The Last Dragon King (Kings of Avalier #1)(56)

“My price?” King Raife cocked his head to the side. “Brother, my price has always been the same, and yet you deny me at every turn. You know what I want, what I require.”

I moaned, a burning sensation rising up in my throat. Drae reached up and yanked on the sides of his face. “Fine, I’ll help you kill the Nightfall queen if you save Arwen, but you have to get Lucien and Axil to agree to help us. She’s too powerful unless we unite.”

Lucien Thorne the fae king and Axil Moon the wolf king? Did Drae just agree to take down the Nightfall kingdom to save my life?

Raife reached up and rubbed his chin as if deep in thought, and Drae rushed forward. “Save her, dammit!”

The elven king rolled his eyes. “Alright, we have a deal. It may take time for me to get the other kings on board, but you will hold up to your promise.”

I grabbed my throat, no longer able to breathe. I gasped for air.

Drae crossed a fist over his chest. “I swear it, Raife! I will help you avenge your family. Just save her!”

Raife kneeled, looming over me, bringing with him the scent of lilies. I hated lilies. They were too fragrant and always made me sneeze. Leaning forward, the elven king placed his nose an inch from my injured shoulder and inhaled.

“Death wood sap,” he stated.

Drae rushed to the other side of me. “Can you reverse it?”

Raife looked up at Drae and I wondered how these two knew each other. Raife had called him brother.

“Is she the one you have chosen to have your heir?” Raife asked.

I steeled myself for his answer.

Backup.

Drae stared into my eyes, and then nodded. “If she will have me.”

My heart beat wildly in my chest; blackness danced at the edges of my vision. If I were going to die, that was a pretty sweet thing to hear before I went.

Raife nodded. “Very well, then.”

He laid a hand on my injured shoulder and I gasped when his skin touched mine. A flare of purple light exploded out from his palm, momentarily blinding me. Then the blackness around my vision receded and my throat stopped burning. I could finally breathe. I sucked in huge lungfuls of air. Then one by one my muscles stopped cramping and my nausea fled.

I looked up in shock at the elven king and he peered back at me with a cold and unforgiving gaze. He winced, and I wondered if healing me was causing him pain somehow. Releasing his hand from my shoulder, he held it to his chest as if it were injured.

I sat up, suddenly feeling better. “Thank you,” I breathed.

He ignored me, glancing up at Drae. “Be gone by morning, I cannot have my council knowing I helped you until I get them on board with taking out Zaphira.”

Drae dipped his head, and then gave King Raife a little smile. “Are they still pestering you to get married?”

Raife groaned, shaking out his fingers as if trying to expel whatever healing the poison had done to him. “I must take a wife by winter or they say they will overthrow me.”

Drae smiled again, nodding, and then stepped forward, pulling the elven king into a hug. “Thank you, brother.”

Raife didn’t hug him back. He froze as if he had never hugged anyone in his entire life, but Drae didn’t seem to care. The dragon king pulled back, squeezed Raife’s shoulders, and then turned away and headed for me.

Raife walked to the door on the far wall, and for the first time I took in the room around me: white stone floors, light purple wallpaper with flecks of gold. It was tranquil, healing.

“Drae?” Raife called from the open doorway.

Drae turned to look at the elven king.

“I will come for you, and we will end Queen Zaphira’s reign.” It was a command and a promise.

“You have my word,” Drae said, and then Raife left the room and closed the door.

My tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth. Almost dying two times in one day was too much of a shock to my system.

“Tell me you’re okay.” Drae kneeled before me, placing his hands on my waist and staring deeply into my eyes.

I frowned, feeling my lip quiver as tears lined my eyes. “I…” A whimper left my throat. “Joslyn… Regina,” I said.

He sighed, looking down at the cold white tile. “We’ve let the queen go on for far too long. She has to be stopped.”

“With her flight gadgets and fire throwers, I don’t see how. Even with the elves. Did you see the horseless carts?”

He nodded. “Raife’s parents wanted to curb her technology, knowing her plans to one day wipe out the magical races. My father denied their request for help.”

I gasped. “And they tried and she killed them?”

He dipped his head. “Raife’s parents blew up one of her machine factories, and in turn the queen killed Raife’s entire family, leaving him alive as a mercy.”

Leaving him alive after killing his entire family was a mercy?

“Why didn’t you help him get revenge after she did that? It sounds like you two were close friends.”

Shame colored his cheeks. “I was a young prince. My father was afraid of the Nightfall queen and counseled against helping Raife.”

I nodded. “But winters later, when you became king, why did you still deny him?”

Drae looked pained at my question. “Because I’d just lost my own father, was getting married, and trying to have an heir. I didn’t know the first thing about invading a territory and starting a war. To be honest, the Nightfall queen scared me. What she did to the Lightstone family frightened me.”