Drakon: Butterfly (Drakon, #4)

by C.A. Caskabel

“Did he really let you go?” “Malan? Yes. What darker revenge could he have dreamed? I swear that he looked sad as I approached him and offered him the wine. The greatest man I’d ever known. The greatest monster. Uncarved together, since children. What cruel revenge could he inflict upon me other than that I’m still alive? Kill me? Pity not the dead for they sleep peacefully in the pyre. Have you ever seen a dead man get up and scream? As I do every night? Because I wake up every night. And I must wake up every morning. I don’t even have the strength to cut my hands off at the wrist. Because it would be weakness, not strength. Because I don’t deserve such peace. Do you know why I decided to stay here all those years? Because it is the worst punishment I can inflict upon myself. There is nothing to do in this desolate rock of salt and stone. No one to love, no one to fight, no horse to ride. There is only one thing to do. Suffer. Suffer the remembrance of the past. That’s the only thing I deserve.”