High House Draconis Box Set

by Riley Storm

  The lips pulled back in what she hoped was a dragon smile, and not preparation of having her for lunch.

  “They would cast us out,” Victor said, the voice having lost much of its music. “Hunt us down, label us as evil. It’s happened before. Just look at your legends. Few dragons are seen as good.” The big creature shuddered, tucking its wings back in at its side. “And then there’s the government. They would try to capture us. To experiment on us.”

  Cheryl looked down at the ground without response. She knew the truth of that statement. Nobody would be able to appreciate they were just people who wanted to live a normal life, even if they could change form. The government would put them into secret labs and try to learn the secret so that they could create more. Turn them into weapons.

  “Now I know why you said I wouldn’t be able to leave if I couldn’t handle it,” she said, chilled by the knowledge of how hard it must be to protect a secret like this in the digital age.

  A secret that he had just entrusted her with. That scared Cheryl, a dawning realization that she was now on the inside of something that nobody knew about.

  “Are you okay?” Victor asked, the giant dragon head tilting slightly.

  “Why me?” she asked in a hoarse whisper, terrified of the answer.

  Chapter 20

  The dragon was silent for a long time. She watched with mild horrified fascination as multiple sets of eyelids slid across the giant yellow-orange orbs, obscuring their catlike pupils from her gaze for a moment before retracting again.

  “Why show me, Victor? Why me of all people? We don’t like each other. We’re on the opposite sides of this, and honestly, we haven’t treated each other very nicely. Maybe you started it, but I certainly have hit back. But I don’t understand why you would decide to trust me, now, after all that? It doesn’t make any sense!” She chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “I’ve told you everything I’m certain about,” the dragon said at last.

  “You know I don’t believe that, right?”

  There was more of that odd deep chuffing she’d recognized as laughter.

  “I didn’t say I’d told you everything. There are things I just don’t know. Things that I’m uncertain of, and simply don’t have answers to.”

  “You’re avoiding my question,” she pointed out. “I’ve walked into the middle of something here. We kissed back there, in case you forgot.”

  “I most surely have not,” the dragon protested hotly. “After all, I was the one who kissed you. I think I could remember that.”

  Somehow, the big scaly body managed to shake and settle back into place with something resembling human-style indignation.

  “Why, Victor? Why did you decide to show me?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied, looking away briefly. “I don’t have a proper answer. I needed to do something after you walked in on Aaric and me. He told me to handle it. So, I came to you and…and, I just did what felt right,” he said at last.

  “It felt right to reveal a secret this size to someone who hates you? How does that make any sense?”

  The great creature levelled one of its eyes at her with a gravity that made Cheryl shrink under its gaze.

  “Do you truly hate me, Cheryl? Do you?” Victor asked.

  “I…” she faltered. The sentence was clear as day in her head. Yes, I do hate you! You’ve destroyed a huge boon for Plymouth Falls, but more importantly, you’ve proven to my parents that they were right, that if I stayed here, I would have nothing but failure!

  She wanted to shout that at him. To scream it. But the words simply did not come to her. They couldn’t make the translation from thought to word. Something was blocking them.

  “I don’t know,” she said at last, sagging from the effort. “I don’t know much anymore.”

  The dragon laughed. “Welcome to my world. At least we’re in it together.”

  Together.

  Cheryl was fairly certain that was the first time either of them had said anything about them being on the same side of, well, anything. They had always been against one another. Now they were suddenly starting to line up on the same side? How did that work?

  Confusion reigned supreme in her mind.

  “Victor,” she said. “I don’t hate you.”

  The dragon went completely still as she spoke.

  “I thought I did. I still don’t know why you did what you did,” she continued, watching as the dragon’s head drooped slightly at her last words. Shame? Guilt? She didn’t know. “But the truth was, it was your project, and we had no say over whether or not you could upsize or downsize it. I lashed out at you because of my own insecurities.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She walked over to the dragon, reaching out to touch his snout, feeling the cool solidity of the tiny turquoise and violet scales that covered most of his body.

  “You obviously wouldn’t know this, but I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder.”

  The dragon made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a cough. Cheryl took a step back, eyebrows narrowing as she fixed him with a glare.

  “You do?” Victor asked in a strangled voice, the dragon managing to mimic human action and emotion better than she would have thought possible.

  “Very funny,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Yes, I do. I’ve long made it a driving focus of mine to help revitalize Plymouth Falls. I have fought for projects and helped develop things that I thought would bring prosperity back to us. We’ve been slowly declining for a century now.”

  “A century,” Victor echoed, yellow eyes suddenly focused on something only he could see.

  “Yes. It’s fairly obvious if you look at the records, that at the turn of the century we were a booming town. But in the first decades, something happened, and it was like a light went out. We’ve not gone away, but we were slowly shrinking. I wanted to reverse that.”

  “A noble goal,” the dragon said respectfully.

  “Thank you.” She hadn’t expected him to agree or to understand, but it seemed he did. “Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with me.”

  There was a long pause. “Your family,” Victor said at last, only half-guessing, half-stating.

