“And being sent to Stormbreak is a one-way trip. You’re supposed to die with the Guardian. Hagen was gone and Masaru’s hold on power was secure.”
“But what about you? Why were you sent?”
Drayce dropped his eyes to the buttons on Caelan’s shirt, no longer able to hold his gaze. “I was unwanted,” Drayce muttered.
“What? How is that even possible?” His friend’s outrage helped to soothe old, deep wounds. It was a good reminder of how very wanted he was by the King of Erya and the Guardian of all Godstones.
“I’m third born,” he admitted, holding up three fingers. “Most dragons don’t have so many kids. Just one or two. I have an older brother, Shinobu. He is next in line to be head of the clan. Then I have a sister, the spare. While girls don’t usually inherit the title, she could. But most likely, she can be used for a marriage that secures a needed alliance with another clan.”
“And then you.”
Drayce nodded. “I’ve always been smaller than my brother and not as skilled a fighter. My father saw me as an embarrassment and a weakness. He was sure that one day I would dishonor our entire clan. It was safer for him to send me to Stormbreak.”
Caelan straightened suddenly. “I met with your dad. I’m sorry, but he’s a fucking asshole.”
With a loud laugh, Drayce lunged at Caelan, slamming into him and nearly knocking them both over. “You are the best!”
“Screw your dad and all these other dragons,” Caelan continued to grumble into Drayce’s hair. “You’re the best of them. I’m lucky he sent you to me. There is no one else who can compare to you.”
Drayce buried his face into Caelan’s shoulder, soaking in the man’s indignation on his behalf. A lump grew in his throat. How was it even possible to love this man more than he already did? He would never feel worthy of him, but he was happy to devote the rest of his life to trying to become so.
He wished they could stay as they were at that moment, but it wasn’t possible. The brutal reminder came when Caelan swore and glanced at his watch. “I need to leave. I told Rayne I’d stay only fifteen minutes. No one else was allowed to accompany me this far into the prison, and Eno looked like he was going to start a war at the idea.”
“How long have you been here?” Drayce had no idea. He’d lost all sense of time and place the second he’d laid eyes on the king.
Caelan’s smile turned crooked. “About forty-five minutes.”
“Oh, shit!” Drayce giggled. “Rayne and Eno are going to skin you alive.”
Caelan rolled his eyes, the playful but embarrassed grin staying on his lips. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m the king now and they can’t do that.”
“It doesn’t hurt that you’ve got the power of a couple of gods too.”
Caelan pushed to his feet and extended his hand to Drayce to help him up. “Three. I’ve got three now.”
Drayce had been trying to rise, but his knees failed, and he dropped on his ass. “The Dead God.”
“There’s no time to go into it, but yes, Nyx has joined the party. We’re on the Isle of Stone to get you and to meet with the Goddess of Fire.”
That was a bad idea. When they were in Zastrad, Caelan had struggled under two gods. Now he was dealing with three and supposed to bond with a fourth? No, this was bad.
But the mention of the Dead God and Zastrad conjured up murky memories that chased him in his nightmares. Things he couldn’t clearly remember. Things he didn’t want to remember, but he needed to. He had to face them.
“That day…I don’t remember a lot after you died,” Drayce started slowly, his voice a ghost rising from his throat. “Mrtyu? Did I destroy it?”
He didn’t want to look at Caelan, but his friend’s long silence finally had Drayce lifting his eyes to see grim lines digging into his brow.
“It was bad,” Caelan admitted in a whisper. “After you flew off, it took us hours to get down the mountain and into Mrtyu. The city was largely destroyed.”
“By me,” Drayce choked out, tears slipping from his eyes. Self-loathing burned like bile in the back of his throat.
Caelan quickly shook his head. “Not you alone. The Empire had plenty of time to make a mess of things before you broke loose. It wasn’t easy to tell, but it seemed like most of those burned were Empire soldiers. Temit was only slightly better. That was New Rosanthe’s fault. But we did see some people who likely escaped from Mrtyu.”
“Lu?” Drayce’s voice cracked at Caelan’s nickname for the High Luminance. They’d been just a kid. A blind kid stuck ruling a country and tied to the Dead God. They refused to leave. Why couldn’t they have just escaped?