The winds blew constantly. A nice change from Raynea’s humid atmosphere, but we didn’t come here for the winds.
This was supposed to be Gaia, land of the humans, bustling with activity and life, far more than what was available in the Drae Lands. This was supposed to be home to my kind, my people.
Where were the crops?
The humans?
Why were there no signs of life?
Our troupe of explorers were the only living beings for miles. Beneath us, my ingorias ran, keeping up easily with the dragons on their feet. Their stamina surprised me. They must have been aching for exercise after being trapped in their kennels for so long.
If they ran out of breath, Rylan promised me he and his brothers would give them a ride. He had a wingspan capable of lifting four horse-sized wolves.
A cloud puffed in my face. I swatted it away, but water from it had already condensed on my skin.
“Mountains!” Bianca shouted at me. She raised an arm and pointed to a stretch of them, which ran in a zigzag pattern in the distance. Bianca had a beautiful voice, or so my father liked to say, but all I could hear was a shrill, annoying tune.
She should have stayed in Constanria.
She was perched on one of the servant-warriors who’d followed us here. They were the bravest of their kind, since many didn’t want to come to Gaia for fear they might never return. Loyal to Rylan, they called themselves the Evaradraes, draerins from families who’d sworn to the Everborne name two generations back.
We flew onward, toward the mountains since we weren’t sure where else to go.
The mountain range was capped with snowy tops, and above it, a large castle poked out, one I’d seen many times in history books. It crumbled at the sides, weathered down by time. I pushed myself up from Micah’s body to get a better look. “Is that . . .” My eyes widened. “It’s Dragon Keep!”
A place of myth. The home of the first king and queen.
Micah lowered and lifted his head in an exaggerated form of a nod. Rylan banked right, and so did everyone else. We traveled to the castle, stopping to pick up the ingorias and don clothes suitable for winter as we did. Soon after, Micah landed his talons into the frozen caps of the mountain.
Bianca lowered herself from the dragon she rode and walked to me, eyes bright with wonder. “It’s the home of the Everstone dragons. There must have been hundreds of hidraes living here a long time ago, filling the skies with their wings. Can you imagine?”
I could, but I didn’t like offering her conversation, so I slipped off Micah’s back.
She continued before I could stalk off. “It’s unbelievable. When Mother told us of this place, I thought it was myth. Surely there couldn’t be so many hidraes in one location. They’re such a rarity in Constanria.” She glanced at Micah and gave him such a sugary smile, I felt sick.
Micah spun around. He paced away from me to shift back. When the princes called to their human forms, I wanted to shroud them with an illusion spell, just so Bianca wouldn’t have a view of their forms. She had the decency to look away when Micah picked his clothes from his satchel to put them on.
Her cheeks swelled with redness as she peered up at the castle. “Father will lose his mind when I tell him I’ve been here.”
Mayhem slid down from Kael’s back and snarled at Bianca. The ingorias never liked her or Theo. I lifted a finger and pointed at my canine. “Don’t you hurt her,” I said. Was it so terrible that the ugly part of me wouldn’t mind if my ingorias sank their teeth through Bianca? I would find the idea repulsive if it were any other person but . . .
I hated when such emotions made me think such terrible things.
Mayhem growled and padded away, despite continuing to give my sister a sharp look.
“Thanks,” Bianca said.
I couldn’t feign friendliness, so I ignored her and walked toward Rylan.
The Evaradraes quickly got to work. Half of them shifted back into human forms, while the others, as dragons, aided in spreading out tents. They pulled their supplies from their trunks and put them to work.
“We’ve been flying endlessly,” Rylan said, settling his deep gaze on me. “And we found nothing.”
“Perhaps the humans decided to move somewhere else?”
I took out my canteen from my backpack and drew a large gulp. I forgot to keep myself hydrated during the long ride. “Want some?” I asked.
He accepted my offer and drank some water from my canteen. “I hope you’re right.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “But this emptiness . . . it’s unsettling. There had be millions of people around here. Did they really die off? Maybe they’d experienced a famine, too, and were driven away. In that case, the expedition would have been for naught.”
