Rivals (Dragon Reign Book 1)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “Ha, if only killing the demon king was that easy,” I replied, not sure if I meant it or not. Could I kill my father? He was a downright ass and obviously wanted to lock me away to rot for the rest of my days, but he was still my father. “No, no I was trying to trade it.”

  “That is a very important relic of the demon race, and you were simply going to trade it away? For what?”

  How much could he trust this witch? “Something important.”

  “And that’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  “I was stabbed by my own kin. I’m not really in the trusting business.”

  “Hmm, and yet you trusted Kate enough to let her help you. Why?”

  I clenched my jaw and remained silent.

  “Obviously you’re in danger, and you are potentially endangering myself and those I care about by being here. I could throw you out on the streets, but I’m not. You know why?”

  “Out of the goodness of your heart?” I mocked.

  “No, because Kate asked for my help because she saw something in you. She trusts you,” she pointed out. “She brought you here without question.”

  It was true; where I came from if someone found me bleeding and close to death, they would’ve left me where I laid and taken anything valuable I had on me. Kate risked her life to get me somewhere safe. She might not have known she risked her life, but she did it all the same.

  “Does she know she’s a shifter?” I asked quietly and noticed the witch stiffen. “That bracelet on her wrist, I saw those runes for entrapment.”

  “Kate’s story is not an easy one,” she whispered sadly. “Even I don’t know all of it.”

  “So that’s a no.”

  “It’s safer that way,” the witch said, but didn’t sound convinced.

  “Is it? She won’t be able to suppress who she is forever. Either she’ll figure it out, or something will happen to make it come out of her.”

  “You don’t think I know that?” she snapped and stood, pacing back and forth. “Something’s changed in the world. I can feel it, but whatever it is, it’s preventing me from seeing too far. There’s too much darkness and shadow, but the nagging in my mind tells me it’s only the beginning.”

  “You’ve seen it?” I asked surprised.

  She turned to stare at me. “You know what it is?”

  “No, but I’ve seen what it does. Demons in my world, they’re getting sick, dying. My father doesn’t believe we have anything to worry about. It’s why I left. Well,” I added, “part of the reason why I left.”

  I winced as the wound throbbed and my vision blurred. damned Reginald and his poisoned blade.

  “My story’s not an easy one either, I’m afraid.”

  She glanced towards the windows. “Kate should be back soon. You only have to hold on a while longer. The salve I’ll make will pull out the poison and heal you faster. You’ll be fine in a few hours.”

  “I’m not sure I have a few hours,” I said honestly. “I’m actually surprised they haven’t shown up here.”

  She grinned and pointed to the charms hanging in the window. “You think I would leave my home unprotected?”

  “But I’m in here?”

  “Because I allowed you to be. Couldn’t very well have you dying on my front lawn.”

  I managed a smile through the grimace of pain. “You know, she might not be your real daughter, but I can see where she gets her mouth from.”

  I thought I heard her laugh, but the room spun around me, and I clung to consciousness. I focused on Kate’s face, wanting to see it again when she returned. She had to know the truth of who she was if only so I could convince her to help me. I needed a dragon shifter to track down the rest of the pieces. If she could track them down, there would be a chance to stop this darkness from taking over the realms because it wouldn’t stop there. It would spread to the human world, too, and they would be powerless to stop it.

  Harry growled, and his snout stood straight up as he sniffed the air.

  “What’s he doing?” the witch asked.

  “I don’t know. He found me this morning passed out in the woods.”

  “He’s not yours?”

  “No, but he’s been following me around. What is it, Harry?” I asked, growing weaker by the second.

  He sniffed the air again, and his growl grew fiercer as he turned to the window, got to his feet, and stalked over, hackles raised. Something was out there.

  “Harry?”

  But then it hit me, and I sat up too fast. The room spun, and I was nearly sick.

  “Stop before you hurt yourself more,” the witch scolded, rushing to keep me upright.

  “Kate, where is she?”

  “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “They’re here. I can sense them,” I gasped, and tried to stand, but my legs gave out. “Have to help her.”

  “You can’t go anywhere right now. She’ll be fine.”

  But she wouldn’t be fine. Reginald. He and his demons, they were out there, and they weren’t the only ones. Dragon shifters, a number of them were close. Too close. I tried to stand again, but the witch forced me back to the couch, and I was too weak to push back.

  All I could think of was Reginald going after Kate, hurting her and me unable to do anything but lie on this couch and wait for him to make it to me. This witch might think she could keep out demons, but she wouldn’t be able to keep them out forever. They’d find a way in, and when they did, I wouldn’t’ be the only one they went after.

  Harry kept watch at the front window with the witch at his side. I wondered why the dragons were here. I hadn’t sensed them earlier when I was out with Kate. I glanced at the sword, the one I could barely lift. If they came here, I’d fight them the best I could.

  No one was taking me back to Raghnall easily. Wound or no wound, I was not going down willingly or easily.

  7

  Forrest

  I watched from across the street as the strange girl walked around the shop. She’d slammed right into me and hadn’t even realized what I was.

