by Lili Zander
“I cannot force you to do this, old friend,” she says softly. “It has to be done of your own free will.”
“You’re not forcing me, my Lady.” The maid Halla steps up to the bed, her head held high. “I want to help. I choose this.”
“Then, I, Maija Essen, offer you my gratitude in return.” She places her palm, the one with the Bloodstone fragment against Halla’s stomach. For an instant, the air turns red, and I see threads of magic in the air.
Then it’s gone.
And I’m back in the underground room.
Do you understand? The dragon asks me.
I finally do. It’s why the Bloodstone has always felt like a part of me. It’s why it’s always been a part of my dreams. It’s why I’ve been able to sense it. “A piece of the Bloodstone is inside me.”
Yes. You hold the last bit of untainted magic in the universe. You’ve been drawing on its power your entire life.
“So I’m Norm.”
The dragon unfurls its wings, slowly and lazily. Your parents were Norm, it says finally. You are… unique.
I have so many questions. Why did my mother try to kill me? Did Maija Essen know when she planted the Bloodstone into Halla’s body that I would be the subject of her prophecy? Did she intend for me to have five dragon mates?
Instead of blurting all of them out, I ask the most important question of all. “How do I stop Zyrian?”
She shakes her head. I’m forbidden from telling you anything else, Aria. She’s starting to fade. I can only tell you one thing. You are all that’s standing between the dragons and utter ruin.
Fuck. No pressure there. None at all.
70
Aria
My first thought after my encounter with Dream-Maija is that I need to tell the dragons about it. I don’t know how finding out that I’m half-Norm, half-gemstone is going to help us break the curse and end Gideon Zyrian’s assault against magic, but the others might. Casius reads all the time. Mateo is a mage. Erik was born before the curse.
I’m hoping one of them has a clue because I sure don’t.
So I hurry back upstairs to the wing where the guest bedrooms are located.
Naturally, I get lost in Bastian’s cavernous castle.
I make my way back up the stairs from the underground room just fine—okay, fine, there’s some huffing and puffing, but in my defense, I’ve been too busy in the last three weeks to go to the gym—but when I get to the top, there are two long corridors in front of me, and I don’t have the slightest idea which one I came through. Both look equally dusty and unused. And dark.
Evidently, now that Maija Essen has met me, there’s no further need for light.
At random, I pick the corridor on the right and start groping my way down it, wishing I had the presence of mind to grab my cell phone before I set out on this adventure. “Hello?” I call out experimentally. There must have been at least thirty staff members who’d lined up to greet Bastian earlier this evening. With any luck, one of them will hear me. “Is anyone there?”
Dead silence greets me.
Damn it. Just once, I wish my sense of direction actually worked.
I walk for what seems like a good thirty minutes, getting colder and colder, pulling my fleece robe tighter around me. Though I’m freezing, my thoughts are not on finding my way back. I’m thinking of everything Maija Essen’s memory told me.
I’m part of the Bloodstone. I’m some kind of weird, twisted combination of ruby and person. Not just that, but I’m the last bit of pre-curse magic in the entire world.
You are all that’s standing between the dragons and utter ruin.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. That’s both ominous and annoyingly vague. Why the hell couldn’t she give me something useful? Step-by-step instructions for breaking the curse would have been nice. A How-to-destroy-the-Dark-Dragon guidebook would have been even better. If Maija Essen was powerful enough to preserve herself as a memory for five hundred years, why the hell couldn’t she tell me what to do?
I turn down another long, unfamiliar corridor. Where the hell am I? “Hello?” I shout out again, but once again, there’s no reply.
Great. It must be two in the morning. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be lost all night. This castle is huge, and nothing around me looks familiar.
Magic.
I almost smack my forehead when I think of it. Of course. Ever since the five dragons gave their blood to create a tattoo of protection for me, I can sense them if I need. I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
I see them. Five peaceful, sleeping glowing shapes of light. Rhys’ bedroom is closest, not too far left of me.
