Chapter 19

Wrath of the Ash King

The palace did not recover quietly after the assassination attempt.

By sunrise, Black Citadel felt like a kingdom preparing for war.

Guards filled every corridor. Dragon patrols circled constantly above the city. Servants moved quickly with lowered heads while rumors spread faster than dragonfire through the lower halls.

The human woman had been attacked.

Inside the palace.

And the Dragon King had nearly destroyed half the eastern wing because of it.

Evelynn learned all this while sitting in a healer’s chamber with her shoulder wrapped in fresh bandages and three different dragon healers arguing over whether humans were “supposed to bruise that easily.”

Deeply reassuring medical care.

“I’m sitting right here,” Evelynn muttered.

One healer sniffed. “Humans are fragile.”

“Dragons breathe fire.”

“Yes,” the healer replied calmly, “and yet somehow you remain the greater inconvenience.”

Rude.

Outside the chamber, palace guards stood watch like Evelynn had personally become a national security crisis.

Which, honestly, maybe she had.

The bond felt restless all morning too. Not violent exactly. Worse. Controlled rage. Kael’s emotions sat beneath her skin like a storm trapped behind glass.

He was hunting.

Evelynn knew it without anyone telling her.

And judging by the atmosphere in the palace, everyone else knew too.

Serin arrived shortly after noon carrying food and the exhausted expression of a man spiritually defeated by dragons.

“You should eat.”

“You say that like the kingdom isn’t collapsing outside.”

“The kingdom is always collapsing outside.”

Fair point.

Evelynn accepted the tray while Serin checked the hallway behind him carefully before lowering his voice.

“They found out who hired the assassins.”

Her stomach tightened immediately. “Who?”

Serin hesitated.

Then quietly:

“Human nobles.”

Of course.

Somehow that hurt worse than if dragons had done it.

Evelynn looked down at the untouched tea in her hands. “From my kingdom?”

Serin’s silence answered enough.

Wonderful.

Apparently her people had reached the conclusion that murdering her inside a dragon fortress counted as diplomacy.

“Kael knows?”

Serin actually laughed once at that.

Not humor.

Nerves.

“The king has known for hours.”

Oh no.

That explained the feeling in the bond.

Before Evelynn could ask anything else, a roar thundered through the palace hard enough to shake the walls.

Not distant.

Inside Black Citadel.

Every healer in the room froze instantly.

Dragonfire flared violently through the lanterns overhead.

Serin closed his eyes briefly. “Ah.”

Evelynn stood immediately despite the protest from her shoulder. “What was that?”

Serin looked deeply tired.

“The council interrogation.”

Another roar shook the palace.

This time followed by screaming.

Human screaming.

Evelynn’s blood ran cold.

“Oh God.”

She moved before anyone stopped her.

The guards outside the chamber tried briefly.

Very briefly.

Then apparently decided physically restraining the woman magically connected to the Dragon King qualified as career suicide.

Smart men.

The palace corridors descended into chaos the closer Evelynn got to the central throne wing. Servants hurried away from the great hall while dragon guards lined the walls with tense expressions and hands resting near weapons.

Smoke drifted beneath the massive black doors ahead.

Not normal smoke.

Dragonfire smoke.

Evelynn shoved through the crowd before anyone could stop her and entered the throne hall just in time to witness disaster.

The interrogation chamber looked half destroyed already.

One entire section of black stone wall had melted inward. Golden dragonfire crawled wildly across the floor while several dragon guards stood frozen near the edges of the hall, clearly debating whether intervening was worth dying for.

At the center of it all—

stood Kael.

No.

Not stood.

Hunted.

The surviving assassin from the eastern hall hung several feet above the ground pinned against a stone pillar by Kael’s clawed hand around his throat.

The silver mask had already been ripped away.

Human.

Young.

Terrified.

And bleeding badly.

Kael looked worse.

Black scales spread fully across the side of his throat and jaw now while dragonfire spiraled violently around him like living rage. His eyes burned almost completely gold.