  She’d been in a hurry, and after I told the others to move on ahead without me, I followed her to spy her disappearing into that witch’s shop. Taking up a place across the street, I waited intently to see where she would go next in such a hurry.

  What fascinated me most was she had a very interesting scent about her. She was dragon kind, that I had no doubt of, but there was something else. Human and the reek of demon. I wanted to ask her what she was doing with a demon, but she’d run off before I had the chance.

  More worrisome was why I was here in this town, to begin with.

  Word went out a few mornings ago of a bounty on the bastard son of Raghnall. I’m usually not into collecting bounties, but orders are orders, so I took my team and here we were in this town searching for the half-demon, trying to find him before anyone else did.

  It wasn’t the bounty’s gold I cared about, well not truly. A dragon always coveted treasure. What was more important was the truce his capture might finally bring between the demons and dragons. For too long our clans fought and killed each other for reasons none of us even remembered.

  The door to the shop opened, and the curious girl stepped out. She was like me and yet she wasn’t. I spotted a flash of silver and gold at her wrist, and my nostrils flared in anger.

  Someone kept her trapped from expressing her true form. She couldn’t be the dragon she was meant to be while wearing that horrid thing. She appeared in distress as she tucked the paper sack under her arm and raced down the sidewalk again.

  Not wanting to lose her, I hurried after, keeping my distance just so I wouldn’t freak her out and she disappeared completely. She ran a few blocks over and then came to a large, wooden house surrounded by a fence and protective spells.

  I snarled as I was forced to come to a stop before I was thrown backward. The girl raced up the steps and into the house without fail, but I knew I couldn’t do the same.

  “Who are you
?” I whispered growing annoyed at my inability to understand this riddle.

  I had to see inside the house, but couldn’t get too close. Otherwise, I risked giving myself away. If the protective spells around the house allowed her to pass, perhaps they would do the same for me simply because of what we shared.

  The power pulsing from the house was strong, but when I breathed in deep, I realized I’d found more than just the home of this mysterious young woman.

  My eyes narrowed.

  There you are.

  The bastard half-demon. He was here.

  Was he responsible for keeping her trapped with that bracelet? All I knew of him was his thieving track record. He stole relics from all races and pawned them or sold them off for his own gain. He was a traitor to all races, not just the demons. It would be a pleasure to stop him from bringing any more harm to our kind. I stalked around the house as I texted my brethren to tell them our target had been found.

  When I reached the rear of the house, I heard children playing and I paused. I couldn’t let innocents be harmed. The demons might be fine with barreling in without a care for who might get hurt, but dragons were above such ruthless tactics. Dragons were placed here to protect, not destroy, unless absolutely necessary.

  I would wait as long as I could, but before this day was over, I would have the half-demon in chains, and the bracelet torn from that poor girl’s wrist. She needed to be freed.

  And I would make whoever placed that bracelet on her pay for their heinous crimes.

  8

  Kate

  I was still shaken up by what I saw in the shop, but handed over the supplies to Mama Lucy the second I was through the doors to the living room.

  She took them and went to work, mixing and mashing ingredients together in a bowl on the coffee table.

  “You… made it back,” a gruff voice said from the couch.

  The guy was pale, very pale.

  I sank to the ground by his side and held his hand, not sure why I did it, but he attempted a smile. “Yeah, I did. You have to hang in there. Can’t die on Mama Lucy’s couch, that’d be rude.”

  “Trying… not to… poison makes it… hard, you know?” He tried to laugh, but it turned into a hacking cough.

  I shushed him. “I never caught your name.”

  “Craig,” he whispered. “Name’s Craig, and you’re Kate.”

  Mama Lucy must’ve told him. “Yeah, that’s me. The girl who saved the crazy guy.”

  “Did you… did you see anyone else… out there?”

  Huh?

  “That’s quite enough talk,” Mama Lucy said firmly and came over with the bowl filled with a foul-smelling salve.

  I breathed through my mouth, but then I tasted it and gagged.

  Mama Lucy’s smile was grim. “It’s potent, I know, but it’ll work.”

  Craig swallowed hard and sucked in a pained breath when she pressed the thick, grey substance to his wound. I let him squeeze my hand, confused by his last question. I saw people out there, but I sensed he meant something else. Maybe the person who stabbed him?

  “Craig, what did you mean?” I asked, earning a scowl from Mama Lucy.

  “He needs rest,” she said.

  “She needs… to know…” Craig gasped when she pressed more salve into the wound. “Has to know.”

  “What’s he talking about?”

  “Nothing, he’s delirious.”

  “No, I’m not,” he growled,.

  This time I knew it was a growl. A beast-like growl that no human should be able to make.

  Mama Lucy’s hands stilled, and I froze, heart, pounding as I stared at him.

  Panic was in his paranoid gaze as it flickered past me to the window. “They’re coming… for me… I sense them… she needs to know the truth.”

  Mama Lucy opened her mouth probably to yell at him some more, but I cut her off. “Are you saying the person that did this to you is out there? Mama Lucy, we have to call the cops.”

  “No, no more humans,” he rasped. “They’ll only get hurt.”

