by LJ Andrews
I stroked her cheek. No matter what was to come, this was where I belonged.
Chapter 30
Ruby
Cairo, Egypt
As the royal wyvern of the ruby stone, I’d been on high alert since the queen had sent the warning message.
There was a shift in the energies of the desert, and I knew something had changed. Something drastic. The message from Sapphire and Jade had been hazy at best, most likely due to my distance, but there was something about mages, something about danger. I knew if the queen was reaching out in a final plea there was a terrible chance she didn’t expect to live.
So, when I saw him in my bedchamber, I wasn’t all that surprised. A disappointment, no doubt, for him.
“Bron.” My lip curled. The painful bleed of my skin ached, desperate to shift. Without my mage I was trapped.
So, this was the warning. Jade must have faced Bron, the High Priest, the traitor of my people.
I narrowed my gaze at him, one hand reaching for a knife tethered to my thigh. “I wondered if you were involved in the darkness surrounding this place. On the prowl in shadows again. Still the same old coward.”
“Ruby,” said the dark High Priest. “I must say, you’re ravishing in your weak, pathetic form. Then again, you were always the weakest of the royals. They’ve fallen, by the way.”
I’d seen signs of zomoks and disgusting lindworms for weeks, but I suppose I’d refused to believe my own eyes. My mistake.
I brushed my long dark braid off my shoulder. My voice soft with warning. “What have you done to my queen, Bron?”
He chuckled, the ice in his eyes spreading through my soul. “If you have to ask, I think you must already know. There’s really no purpose resisting, Ruby. The stones are no longer yours to control.”
“Oh, Bron a stone won’t stop me from killing you.”
Bron sneered as he pulled out a blade from a sheath strapped along his back. I gasped, desperately wishing he hadn’t seen my reaction to his weapon. I knew exactly what that sword meant. I crouched at my knees. The fury of my power surged through my blood. It would be trying to stand against him, but I would never stop. Not until my last breath left my lungs.
Shadows gathered around the dark High Priest, he leveled his blade to me and lunged. My eyes widened with the horror of memories. A night where blood soaked my body, where screams would never leave my dreams.
Now, it was beginning all over again.
***
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Jade Drake’s first look at Teagan Ward
The Wyvern Queen
The chill of the forest was always soothing against the boil of my skin. Especially tonight.
Konrad Sapphire was one of my closest friends. He’d always been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. There were times I forgot I was actually the queen and he was my cousin. He’d always been like an older brother. But tonight, as I rushed through the brambles and fallen branches scattered along the forest floor, I grew frustrated with my fellow royal for the first time.
Sapphire had always valued my input—I was to be the queen after all—but when I came with the concern of different energy he’d simply brushed it away.
Something was different in Wyvern Willows. I’d sensed for weeks the fading energy from the willow tree that protected my family. That protected me. I knew little about how the willow came to be, or who placed the protections around us, all I knew was there had been a shift a few days earlier. Like a stronger, more vibrant power matching the same energy of the willow, had crossed our borders.
When I stepped over the boundary to the reform house tonight it practically electrocuted my heart.
Sapphire had the nerve to tell me he’d sensed nothing different. Yes, I tended to be a bit of an empath—which is where my frustration boiled from—as he’d told me nothing had changed, I could sense he was holding back.
Never did I take Konrad as one who would keep things from me—as if he couldn’t trust me.
The heat along my skin rippled as though the dragon in me yearned to break free and take to the skies. But I would never fly again.
I wasn’t sure why the enchantments were put around Sapphire and me in the first place. Eisha never expounded, so I was left to believe some strange, energy-strong, wyvern had sealed both Sapphire and me in our human forms for our safety. As Raffi put it—our human forms kept our enemies confused and lost to us. Whatever that was supposed to mean.
Breaking through the forest barrier I bellowed a raspy sigh of frustration when I sprinted across the sprawling lawn that led to the mansion where I’d grown up.
For years now, I’d been more human than wyvern. I suppose I’d settled into the belief I should pretend I was human and it might make everything easier. I was a useless queen.
Eisha always told me our people looked forward to the day I would ascend the throne. Why? I would never know. I fit in no world. I wasn’t human, wasn't really magis, either. I couldn't even claim to be dragon anymore. How does a dragon forget what the wind beneath wings feels like? It's like a dream, one I could hardly remember.
In the kitchen, Raffi held a bowl full of fiery jerky. I stomped past, mouth tight. He flicked his brows as he always did when he wanted to be irritating. “Happy to see me?"
My gaze narrowed. “Tell me you feel something has changed in this town and maybe I’ll be happier to see you shoving food in your face. Again.”
He chuckled, biting aggressively into a piece of peppered jerky. “Different? In what way?”
I scowled and leaned against the banister. Raffi always stripped his upper body of clothing the moment we returned from school. A school I’d been attending for the last ten years. It was getting harder to convince the teachers and underclassmen they hadn’t seen me year after year after year. I didn’t mind school—it gave us something to do, and kept any questions about our already strange family at bay.
