Kiss of Darkness (The Dragon Legion Novellas) by Deborah Cooke Page B

who don’t deserve to rest.” Petra glanced about them. “This must be Tartarus.”
    “It doesn’t look any different from the rest.”
    “No, but the Erinyes are said to guard its gates and punish its occupants for Hades.”
    “Then where are the occupants?”
    Petra heaved a sigh. “I think we should be glad to be unable to see them. Maybe we’re only half-dead now.”
    “I feel half-dead,” he muttered, then surveyed the corpse again. Damien’s disgust with himself was clear—and a perfect echo of Petra’s own. “I had no idea what she was.”
    “Stories,” Petra reminded him, unable to resist.
    “I never had much opportunity to listen to stories, even when I was a boy.”
    “Why not?”
    His frown deepened. “My father was consumed with serving my mother’s will. She kept him drunk, hungry, and a slave to the pleasures of her bedchamber. She liked having a pet dragon.” He shook his head. “There were no stories in our home.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    He continued, his tone so matter-of-fact that she knew he was still pained by the memory. “My father said I should be sent to train as soon as my powers were noted. I was eleven years of age when I was sent to Delphi.”
    Delphi. He’d gone to Delphi for that prophecy.
    “My mother didn’t want me to go. She would have kept me back, just to have another dragon at the ready. My father defied her for the first time ever.”
    “He must have won,” Petra said.
    He met her gaze steadily. “She had been giving him a potion for years. It was from the east and intended to weaken him. He was a slave to pleasure with no thoughts of his own. His defiance over my fate surprised her and angered her. He roused himself, what was left of him, and commanded me to run. It was the only order he’d ever given me and I didn’t dare to disobey.”
    “She didn’t kill him,” Petra asked.
    Damien nodded. “I prefer to think that he let her win.”
    Petra stared at the ground, realizing why Damien had been afraid to trust her with his survival. She considered him now, and feared that he too would be destroyed by a determination to save his son.
    “Could you tell me the prophecy again?”
    “You don’t remember?”
    “I don’t have a dragon’s memory.” Their gazes locked and held for a hot moment, then Damien spoke softly, reciting the verse.
     
    “A lost child mourned for many years
    A mother who will shed no tears
    A dragon warrior turned to stone
    A woman abandoned, all alone.
    Firestorm’s promise will fade to naught
    Until stone and fire pay death’s cost.
    After a Pyr sacrifice is made
    Destiny’s promise can be claimed.
     
    He looked at her hard. “There’s a promise in it, a chance if its conditions are fulfilled. At the time, I heard only the warning.”
    “And you were sure that I’d be the one who turned you to stone.”
    Damien looked embarrassed. “I didn’t even know that such a thing was possible. I was surprised, Petra, and reacted badly.” He stood up and came to her, taking her hand in his. She didn’t dare meet his gaze, not when he ran his thumb across her hand and bent his attention on her as he did now. He was trying to convince her of something and Petra knew his task was half won. “I didn’t tell you what happened to my company of warriors, or where I’ve been.”
    His words surprised her into looking up, and then she was snared by the intensity of his gaze.
    “We went to hunt a viper, which is what we call one of our kind turned bad. This one was enchanting men in his vicinity, turning their thoughts to wickedness. He was inciting war and hardship. He turned his spell on us.”
    Petra caught her breath. “He turned you to stone.”
    “To teeth, actually. Warriors defeated by him were turned to dragon teeth, used by him in attacking others. But when he died and his remains became part of the earth, the teeth turned to stone.”
    “That would have taken a long time.”
    “Centuries.” Damien’s lips tightened and