Page 26 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

I quickly bite back any further sounds, staring in dismay at the way that blood from my bleeding nose has dripped onto Maximinus’ carefully written letter like the King’s seal.

I’m chilled.

I’ll pay for that.

“Look what you did.” Maximinus points at the stained paper.

“I apologize, Uncle.”

“Stand up.”

I push myself to my feet, holding my hands behind my back.

This time, when Maximinus punches me in the gut, I don’t fall and nor do I make a sound.

Maximinus gives a cruel smile. “Better. You always were trainable. Now, since when were you allowed to march into my study and demand what you needed ?”

I don’t reply.

Maximinus’ lips thin. “I didn’t summon you.”

“You didn’t.” I carefully keep my gaze over his shoulder and fixed on a point on his wall of scrolls .

I can do this.

I will do this…for Freya.

For myself, finally.

Because at last, I have something that I want, which is worth fighting for.

My body isn’t my own, but surely, I can enjoy it sometimes? Experience pleasure?

Love?

I have never willingly entered Maximinus’ study by my own choice before. This is a place of punishment and pain.

Most people in the Shadow Court are terrified of Maximinus’ magical nightmares.

“I must bond.” My voice is steady. “The golden threads are fraying. I am already losing myself to my feral nature by spending my ruts alone. What happens if the threads snap? I will miss my only chance to be matched with my fated mates.”

“You are forbidden to bond,” Maximinus replies.

Rage surges through me. “The Council will never allow it, and neither will I. Get out, unless you want me to call Liviana in here to sign the promised match that she has been pressing for since your brother’s death.

A strictly political arrangement between the two of you, of course, without bonding.

Otherwise, don’t bother me with such sluttish begging again.

Are you a whore led by his knot? Maybe I should train you as a courtesan, rather than Kit. ”

My dragon side rears up inside me. There is no holding it back. My wings tremble beneath the surface of my skin .

“I am your King!” I roar.

For the first time in his life, I see fear in Maximinus’ eyes, as he takes a step away from me.

And that scares me.

Then Maximinus gentles his expression, putting on a smile that makes my stomach churn like I’m about to hurl because he wore it often when I was a child in his private chats with me.

“Calm down, my boy. What’s this tantrum about?” When he reaches to gently stroke my arm, I flinch back.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.” I back away from my uncle. “I’m no longer a child who you can…”

“I am quite aware that you are no longer a sweet child.”

I become ashen.

The tremors are back in my hands. This time I can’t control them.

When Maximinus notices, his eyes twinkle with amusement. “I can strike you but not comfort you without you falling apart…? Caligo truly did a twisted, outstanding job in his training of you. I knew that sending you to the academy was the right decision.”

“I was six years old.”

“The perfect age to be conditioned.”

When Maximinus prowls toward me, magic hanging in a heavy, threatening miasma around him, I stumble back into the shelves. Scrolls fall around me like paper rain.

“But I grew up.” I clench my jaw. “I rule now. Neither Caligo nor you rule me .”

“More mess…?” Maximinus ignores me, picking up a sc roll, leaning too close to me as if it’s an accident. It isn’t. I stiffen. My pulse is roaring in my ears. “Stop lying to both me and yourself.”

“And stop attempting to leash a dragon, unless you want to end up as ash.”

I have never threatened my uncle directly before.

Maximinus freezes. Then he slips the scroll onto the shelf and looks up at me.

We’re standing closer than I’m comfortable with.

Maximinus’ eyes are hard with fury.

“You are unstable,” he says, low and vicious.

I wince, as he lists out my flaws, as once, I’d be summoned to this study to stand in front of him each week to hear him recite my failures at the academy before he beat me.

“The second prince who should never have ascended the throne. The King who no one in court respects as more than a useful weapon in war. Born evil, destined to become the greatest evil. You’re not your brother . ”

My throat is tight with tears. “I know. But Tarq is dead; I’m all this kingdom has got left.”

Maximinus scrutinizes me. “Aw, are you going to cry, boy? Adorable, like the child who I’d sit on my lap after I’d disciplined the little Golden Dragon. Do you remember? I’d?—”

Suddenly, I feel trapped.

Overwhelmed.

The past and the present are melding. Maximinus being so close to me… his touch …makes my skin crawl.

I need to escape .

I lose control, shoving Maximinus powerfully in the chest.

