talon Rothschild, Ruler of the Southern Isles.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his physical mannerisms identical to what they were decades ago.

It was a moment I wanted to pause to savor, to appreciate longer than time would allow. “Yes.”

Now the smile reached his eyes, the joy mixed with familial affection. “You burned them.”

“Each one of them—for you.”

He gave a slight nod in appreciation. “Good.”

“I made Barron watch. And then I watched him scream.”

The affection remained in his eyes despite the violence we pictured together. The pride in his eyes was unmistakable, looking at me the way he did when we were boys, like I was his idol, the man he always aspired to be. “We’re all proud of you, Talon.”

I took a slow breath as I felt the burn return to my eyes, the words I longed to hear but never expected to receive. “I’ve carried you in my heart every single day these past decades. I conquered kingdoms, paid for the army of the dead with my soul, forged a long-dead alliance with scarred dragons for this moment— and it was worth it .” Tears came free, rivers down my cheeks. “It was worth it to hear you say that.”

“Brother.” He moved into me and gripped me hard, clapping me on the back before he clutched me.

I clutched him back, my mouth against his shoulder, my lungs screaming from the tears I wanted to shed. I gripped him so tight that I had force myself to relax out of fear of hurting him, even though I wasn’t sure if he could be hurt. But he felt real to me, as real as Vivian had felt when I’d held her. “Brother…”