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Boots poundedthe grass in a steady rhythm. He had no direction in mind. He just needed to move. Standing in one place made him feel like water on the edge of boiling. Horses grazed in the field surrounded by a soft brown wooden fence near the stables. A golden mare with a white mane lifted her head and neighed as Thane tore by. He nodded at the guards at the entrance of the bridge. The sprays of water from the falls misted across his skin.

His mind flashed to Katana in the hot pool wearing her white bralette and underwear. She may as well have not been wearing anything at all with how sheer the fabric became when wet. He’d badly wanted to join her. Wanted to pull off what fabric was left on her wet body.

He was used to females throwing themselves at him, as a god and as High King, and typically they didn’t get under his skin, didn’t burrow themselves into his mind. No one had since Layala. Why should Katana be any different than any of the beautiful elves who’d lusted after him for years? Or the goddesses he’d bedded and felt nothing for long ago. Varlett had hooked him when she was a young dragon princess, but he rarely found himself daydreaming about her. Yet that image of Katana standing in the hot springs was burned into his mind like a brand.

Maybe there was something about primordial goddesses he couldn’t resist.

Shit.

He ground his teeth.Shit shit shit.

The wind tore through his hair as he pushed himself hard. He didn’t want to think about anyone. He couldn’t let himself fall again just to be left shattered with nothing. His legs and lungs burned, keeping his focus on his body.

When he reached the wall surrounding the city he found the hidden door and shoved through, then kept going to a small wood a few miles from the castle and finally came to a stop and put his hands on his hips. A flicker of movement caught his eye, and he turned to find nothing, but his skin prickled from the presence of another.

“Hello, dear.”

“Varlett,” he mumbled before facing her. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled and tilted her head, making her black horns glisten in the sunlight atop her golden head. “I was out for a morning stroll and saw you. I thought you might be running to something and needed help, but I get the impression you’re running away from something or,” she arched a brow, “someone.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry she hurt you. I’m sorry she didn’t choose you.” The softness of her amber gaze would say she meant it, but she was apologizing for the wrong thing.

“Shehurt me?” he growled. “You did this. And you knew as well as I did the moment they left together it was over for both of us.”

“It was over the second he woke up. You just didn’t know it yet. I did.”

“Did you ever even care for me?” Not that it mattered.

Her reptilian eyes lifted to the canopy of the tree branches above her, and her long ebony talons clicked together in a drumming motion. “You were my first love, War. A dragon never truly gets over that.” She paused and lowered her voice, shiftingher stance nervously. He hadn’t seen her nervous—maybe ever. Was this a new act? A new form of manipulation? “It drove me mad to see the way you looked at her, to know you loved her. And I don’t mean that as a figure of speech. Do you understand?”

He swallowed hard… madness? Once a dragon made their choice, they typically mated for life. Of course, he knew this but back then the young dragon princess had always been so blasé about her feelings toward him. He believed she was using him to gain status as much as he was, but had he been wrong? Did Varlett see War as hermate?Did she still feel this way? And when she felt betrayed, when she realized his heart belonged to someone else…

“So you orchestrated her falling right into my arms? No, that makes no sense. You’re lying.”

“I—If I wasn’t going to be happy with you, I wanted none of you to be happy. I wanted to see her fall.” She ran her long fingers through her golden hair and looked away. “I’m not saying it was rational. I was young.”

“What you did was one of the worst things anyone could have done.”

“Dragons mate for life,” she bit out. “We cannot stop the bond that forms. Don’t you see that? Couldn’t you see how I loved you?”

His mouth nearly dropped open. “You loved me then with your body but not your heart. It’s a bond of the heart, not through sex.” He started to walk away, and she gripped his wrist, forcing him to turn.

“I was a young dragon, and you were a god! I was terrified to let you see how much I loved you. I didn’t feel like I deserved you, and I was scared you’d leave me—a mortal—like so many other gods do. I didn’t want to form a bond to you in my heart, but it happened. Especially when I saw the way you watchedher. And how could I ever compare to a primordial goddess?”

“So now you’re claiming you weren’t in control? That madness overwhelmed you? You’re unbelievable.”

She ran her talon down the fabric on his chest. “You don’t have to believe it, but it’s true. Why do you think I saved you? If I didn’t care, War, I would have let you die. If you meant nothing to me, you wouldn’t be here now. The demon hound’s venom would have killed you. Your heart had stopped. I had to use the demon prince’s ring to pull you back.”

“I’m not War anymore.” He snatched her wrist then jerked her flush against his body. It didn’t matter what her reasons were. They were all probably lies anyway. More lies, more deception like the snake she was. He leaned down to her ear and whispered, “You disgust me.” Then he bumped his shoulder into hers as he trudged away.

“I could tell Hel, you know,” she called after him. “About your part in all this.”

A tingle ran down his spine and he slowly turned. “Tell him what? I didn’t know what you were doing.”

“Do you know how easy it would be to convince him you did? Maybe I’ll say it was you in that bedroom with me with cloaking magic to look exactly like him while Valeen watched from the hall.”