He staggers back, falling over his desk. Talismans and fragile pottery artifacts roll off the desk and smash on the floor.

My eyes widen.

Maximinus was deliberately baiting me to prove his point.

He straightens with a grimace. Have I broken his ribs?

Yet he stares at me in triumph. “So, you don’t have your emotions fully under control. The last Golden Dragon also shamelessly lied that his volatility wasn’t a danger, until the day that he turned and became nothing but shadows, bones, and death.”

I’m shaking.

Caught somewhere between the past and present, I struggle to focus on Maximinus.

Inside, I’m terrified because I know that he’s only putting words to my own doubts and fears.

What if I’m no different to Hadrian?

“I’m not the same as the Emperor,” I mutter, talking to myself as much as Maximinus.

“Are you sure?” Maximinus smooths out his tunic, holding his hand over his ribs. “Enough to bet everyone’s lives in the entire Shadow Realms on it?”

I turn away from him.

I need to get out of here away from my uncle.

Away from those cruel eyes. Hard gaze. Soft hands.

I turn to the door, crossing the mosaic floor .

But then, I hesitate. “Let me bond with Freya. Let me make her my Queen.”

“You would take that wolf bitch as Queen, even though she’s the Shadow Vampire King’s blood bond? The Shadow Fae King’s soulmate? What? Would you connect them to you as your fated mates as well?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t a dragon meant to be possessive of their Omega?”

I steel myself, before twirling on my heel back to face Maximinus. “Whose nest is she living in? She is mine.”

“Foolish boy. She’ll never only be yours, unless you kill her other soulmates and sever those threads.

And that would bring out a side to you that none of us want to see, am I not right?

That wolf shifter connects at least three kings in a royal triad.

She proves the truth of the prophecy . She’s poison.

She risks releasing dangerous emotions in you.

I won’t allow you to grow closer to her. ”

We stare at each other across the vast study.

I see things more clearly than I have in years.

My gaze becomes determined. “For once, out of all the times that you have hurt and controlled me, you can’t stop me loving Freya.”

I’m breathing fast and hard.

Maximinus shakes his head, strolling to sit back in his chair behind his desk. He ignores me, attempting to wipe my congealing blood off the paper.

He smears his finger through the blood; it smudges across the bottom of the letter like a crimson signature .

Maximinus shakes his head, crumpling the paper and tossing it to the floor. “Look at that. You ruined it.”

Then with a flick of his wrist, silver chains wind like snakes out of the door behind me. They wrap around my throat.

I gasp, clutching at the chains, as they strangle me. I’m dragged backwards. My feet scramble and kick.

“Uncle M-m-max,” I rasp.

Maximinus watches dispassionately with his hands steepled in front of him, as I’m slammed against the door.

I’m held in place by the snake chains, which wind tighter around me in a collar.

I gasp for breath. My lungs burn.

I struggle to control the surge of panic that I am truly leashed and unable to defend myself.

When I edge my hand toward my dagger, Maximinus flicks his wrist again, and silver chains painfully pin my wrists and ankles to the door.

My heart rate skyrockets.

I hate being bound.

My inner dragon roars in distress.

One side of the doors swings open, allowing a view of me pinned and on display for anyone walking by in the corridor to see.

A Beta servant gasps and drops the linen bedding that they’re carrying in shock.

I flush with humiliation that Maximinus has opened the door to make sure my shame is witnessed. He wants word of his power over me to spread throughout the Shadow Court .

Or is it word that I am getting more out of control and need restraining? A warning of what will permanently happen if I dare to bond Freya and declare her as my Queen?

My wild eyes meet Maximinus’.

“I could advise the Council that you should be held in the dungeons next to your fae pet,” Maximinus says casually, as if he’s not voicing my worst fear, which has been held over me since I was a child.

“Collared and manacled in enchanted chains under my direct control.” I shudder.

I know what that means. Is it what he’s always truly wanted?

The power? The throne? “How would you like to live your long life alone in the dark? If you can’t accept that you are forbidden to bond, then you will destroy us all. ”

“I won’t,” I swear.

“A wicked beast like you will always give in to temptation. It’s destined. An evil Golden Dragon is nothing but wrath and fire. Obey me, or I will direct the Council to give you the same fate as Emperor Hadrian. They will burn you to ash on your own dagger.”