Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best e ink reader for manga .txt) 📕

limbs, two on his legs. They forced him to kneel in the waters of the oasis that lapped at his thighs. The water was barely knee-high. Somehow, it had looked deeper.

Tahira kept her hands on his head. “I’m sorry for this, Sultan.”

“Sorry for—”

Nahla whistled, and her warriors were at her beck and call. They all forced him forward, holding his head under the water. He struggled at first, wondering whether they were actually trying to kill him. But then he settled under their hands.

This is part of the process. They wanted to put him in stressful situations so that the dragon would try and protect him. That, he could understand.

Damn, he thought, they were really trying to kill him. They pulled his head out of the water and he gasped in a deep breath.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Sultan,” Tahira growled. “Just give in.”

He didn’t know how. Nadir wasn’t exactly the kind of person who knew how to let go. He was tightly wound as a bow string ready to snap.

They plunged his head back under the water.

His lungs burned with the need to breathe, but he trusted them not to kill him. They didn't want to destroy the kingdom. They didn't want his half-brother to remain on the throne. They wanted a dragon.

Why wasn’t his brother a dragon as well? He wanted to know the answer to that before he died.

His own beast didn’t even lift a finger to protect him, even when his mouth gaped open in an attempt to breathe. Water filled his nostrils and mouth. The Qatal again pulled him out and allowed a single gasping breath.

A growl echoes from behind him. Tahira’s fingers shifted into the claws of an eagle. “That’s enough. Pin him down.”

He was stretched out by their hands until they laid him out on the ground. She held his head just enough so that he could still breathe. Nadir stared up at her angry eyes and wondered who had hurt her so much that she could bear to drown a man like this.

She leaned down and her eyes shifted as well as her hands. Was she partially changing? He hadn’t thought that was possible.

“Listen to me, Nadir. There is a man who looks exactly like you seated on your throne. We wanted a dragon, but there are always other plans. If you don’t let go, if you don’t allow the dragon to take over your body, I will drown you. Don’t look at me like you don’t believe me. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.”

With that, she plunged him back under the water. He looked up at her through the murkiness of the oasis, watched her eyes shift back to human and the suddenly sad gaze in them.

He waited heartbeats. His lungs burned, his mouth gaped open. He needed to breathe, but didn’t struggle because of course they would pull him up again. This tactic would eventually work, he would grow tired of the torment, but not quite yet.

Again his mouth gaped open, his chest shifting as his body tried to breathe in air it would not find. He widened his gaze. Tahira looked back at him, her arms shifting and muscles bulging.

And they did not pull him up.

He flexed his biceps, trying to pull up and out of the water toward the air which was two inches above his face. He could reach it, if he had to. They couldn’t hold him under the water forever. He tightened the muscles in his legs, but the Beastkin all around him were partially shifting. They were holding him down, forcing him to remain until he realized something with crystal clarity.

They were going to kill him. If he didn’t fight, if he didn’t do what they wanted, they would kill him and he would lose…

Everything.

He struggled further. Contorting his body in ways he hadn’t thought possible to try to slip out of their grasp. But they held him further, not allowing him to move at all until a ripple of scales unfurled down his body.

He had to breathe soon. His lungs were screaming, his chest tightening over and over as it tried to force him to inhale. Water splashed over his vision. It churned in the wake of his frustration, and yet, through it all he could see her eyes. Tahira’s eagle eyes that stared him down.

The dragon took notice then. It wondered why he wasn’t fighting harder, why he would let these creatures hold him down when he could devour them in a single bite.

Still, he fought against his own urges. Nadir didn't want to hurt them. They were holding him so tightly.I If he changed, they would be sent flying away from his body. But his heart was beating in his ears and the dragon was roaring in his mind and he couldn’t think.

A blast of echoing pain rocked through his form. He arched in the hands of the Beastkin who suddenly released him and ran. Why was he still underwater? Why wasn’t the dragon taking over as it had before?

Blistering heat seared his flesh from his bones. Fire sizzled along his hair and he vaguely realized the water around him was boiling. Why couldn’t he take control over his body?

Sit up, he told himself. It’s two inches of water, just sit up.

He opened his mouth and inhaled. Water rushed past his lips, filling his lungs and leaving a leaden touch upon his very soul.

The last sultan of his line, the greatest in all history of Bymere, dying in two inches of water. His last thoughts echoed before the dragon inside him let out a primal scream of rage and blasted forward to take control.

18

Sigrid

“The age of dragons?” Sigrid repeated, the words echoing in her mind like a long forgotten prophecy. “There’s no such thing.”

“Look into the waters of ancestors long past. See for yourself, dragoness. That time has a way of healing all things.”

Something whispered in the back of her mind. A