Now, in the summer night he sat, bare-chested, unashamed of the wyvern warrior seals inked across his arms and back. The night was mild, but his boiling blood heated his skin until beads of sweat glistened along his thick arms.
Sapphire wasn’t my only adopted brother—I had Raffi and Dash, too. Three older, agitating, brothers.
No one thought to place a female warrior as my guard. Sometimes it would be nice to feel as though I had a sister to speak with. Eisha was the only woman who understood what I was, but even then, her goal was to ensure I was pleasantly happy, never fazed, and that I would ascend the throne without issue. It would be nice to have a sincere open conversation about the past one day. I wanted to know things, and though I was young, I grew tired of being treated like a delicate piece of glass.
“You know what I’m talking about," I said. "Energy. It’s different. Something felt dangerous, and then all at once a powerful burst of energy came into town. It hasn’t left. I can’t be the only one who sensed it.”
There. I saw a flick of Raffi’s brow.
He tried to keep his arrogant smile painted on his handsome face, but I was on to him.
"Admit it," I said.
“I really don’t think we’ve felt the same thing.”
My shoulders slumped. Was I some sort
of fool they didn't trust? I was the damn queen!
The massive front door swung open and Dash sauntered inside. His dark hair contrasted nicely with his smooth brown skin, and his had a kind smile on his face when he saw me. “Where did you rush off to? You know you shouldn’t take off without at least letting us know.”
“She was with Sapphire,” Raffi mumbled through a thick mouthful of jerky.
Dash nodded, and plopped down on the porch swing next to Raffi. He had his own bowl of peppered meat, though a littler rawer than Raffi’s.
“What’s eating you, Jade?” Dash asked, catching my firm glare.
“No one is admitting something is happening here. You all are making me feel like I’m insane. Go to the reform house—something is there and Sapphire acts like he has no idea what I’m talking about.”
“What do you think is happening?” Dash asked sincerely, though I knew even if it seemed like the warrior was siding with me, he would eventually keep me in the dark just like everyone else.
“The willow doesn't hold dragon magic, does it?” I held my breath and waited, hoping they'd admit to something.
Raffi’s brows shot up and Dash slowly bit into a piece of his snack without meeting my eye.
“What makes you think that?” If Raffi was trying to keep his voice flat and unsuspicious, and he wasn’t doing a great job.
“Because I am from the jade bloodline, aren’t I supposed feel all the elemental energies? The energy from that tree protecting us is like nothing I’ve felt before. It is something different, isn’t it? Something you don’t want me to know about.”
“Jade, come on,” Raffi scoffed. “You’re not one of those weird conspiracy freaks are you?”
I only deepened my scowl.
“Fine,” he huffed, setting down his bowl, and leaning forward on his knees. “Yes, the willow is powered through earth energy. Not wyvern energy. I don’t understand everything, only that it keeps us safe as long as we’re inside the borders of the town. That’s why when you say something dangerous is coming—it simply isn’t possible.”
“Yes, but I also told you weeks ago I felt the power of the willow fading.”
Dash glanced at Raffi and sighed.
“It’s possible, but I haven’t felt anything that would bring concern,” Dash insisted.
“Look me in the eye,” I snapped. “Tell me you haven’t felt a fiercer power the last few days. Like a brand-new willow has grown somewhere in town. Do you suppose since the old power is fading, a new one could be coming to replace it?”
Raffi and Dash both seemed to consider everything I was saying. “Well, actually that could explain the—”
“Ha!” I shrieked, jutting my finger into Raffi’s face and cutting off another word. “You did feel something then! Admit it, Raffi.”
He gaped at me. “No, I didn’t say I felt something.”
“Oh, give it a rest, she’s not an idiot. She has these feelings for a reason,” Dash grumbled.
Raffi huffed and crossed his arms. I beamed at Dash. “Thank you. Now, I am happy to see you, Dash. Raffi, would you like to be included?”
Rolling his eyes Raffi met my gaze with a playful smirk. “Fine, My Queen,” he used the title liberally, though I’d never instituted rank before with the warriors. “I felt something. Happy now? An energy—something I haven’t felt since the divide. But it doesn’t mean something is coming. As you said it could be new energy building to protect the town.”
“Why do you suppose it’s stronger at Sapphire’s house?”
“That I don’t know," Raffi said with a shrug. I believed him. "What I would appreciate, though, is you not rushing around in the dark anymore. Even if it is to go to Sapphire’s. Just until we know for sure where the energy came from."
Sighing, I rested my head against the wooden post. “Fine. I will always let you know before I go to Sapphire’s, but that doesn’t mean you can follow me everywhere I go. I need to be alone sometimes, too.”
“Deal,” Dash said for them both, before chuckling. “It’s not like anything happens in this town anyway. What could possibly go wrong? It’s just energy.”
***
The next day was warmer than I would have liked. Summer was always brutal when my blood burned like molten rivers already, but at least the summer morning smelled deliciously earthy from the surrounding forest.