“You’re worrying too much. Aereala wouldn’t let a whole continent of people perish, would she?”
“No, but she warned us that was what might happen in the Drae Lands.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said. “We’ve barely skimmed the continent. Gaia is a large place.”
As I put my canteen back into my backpack, Rylan gathered me in his arms. He placed a kiss on my forehead. “I truly, truly, hope you’re right.” He brushed a strand of hair away from my cheek and his fingertip grazed my skin, sending a gentle, calming sensation through me.
I peered back toward the castle. The dragon stone it was made stood strong despite time weathering it down, but most of the metal on it had rusted and chipped off. The castle looked like an empty shell compared to the grandeur it had been depicted in sketches.
If Dragon Keep didn’t last through whatever had happened here in Gaia, what would?
We decided to set up camp in Dragon Keep, at least for the night, and the expedition would continue the next morning. There was only one empty room in the castle fit for staying, and it was on the first floor.
I smiled to a servant as he laid out a mattress in the room we’d picked. It was the least crumbled one compared to the rest, although a small corner did leave space for some specks of golden light to stream through. The sun was as yellow as ever—a constant between Constanria and Gaia. It never seemed to change in the physical realm.
“Hope this is comfortable enough for you, Your Majesty,” the servant said. He was the first to smile at me in a long time. There was a gap between his two front teeth.
“It is,” I replied.
It wasn’t similar to the luxury I was acclimatized to. There was dirt all over the room, and some of the snow in here had melted and turned to a grimy slush. It was more than I’d expected, however. Perhaps this was the room of the first queen herself. It was surreal to think about it.
The servant dipped his head and made himself scarce. He passed by Rylan and gave him a deep bow before continuing on.
Rylan stopped beside me. “Dragon Keep, huh?”
“Yeah.” The dim, dusty place was lit by a torch hung next to the wall. “I’d always imagined this place to be more majestic.”
He pulled me into his arms and tugged me to his lips. He eased my mouth open with his and slipped his tongue in. The sudden desire coursing through me took me by surprise.
When he leaned back, I looked up at him, stunned. “Rylan?” I asked. Where had that burst of affection come from?
“I needed to kiss you.” His breath was warmer than usual, especially in these mountain winds.
“Why?”
“We flew for hours, Sera. And there was nothing. No signs of life. Not even forests for us to forage. Just empty, dead fields, and this decrepit castle, located on mountaintops just as bleak as the rest of this land.”
“What if it’s just these parts. It can’t be that all the humans died off. The first queen ordered the mass migration to protect them from dragon-kind, for Aereala’s sakes. The whole meaning of the moving would be useless if they’re truly gone.”
“I hope you’re right.” He dragged me against him once more, and I tasted more of the fire in his heart. I tried to maintain a
s much positivity as I could, but some of Rylan’s pessimism affected me, and I became afraid for my death as well. I didn’t want to leave the princes. If I died, then I would never get to experience their warm embraces no longer. I wanted at least another ten, fifty, five-hundred years with them. Forever wouldn’t be enough.
Rylan jolted, almost biting down on my lip. I pulled away and glanced over his shoulder.
It was Kael. He had a dagger missing from his hip. “Oi,” he said. “Slacking on the job?”
The dagger clattered against a dragon stone brick and fell onto the ground.
“Slacking?” Rylan asked, frowning and rubbing the back of his head. “I’m spending time with my queen.”
“Our queen,” Kael corrected, picking his dagger up from the ground. “We’re supposed to scout the castle for hints, and here you are, kissing.”
Rylan raised a brow. “And why are you here if not to be kissing as well?”
Kael shrugged. “I wanted to show Sera this. I thought it might cheer her up.” He clasped a roll of paper in his hand, and he held it up to me.