I start opening doors at random until I find a corridor that leads me closer to his room. A corridor that’s dimly lit, instead of pitch black, with electricity, not torches on the wall. Oh, thank heavens. I’m back in the renovated part of the castle. Picking up my pace, I hurry to Rhys’ bedroom and bang on his door. “Rhys? You awake?”
In mere seconds, the door swings open, and Rhys stands there, his eyes sleepy, his long hair in a tousle around his shoulders. “Aria?” he says, and then takes a look at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Something happened,” I reply, my teeth chattering. “Something weird.”
He immediately puts his arms around me, drawing me into his chest. He’s so warm. My own personal space heater. “You’re freezing, love.”
“I got lost,” I admit, allowing him to pull me into the room. He guides me to a comfortably-overstuffed chair next to the fireplace, tucks a blanket around my shoulders, and throws another log on the fire. Delicious heat washes over me. “You take such good care of me,” I murmur. This is a side of Rhys I haven’t seen before.
His lips lift in a small, sidelong grin. “Join me in bed, and I’ll take even better care of you,” he quips.
Yeah. That’s the side I have seen. Rhys Griffith is an irrepressible flirt, and he can certainly back it up. The man eats pussy like a champion.
One of these days, I’ll get to knock on Rhys’ door in the middle of the night just because I want him, but today is not that day. My life is too tumultuous, and all five of my mates will need to hear about Maija’s revelation.
His expression turns serious. “You want to talk to all of us? I’ll call the others.”
“Thank you, Rhys.”
In less than five minutes, all four dragons crowd into Rhys’ bedroom. “Something happened,” I tell them. I’m looking at Bastian’s face as I speak. “I had a visit from Maija Essen.”
Bastian’s expression turns blank with shock. Casius and Mateo exchange looks, and then Casius clears his throat. “Aria,” he says gently, “She’s dead.”
“I know.” I sound a little crazy. I’m having visions of long-dead dragons. “She said she was a memory from the past, sent to the future to talk to me.”
“A vision from the past.” Erik directs his question at Mateo. “Is this possible with magic?”
Mateo shrugs his shoulders. “She was the most powerful mage of all time.” He turns to me. “Are you sure it wasn’t a dream, tesoro?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I insist. “It was real. She was in dragon form. Her scales were red, and her eyes were green. She was in a large underground room, and she called herself the Silver Mage. I didn’t dream any of it.”
Bastian swallows. “What did she tell you?” he asks quietly.
I tell them the whole story. Being summoned by a voice in my head. Heading down an endless flight of stairs to the underground chamber Seeing the dragon, wearing the ring on my finger, being pulled into a vision from the past. Seeing Maija Essen and Halla Northridottir in the mage’s chamber, and finally, Maija Essen breaking off a piece of the Bloodstone and pushing it inside Halla’s stomach.
There’s perfect silence when I finish. “The Bloodstone is part of me,” I say out loud. “That’s why I can do magic, even though I’m Norm.” I look around at my five dragons. “I didn’t dream that. I’m not crazy.”
/>
“Erik?” Mateo says, his voice strained. “Do you have the gem?”
Erik nods. He lifts the chain from around his neck and hands it to Mateo, who surveys the golden dragon thoughtfully. I can feel the threads of magic around him start to swirl, gathering in strength as he directs his power at the stone. “It’s resisting me,” he grinds out. “The dragon can’t be removed from the ruby.”
I have a sudden premonition about this. A feeling that Mateo’s trying to approach this all wrong. “Not by you.” The golden dragon is protecting the Bloodstone, and the more Mateo strains to remove it, the more it resists.
I hold out my hand. “May I?”
Mateo nods slightly and places the Bloodstone in my palm. The moment I touch it, a sense of rightness sweeps over me.
I’ve been dreaming about the stone for weeks, but I’ve never held it before. When my fingers close around it, I feel recognition. Awareness. I feel complete.
