At the bar, a couple travelers were speaking in hushed tones, but the word “elemental” drifted over to me and caught my attention. I leaned forward, straining to hear the rest.
“Miners dug too deep and angered those big rock elementals,” a man wearing a dark green cloak said. “They smashed up the town pretty good before they were finally driven off.”
“Aren’t the Dragons supposed to deal with those?” another man muttered into his tankard.
A woman with a red scarf around her neck snorted quietly. “They’re too busy collecting taxes and trying to stomp out the Resistance.”
“I saw the Crimson Dragon the other day in the next village over,” another man said, making my back stiffen. “Flying overhead like he was looking for something. Or someone.”
The woman glanced warily at the nearby soldier before whispering, “I heard the Golden one was in Pebbleton a week ago.”
“We never get Dragons this far from Soulspire. Why now?” the first man asked.
The second man downed his drink with a sour look. “The Black Dragon is demanding more tribute than ever before. Her Dragons are there to make sure we obey. Or else.”
Cold fear gripped my throat. If the Dragons were nearby, that meant it was time for me to leave Stoneham. And soon.
I’d seen two Dragons in my life and never wanted to see one again. The screams and smell of burning flesh still haunted my dreams, but Stoneham had been safe so far. I’d been here since I was seventeen, living in the back of the inn that Tash’s family owned while keeping my head down and staying out of trouble. This town was at the very edge of the Earth Realm, far enough away from Soulspire that the Black Dragon and her mates never flew out this far.
Until now.
Tash set down a steaming bowl of rabbit stew and a tankard of mead, along with a small cake she’d decorated with white frosting. “Here you are!”
“What’s this?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at the cake.
“It’s for your birthday, of course. You didn’t really expect me to forget, did you?” She flashed me a warm smile.
“Thank you, Tash.” I hadn’t wanted her to make a big deal about my birthday, but I appreciated that she remembered it. She was the closest thing I had to family, after all.
She bent down and gave me a quick hug. “Happy birthday.”
I hugged her back. “Hey, did you see an older woman come through here with white hair? I stumbled upon her in the forest, but then I lost her.”
“No, but I’ve been in the kitchen all night. Father probably took her up to a room already.”
“I hope so. I don’t like the idea of her being out there alone.” Something about the encounter tugged at my gut with a sense of wrongness, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Tash squeezed my shoulder. “If you didn’t see her out there, then she must be safe inside somewhere. Maybe she’s staying with family in town.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” I said, trying to banish my unease as I took a bite of my cake. “Mm. This is delicious.”
“Of course it is.” She winked, but then was called away to another table. I watched her go and sadness clenched my heart tight. I didn’t want to leave Stoneham. Tash was my best friend, and more than that, she needed me. If I was gone, who would protect her from her father?
Perhaps she would come with me if I left. But no, she would never leave her mother behind. Maybe it was only a coincidence the Dragons had been spotted nearby. Maybe they would never come to Stoneham.
Maybe I didn’t have to run. At least, not yet.
A commotion and a shout at the bar drew my attention. Two of the soldiers hauled the man in the green cloak off his stool and shoved him to the ground, while the woman cried out, “We were just talking! We didn’t mean anything by it!”
I watched with dread, my stomach twisting at the knowledge of what would happen next. I’d seen it before, and no matter how much I wanted to help those people or stop the soldiers, there was nothing I could do. I knew how to defend myself a little, but not against two armored soldiers with swords as long as my arm. The only reason I’d made it this long was by keeping my head down and staying out of trouble. But that didn’t stop me from wishing there was something I could do to stop this.
One of the soldiers grabbed the woman’s wrist and dragged her off the stool too. “Sounds to me like you’re part of the Resistance. Don’t you agree, Ment?”
The other soldier nodded, while a cruel smile touched his lips. “That it does. And we all know how we deal with Resistance scum.”
The cloaked man shook his head vehemently. “We’re not Resistance! We’re loyal to the Black Dragon, I swear it!”
“Tell that to the Spirit Goddess when you see her,” Ment said, as he hauled the man to his feet.
Roark glared at them from behind the bar and rubbed his hands on a towel, but said nothing. The soldiers gave him a nod as they led the two struggling people out of the inn. The door shut, and the entire room froze as a howling scream tore through the sound of the rain, before it was cut short. With grim faces, the other people in the tavern returned to their meals and their conversation, including the other man who’d been talking with the doomed travelers. Maybe we were all cowards, but it was the only way to survive.
I dropped my head as shame and despair battled inside me, along with the keen realization that there was no point in running. No matter where I went, there was no escaping the Dragons or their soldiers.
3
Kira
I had the first dream that night.
A roguishly handsome man with hair the color of autumn leaves drew a large sword, then lunged at an opponent. Both of them wore the black-scaled armor of the Onyx Army with the red shoulder markings of the Fire Realm division. A small crowd had gathered around them as they sparred, but the auburn-haired man was the only one I could see clearly. Even though I hated the Black Dragon’s soldiers, I found I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, nor banish the unexpected desire he stirred inside me. As I watched, he dodged, parried, and swiftly disarmed his opponent, winning the training match without breaking a sweat. He bowed to his opponent, and when he rose up, I caught a flash of flame in his brown eyes.
