Fall of Dragons (Sera's Curse Book 3)

by Clara Hartley

  “Rylan, please,” I said. I took a moment to glance at his carved figure when Micah forced my head in his direction again. I had no choice but to look at Micah’s sensuous face—mouth slightly hanging open, eyes hooded but anchored on me.

  I tried to squeeze my thighs together. Rylan kept them open.

  “You’re mine,” Rylan muttered, propping his hands up beside my waist and moving his hips back and forth. There was a mild taunt in his voice, aimed toward Micah.

  “Ours,” Micah corrected, growling. “Sera belongs to all of us.”

  Rylan tore my panties away from my hips, slinging it to the ground before spreading my folds with his length and joining us together in a torturous, slow motion. Tears pooled in my eyes from the numbing pleasure. My breath hitched in my throat as the bliss of his entrance pulsed through my center. I clamped my grip over Micah’s shaft, and the both of them quickened the thrusting of their hips, almost in synchronized tandem.

  “Sera . . .” Micah breathed. He shut his eyes and threw his head back. I repeated his name to him, not quite sure what else to say while lost in the throes of lust, pleasure, and absolute euphoria.

  Rylan placed pressure on my nub, and I unraveled, unable to hold onto the tension gathering between my thighs anymore. My climax reached me in an unsteadying rush. Rylan’s features strained. He muttered my name beneath his breath, his thrusts becoming quicker until he was no longer taking me slowly but pounding and shoving his length through my folds with desperate need. I writhed under him, unable to take the assault of his movements so soon after coming.

  Micah clasped his hand over my shoulder, pinning me down. He wrapped his hand around mine, helping me stroke him, his tugs rough and impatient. My gaze met Micah’s as he languidly opened them again. He grunted and the three of us came, a second climax taking me abruptly. My body shook and I thought I might pull apart at the seams due to how sensitive I was.

  Rylan filled me with his seed, and Micah’s poured from the tip of his length, messing up my nightgown. Lost in the sensations, I spent a long moment staring up at the painted ceiling, gasping for air.

  Micah drew me back to the Drae Lands by lowering himself to my cheek and grazing me with his sweet, honeyed breath. “I love you, Sera,” he said, looking a little lost himself.

  “I need to get cleaned,” I replied, pushing myself from the bed. I was a sticky wreck, covered in sweat, their fluids, and some tears because that was good enough to make me cry.

  “It’s a wonder why you’re still without child,” Rylan said, sighing. He sat at the side of the bed and ran a hand through his black locks. “The elders are eager for an heir. We all are.”

  I placed a hand on my stomach, where I knew Rylan’s seed worked its way through. I’d continue to be without child after this night. I still wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with Aereala and her plans. The healers posited that it was due to my constant use of soul magic. Usually, when witches or dragon-kind used the art, they pooled magic and souls from the world, so it didn’t affect their constitutions. But the spell Aereala had given me took some part of me, or perhaps the magic Aereala had invested in me, and weakened my vitality. A body being put through such stresses simply could not sustain another life.

  The princes had almost made me stop bringing back the fields of crops after that suggestion, but I told them there was no point bringing a child in the world if it was dying. He couldn’t argue and reluctantly caved. We’d decided to try harder for a child next winter, when I wouldn’t have to worry about the harvest and would have time to rest. It didn’t work the last winter, but just maybe . . .

  “Time for a shower,” I said, avoiding the topic. Their moods always soured whenever this came up. I didn’t look back as I stepped into the bathroom.

  I took a long time with my second shower that night, hoping the tension between Micah and Rylan would lessen. Maybe Micah would leave, since we were done, and it’d just be me soothing Rylan to sleep.

  When I strode out of the bathroom, I hadn’t expected seeing Rylan and Micah on the bed, next to each other and looking regal, as they went through the report Micah had brought over earlier. Two pairs of blue eyes settled on me.

  Rylan scooted over, leaving a gap between Micah and him. He invited me to join him.

