by Zara Stark
“Nevada!” I yelled. I heard the loud thumping of snow falling in clumps to the ground. The same sound snow made when you shoveled it and dumped it into a massive pile.
Nevada flew up a second later. His pale blue scales glittering from being covered in snowflakes. His spikes and claws were an opalescent white that sparkled from the snow as well. My jaw dropped open, he was the prettiest dragon of them all.
He came right toward us, making Cobalt and Raiden flap their wings to higher to get away. But Nevada just circled around us twice. Weird, he wasn’t attacked. Azar extinguished his fireball and wrapped his arm back around my waist. Nevada flew one more circle around us before gesturing with his head to follow him. I was sure that Raiden and Cobalt were as wigged out as Azar and I were but they followed him. Nevada led us to a massive cave, the cyan dragon landing with ease on the stone floor. Raiden went first, landing ahead of us. Cobalt hung back waiting. Raiden’s massive form blocking us from view.
“Nevada!” I yelled out again, unable to help myself. Azar gave me another squeeze.
Abruptly, Raiden shifted back and we were able to see ahead of us. Up ahead, Nevada stood in human form, an out of character grin on his face. His skin and eyes glowed an icy blue-white. Shocked, both Azar and I practically jumped off of Cobalt’s back. The second our sandaled feet touched the cold stone floor, Cobalt shifted back into human form as well.
“Nevada!” I ran forward, Azar less than an inch behind me, keeping me warm. I launched myself into Nevada’s cold arms. And boy was he cold, like an instant-frostbite cold. I let go of him and smiled up at him. I couldn’t see his beautiful sapphire eyes just the glow. “Are you okay?”
“Never better,” He smiled, his voice devoid of its usual monotone and full of euphoria and glee instead. “How did this happen? We won our battle and then I was on this mountain, soaking up all the cold I can get and then you guys showed up.”
“Boy, do I got a story for you,” I grinned at him.
---
That night we sat around our makeshift home. We might not be in my warm, cozy house back home nor were we in the opulent castelli the Concilium provided for their slaves. We were in a dank cave, barely being kept warm by Azar and Raiden and yet I had never felt more at home. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop touching their faces, looking into their eyes, it didn’t feel real to me at all. I had all four of them back now after everyone had doubted me.
The guys were just as happy as well, still shocked and ashamed that they had flown away and left me in the clutches of the Concilium and then spent a while in Tartarus. I told them they didn’t need to worry, it wasn’t their fault and I truly believed it, I wasn’t mad. It hadn’t been their actions that separated us but the Concilium’s, the Gods.
I would blame everyone else before I could ever blame them. Guilt is one of those feelings that’s impossible to shake off, just because another resolves you of your guilt doesn’t mean it leaves your body. Guilt is like a poison, lingering in your body, hurting you. I understood how that emotion was infecting them, poisoning their hearts but I wished they wouldn’t feel that way. Their guilt made them especially doting toward me. There were fewer jokes at my expense and more careful affection than what I was used to. They treated me like I was fragile and for the first time since I was reunited with them, it kind of irritated me, though I would never show it. As much as I loved their attention, treating me like I was this gentle, fragile lady stung.
I had fought off the Concilium without them and done a damn fine job. I had survived and escaped an immortal prison built to trap gods, demons and monsters alike. I had done most of it with a deck I had no idea how to use and a plucky attitude. And still, they treated me like I was made of glass. I knew most of it was my broken arm and that my emotions were petty, so I would never say anything. My ego was a bit bruised and my ego could do with some bruising every now and then. I was being ridiculous, everything they did was out of love for me and each other, just like everything I did was out of love for them.
“Tavia,” Nevada whispered from across the table, seeming to sense the dark turn of my thoughts. At my name, I pulled myself from my thoughts and looked into his glowing eyes. Being on this mountain, surrounded by subzero temperatures and miles upon miles of snow had his power on overdrive. I had noticed that if my guys were overfull of their elements they tended to lose more and more self-control. Azar seemed a lot calmer from not being in a warm environment. Raiden always had temper and feeling-sorry-for-himself problems that he never felt bad about sharing. Cobalt was the only one who seemed to manage his element just fine and always seemed perfectly in control of himself.
“Yes?” I asked.
He had that same funny look again, that he did the day of our last tournament battle.
“You’ve gotten incredibly strong, haven’t you? Playing cards, dice, the coin, and Tarot cards,” Nevada started. It was more than just an observation, this was leading to something. Whatever he found in the old scrolls we had stolen from the Atrium Liberatatis.
“She’s not getting strong, she’s always been strong,” Cobalt gruffed. “She’s just fine-tuning it.”
I grinned at him. Cobalt never gave compliments especially false ones so he must truly mean it.
“Spit it out, Vada, what did you find in the scrolls?” Raiden snapped at him, impatient as always.
“You’re not a witch, you’re not a sorceress, you’re not an X-Man or alien like you like to amuse yourself with thinking,” Nevada’s dark blue eyes bored into mine, freezing me in place. “You’re the reincarnation of a goddess. The Roman Goddess of Luck both good and bad. You’re Fortuna reborn.”
