It was a hard turn in conversation, making the previous focus seem completely trivial now.
He ran a hand along his jaw, rubbing as he answered, “During our discussions for a treaty, your father mentionednone of the women my dragons stole came back. What he, and all of you don’t know, is that after they failed to complete a mating bond, if the women survived that, I ensured they were given their freedom to return.”
I stared at him, mouth agape at the stream of information hitting me all at once. Blinking rapidly, I lifted one hand for him to pause. “You’re telling me that dragons were stealing our citizens in hopes to mate, and if they failed to do so, some of them didn’t make it out alive?”
The screams I’d heard last night echoed through my mind, haunting me. Could that have been Leah? Even if it wasn’t someone I knew, if they were a human, they were my citizens to protect–to stand up for.
He nodded, emotionless now, compared to just minutes before. “Yes. Sometimes dragons cannot handle the rejection from their soulmate. It blinds them with rage, because the bond can only be attempted once. If their mate denies them, they are now forced to live the rest of their days unmated. If it isn’t their true mate that denies them, the humans are simply left alone in our lands by the dragon that brought them here in hopes of mating. That is when I’m alerted and ensure they get to the border of our lands without further issue.”
Despair rolled through me as I thought of those poor women, slaughtered by the dragons that were supposed to be the ones who held them most dear, if the stories of fated mates were true. All because of this curse causing humans to be scared and repulsed. They’d stood before those beasts, torn away from their families and partners, and of no fault of their own saw the jaws of death coming for them. They’d never stood a chance.
Leah.
How could he allow them to do this, knowing many had been killed, and that surely even more would be if the dragons were permitted to continue coming to pluck them from our lands?
I took a steadying breath as tears began to prick at my eyes, fighting the rage simmering within my belly enough to speak. “Andifthey survived that, you just sent them on their way to make that trek back to us? With no horse, no supplies, no anything? I just want to make sure I’m understanding your level of cruelty and carelessness at the expense of these women's lives.”
He had the decency to look chagrined for a second before his head shook, clearing that from his face as he glowered. “How did you turn this into an interrogation of me ensuring other women’s safety, when you clearly don’t care about your own?”
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down as I tried to find the words. “I’m only here in hopes that this marriage will allow me to help my people, Theo. Yet here I am, finding out I can’t help any of the women who were unjustly ripped from their lives…” My voice cracked, “They’reallgone. Hundreds of women. A woman who worked in my castle that I knew was taken just yesterday! How do I even know if she’s made it to today?”
“I want you to focus on the fact that you can still help those that remain in your lands,” he murmured softly, like he knew I was seconds away from exploding. “Think of the thousands you’ll save if you help me break this curse. I clearly can’t do it alone. The drackya are becoming harder to keep in line with each passing month–they are unsettled and distressed at the prospect of being alone while their mate is elsewhere, unclaimed.” His chest expanded as he took a deep breath and looked at the floor before blowing it out. “It doesn’t help that they hate me and the rumblings of a mutiny are beginning to stir. If we want to fix this, we have to act soon.”
I had so many questions about the information he’d revealed to me, but I couldn’t settle my racing pulse and thoughts enough to sort through it.
“I want to know about Leah,” I demanded, “and I want to put an end to this. I want to know what you are doing to seek justice for the lives of my people that have been lost.”
He stared at me, open-mouthed, as if it was preposterous to seek reparations. “What is it that you would have me do? They’re beasts, Siyana. Don’t let our human forms fool you.”
A deranged laugh peeled out of me. “You think I’m not keenly aware of that? That we are just playthings for your people to pluck from our lives and discard or kill, if they don’t achieve their desired results? This is not okay!”
His lips thinned and my nostrils flared in this standoff.
“They deserve to die,” I whispered, uncaring of how callous I sounded. “A life for a life.”
As his head reared back, I raised an eyebrow. “Tell me how else justice can be achieved, oh greatking.” I all but spat the title, mocking and making clear that he was not deserving of the honorific in the slightest.
His tone was much more even than my own as he responded, “I would have you wait to make such demands until we’ve broken this curse. To let us have a chance to repair what has been damaged between our people, without spilling more blood. It is not the answer.”
There was a disgust deep within his eyes, and for some reason it hit me square in the chest. I was demanding people be killed. In such little time here, I’d suggested death as an adequate solution. Was there something in the air here that lent to such barbarous thoughts?
I hated to admit that the beastly king was more rational than me in this moment. That wasn’t me. Nor could I allow it to become who I was. I wasn't a judge, jury, and executioner. I simply wanted to be the voice for my people, to ensure I found a path to a peaceful existence between our kinds.
“I can admit my hasty suggestion may have been made from the deep well of pain within me–pain that comes from the loss of my people. I’m aware that violence, the practice of an eye-for-an-eye, isn’t the answer. I want you to promise that we will return to this conversation and seek justice for my people once the curse has been broken. I will stand for nothing less.”
His head tilted as he regarded me, his dragon eye’s pupil dilating with my words. “You have my word.”
Despite not knowing if his word meant anything at all, I did know I wasn’t in the position to be making demands, considering I’d been brought here as a pawn. I needed to play a long game of chess, to ensure I could truly help my people in the end.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to switch to the other issue that we should be able to settle with ease in comparison. “Lucius is clearly your friend or you would have harmed him, or at least reamed him out instead of me just now. All he did was show me the path to get food. You need to calm down. I already told you I wouldn’t be controlled by you, and that includes being sequestered in a room.”
“Calm down?” he parroted, mocking me as his voice dipped and a single brow rose. “You understand so little of my world, just as I do of yours, and you just placed a life outside of your own at risk as well. Climb down from your pedestal of superiority.”
He crowded me, making me take several steps back until my back hit the stone wall harshly. His forearms came to rest on either side of my head, caging me in with his larger frame as he stared intently into my eyes.
“I went to your room and couldn’t find you anywhere,” he bit out. “A fragile human, lost and wandering around a land that’s equipped and ready to kill her at every corner, and to makematters worse, another dragon’s scent was mixed in with your own.”
I opened my mouth, ready to argue once again that it was just Lucius, but his large hand clamped over my lips, stopping me. I let my unbridled fury shine in my eyes as I glared up at him and resisted the urge to knee him in the balls—for now.