  They were getting along. That made me smile. I strolled toward the bed and hopped in, before snuggling in between my two husbands.

  Chapter Five

  I blinked awake.

  Purple skies greeted me. I looked down at the ground. Misty grass grew beneath my feet and when I lifted a leg to sweep past it, it fogged in and out of existence.

  “I’m in the spiritual realm,” I muttered. Soft echoes layered my voice. My intonations always seemed stranger whenever I returned to this place.

  The last few times I was here, Aereala had met me next to a huge, iconic tree. She sometimes also brought me to a beautiful, opalescent, sparkling waterfall.

  Not this time.

  I stood on a cliff, overseeing a huge expanse of beauty. My gaze met an ocean with patches of grassy land blue in color. They peeked out from the rippling waters shining magenta due to the hues of the sky. On those lands were gorgeous flowers, colored purple, yellow, red, and every other color noticeable to the human eye. The clouds above looked like fluffy cotton, and for a second, I wondered if they’d taste sweet. I almost stuck my tongue out, just to taste the air, but would that look too stupid?

  Seeerraaaa.

  Aereala’s voice, ghostly and thin because we had yet to make a connection, swept toward me.

  I turned around, following her voice. I didn’t have time to blink when Aereala circled her hand around my wrist. “Sera, we meet again.” Her words sounded like cool liquid. They played like soothing music laced with a godly resonance.

  In my peripheral vision, I spotted a strange, intriguing sight which sent utter confusion through my mind. An anomaly. It didn’t fit in with this wonderful landscape. It destroyed the ethereal beauty of it, jutting out of the grandeur like a terrible scar.

  I flicked my thumb in the direction of the landmark. “Is that a giant rock shaped like a penis?” I asked the goddess.

  The goddess drew her eyes wider and glanced over my shoulder. She then crinkled her brow in puzzlement. “I never saw it that way.” She sighed. “I show you another realm, a place where many people would kill to reach, and this is one of the first things you notice?”

  I rubbed my lips together, wondering why the goddess sounded judgmental. “I can’t help it. It sticks out.” Quite literally, too.

  Aereala shook her head and pulled me away from the cliff, farther from the wondrous ocean and the magnificent, protruding penis. When she moved, she floated, and I struggled to keep up with my clunky, human feet and wobbly steps.

  “Why are you sending me here this time?” I asked, almost tripping on a rock that misted away as soon as my foot crossed over it. “Do you have something to tell me?” I halted and frowned at where the rock used to be. “Have you figured out another way? So that I won’t have to—”

  “You are one of my favorite creations, Sera,” Aereala said, “but I’m not going against my plans.”

  “Ancient accounts from old witches spoke of spells that could draw from the realm of the dead. The princes and I wondered if we could balance the magics from—”

  “No. That is not a possibility.”

  The goddess’s grip was firm and strong, far stronger than what I’d assume a dainty, pretty woman like her would be capable of. But then again, she’d created the Drae Lands with her essence. I assumed she’d be able to lift mountains if she wanted to.

  Aereala led me until we were settled next to what looked like a desert with green sand. The winds here never stopped blowing, and the sand blew across the expanse, dancing through the air in an almost choreographed pattern. A chill swept past my skin. Then heat came. Cool returned right after, and I frowned at the sudden dips and rises of temperature.

  Aereala b
linked. Her eyelashes, which looked like there were bits of diamonds in them, fluttered down, then up. “I’m here to warn you.”

  My chest sank. I hated it whenever she had something to warn me about. The last time she told me I’d only have three to four years to live before she’d come down and take over my body. “About?” I prompted.

  Her features tightened, then, almost regretfully, the blond goddess said, “I might have to come down sooner.”

  I froze. My whole body clamped up, and it felt like I floated. Maybe I really did float since anything could happen around this place. The floating sensation ceased, and the weight of her words crushed down on me. I was almost too afraid to ask the next question, but I tossed them out of my lips anyway, as if summoning the anguish from my heart. “How long?”