No restraint left.

The assassin choked out something desperate. “Please—”

Kael slammed him harder into the pillar.

Stone cracked loudly.

“You entered my palace,” Kael growled.

Dragonfire exploded across the ceiling overhead.

“You touched what belongs to me.”

The entire room froze.

So did Evelynn.

Oh.

That was not politically ideal.

Several dragon nobles standing near the far end of the chamber visibly stiffened at the wording.

The assassin looked moments from unconsciousness now. “I didn’t know—”

Kael’s claws tightened.

“You smelled of human courts.”

The assassin whimpered.

Wrong answer apparently.

The dragonfire around Kael surged violently enough to force nearby guards backward. One noble shouted something in draconic from across the hall.

Kael ignored him completely.

Evelynn felt the rage through the bond now.

Not ordinary anger.

Ancient rage.

Protective rage.

The kind that destroyed cities.

And underneath it—

fear.

Still fear.

He had almost lost her.

That realization sat at the center of everything burning through him now.

Kael leaned closer to the assassin slowly, gold eyes inhuman in the firelight.

“Who sent you?”

The assassin shook violently. “I don’t know names—I swear—”

Kael roared.

Not human.

Dragon.

The sound shattered several remaining windows instantly.

The assassin screamed.

Dragonfire burst upward in a wave that nearly reached the ceiling.

The guards finally moved.

Not toward Kael.

Away from him.

Evelynn realized something terrifying then:

Nobody in this room believed they could stop the Dragon King if he fully lost control.

Not even the dragons.

Kael’s wings burst partially outward behind him, black and enormous against the burning hall while scales spread further beneath his skin.

The assassin started sobbing openly now.

“I told them no one could get past the king—I told them—”

Kael’s claws pierced deeper into his throat.

Blood hit the floor.

And suddenly the bond snapped violently through Evelynn’s chest.

Not pain.

Memory.

Fire.

The burning city from the dream.

Screaming.

Bodies.

Kael standing alone in destruction while dragonfire consumed everything around him.

This was how it started before.

Oh no.

Evelynn moved immediately.

Straight through dragonfire.

Straight through terrified guards.

Straight toward the monster everyone else feared.

“Kael!”

His head snapped toward her instantly.

The entire hall shook.

For one horrifying second, those gold eyes looked too wild to recognize her.

Dragon.

Only dragon.

The assassin slipped partially from his grip as Kael’s attention fractured.

Dragonfire spiraled violently around the chamber.

Evelynn ignored it and kept walking.

Everyone else in the room looked horrified.

Probably because she was approaching an unstable dragon king currently one emotional breakdown away from mass destruction.

Fair.

Kael stared at her breathing hard.

“Leave.”

The word came rough.

Barely human.

Evelynn stopped directly in front of him anyway.

“No.”

The dragonfire surged again.

But she held his gaze.

“You’re scaring your entire kingdom.”

That almost reached him.

Almost.

Kael’s claws flexed harder involuntarily around the assassin’s throat.

Blood dripped faster.

Evelynn lowered her voice carefully.

“You’re doing it again.”

Something flickered behind his eyes then.

Confusion maybe.

Pain.

Memory.

Evelynn stepped closer despite every guard in the room looking seconds away from cardiac arrest.

“You said you were afraid of becoming this again,” she said quietly. “So stop.”

The bond pulsed sharply between them.

Kael’s breathing turned uneven.

The dragonfire wavered.

Then Evelynn reached up slowly and touched his face.

Right against the black scales.

The effect was immediate.

The fire throughout the hall dropped violently lower.

Kael froze completely.

The assassin collapsed coughing to the floor the moment his grip loosened.

No one moved.

No one even breathed too loudly.

Because the entire throne hall had just witnessed something impossible.

The Dragon King calming.

Not through force.

Not through power.

Through her.

Kael stared down at Evelynn silently while dragonfire continued fading around them.

And for the first time since entering the chamber—

he looked horrified by himself.