“Hey there,” I whisper to the golden dragon that’s curled around the gemstone. “Wake up, little guy. Will you show the others what you hide?” I unfurl my fingers and stroke the miniature carving on its back, and because I’m watching for it, I sense the exact second the magic around me thickens.
It wakes, as if from a long sleep. Its wings slowly unfurl. Its eyes open, and its head lifts up. Its claws fall away from the ruby it protects.
“It’s chipped,” Casius says hoarsely. “It’s supposed to be a perfect teardrop but look at the side. It’s as if someone gouged a wedge out of it.”
“Not someone,” Bastian replies grimly. “My mother. But why?”
“She said that I hold the last bit of untainted magic in the universe. Maybe I’m supposed to be a seed or something?” I feel like I’m still groping in the dark.
An expression of disquiet flickers across Casius’ face, but it’s gone so quickly that I’m sure I imagined it.
“Whatever it means, one thing is clear,” Erik says flatly. “You’ll need to be protected, and not just by Bastian’s guards. We’ll need to train you to face anything.” He looks at the other dragons. “Mateo will teach you magic. Rhys and I will teach you to fight. Casius will teach you about our history, and Bastian can give you a crash course on magical politics.”
I wonder if he’s thinking about his dead mate. A tendril of jealousy winds around my heart, and I banish it ruthlessly. I’m not going to be one of those women that are catty about their mates’ exes. It’s too ridiculously cliched.
Besides, Erik’s right. I’m a thief. I know the importance of preparation and hard work. I had some training in the week leading up to Bastian’s birthday, but that’s not nearly enough. We’ll eventually figure out how to break the curse, and when that time comes, I will need to be ready. I’ve got to buckle down and get to work.
Everyone lapses into silence. We’re all lost in our own thoughts. For a few minutes, the only sound in the room is the hiss, pop, and crackle of the fireplace. Rhys finally breaks the quiet. “Look,” he says reasonably. “It’s three in the bloody morning. The curse has been on us for five hundred years. I think it’ll keep for another five hours. We can get to work in the morning, but for now, let’s get some sleep.”
Bastian takes a deep breath and gets to his feet. “Sounds good.”
I don’t want to go back to my room. “Can I stay here?” I ask.
Rhys flashes me a sympathetic smile and follows it with a wink. “Of course, love. I know you just can’t get enough of me.”
Erik rolls his eyes, and I start to laugh. Right now, Rhys’ cheerful, uncomplicated company is exactly what I need.
71
Casius
Maybe I’m supposed to be a seed or something.
Those words fill me with unease for one simple reason. A new plant sprouts out of a seed. The seed itself is split apart, no longer needed once it’s given life to a plant. It’s destroyed in the service of creating something more important.
Aria’s my mate. Call me selfish, but I don’t want that to happen to her. Above all else, I want her to be safe, unharmed and happy.
If magic is waning from the world, then so be it. Maybe it’s time for us to wither and die, and for the Norms to be ascendant.
I understand magic, but because I have none of my own, I don’t know it. Among us, Mateo’s the one who’s spent the most time in the Silver Mage’s library, reading her diaries, poring over her notes. If there’s anyone of us who might understand Maija Essen’s true intent with Aria, it’ll be him.
As we leave Rhys’ room, I put a hand on his shoulder. “Can I chat with you for a minute?”
I don’t want to raise my suspicions to the others. Not yet, not while it’s just an intuition. Erik’s already lost one mate. It would destroy Bastian to know that his mother’s machinations might cause Aria harm.
And Rhys? If we knew that something bad was going to happen to Aria, even Rhys is not a good enough actor to pretend that all is well.
“Sure.”
Erik gives me a curious look. “Everything okay, Slater?”
I force a smile on my face. “Just wanted to discuss something I read today with Mateo,” I say blandly.
Neither Bastian nor Erik are fooled by that excuse. “At three in the morning?” Bastian raises an eyebrow. I return his gaze steadily. “Fine,” he murmurs. “Keep your secrets. You’ll tell us about it if it’s important?”