  “It’s so hard to wrap my mind around your human time frames.” Aereala looked away from me and at the mounds of sand. Her green pupils flickered. “Six months, maybe. I’m going to gather every last bit of my strength and send it to the Drae Lands. Power is diluted when sent to the physical realm, so I will need a sizable amount. Hopefully, that will be enough. Gaean is weakened now because of what happened in Raynea. But he is also desperate, and he’s trying his hardest to foil my plans and destroy everything.”

  Six months. No time at all. We’d spent a whole year doing everything we could to find more clues, but there weren’t enough in the Drae Lands. We’d poured through so much information in twelve months, and it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere closer to an alternative at all. “Why does he want to destroy everything?”

  “One part of him does, and it’s because that’s how he is. He is chaos. He likes the new and he believes the world is stale, and only through great pressure will things change.”

  I couldn’t breathe. Had the air suddenly gone stiff? “There has to be some other way.”

  “I thank you, Sera. Your idea with the spells helped me greatly. Many more dragon-kind would have died if not for your interference, and you should be proud of yourself.”

  But I didn’t want to be just proud. I wanted to live.

  “Please,” I begged.

  “There is no other way.” Aereala truly did look sorry then. She gazed at me like she would a poor child. But I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me. I wanted her to find a way out.

  “This isn’t fair! We still haven’t . . . At least let me give them a child. For me to live on with the princes, somehow.” Was it even possible, since dragon children needed eighteen months to gestate? But this was the goddess I talked to. Surely, she could make it possible?

  “A child.” Her expression darkened, and her apologetic look morphed into bitter anger. “The princes . . . are a problem.”

  “What are they?”

  I could tell she hated talking about Rylan and the others. But why? She kept avoiding telling me more about the princes—why it didn’t hurt when they touched, why the Everbornes had lightning unlike most other dragon-kind.

  But she didn’t answer me. She returned her gaze to the green sand. “Do not trust what you hear or see. I’ve managed to lock much of Gaean’s influence somewhere else, and his power to ruin the balance is weakening. Less dragon-kind will be born in the next few months so they will be unable to ruin the balance. Less fields will turn to ash. Still, he keeps trying to come back, so you must be wary. Careful. Do not let him win.”

  “But you love him?”

  “I do.”

  “Even though he’s trying to kill the whole of the Drae Lands?” Despite him being the reason for my existence and death?

  “Sometimes love and kinship allows forgiveness, Sera. It’s something you’ve yet to learn.”

  “A child, Aereala. You can do something about that, right? You control—”

  But she let my hand go, and I was thrown back into a deep slumber.

  Chapter Six

  The palace was in chaos today, reflecting the turmoil in my heart. I didn’t waste any time telling Aereala’s verdict to Rylan and his brothers. They deserved to know. I didn’t want to hold it in my chest for days and weeks on end like before. When the truth came out eventually, it’d just breed anger and suspicion.

  This time, the anger didn’t need to breed or simmer. It came in an explosion and popped out, like flames from a dragon’s mouth, similar to how I blurted the truth in the middle of breakfast. Kael made a terrible joke and started to hit things after that, Gaius hugged me so tightly he almost squashed my ribcage, Micah went speechless, and Rylan immediately barked orders to the servants and tried to put things together like he often did. The whole Council of Intelligence had refocused their attention to soul magic and religious research due to Rylan’s directions.

  I doubted they’d manage anything. I always tried to keep things positive, to be hopeful, but things were falling apart too quickly around me.

  I sighed and kicked a rock. It rolled across the grass and stopped in front of Mayhem’s foot.

  Even my ingorias weren’t getting along, and I always thought of the giant, wolf-like beings as a source of comfort. They used to snuggle up to me and lick my face whenever I had a bad day. Today, they were too busy growling at each other to pay much attention. What was my visit to the kennels for, then? They’d grown so large that the even the ginormous marble structure didn’t seem like enough space for them anymore.

  I folded my arms and wore my sternest look. “Both of you,” I said to Mayhem and Grunt. “Stop it.” The skies glowed blue and bright today. I wondered if the ingorias ever felt hot under the beating temperatures, but I’d read somewhere that their coats actually served as insulation.