  “Yes. Both my parents. They waited for me to be done with high school, but after that, they announced they were moving. That wherever I wanted to go to college, they would move.” She smiled wryly in memory. “Boy, were they surprised when I chose to stay here instead.”

  “Teenage rebellion,” Victor said with a laugh, his wings spreading slightly as the giant lizard lounged on the grass.

  How quickly I get used to the fact that he’s a dragon, and that I’m just out here on a fall day talking to a creature from myth.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, recovering her composure.

  “Your parents wanted to move. I assume that was no surprise to you,” Victor said, pausing to wait for her confirmation before continuing.

  Cheryl shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, they made no secret of their desire to leave.”

  “Exactly. Yet to you, this was the only home you ever knew. Your friends were here, everything. They tried to tell you it was a bad place. You disagreed. So you stayed. I get it now,” Victor said thoughtfully. “I assume they ended up leaving?”

  “Yes. We had a huge fight, they packed up and moved the next week. We’ve barely spoken since. They seem to think they have to be ashamed of me for staying.”

  The dragon snarled, a sudden terrifying sound that sent Cheryl scrambling backward as fast as she could.

  “What? What is it?” she yelped, looking around. “Please don’t eat me now!”

  But the dragon was already settling back into place. “I’m sorry,” he apologized in that musical tone that belied a power she couldn’t understand. “That was unexpected. It wasn’t directed at you.”

  “What was that about?”

  “Your parents,” the dragon said, lips peeling back to revea
l huge teeth that could easily snap her in half. “The only thing they should be ashamed about is themselves. You have done nothing but excel, by all accounts. They should be proud of you, but instead they bring shame to themselves by being so shallow.”

  “T-thank you?” she said slowly.

  “It’s just the truth.”

  “Right. Well anyway,” she said, wanting to continue. It felt good, to explain everything to him, to talk to him, tell him what was truly going on. Like a weight being lifted with every sentence she spoke. “This project was going to be the salvation that I so long sought. The money and jobs it would bring to our town would make us known around the region. I would be able to take this project and prove to my parents at last that they were wrong, and I was right.”

  Cheryl hung her head. “Then you came along and blew that all up. I was pissed, but it was your right to do so. I just didn’t take it so well and decided to fight dirty. I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re probably mad at me and hate me for it.”

  The dragon was silent, staring at her.

  “I’ll go now,” she said, turning and heading back across the property, leaving the dragon behind.

  This wasn’t how she’d seen things ending, but it seemed fittingly poetic that in the end she would be the one that screwed up, that was the bad guy. She’d lost sight of what was right and wrong in her quest to prove to her parents that she could fix the town. The project was never hers, never the town’s. It was the Drakon family’s, and if they chose to downsize or cancel it, that was their right. She’d crossed a line, and now she would have to pay the price.

  “Wait. Cheryl.”

  She paused as the dragon called after her.

  Chapter 21

  “You’re wrong.”

  Victor winced, hoping that didn’t come out as accusingly as it sounded. But the truth was, she was wrong. About him, at least.

  “Wrong about what?” she asked, not turning around, forcing him to stare at the back of her head and that same silvery-white hair that had haunted his dreams for so long.

  Dreams that he’d held against her.

  “You’re not the only one holding something against someone for the wrong reasons,” he said heavily.

  There was a very distinct snort, and then Cheryl turned back around. “Go on.”

  Wincing at the way her tone sliced through him, Victor forged ahead.

  “I’m not mad at you,” he repeated, driving that point home. “But I am confused. There’s a lot going on up in here,” he said, bringing his left wing around to tap the side of his head. “I…” he paused.

  “You’re doing great,” Cheryl said gently, closing the distance between them.

  He watched her eyes for signs of laughter or sarcasm, but only found them open and encouraging.

  “The truth is, while I was going to downsize the project no matter what, when I first met you, I immediately decided to take it even farther.”

  “Back when you called me a thief?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “I never understood that. We haven’t met before…have we?” she asked, looking for confirmation.

  “No,” he said quietly. “I had never met you before that day.”

  “So why?” she asked, some of the pain at the way he’d treated her bubbling through, coloring her words.

  Victor looked down. He’d hurt her, worse than he could have known. She’d hidden it well, but now, in a moment of openness between them, he was seeing the depths of what his actions had wrought, and he wondered if there was any fixing that, or if it was too late.

  “I…” he paused, thinking. “I don’t really know where to start. Um.” He took a deep breath, flanks expanding and shrinking.

  Damn it feels good to be in this form. It’s been too long.

  The dragon was as much a part of Victor as his human side was, and he’d neglected it, keeping it locked away.

  A lot of wrongs I need to start righting.

  The thought raced through him like a lightning bolt, and suddenly, Victor knew what he had to say. Knew he had to say it.

  “First off, I’m sorry,” he said heavily. “This…this is all my fault.”

  There, you win, Aaric. You were right.

