Page 71 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

If the Head of the Council is Liviana’s mother, then she has a motive to want us killed.

We took the Alpha who her daughter had set her sights on, whether because she loved him or for ambition.

“Decima,” Aurelius says through clenched teeth, “any Alpha would be lucky to match with your daughter. Between us, it would have been a purely political arrangement, however, without bonding. But I have told you repeatedly that I rejected the match, no matter how many shady deals you made to improve your political standing here in the Council in order to force me.”

Decima pales, twisting back to the other members on the raised stage. Her gaze darts to Maximinus.

Well, that exposes one of the co-conspirators.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Decima tilts up her chin. “You have a duty to my daughter, however, and she has waited long enough while you played at wars for three years.”

“Played?” Aurelius’ eyes flash. “My soldiers bled so that fucking nobles like you could sleep safely in your beds and call it playing. Tarquin had a duty to her. I don’t.

How could I match and make Queen someone who I not only don’t love, but every time I look at them, I see the dust of my own brother? ”

Decima’s lips thin.

“You would learn that it is better than seeing the dust of a destroyed kingdom.” She marches into the center of the basilica, raising her voice until it echoes in judgment.

“The two choices before us for those who illegally bonded with our King, leading to our city being vulnerable to attack during wartime, are death by fire or sacrifice to the Shadow Gods.”

“Can I vote for neither option?” Daire calls.

I’m trembling. My pulse is roaring in my ears. This is really happening.

I glance at Aurelius, desperate that this time there will be warmth — something — in his look, anything apart from that lifeless cold. I’m shocked, however, that his eyes are blazing with the same swirling fury, as when he transformed into Hadrian.

Aurelius still seems to be in control, however, even as he yanks hard enough on the chains that he bruises his wrists and blood trickles down to pool on the throne.

“If anyone votes for either option, then I will hunt them down and tear off their wings myself. Now let me up right now, or by the Shadow Gods, I will find a way to bring down this gaudy building on all your heads.”

The Council members back away from Aurelius with terrified expressions.

Maximinus merely looks bored, flicking his wrist to free Aurelius of the weight but not the chains. “Are you a tyrant now then?”

Shit, this is a trap. Was this never about Daire and me to begin with?

Aurelius leaps to his feet. “What Alpha could watch their Omega killed?”

“One who obeys the rule of law.”

“This isn’t about law or justice. My dragon riders are being scapegoated to make someone pay for the attack yesterday, as well as to punish me for not claiming the correct Omega. But I won’t be controlled. Or am I still not your King?”

The silence is answer enough.

Aurelius glances around the Council.

Most avoid his gaze, some look at Maximinus as if for support, others check to see if they can run for the exit in time.

This has been planned. Aurelius has been played .

Immediately, his expression shutters. “You fuckers.”

“Language, my boy.” Maximinus tuts. “I didn’t raise you to talk to your elders in that way.”

“You didn’t raise me at all.”

Maximinus strolls across the apse, casually throwing himself down in Aurelius’ throne, as if he’s sat there a thousand times before. It suddenly occurs to me that maybe, when Aurelius was away and Maximinus was Regent in his place, he did.

My eyes widen.

“Bastard,” Daire mutters.

Maximinus settles back in the throne. “The kingdom is destabilized by the vampire raids, weak under your rule, and your people hardly know you since you’ve been away fighting.

You ran away the one time that they needed you to protect them for the sake of a wolf and a fae.

So, how can you expect anyone to be loyal to you?

Now do you see why emotions are dangerous?

Why love is a disadvantage? Why bonds were forbidden?

Bael is barely still standing. If it wasn’t for War rallying the army, we wouldn’t have survived the Night of Shadows. ”

My throat tightens. Is War still alive?

Aurelius’ jaw clenches.

It takes him several attempts, before he manages to ask, carefully controlled, “Did War survive the night?”

“Why act like you care now?” Maximinus demands, gesturing at Daire and me contemptuously. “These pets were all you were thinking about, when you abandoned your friends, fellow soldiers, and people. Why act as if it matters to you? ”

“Uncle,” Aurelius clenches his hands in front of him, which are wrapped tightly enough to bruise in chains, “tell me?—”

“I’ll tell you,” Maximinus roars, “that your lack of control over your Golden Dragon has proved that you’re not fit to rule.”

A headache is splitting my skull. I can barely feel my hands now, and my shoulders scream with pain. Yet the danger of this moment cuts through everything.