When I woke my skin was so hot I had to throw the blanket off me. I was certain I’d never seen him before in my life—I would have remembered a man that attractive. I wasn’t sure what the fire in his eyes meant either. The only man who could control flame was Sark, the Crimson Dragon, and that wasn’t him. I’d never forget that monster’s face.
I brushed it off as merely a strange dream, a result of my loneliness and nothing more, and forced myself to go back to sleep. But the next night, I had another dream. This one featured a different man who stood in a library wearing some of the finest clothes I’d ever seen. Clearly a nobleman of some sort, with golden hair, fair skin, and a finely sculpted face I wouldn’t mind staring at for hours. He was extremely tall, but as he reached for a book on a very high shelf, his fingers barely touched it. A burst of wind suddenly swirled around him, and the book dropped into his hand.
Impossible. I’d never seen the Golden Dragon before, but somehow I knew this wasn’t him. But if not, how could this man control the element of air? Only the Dragons, the representatives of the elemental Gods, were blessed with such power. Including the Black Dragon, of course—their wife and our supreme ruler.
It was nonsense, I told myself. Simply my dream brain coming up with strange images because I’d been worried about the Dragons coming for me. That was all.
But the dreams continued.
One night I encountered a ruggedly handsome green-eyed man with dark skin, a trim beard, and a broad chest. With muscular arms he hammered a sword, but when he raised it up I swore the metal bent by nothing more than the power of his mind. I had the strongest urge to run to him and bury my face in his strong chest, knowing he would protect me with his every breath.
In the next dream, I saw a black-haired man who exuded dang
er slip through the forest like a wraith. Rain battered against the leaves, yet somehow left him untouched. He pulled down his hood, and I caught a flash of sharp, deadly beauty. Upon awakening, my entire body was doused in cold sweat. Like the others, he filled me with a strange sense of desire and longing I couldn’t understand or explain.
Every night I was visited by one of my strange elemental dream men, although they never seemed to know I was there spying on them. Soon they all began to travel, though I couldn’t tell where they were headed or why. All I got were brief glimpses into their lives without any real context. Or whatever lives my mind was inventing for them, anyway—none of them were real, of course. Even if I began to secretly wish they were.
The traveling dreams were clearly a sign I should be on my way as well, yet I hesitated. A month passed. I told myself I needed more time. Time to gather my coins. Time to learn more about the Dragons’ intentions. Time to make sure Tash would be okay.
But I was only delaying the inevitable.
“Heard there’s a Fire Realm soldier in the tavern,” the fletcher said, as I handed him my coins in exchange for more arrows.
My fingers clenched around my bow. “A Fire Realm soldier? Here?”
“That’s what Brant said when he dropped off the wood. Seems like the soldier’s looking for someone. Searching for Resistance members maybe?” He shrugged.
I stiffened. “None of us have anything to do with them. Everyone knows we all serve the Black Dragon loyally.”
“I’m sure he’s just passing through.” He frowned and glanced at the door warily, where two Earth Realm soldiers could be seen patrolling the town. “Still, I’ll be glad when he’s on his way.”
“Me too.”
It had to be a coincidence. Soldiers from the Fire Realm didn’t often come to Stoneham, but nothing about the fletcher’s story implied the man would be the same one as in my dreams. Still, it couldn’t hurt to get a look at him, just to ease my mind. I needed to head into the forest and bring back some game for Roark, but first I had to be sure.
I slipped into the back of the inn, where I found Tash and her mother Launa working in the kitchen, their eyes worried and their hands frantic, as if they needed to be doing something. Usually a clue that Roark was drinking again, although I didn’t see any sign of him.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, as I removed my cloak and hung it by the door.
“There’s a Fire Realm soldier in the tavern making everyone nervous.” Tash tugged on her braid and gave me a concerned look. “And he’s looking for someone who sounds a lot like you.”
“Me?” I blinked. “What would a soldier want with me?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
“Perhaps you should hide,” Launa said, her voice as soft as a dove’s. “We’ll tell him you left town.”
I seriously considered it, or grabbing my things and running, like I should have done a month ago. But if this was the soldier I saw in my dreams, I had to meet him. It was the only way to find out more about this strange connection between us.
I touched Launa’s arm gently. “I’ll be okay.”
She nodded, though her face was lined with concern. Tash gave me a hug and whispered for me to be careful, before I stepped out of the kitchen and into the tavern.
The soldier’s back was to me, and the first thing I saw was his dark auburn hair, the same shade as it was in my dream. I swore my heart stopped beating as I took a step toward him, and then another. He must have heard me behind him, because he rose to his feet and turned around, his brown eyes meeting mine.
“You’re her,” he said.
Recognition slammed into me and I had a hard time speaking. Everything about him—from his perfectly tousled hair to his broad shoulders in a black and red military uniform—was familiar to me. I felt like I knew him already, even though we’d never met. But how was that possible? How could this man from my dreams be standing in front of me?