We all sat for a moment in silence, four pairs of dragon eyes locking onto me with such intensity. I clenched my fists tight in my lap. I hated that I didn’t feel one bit of shock, just relief, that someone had said it aloud. That it came out of someone else’s mouth and not my own.
“It explains the exponential growth in your powers since coming back to your root of power,” Raiden whispered, his eyes met mine and they seemed trouble.
I nodded at him, biting my lip.
“You knew, or suspected,” Nevada accused.
I sighed and looked to him before letting my eyes sweep over all of my guys. “I suspected I was something more than human, more than just a magical creature or witch. Some of theGodsthat I’ve encountered acted like they knew me and were surprised that I didn’t know them. Tartarus wanted to keep me in his prison to fuel his power. Then Mab told me it was impossible for a human to be the destined mate of dragons, not when humans are mortal and you’re not.”
They all flinched. That was it. That was the truth bomb I had been hiding since I brought Cobalt to his right mind.
“Were you ever going to tell me? Did you suspect this whole time that I would grow old and wither away and you would carry on without me? That we would have children that would live forever and forget about me after a century. That I would grow old alone as you stayed young and fit. That eventually we would go out and people would think I was your mother and then grandmother until I would be too wizened to get up anymore,” Tears streamed down my face. “Were you?”
“No, we weren’t,” Cobalt reached for my hand and squeezed it in his much larger one so I couldn’t escape. “We didn’t plan on living long without you. We planned to follow you in death wherever that would happen.”
My heart ached in my chest. “Really? Leaving any children we would have behind alone?”
“We weren’t sure if we were even capable of reproducing, a calculated risk,” Raiden ran his hands through his golden hair, guilt written on his face. “We would never hurt you, we just didn’t know how to tell you.”
“And I would never hurt you four, I would rather you live happy full lives without me then be shackled to me until I age and die,” I wiped the tears from my face with shaking hands. “I don’t want you to follow me into death, I want you guys to live happily even if it’s without me.”
“It’s not going to happen though, you’re a goddess,” Nevada interjected and I fixed him with a glare.
“The intent to lie by omission was there though,” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Octavia,” Raiden interrupted.
“What?!” I swung my head around to glare at him, finding him with a huge smile on his face.
“This is perfect, you’re Fortuna, one of the deities that agreed to the Concilium’s contract with the Gods, you can vote to end it,” Raiden grinned. Azar’s face stretched into a happy grin next to him.
“That’s insane,” I whispered.
“That’s why your power has magnified so much since you’ve been in Games then, you’ve been feeding off of the good and bad luck in the arena,” Nevada added. “It all makes sense.”
“That means she was one of the deities that voted for the contract in the first place, enslaving out entire species and countless others. The reason why we don’t know any of our family and our clan was splintered into practically nothing,” Cobalt looked at me in a shocked expression I had never seen on his face. All of the guys' faces took on that shocked expression after he said that
“I wasn’t me guys, I don’t remember being the previous Fortuna,” I grimaced, feeling guilty, tears rolled down my cheeks. “I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I’ll do anything to fix it.”
“Don’t guilt her you prick, that wasn’t her. She’s Octavia, I don’t give a fuck who Fortuna is and what she did. I know all about Octavia thought. How intelligent, strong and caring she is, how she somehow has enough room in her heart for all four of us assholes. Don’t you dare try to blame her,” Azar jumped to his feet and yelled at Cobalt,
“Thank you, Azar,” I stood, looking back and forth between all four of them. I hoped they could see the determination on my face, the absolute dead seriousness in the set of my shoulders. “I never wanted to be a goddess. I always saw my magic as some terrible flaw that I needed to hide. But I’m done hiding. I’m done being normal. If becoming Octavia the goddess of luck both good and bad will right the wrongs against your kind, then I’ll do it. I promise you that.”
The End For Now!
Dragon Triumphant is next!
Getting home should be easy as 1…2…3!
Convincing a few immortal Gods to give up a tasty source of power.
Defeat a bunch of evil warlocks
Kill or bribe a time-traveling God of Time.
It should be easy now that the five of us are finally reunited. We may have won the Dragon Gladiator Games but we weren’t playing at a game anymore, this is war. To survive, I may have to embrace who I really am and I’m not sure I’m ready.
Dragon Triumphant
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About the Author
Zara Stark is a former Los Angeles resident that defected to small-town Iowa a few years ago.
Besides obsessively reading and writing, she enjoys exploring outdoors, tarot cards, karaoke and conspiracy theory YouTube videos.
While she loves the Midwestern snowstorms she desperately misses the beach. While writing has always been her number one passion,
Zara went to school for biotechnology, geology and eventually nursing. She has hiked inside of a volcano, slid down a giant sand dune with her butt on a clipboard and has seen some crazy things working in the healthcare industry, her favorite adventures are still inside of her head
. You can find her any day of the week off on an adventure with her husband/BFF and their toddler.
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