My mind is clear.

I’m a wolf. Even as an Omega, I’m a hunter.

And Maximinus has just hunted his own King.

How long has he been stalking him? Waiting for just such a moment, when Aurelius would be standing on the edge of a cliff with his wings clipped and nowhere left to go.

“Unless,” Decima slinks up to Aurelius with a smile that’s sadism masked as mercy, “ you prove to us that you do follow the laws. You repent. Sacrifice or execute by your own hands these pets who have brought such bad luck to the city. Break your bonds.”

“Don’t you bloody dare. I will haunt you forever if you do.” Daire struggles hard enough to make crimson blood trickle down his forearms from his wrists.

Aurelius is standing as frozen as the statues behind him.

Maximinus looks smug, as if he’s already won.

I’m trembling, unable to stop.

Maximinus is lying. Aurelius doesn’t have a choice. If he doesn’t do this, then he’ll be killed or imprisoned alongside Daire and me. Decima will still execute Daire and me, either way.

“Hadrian,” I murmur like a prayer to a dark god. “ Hadrian .”

Aurelius stiffens, then his piercing gaze meets mine.

Suddenly, I’m desperate to at least feel his arms around me, brush the soft hair at the nape of his neck, and breathe in his scent one final time.

Can he do it? Kill us?

Asking any Alpha to kill their Omega is brutal. Sacrilege. Against nature.

The ultimate punishment.

Yet if I have to die, then I’m happy that it’ll be by his hand. He’ll make it quick.

“You would truly make me kill my own mates, Uncle?” Aurelius’ voice is quiet. “My dragon riders? I will be alone for the rest of my life. That is what you would have me do?”

Maximinus’ expression hardens. “Once, you were obedient. You followed orders without questioning. Such a sweet boy, trainable and successfully conditioned. Who corrupted you with such rebellious dissidence?”

Aurelius’ gaze sweeps to Daire; they exchange a long look.

“A rebel who I respect and love. A rebel who has opened my eyes to truths that I long wanted to pretend weren’t real: monsters in this court and in my past. A rebel who has shown me that it takes strength to stand up for what is right and the people you love, even if you know that you’ll lose, perhaps especially then. ”

Daire stops struggling .

Slowly, a smile spreads across his face. “I’ve always been a bad influence.”

“Execute!” Decima screeches, losing her temper.

She sweeps to the throne. Then she draws out a two-handed sword with a long blade and pear-shaped pommel, which to my shock had been woven into the throne’s design.

These councilors are efficient when it comes to their executions.

I try to control the tremors in my arms but I can’t. I growl just to make the point that they’re not frightening me.

Except, they are. They fucking are.

My gaze meets Daire’s.

“We’ll be all right, love.” Daire’s smile is crooked. “And if we’re not, then I swear that I’ll find a way to cross the shadow bridge from hell to heaven. The Shadow Gods will be so charmed by me that they’ll have to let me in so that we can be together.”

Finally, a tear chases down my cheek. “You’ll fly to the moon with me. We’ll be in the sky together from the start, I know.”

Execute, execute, execute!

All twelve councilors join in the frantic chant now.

Execute, execute, execute!

Their voices rise in volume.

Execute, execute, execute!

Maximinus watches with dark eyes from the Draca throne.

Aurelius shakes his head. “Fuck you. ”

Maximinus merely lifts his finger and Aurelius is dragged toward Decima and the sword.

“Take it. This is the executioner’s sword from Hadrian’s time.

Your hand should fit around it like it was made for it.

You should welcome it in your palm again.

It has been drenched in blood. Hadrian executed any he found to be traitors or spies.

He feared secrets and shadowed treachery everywhere and repaid it with the kiss of this sword to their neck. I said, take it .”

Please, don’t reach for it.

Maximinus’ gaze is fixed on the sword like he does recognize it. His hand twitches toward it.

Another tear chases down my cheek.

“What if I have a third option?” Aurelius yells above the chanting.

He grabs the executioner sword between his bound hands. Sparks ignite from his horns, dying into embers over his crown like confetti.

The chanting dies down, and Maximinus looks calculating.

I slump in relief.

A third option, rather than execution or sacrifice has to be better, right?

“Everything can be survived, as long as you’re alive, remember?” Daire calls across to me.

I struggle to nod.

Unexpectedly, the sudden noise of fighting and clang of weapons rises up behind the apse.

Are those knotless Bloods attacking again?