Page 84 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

I swallowed hard, bile rising in my throat. “This… this was Veralin’s final revenge.”

Zander turned his Dark Fire eyes toward the golden beast as its body slammed again and again into the bars. His jaw was tight with rage.

“To watch Siergen’s child die,” I whispered, my voice breaking as tears burned behind my eyes. “To destroy the Unifier—not by killing him, but by killing his child.”

Kaelith’s roar echoed so loudly through the cavern that the torches fluttered. When my brother learns of this… it will destroy him.

Chapter

Thirty-Four

Kaelith… what do we do? My voice trembled inside my own head as I pressed a hand against the cold iron bars that separated me from the gold and black-scaled dragon thrashing against his prison. His wings slammed against the bars so hard the metal groaned like it might snap, but it never did. None of the cages broke. None of them could.

Kaelith’s grief clawed at my insides until I could barely breathe. Siergen will never forgive himself. He will believe it his fault for not tracking down his son, for not ending his suffering sooner. He was too blinded by his own rage, his own grief, to even consider that Ria’s egg might have survived.

My throat closed. “He’ll think he failed them both.”

Yes, Kaelith hissed. And it will destroy him. More than any war ever could.

The air quaked with the black dragons’ cries, a sound so raw and primal it shredded what little calm I had left. The golden one shrieked until blood streaked its mouth, until its scales flickered between black and gold as though its very essence was tearing itself apart.

But it wasn’t just here.

Echoing cries drifted from the distance, carried on the wind from above. I stiffened, lifting my gaze toward the ruined sky. The dragons who had been bonded to the Blood Fae, the ones who had followed them into battle—they were screaming too. Dying in the air, I realized with horror, their bonds severed, their bodies failing without the unnatural tether that had enslaved them for centuries.

“They’re all dying,” I whispered, my voice hollow.

The fae commander, Leyriam, lowered his head in grim acknowledgment. “Yes. They cannot remain tethered to the Blood Fae with the chest sealed. Their chains are broken, but…” His gaze flickered toward the golden beast, then back to me. His face was carved with sorrow. “…but they cannot regain their fertility, their natural bond with the world, without the blood of the Dark King himself.”

My stomach twisted. “Veralin’s blood.”

Leyriam nodded once. “It is the root of the curse, and the only balm strong enough to undo it.”

Beside me, Zander’s jaw clenched so hard I heard the grind of his teeth.

We’ve ended him, Kaelith’s voice rasped. But his poison remains. His blood is the only way to cleanse what he did.

I stared at the writhing dragons below, the sound of their suffering burning itself into my soul.

My knees almost buckled as the truth of it all assailed me. “Veralin could have broken this bond,” I whispered, the words like ash on my tongue. My hands curled into fists at my sides. “He could have freed them. All I had to do was keep my grandfather alive long enough…to force his compliance. I should have⁠—”

A warm hand settled on my shoulder, grounding me. Zander’s voice was steady, though quiet with exhaustion. “Your grandfather was the most powerful fae alive, Ashe. His own people couldn’t rein him in. Do you honestly believe you could have forced him to free the black dragons?”

Tears blurred my vision; the golden-scaled dragon’s thrashing reduced to a smear of light and shadow. “We’ve only stood against him because of the dragons.”

Zander’s silence was answer enough.

My anger surged, raw and untamed, and I whirled on him. “Because of Siergen. Don’t you see? No dragon, no human, no halfling would be alive if it weren’t for him. He kept the treaty in place even when your father…” My voice cracked, breaking like glass. “…even when your father mistreated you. When Theron let himself be twisted by Inderia and Severeth. When the whole damned kingdom faltered.”

Kaelith’s grief throbbed inside me, her sorrow braided so tightly with mine that I could no longer separate where her pain ended and mine began.

My voice shook, louder, harsher. “He lost his mate to save his species. To save us. To save you. And now his son is dying in a cage because I didn’t stop this in time.” My breath hitched, and a sob tore through me. “There is no way this is okay. None.”

The flood of emotion broke me open, unstoppable. I couldn’t tell if it were my own grief or Kaelith’s searing through me, but it didn’t matter. We were so entwined, so wholly one, that the agony poured through both of us in equal measure—an endless, unrelenting tide.

Zander’s hand slipped from my shoulder, only to cup the side of my face. His thumb brushed just beneath my eye, catching a tear before it fell. His own were dangerously close, his gaze glassy, filled with the kind of grief that cracked open even the strongest of men.

“I’m sorry,” he said, the words hoarse, raw. “Ashlyn, I would do anything for Siergen. Anything. If there were even the smallest way to save those dragons, I would take it. I’d sacrifice anything, my power, my crown, even my life, if it meant undoing what Veralin did.”