  “Humans? We’re all humans,” I replied confused. “Craig?” He closed his eyes, and they didn’t open again, but his chest rose and fell with his breathing. “What’s he talking about? What do I need to know?”

  “It’s from the wound, dear, ignore it,” she said.

  I shook my head. “Mama Lucy, what’s going on? Really? I know things have changed. Something’s happening, and I have no idea what it is and at the shop…” I trailed off, unsure if I should tell her what happened at the shop or not.

  “Kate?” Her hand held my cheek as she stared deeply into my eyes. “What did you see?”

  “There… there was a dagger, and I touched it, and then I wasn’t here anymore,” I whispered. “I was flying… I was a dragon, and there was fighting. People dying.” I gulped at the fear and anger racing through my veins. “And a darkness spreading over everything. Killing everything. I tried to fight it, but then… then I was back in the shop as if nothing happened. It was like my dreams only this felt… this felt real.”

  Now I sounded like a crazy person. That was just great. But when I looked at Mama Lucy, she wasn’t staring at me like I was crazy.

  She stared at me like she already knew this day would come. “Oh, my sweet girl, maybe he’s right.”

  “Told you,” Craig chimed in followed by a harsh cough.

  Mama Lucy glared at him. “She has to be told the proper way. Not just blurting out the truth!”

  “No time… can’t you… feel it? They’re here… running out of time.”

  “No one is getting into this house!”

  I glanced from one to the other and wondered if I was the only sane one in this room. “Would someone please just tell me what’s going on?” I snapped and felt the strange sensation of something shifting through my body as if trying to break through my skin again.

  There was no pain like the other day when I tried to take off my bracelet. No, this was different. This felt powerful and strong, and I closed my eyes, ready to embrace it when Mama Lucy grabbed my shoulders hard and the sensation died.

  “Not here, you can’t do that here,” she ordered. “Never, do you hear me?”

  “I don’t understand! What’s happening to me and who is he?” I was ready to tear my hair out if no one came clean.

  Harry’s sharp bark interrupted our arguing.

  Mama Lucy let go of me and ran to the window. Her face paled, and she backed away. “Kate, get the kids. Lock them in a room upstairs.”

  “What? Mama Lucy—”

  “Do as I say!” she stormed.

  I bolted from the room, stopped for a second to peer outside and saw someone I never expected to see again.

  The guy I ran into on the street was there along with the guys I assumed were his friends.

  But there were more guys headed towards them and from the looks on their faces, they weren’t happy. Why were they all here?

  “Kate!”

  “Right,” I muttered and ran through the house to the backyard. “I need you all to come inside, come on!”

  “What, why?” Jerry, one of the younger boys, asked. “I don’t want to go in.”

  “Mama Lucy says so, now hurry up. It’s an emergency.” I waved, urging them all inside.

  They groaned complaints as they came inside and I hurried to lock the back door. I counted heads, making sure I had everyone, and ushered them towards the stairs.

  “What’s going on, Kate?” Mary asked.

  I was about to make up some lie when a horrible roar came from outside. It shook the walls, and the kids shrieked in fear.

  Mama Lucy yelled something I didn’t understand, and then the sound of glass shattering had me moving faster than I ever had before in my life. Leading the way, I took the kids upstairs as sounds of fighting erupted at the front of the house. All I could think of was Mama Lucy staring down those men and yelled for the kids to move faster. I had to get them to safety before I cou
ld go help her.

  “Inside,” I said and opened the door to Mama Lucy’s room. “Now you lock this door, and you don’t open it for anyone except me or Mama Lucy, understand?”

  “Wait, where are you going?” Mary asked, grabbing my hand. “What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know, but you’re going to stay in here. I have to go help.”

  “No! Don’t leave us!”

  I stared at all the faces and wished I could tell them everything was going to be alright, but how could I do that when I had no idea if it would be or not?

  “Keep this door locked,” I repeated and closed it. I waited until I heard the bolt slide into place then rushed off back downstairs to help.

  But downstairs was chaos.

  A guy I didn’t recognize went sailing down the hall, past the stairs, and landed with a thud somewhere in the kitchen. He yelled curses from his tone, but what he actually said I have no idea. The language was weird and very guttural.

  I heard Mama Lucy yell and I took off in the direction it came from.

  When I skidded around the corner to the living room, Mama Lucy was backed up against the far wall, her hands out before her and blue and white light emanating from them. It formed a bubble around her and kept out the men trying to get at her.

  “Mama Lucy!” I screamed and without thinking about the consequences, barreled into the men invading my home.

  I took them to the floor in a heap, but once there had no idea what to do next.

  “Kate!” Craig yelled in a panic.

  I turned to see him using the sword he’d been carrying and fighting against another man with a sword.

  No, not just a strange man.

  The other man I ran into on the street! Why was everyone running around with swords?

  “Grab her!” the man I ran into earlier ordered and a strong pair of arms wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my side.

  “Get off me! Let me go!” I screamed, but the one holding me was too strong.

  “Forrest! The demons are back,” one of the others I’d knocked down said, staring out the front window. “And they do not look happy!”