  Victor found himself actually smiling. “You know, I’m not sure the last time I said those words. About anything. But this is my fault. All of it. Even going back a hundred years, it’s all on me. Not you, you didn’t deserve any of the hatred I threw at you. Not an ounce of it.”

  “Hold up,” Cheryl started, but he cut her off with an excited shaking of his head.

  “No, no I need to say this! I need to get it out there,” he pushed on, ignoring her strange look. “It all started when I was younger. I met this woman. She was strikingly beautiful.” He paused, smile growing wider. “In fact, she looked like you. Just like you. If there was a picture around, people would believe that you were the same person, that’s how identical the resemblance is.”

  He shook his head, remembering those young carefree days of the relationship he’d forged with Elizabeth.

  “She didn’t know my secret,” he said. “Or so I thought. As it turns out though, I didn’t know hers. We got into a relationship. We started to trust one another. Or at least,” he said, some of his enthusiasm fading. “I trusted her. I revealed to her my true nature. The same as I did to you, though much different circumstances.”

  Cheryl nodded. “She didn’t take it too well, did she? Ran away? Called you a monster?”

  “What?” Victor frowned. “No, not at all. Not even close. No, she was amazed by it. Loved it, really. Things were great. I thought she was the one. My mate, the only woman I would ever be with for the rest of my life. We talked about how we would spend the centuries, her by my side.” He smiled at Cheryl. “Being mated to a dragon has its perks for a human, you know.”

  “What?” Cheryl asked, her face paling slightly as she stared up at him.

  Victor was so caught up in finally sharing what he’d harbored inside for so long, however, he failed to notice the color into which her skin was turning.

  “I grew to trust her, to the point that I took her to see my treasure.” He laughed. “I know, so stereotypical, right? Dragon has a horde of gold. But I did, and I was proud of it. I’d spent over a century collecting it. It was to be for us, to spend on whatever we wanted. My mate would never want for anything.”

  He looked away. “But it wasn’t to be.”

  “A century?” Cheryl asked in a strangled voice.

  “Yes, yes. Try to keep up,” he said, trying to ignore the distraction. “Well, I took her to see my treasure. Showed it off. Told her it would be for us. Professed my love to her. Everything I thought I was supposed to do. And do you know what she did?”

  “Uhhh.”

  “Exactly!” Victor cried. “She hesitated. I was devastated. I went outside to clear my head and wait for her, so we could talk it out. Figure out what the problem was.”

  He waited for Cheryl to say something, but she was just looking up at him, waiting quietly.

  “Except she never came out of the cave,” he explained. “I eventually went back in, but she was gone. And so was my treasure. All of it. She took it,” he said, the words filling with anger. “All of it. Took it and left me with nothing but shame and a broken heart.”

  “But how?”

  “Well, dragons aren’t the only creatures the human world doesn’t know about,” he explained. “Turns out your great-grandmother was a witch. Mage. A magic user.”

  “Magic?” Cheryl looked unsteady. “Wait. My great-grandmother? You knew her? I—”

  “Cheryl!” Victor shouted as her eyes rolled up into the back of her head.

  Chapter 22

  There was just too much world-shattering information to absorb. Cheryl’s brain tried to take it in, to hold on to reality, but it just wasn’t possible when she was talking to a massive dragon who only minutes before had been a human. She couldn’t process it, and her brain
was shutting down.

  “Victor,” she said weakly, the world starting to spin.

  Her legs started to fail, growing shaking and unsteady even as her eyes went back into their sockets, vision dimming. She was going to pass out.

  Gravity shifted and suddenly she was falling with no way to stop it, and no way to catch herself. There was a loud noise, a rush of wind, and then she was no longer moving.

  “Cheryl, it’s okay. Cheryl it’s alright.”

  A voice was frantically saying her name, she knew that much, but her overwhelmed brain couldn’t process who, or where she was. Or what had happened. It was too much.

  The world went dark.

  Pain lanced through her brain and she sat upright with a gasp, unconsciously reaching around to rub at the back of her arm. “Ow! What the hell was that?” she yelped.

  “I pinched you,” that same voice said.

  Cheryl wavered, and something sturdy and unyielding wrapped around her back, holding her tightly in position. It took her a second to realize it was an arm. A rather large arm.

  Another one was draped under her knees, holding onto her even though she was on the ground.

  “Wha—?”

  It was all she was able to get out.

  “Just breathe,” the same voice said from next to her head, speaking quietly, soothing her frazzled nerves. “You got overwhelmed and nearly fainted. But you’re fine. I’ve got you.”

  “Saved by the dragon,” she joked, giggling at the ridiculousness of it.

  “It was my fault in the first place, so it only seemed appropriate,” Victor chuckled.

  Cheryl leaned her head back, focusing on his face. He was close. Really close. She hesitated at the look on his face.

  “Are you going to kiss me again?” she asked, her brain confusing thoughts with words, and speaking when she didn’t mean to.

  “Um. Only if you want me to,” Victor said. “I was just trying to make sure that you were okay, that’s all.”

  She thought about it. “Only if it’s a quick one,” she decided.