And did that mean the other men were real as well?
4
Jasin
A month ago I’d been on patrol in the forest and had stopped to take a piss on a tree when the Fire God, in all his blazing glory, appeared out of thin air and told me to find a woman. And trust me, when a giant made out of flames tells you to do something, you do it. Especially when he wraps a scorching hand around your neck. Except instead of burning me alive, his power became absorbed into my body, branding me as the next Crimson Dragon.
The Fire God told me my duty and gave me a name—Kira—along with a split-second glimpse of her image and one month to find her. No directions. No hints. Not even a vague idea of what Realm she was in. Just an order to find her, serve her, and protect her. Then he vanished.
It took me a day or two to wrap my head around his demand and to believe it all really happened. The Fire God didn’t just appear to people, especially ordinary guys like me. Don’t get me wrong, I was a damn fine soldier, but that was it. Up until that point, I wasn’t even sure the Gods were real. No one had heard from them in hundreds of years, after all. Now I’d been chosen by one of them to be his representative in this world and to take the place of the current Crimson Dragon, who wasn’t going to be happy about being kicked out of the role.
I’d spent the last two weeks traveling from the Fire Realm, following the persistent urge that guided me northwest, into the farthest depths of the Earth Realm. Now the woman the Fire God sent me to find stood in front of me, and she was so gorgeous it made my blood heat like never before. Her shiny red hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, and I had the strongest urge to free it and let it fall about her shoulders. Her sharp eyes were an intriguing hazel color, as if many different shades danced within them. And her body, with those fit arms, full breasts, and curvy hips…damn. Maybe being tied to one woman for the rest of my life wouldn’t be such a hardship after all.
A slow grin spread across my mouth. “I had no idea you’d be so beautiful in person. Thank the Gods indeed.”
“Who are you?” Kira asked, with suspicion in her voice. She stared at me as if she recognized me, but wasn’t sure how. Did she not know who I was? Or what she was?
“Name’s Jasin,” I said. “I’ve been sent to find you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Sent? By whom?”
“By the Fire God.”
She took a step back and crashed into a chair, knocking it to the ground, as fear and confusion crossed her face. “I don’t understand.”
Maybe she truly didn’t know. Had she not been visited by the Spirit Goddess too? Did she not know about the task in front of us?
I glanced around, but the tavern was empty except for the two of us. I moved closer and lowered my voice anyway to be safe. “A few weeks ago I had a visit from the Fire God. He told me I was the future Crimson Dragon and that I had to find you—the next Black Dragon.”
5
Kira
Everyone knew the Black Dragon and the other Dragons were immortal. They’d ruled for the last thousand years, and would rule for another thousand to come. Each one was the divine representative of the five elemental Gods, hand-picked to serve them and reign over the rest of us. This man couldn’t be one of them—and neither could I.
“No,” I said, my head spinning. “Impossible.”
“I’ll prove it to you,” the soldier—Jasin—said. He raised his hand and conjured a ball of flame, which danced across his fingertips.
Even with the heat from the fire, all I felt was cold terror. I turned on my heel and ran out of the inn as fast as I could while flashbacks of my parents’ deaths filled my mind, their screams ringing in my ears even seven years later. There was no denying it anymore. Jasin truly was the Crimson Dragon—and a soldier for the Onyx Army—which meant I had to get as far away from him as possible.
I dashed into the forest, down the hidden paths I knew like the back of my hand, crashing through the brush with my bow clutched tight in my fingers. I ran with only instinct and fear gu
iding me, without a firm plan in my mind other than to escape. Not just to save myself, but to save Tash and her mother too. I couldn’t let him burn them alive, like the other Crimson Dragon had done to my family.
Jasin called out, “Wait!” He chased me into the forest, and with his long legs managed to catch up to me within minutes.
When I glanced back, he was almost upon me. I stumbled and tripped over a fallen tree and he crashed into me from behind, tumbling to the ground with me. We landed together with him on top, pinning me down with his hard, muscular body.
His face was close to mine and we were both breathing heavily, our chests pressed together. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “It’s my duty to serve and protect you.”
I stared into his eyes without backing down. “Why?”
“Because you’re the Black Dragon.”
I let out a sharp laugh. “Hardly.”
“You are. Or you will be, once you’ve bonded with me and the other three Dragons. Then you’ll be the strongest of us all.”
The Black Dragon was the representative of the Spirit Goddess and could control all the elements. She always had four male Dragons as her mates, each one representing the different elements of fire, water, earth, and air. If Jasin was correct—which he obviously wasn’t—then he would be one of the men bonded to me for life as my lover, my husband, and my guardian.
The idea of sleeping with the four men in my dreams sent a rush of desire between my legs, as did the feel of Jasin on top of me. With our eyes locked together, my lips parted and raging hot lust coursed through me. Sparks of passion seemed to flare between us, and for a second I gripped his shirt and nearly pulled his mouth down to mine.
Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series Page 2
