“I kill to protect myself and others. I don’t begin violence, I respond to it.”
“Why not kill for pleasure?”
“Because I find pleasure in other ways. When I see people prospering and enjoying their lives, it makes me happy.”
He puzzled over me and resumed his walk. I followed him.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because when people prosper, the world is safer. There are pleasures in the world that you have never dreamed of. Why do you read books?”
“To understand those I wish to subjugate.”
“Bullshit. You’re stuck here, in a place where time has no meaning, with nothing to do. You read because you are bored.”
He laughed. Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end. The sharp, cold punch of alarm hit me low in the gut. Note to self: avoid laughing dragons.
“If you conquer everyone, life will be boring and empty of all meaning. There will be no more books to read or fun conversations to be had.”
“It will take some time to conquer the world. In the meantime, I will be greatly entertained.”
“Have you tried actually walking around among people?”
We passed out of the library into another large room. Heaps of gold leaned against the walls. Coins, nuggets, jewelry. He was showing me his hoard. How predictable.
“I have, when I was young,” he said. “I lived with humans for half a century. I’ve learned that you are weak, stupid, and easily cowed. Given the chance, you would rather fight each other than unite against a threat. I’ve never seen creatures who hate themselves so much.”
“Then you’re in for a surprise,” I said.
“The twisted furry things you fought and killed,” he said. “My slave-hounds.”
“The yeddimur.”
“Each started its life as a human babe. Each inhaled the fumes of my venom. Now they are beasts, primitive and filthy. They know nothing except rage and hunger. They eat their own. That is the true nature of humanity. I simply brought it to the surface.”
Ahead, double doors opened before us.
“Let me show you my power,” he said.
We walked through the door onto a balcony. The valley below spread before us, covered in odd blue vegetation. I squinted.
He passed me a spyglass. I looked through it.
Warriors. They stood packed next to each other like sardines. Miles and miles of warriors standing completely still.
Oh God.
“My army,” he said. “In my domain, there is no time, no hunger, and no thirst, unless I will it to be. Here I rule uncontested.”
They stood in squares, two, four, six, twenty men per row. Twenty by twenty equaled four hundred. How many squares? One, two, three . . .
“They sleep until I call them. They’ve waited for thousands of your years, but for them it is a blink.”
. . . Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three . . .
“Their muscles are trained; their skills are sharp. They live to battle in my name.”
. . . Thirty-four . . . I stopped. We didn’t have enough people. Even if the Conclave put every fighter they had on the field, we wouldn’t have enough.
I swung the spyglass left, toward some dark-brown stains, and saw corrals filled with yeddimur, curled into swarms, piled onto each other. A horde waiting to be unleashed.
“How do I know it’s not an illusion?”
“I have no need to lie,” he said. “What would be the point? It would be a short-lived deception. Whether you agree to my terms or you don’t, I will still field my army. I require sustenance to remain in your world, and I am ready for battle. You will see the size of my force when I unleash it. Nothing would stop you from turning on me if I lied.”
Thousands and thousands and thousands of troops. Nausea squirmed through me. Atlanta was doomed. “You cook people and devour their bones.”
“Yes. It is faster and more efficient than devouring them whole. Eventually I’ll consume enough and will no longer require it.”
“How many people will die to reach that eventually?”
“There will be enough left,” he said.
He stepped closer to me. His fingers rested on my shoulders.
“You hate your father,” he said. “Everyone knows it. People whisper of it.”
“I also love my father.”
“Families are complicated. I loved my father, but I killed him and took his land. I’m giving you the chance to do the same. I need a guide to your world. You can be my queen. You are brimming with magic. I can taste it.”
He leaned down next to me. The smoke from his mouth brushed my cheek. My skin crawled.
“Our children would be powerful beyond measure. They would be kings and queens.”
“I’m married, and I already have a child.”
“Keep him. Keep your husband as a plaything.” His deep voice rolled over my skin. “I will help you kill your father. We will rule the world together.”
“And what happens to Atlanta?”
He touched my hair. “The city is yours to do with as you wish. A wedding gift, if you like. I only require the slaves.”
“The slaves?”
“The humans. We can bargain, if you want. How many do you wish to keep? I will give you the pretty ones.”
“Ugh. You’re really inhuman.”
“Riches, power, the pleasure of conquest, pleasures of the flesh, pleasures of the mind. What is it you want, Kate Lennart?”
“To cut off your head.”
He laughed again. His hands flexed on my shoulders as if his fingers had talons. “I will give you three days to decide. Three days of peace and contemplation. After three days, with the first magic wave that arrives, I come to conquer.”
He had enough troops to attack the city from multiple fronts. We had no walls, no fortifications to stop him, and not enough soldiers to respond to simultaneous assaults. We’d be fighting everywhere, and I’d be crisscrossing Atlanta like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to put out the fires. I had to define the rules of this engagement before he tried to do it.
“Meet me in three days on the ruins of my father’s castle.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Show me the entirety of your army. Let me behold it. I’ll give you my answer then.”
“Agreed,” he promised, his voice rolling through the vastness of his castle. Smoke escaped his mouth.
“That’s my cue to leave.”
“Stay with me for a while longer. I’ll show you more of my wonders.”
“I’ve seen enough.”
“But you haven’t seen me.”
He stepped aside and slid the fur cape off his shoulders. His armor clattered to the floor. He stood before me naked, big, muscular, and with a champion-sized hard-on.
Really? What was the thinking here? I know you loathe me, because I’m an inhuman mass murderer, but behold my giant erection. That will make you betray everything you stand for.
I crossed my arms on my chest. “Is this supposed to convince me?”
“No,” he said. “This is.”
He ran and took a dive off the balcony. Midway down the catastrophic drop, his body tore. A colossal shape clawed itself free, obsidian black, with a terrifying reptilian head on a long neck and two wings that snapped open. My heart hammered in my chest while every instinct screamed at me to run and hide and hope he wouldn’t find me.
He was bigger than Aspid. His wingspan dwarfed the largest airplanes I’d seen.
The dragon swooped, banked, and dived under the balcony. A moment and his head reared above the rail, two fiery eyes staring straight at me. He rose into the air, climbing straight up, his gaze fixed on me. It took every ounce of my will to stay where I was.
His mouth opened, revealing nightmarish fangs.
In his realm, you are a ghost . . .
Fire burst out of his mouth in a blazing torrent and washed over me. The flames blinded me, passing over my body but doing no damage.
I waited until he was done. When the flames fell, I stood exactly where I’d been before, my arms still crossed on my chest.
The dragon’s eyes studied me, and for the first time I saw a hint of uncertainty in their depths.