Dragons and Princes - [COMPLETE]

21. Patreos

"This is what she was frightened you would fall to," Marquis said quietly, watching as the blue light within her eyes began to ever so slowly fade.

"No."

"No?" The Keisere did not understand. "What do you mean?"

"I mean there is worse, and she is well on her way. What did her father say to her that did this?"

A dangerous anger flashed again in the Keisere’s eyes. "He had the audacity to express his disgust at the idea of Morganthe grandchildren– as if I would force myself upon– Aahh!!!"

Patreos flinched, another wave of icy hate coursing through him, and his entire body tensed, muscles threatening to tear, teeth threatening to shatter. The anger was split this time, equally divided for her father’s rebuke and Faeana’s new husband. Whatever her father had said, it had hurt her brutally. The Freyja never spoke to one another in a way that would threaten to send another into the storm. What he’d done had been a deliberate act.

Patreos forced himself to concentrate on her, on the words in his heart of his love for her. "Her father would rather the Freyja die as a whole than to allow more pain be brought upon them by you or your people," he said through gritted teeth.

The Keisere was restless and furious, and unlike the Freyja, he had no qualms about showing it. "I warned him Fenrir cannot tolerate the pain of women, and he intentionally hurt her in the worst way possible while trying to provoke me! I– " He ran his hand through his dark hair, pacing. "I felt it cut deeper than any blade I’ve ever known to cut flesh! And then she recoiled, and then this . . ."

Patreos found himself frowning, looking up at the strange Fenrir. It was almost as though the man cared that Faeana had been hurt.

He knew better.

"You are her friend, Captain, you must help her overcome this. You recovered from this yourself." Marquis shook his head frantically. "I didn’t realize this could happen to Freyja– "

"She came closer to turning than I did," Patreos growled. His sentences were short because he did not trust himself to say much more.

"Turning?"

How stupid could this Fenrir be?! "Turning. Killing her frey cat and becoming breken. We are the only beings the Ajatar resent more than the Scultone. After the first of our kind turned breken, killing her cat Frey, our people were left to die, and then yours came down upon us and began to slaughter us for whatever reason that started this war."

"What is a breken?" There was another note of dread forming within Marquis’s voice.

"A being without conscience. The song a breken sings with his soul kills everything, which is why the Lora has been avoided by our people since we discovered its existence. Until recently, everything there was dead." Patreos clenched his teeth. "If Faeana dies, every Freyja man, woman and child will, as a whole, set aside their calm and take to the field as breken. The Freyja will cease to exist in that moment. The victory will belong to the Fenrir, but you will face a new race. Breken."

"Why have I never heard of breken before?" Marquis exhaled, kneeling by Faeana and Patreos. The man’s hand was trembling when he brushed Faeana’s cheek, and Patreos had to force himself not to draw a dagger and plunge it into the Keisere’s chest for even touching her.

"It’s forbidden to turn. Any who become breken are slain immediately because they endanger even our own. Breken kill without bias. They are not Freyja."

Like Morgana, Marquis thought. Thousands of beings like–

A cold shiver ran through Faeana’s still form, and she sputtered, curling away from Patreos. Tears trekked her cheeks, trails the color of molten silver as he tried to reach for her again. "Faeana," Marquis choked, tilting her head back so that her eyes were staring almost vacantly through him, beyond him. Her blank expression creased with pain, and Marquis was struck by another wave of the pain she was warring. His hand fluttered to her chest, trembling where he pressed his fingers just over her heart. "She’s so fragile . . ." he stammered, horrified at the turmoil he sensed within her.