Raffi drove us today. I wanted to learn how to drive, but apparently that crossed into things-queens-they-were-trying-to-protect shouldn’t do for Raffi and Dash.
Wyvern High was small, but it was a nice school. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. Eisha seemed to love her position as the principal. It was nice to feel normal sometimes.
“Hi Raffi,” a tall blonde herb witch said when we stepped out of the parking lot. Raffi grunted in return. Dash and I laughed behind his back.
“Why do you brush them off?” I asked, when the girl jogged away, obviously embarrassed.
"Magis and humans do little to interest me,” Raffi said under his breath.
“Well, you don’t have to be rude,” I teased, flicking the back of his ear as Dash opened the front doors for me to pass through.
The white rusted bus that carried Sapphire’s reforms pulled in front of us. I wasn’t sure why Sapphire enjoyed helping the disorderly so much, but it suited him. I thought it was time to get a new bus though. The wheels looked ready to fall off.
I sauntered to the first class of the day, waving at a few students I would almost call friends if they didn’t seem so frightened of me and my constant defenders. Sometimes I got the feeling others recognized something was different about the three of us, but their minds simply couldn’t understand the impossible thought of dragons.
“I’m going to go see Eisha,” Raffi grumbled before stepping into the classroom.
“Can’t handle dissecting mice anymore?” Dash teased.
Raffi crinkled his face. “Every time I smell that stuff it makes my true form burst to life. Before you know it, Jade is going to be forced to block the entire school when I shift right in front of everyone.”
“Go hang out with the principal, you child.” I shoved his shoulder and stepped into the pungent room. Raffi wasn’t wrong even my skin rippled—but I couldn’t change forms. So, I simply spent most of the time pitying Dash who looked ready to faint as we cut through the dead rodents.
By the time the third class of the day rolled around I was actually looking forward to it. Strange, but it tightened my stomach in anticipation.
No mistake, I enjoyed the class. I liked reading stories and histories from both the human world and magis. Sometimes we even discussed tales that involved wyverns. Usually far from the truth, but it was enjoyable to see how dragon clans were once thought of.
Raffi gnawed another stick of jerky after joining us from Eisha’s office. Dash dug through the pack he carried looking for his textbook.
I was left to lean against the wall and wait for the warriors or I’d get an earful about leaving them behind.
When my eyes glanced down the hallway I imagined my heart might stop. Such a shock of fiery power had never rushed through my body before. There standing in my school was a boy—no, not a boy, he definitely wasn’t a boy.
His sandy hair was short, his body strong, and those eyes—the piercing blue as he scanned the hallway, disoriented.
That color flashed to life in my memories. His face, where had I seen his face before? The recognition went so much deeper. I’d searched for the source of the energy that had awakened every one of my senses, and now like a lead weight dropped him through the roof, there was the source.
Power radiated from him, whoever he was. I could hardly breathe when I absorbed the strangeness enveloping the new face in Wyvern High.
Apart from the radiant energy, there was something that pulled me toward him. As if I needed to be by his side. Never had I felt such a beautiful, suffocating connection with anyone. I had the desire to know everything about him.
Where did he come from? What was his energy? Was he an earth Wyvern (because he had to be a wyvern to have such power) did he have elemental strengths?
He walked next to Mitch, a fae, and Sapphire's favorite long-haul reform. Mitch was friendly and had a good heart. Though we weren’t friends, if anyone could be my friend from Sapphire’s house it would be Mitch.
Nudging Dash’s shoulder I pointed inconspicuously at the pair. “Do you know who that is?”
Both Dash and Raffi glanced, Dash’s eyes widened. “No, but Raff, don’t you think he looks like—”
“I know what you’re going to say and I’m going to stop you there."
"Who?" I asked. "Who does he look like? I agree he looks familiar."
"Nothing," Raffi said. "Just a warrior we once knew. But Dash should be ashamed to compare a criminal to him."
I hardly heard anything Dash and Raffi said, my lungs burned when I watched the new guy wave at Mitch and step into the exact room I was to be in.
“Mitch,” I called across the hallway. The fae glanced over the heads of the bustling students. His brown eyes widened and he glanced back and forth before cautiously making his way toward us. Mitch eyed Raffi with noticeable apprehension when the warrior crossed his arms and glowered at the human.
“Hi, Jade,” he said. “Dash . . . Raffi. What’s up?”
“Nothing, really,” I said sweetly, feeling Mitch’s apprehension fade the longer I spoke. “I was curious who was that other guy with you? I’ve never seen him.”
“Another one like me,” he said, but I sensed he had an odd bit of pride being one of Sapphire’s students.
“He’s at the reform house?” Dash asked.
It didn’t make sense. Raffi and Dash had admitted last night they’d felt the shift in energy—Sapphire was living with the source. That meant he was completely lying to me, or had little ability to sense energy.
“Yeah, he’s a reform. So?” Mitch said a little defensively.