  I stepped between the two canine brothers and held my hands up.

  I tapped my foot on the grassy ground, trying not to get too nerve-wracked by standing between two aggressive ingorias. I had a sack of soul beads tied at my hip, and Pointy, my sword that Kael gifted me, strapped to the other side, just in case they decided to pounce. But I was certain they’d never hurt me.

  “Maybe they should go back to Beyestirya,” Frederick said.

  I flashed him an incredulous look. Frederick always looked incredibly nervous when standing next to the wolf-like creatures, but he lingered anyway. I knew he was really here to cheer me up, which was more than I can ask for from any friend.

  Frederick fiddled with his thumbs.

  “Nervous?” I asked him.

  He scratched the back of his ear. “Can’t blame me for being so. Your ingorias are terrifying.”

  “You don’t have to be here.”

  “There’s little time left for you to hang out with me, and I thought you’d want to spend more time with your best friend. You know, since you love me so much.” He gave me a shaky smile.

  Mayhem snapped his jaws at Grunt. A half-whimper, half-squeak pinched through Frederick’s lips.

  “The ingorias like you.” Aura licked her paw, ignoring her two growling brothers. She lay on a hot patch of exposed cobblestone, enjoying the warmth on her belly. “They wouldn’t hurt you unless you sorely pissed them off.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  A brief moment of silence spaced between us.

  “Torley keeps moaning when with me,” Frederick said.

  I scowled at him. “Ew, Frederick. I don’t need to know that.” Should I tell him of what the princes did in bed, too? These things shouldn’t be shared around.

  Then again, Frederick probably wouldn’t mind. I shook my head to myself.

  Frederick scowled. “Where’d your mind go to, Sera? I was talking about food. He likes my cooking. It’s so good that he can’t help but vocalize whenever I feed him.”

  I rolled my eyes away and turned to him. “That’s terrible.”

  “Made you smile.”

  “Fine.”

  I latched my grip into the furs of Mayhem and Grunt so they wouldn’t continue fighting. I kept my fingers inside their furs, hoping to soothe them with my touch. It was working, but barely. They continued
to growl at each other. The handlers told me they were impossible to control when I wasn’t around and would just break out into a fight once they released them from their pens.

  Mayhem had bloodied Grunt once. He mauled Grunt’s face and stained both of their snowy coats red. Rylan had to hire special handlers to deal with them. They were all draerins because dreryns and darmars didn’t dare go too close.

  Frederick was the only darmar who dared stand this near to the ingorias. Aura had warmed up to him. She’d protect him with her life, even though Frederick still seemed afraid of her.

  He gingerly hovered a piece of dried meat over Mayhem as a peace offering. Mayhem was too focused on Grunt, however, so Frederick sighed and tossed the meat back to Aura, who gobbled it up without hesitation. “Six months, huh?”

  “Word travels quickly,” I muttered.

  “With all the shouting Rylan’s doing, it’s not really a surprise.”

  “I’m at a loss,” I said, massaging Grunt behind his ears. His growl lessened to a soft purr.

  Frederick sighed. “So am I.”

  I barely ever saw Frederick upset. He was the kind of guy who took things as they came and went. “At least, once you’re gone, you won’t chide me anymore when I’m at the council,” he continued.

  I snorted, combing my hand through Grunt’s fur. “Oh, great. Glad to know you’ll miss me.”

  “I will,” Frederick said, without a hint of teasing.

  I looked at my pets and shook my head. “Why can’t you three get along, now? Will you all be fighting during my last few months left to live?”

  Ingorias could be awfully perceptive because of how smart they were. Mayhem and Grunt probably sensed the desperation in my voice and that they calmed slightly. Grunt made a whiny noise, since he was the sweetest of the three, and he slumped to the ground, laying on his paws somewhat reluctantly. The handlers said they’d try and let me ride them next week. They were getting harnesses tailored.