“I will,” I reply, though I wonder if I’m lying. If the Bloodstone will harm Aria, would I tell the others? Or would I just allow them to enjoy what little time we have with our mate?
Even the thought causes a hard lump of fear in my chest. I wait until the others are out of earshot, and then turn to Mateo. “I don’t understand magic,” I start, and then pause as something strikes me. “Where are we going? This isn’t the direction of your bedroom.”
Mateo has that distracted look on his face, the one that signals that he’s using magic. “I’m following Aria’s tracks,” he says. “I want to see this underground chamber for myself.” He frowns in annoyance. “Every time I use magic in Bastian’s castle, the wards fight me. Maija Essen was not noted for her trust in her fellow mages.”
“Given that her spurned betrothed cast a blood curse on all magicals, do you blame her for her paranoia?”
He nods reluctantly. “I suppose you’re right. Anyway. You were saying?”
I take a deep breath and prepare to voice my doubts. “You know more about Maija Essen than anyone else,” I start. “She pulled Aria into our war with the Dark Dragon. Is there a chance, no matter how slight, that she would view Aria’s life as collateral damage, a necessary price to break the curse?”
Mateo stops dead in his tracks. “What?”
“Aria said that she was a seed,” I point out. “Those words got me thinking. Are you supposed to pull the untainted magic out of Aria to end Zyrian’s stranglehold, and will it end up destroying Aria?”
His face has gone pale. “No,” he whispers. “She can’t… Why would she…” His voice trails off.
“It has long been rumored that the Silver Mage could see the future,” I reply. “She guarded her ability jealously, but I’ve found hints in various manuscripts. If she saw something… what if she decided that this was the only way to save our race?”
Mateo shakes his head violently. “Why make Aria our mate then? Why trigger the mating bond? Not just for one, but for all five of us?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I can't see the whole path. There’s a Norm book called Dune,” I add tangentially. “In it, the main character can see the future, and every path but one leads to utter ruin. And though that path is terrible, one that leads to the death of his wife, he has to stick to it, because the alternatives are much worse.”
Mateo’s jaw clenches. When he speaks, there’s a note of tightly contained anger in his voice. “The Silver Mage might have seen the future,” he says. “But she was wrong about one thing. If it comes to a choice between magic and Aria, I’ll c
hoose my mate. Every single time.”
72
Aria
I don’t feel like fooling around, and despite his flirting, I don’t think Rhys does either. I spoon into him, and he puts his arm around my waist. “You know,” he says softly, his breath tickling my ear, “You don’t need to be part of this. This isn’t your war.”
Is he right? I don’t know. “I can’t think of it that way,” I reply, closing my eyes and focusing on the feel of his body against mine. “When Silas got ill, and Raedwulf approached me about stealing from you, I had one week to get ready for the job. Had I stopped to think about what I was doing, I’d have peed in my pants. Or worse.”
His fingers trace circles on my stomach. “Nice image,” he says wryly.
“It’s the truth. But… I didn’t have time for fear. That week, I just prepped for the job, step by step. You know why?”
“Tell me, love.”
“Because the reward was worth it. I’d have risked anything to pay for Silas’ treatments.” I lace my fingers in his, and lift his palm to my lips, pressing a kiss there. I hope the gesture isn’t too sappy for Rhys. “This is the same thing. The journey’s scary as fuck, but the destination’s worth the struggle. Plus,” I quip, trying to lighten the tension, “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as a half-Norm, half-gemstone. That’s just weird.”
He kisses the side of my neck. “You’re pretty damn amazing, Aria,” he says. “But this isn’t the same as when you were planning on stealing from us. This time, you’re not alone. We’re in this together. And,” he adds, his voice lighter. “I consider it my duty to make sure that this journey isn’t all doom and gloom. We’re going to have plenty of fun along the way, okay? The curse is important, but it can’t take away from us living our lives.”
