The Glass Queen (The Forest of Good and Evil #2) - Gena Showalter Page 0,33

to age in secret, a process that can take centuries. Leonora always knows where to find and steal those eggs. Some have hatched, some haven’t, but she always manages to raise a dragon army and torch entire villages.”

Ashleigh’s gaze returned to mine, her pupils huge. “I’ll put the eggs back. I will. I didn’t mean to steal babies from their mothers.”

I blinked. Leonora, willing to part with four dragon eggs? That was a first. Or a trick. Definitely a trick. “No, you won’t be putting them back. I’ll be keeping them.”

“But they’ll need their mothers one day.”

“No, they won’t, because they won’t be hatching.”

She peered at me with horror. “Their mothers could be in hiding somewhere, reliving the nightmare of returning to their nests to find their babies missing. I must return the eggs, Saxon.”

“No,” I said simply.

“How can you be so cruel?” she asked, her tone mournful.

“They are monsters. How can I not be so cruel?”

A tear ran down her cheek and dripped from her chin.

I fought the urge to recoil, that one tiny drop of salt water affecting me worse than any stab wound. “Tears won’t sway me,” I said for both our benefits. “How would you know where to return the eggs, anyway, if you don’t know how you acquired them?”

“I sleepwalked while I lived at the Temple, okay, and every so often, I would awaken to find an egg resting on my pillow.”

Interesting. I smeared creamy cheese over a toast point and offered it to her before I even knew what I was doing. “Do you remember anything about Leonora’s life?” I asked more harshly than I’d intended.

She accepted the change of subject as well as the peace offering, because that’s what it was whether I’d realized it in the moment or not. “I know only what I’ve read.”

I watched, enraptured, as she sampled the morsel. The way she moved...the way she enjoyed each bite... Sweat trickled down my temple. “Few know of her reincarnation. Why did you choose to read about her at all, unless you were drawn to her for some inexplicable reason?”

Ashleigh consumed the rest of the toast point—at her leisure—before telling me, “Why should I explain anything to the guy who delights in my misery? And why would a crown prince and future king stay in a dump of a tent?”

Why not admit the truth? “He doesn’t want his favorite servant enjoying a single luxury.”

“Then he needs to ditch the tent altogether,” she muttered. “Maybe you are Craven. I studied him, too, you know. Everyone agrees there’s never been an avian king more brutal.”

“You are wrong, and you are right. Before Leonora, Craven was a prime example of the perfect avian sovereign. Violent when it came to the protection and well-being of his people. Uncompromising when necessary. Harsh with offenders of any kind. But there has been one other who showed himself to be equally brutal.” Tyron. “Both males had a terrible weakness for the same powerful witch. They loved her, but each one married another woman anyway, giving her the family Leonora had dreamed of making.” They’d actually broken down on their wedding days, agonized by the permanent cut from the witch.

“If they loved her, why didn’t they marry her?”

“You really wish to know?”

She nodded with enthusiasm.

“Then you should do your best to remember, as I have.” She had to remember. Clearly, I couldn’t do what needed doing to Ashleigh until she did. And I needed to do what needed doing sooner rather than later.

I’d have to force Leonora’s hand.

As Ashleigh sputtered, I continued my story. “Leonora became enraged and killed their brides, then burned down their homes. Homes they rebuilt—just so she could do it again, after their deaths.” Even now, I could feel the heat of the flames, smell the char on the stone and hear the screams of my people as they ran for safety they would never find. “After the first burning, Craven killed her entire family, and left their remains in her bed. Shortly after, she stabbed him in the heart. You aren’t ready to hear what Tyron did to her.”

Ashleigh released quiet choking noises as her mouth floundered open and closed. That moment. I began to believe her. She hadn’t recalled a single memory of her life as Leonora. “I knew the basics of this. Ophelia mentioned some things but wow...” She paused, her lips parted. “That’s a lot to take in.”

I wouldn’t tell her anything else about our second life, how the new Leonora