I plucked it from him and peeled it open. “What’s this?” Kael didn’t have to answer. I could see for myself. It was a gorgeous portrait of me, done with rough but deliberate strokes of charcoal. The best of my features was emphasized—my eyes made rounder, lips fuller. And my blemishes, such as my eye bags which often plagued me whenever I had restless nights, were made to enhance the portrait instead of existing as flaws. I was beautiful in it.
“You did this?” I asked Kael, feeling touched. I didn’t know Kael had such an amazing artistic prowess.
Kael chuckled. “No, of course not. It was done by your sister.”
Immediately, the awe I had for the picture turned to disgust. I rolled up the sketch and passed it back to Kael. “You can keep it.” In fact, I didn’t even want him to do that. “Or give it back to her.” My first instinct was to rip it into two, but I still could recognize gorgeous works of art despite my hatred, and my hesitation held me back.
“You don’t like it?” Kael said, taking the drawing back from me. “Your sister’s on a creative roll, I think. She can’t stop sketching Gaia, and she’s doing some portraits while at it. The Evaradraes are loving her.”
He really wasn’t making this any better. I didn’t make it clear to the princes about my feelings for my sister. I knew such intense emotions of hatred weren’t right. “That’s worse.”
“I don’t understand,” Kael replied, frowning. “I was thinking of asking her to sketch a portrait of me, too.”
“No,” was my immediate response. “Absolutely not.”
Rylan sensed what I was getting at. “Perhaps you should refrain, Kael.”
The need to claim my princes surged through me, so I propelled myself forward and planted a kiss on Kael’s lips. I needed to make him think of only me, so he would stop seeing my sister for the angel she pretended to be. Kael stilled, not certain how to react to my aggressiveness.
“Well, when you ask me like that . . .” He smirked, then placed his hand on my waist. I hugged him as tightly as I could, inhaling his scent. I peeled back the hem of his pants and wrapped my fingers around his length.
A hiss pulled from Kael’s lips. “S-sera.”
“Just me,” I replied, moaning against his breath.
Rylan came to me from behind. He pushed up my shirt and slid his hand against my belly, holding me by my waist, too. He rocked his hips against mine and kissed my shoulder. Kisses moved up my shoulder and to my neck. The both of them growled. Then I remembered the princes had just shifted back from their dragon forms, and the need to claim me would be there.
I was lighting a fire.
My skin burned as Kael grabbed my legs from behind my knees and forced me to wrap them around his hips.
“If you ruin my shirt,” I told Rylan, who gripped it so tightly I was afraid he might shred it, “I will make you suffer. I only brought a couple of them to Gaia, and I’m not sure how long we’ll be here.”
“And how will you make me suffer, Sera, love?” Rylan hummed against my neck.
“Do you want to find out?”
“Hmmm.” I didn’t have to look at his face to know he was smiling. “You make a tempting offer.”
“She’s mine,” Kael said. “You’re mine, Sera. And I like claiming what’s mine.” He liked saying that. His blue pupils lit into a bright azure.
Rylan tugged my shirt up and off my body, then let it slip to the ground. The temperatures of Dragon Keep was still icy despite the dark walls around us, but the princes quickly replaced the chill with their body heat.
“You’ll be safe,” Rylan said, as if reminding himself of what was to come. “You’ll be okay.” And then I realized Rylan needed this, not simply because of his lust, but because he wanted to reassure himself all would be fine.
I pried myself away from Kael to face him, cupping his cheeks with a firm grip. “You’re worrying too much, silly.” I tried to keep a carefree attitude but the threat of Aereala’s descent hung like a noose around my neck, gradually getting tighter.
Rylan shook his head, not sharing my smile. They set me on the mattress and Rylan lingered his touch over my pelvis. He leveled a toe-curling look at me before he removed my pants. My stomach pitched from the intensity of their hunger. Kael grabbed my wrist and forced my hand back on his length.
“Don’t stop, Sera,” Kael said. “Just . . .” He threw his head back and groaned when I tightened my grip. He throbbed in my touch, when Rylan pried my legs open and wasted no time to sink himself into my center. Kael pulled himself from me, then took my lips. “Don’t stop,” he repeated. But he’d forced me to. It was like he asked me not to leave. Don’t leave.
