“Eumon?” she whined, trying to pull the prince away by his arm. “Why did you bring me here? Don’t you grow weary of looking at them all the time? It’s so creepy!”
Max didn’t appreciate being called creepy when the only real oddities in the room were the ones who needed his species to continue living past their twenty-seventh birthdays. There was nothing creepy about being a dragon.
Human-Apollite bodies?
That was the stuff of nightmares. They smelled and had all manner of weirdness to them he’d rather not suffer.
The prince smiled at his beautiful, petite wife, but his gaze never wavered from the two inside the cage. “Look at them, Helena. But for the fact that he doesn’t speak, you’d never know he wasn’t me. And the other… he is the very image of Pherus. It’s as if I’m still looking my brother in the eye.”
She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Pherus was never your brother. He was the son of a slave.”
“Slave or not, he was my brother through my father. And I loved him as such.” Eumon licked his lips. “Do you think they can understand us?”
“No. They’re animals and you’re lucky you survived the merging your uncle did to you. Now, can we go? I don’t like it here. It smells.” She pressed her dainty hand to her nose to illustrate her point.
Instead of leaving, Eumon knelt down and held his hand out to Illarion. “Here, boy… come to me.”
Curling his lip, Illarion scooted closer to Max.
Eumon lowered his hand and sighed. “It seems like we should be able to train them. Doesn’t it?”
Max bit back a scoff. As if.
“Maybe so as not to wet the rugs or their beds, but I wouldn’t hold out hope for any more than that. As I said, they’re stupid animals, incapable of thought or civilization.”
Oh yeah, they were the problem in this equation…
“You are terrible, Helena!” he teased.
All of a sudden, a large number of guards stormed into the dungeon. Max tensed at the sight of them. Something that never boded well for those kept in cages. Anytime that many came in like that…
One of the prisoners got seriously hurt.
Or seriously dead.
Prince Eumon shot to his feet to confront the stone-faced soldiers. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“Orders from the king, Highness. We’re to destroy all the experiments to placate the gods.”
The prince’s face went white as Max’s stomach shrank. “What?”
The guard nodded. “The dictate came from the head priest this afternoon. The gods are demanding that all the abominations be put down. Otherwise, they’ll kill your father and you, and your brother.”
Illarion exchanged a panicked look with Max.
Never fear, brother. I won’t let them take you, Max promised, hoping he wasn’t lying as he spoke those words.
But there was nothing save doubt in Illarion’s eyes. Something that cut to Max’s bone. How could his brother think for one minute that he’d allow them to hurt him?
Never. Even if it meant his life, he’d keep Illarion safe from them and get him out of this mess.
With a mighty roar, Max rushed at the bars.
The prince stumbled back with a fierce gasp, dragging his wife with him.
Screaming, she fell to the floor. “I told you! He’s an animal! Kill him! Kill him now!”
Fury tore through Max with such ferocity that he lost complete control of his magick, even with the collar on to control it. All he knew was that he refused to go down like this. He refused to watch them kill his brother.