Tears gathered in my eyes.
“I won’t,” I said. “I won’t stop.” We couldn’t. Not until we ran out of options. Something had to come from this trip from Gaia. Just a hint of hope would do. It would allow us to keep pushing and fighting for survival. The tightness in my belly built as Rylan rocked his length inside of me. It climbed and climbed in a crescendo that also swelled in my chest. I loved these men. They kept me company and filled my days with joy.
Death, in comparison, seemed so lonely.
I threw my hands over Kael, digging them into the white, silky texture of his hair, and maintained a languid kiss with him.
The tightness in my core built until I couldn’t hold it back. It torrented through me. I gasped for air but Kael pushed my mouth back on his, not letting me take a moment to breathe. Their warmth intoxicated me, and the swirling through my head made me numb.
“You belong to me,” I said. “The both of you.” We cuddled, and I helped Kael finish off, motioning my fingers around him. I almost fell asleep between the both of them, despite the cold winds. My two princes kept me comfortable. Satisfaction buzzed through my being, and at that moment, I only felt love.
I heard footsteps. I worried it might be one of the servants—the ruins were cozy but the doors here had rotted away long ago. When I looked at the doorway, I saw Micah standing there. “Messing up the sheets so quickly?” he said. Desire flickered over his features, but he quickly swept it away. “Get dressed. You’ll want to see this.”
Chapter Nineteen
Micah led us down the remains of Dragon Keep in haste.
We strode down the decrepit, crumbled hallways of Dragon Keep. The roofing had caved in first and left the passageways uncovered. Earlier, snow had piled on the ground, but the Evaradraes swept it aside to give us a clear passage to walk past. The dragon stone flooring was still slippery. It iced over quickly.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Kael asked.
“I think it’ll be easier if you saw it for yourself,” Micah replied.
The servants had set up tents at the open space in front of Dragon Keep—the tents looked more comfortable than Dragon Keep itself, furnished with supplies and woolly mattresses. Sleeping in an ancient ruin sounded fun, but maybe
we should reconsider. The tents, in retrospect, looked cozier.
I struggled to keep up with Micah’s hasty pace since he moved twice as fast as me. I kicked up into a light jog. An orange glow lit up the tents. It came from a huge campfire, enclosed in a circle of rocks and burned with dragon flame. Gaia didn’t even have debris for us to spare, and the fire had to be built from supplies we’d brought from Constanria.
Up ahead, I spotted servants standing at attention, next to a man. They perched around the giant campfire. Gaius was among the group of them, grinning more than I ever thought possible for him.
The man sitting in the middle of the group had white hair, hawkish eyes, and wore a bright smile similar to Gaius’s. He gesticulated wildly and threw his head back to guffaw. He looked so familiar . . .
“Father?” Rylan said.
I gaped. King Gisiroth?
He was alive?
But Vancel Gavril murdered him more than a year go! Rylan said they had his body cremated and his ashes tossed to the winds during a farewell ceremony. Rylan saw Gisiroth‘s corpse for himself.
Rylan stumbled forward. The servants made way for their current king so that he could make a beeline toward their old one. He bent in front of Gisiroth and placed his hands over his father’s. “Y-you’re alive. But I . . . you . . .”
I was not used to seeing Rylan this flustered and at a loss for words.
“Ah . . .” Gisiroth stilled. The air around him was no longer as imposing despite his same, sharp eyes. “My son?” The king Gisiroth had been before would never speak such words with such inflection. Every sentence used to be filled with authority and certainty.
“H-how?” Rylan asked.
Micah wore a severe look while Kael’s expression widened in shock.
“I’m here to give you the answers,” Gisiroth said. “One last gift to my sons before I must go.”
“What gift?”
A sly smile curved over his lips. He turned his gaze to me, and it glittered with amusement. “The answer to Sera’s fate, of course.”
Fall of Dragons (Sera's Curse Book 3) Page 16
