by Lili Zander
Table of Contents
The Blood Prophecy Series
The story so far
Aria
Casius
Bastian
Mateo
Rhys
Erik
About the Authors
Books by Lili Zander
Books by Rory Reyonlds
Dragon’s Ruin
Blood Prophecy Book 4
Lili Zander
Rory Reynolds
Copyright © 2018 by Lili Zander, Rory Reynolds.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by Kasmit Covers
Contents
The Blood Prophecy Series
The story so far
1. Aria
2. Casius
3. Aria
4. Aria
5. Bastian
6. Aria
7. Aria
8. Mateo
9. Aria
10. Aria
11. Aria
12. Rhys
13. Aria
14. Erik
15. Aria
16. Aria
The Blood Prophecy Series
About the Authors
Books by Lili Zander
Books by Rory Reyonlds
The Blood Prophecy Series
Don’t miss any of the books.
Dragon’s Thief
Dragon’s Curse
Dragon’s Hope
Dragon’s Ruin
Dragon’s Treasure - releasing April 5
Subscribe to Lili Zander’s mailing list and be the first to find out when new Blood Prophecy books are released!
The story so far
After a near-death encounter with a panther shifter guard, twenty-four-year-old Norm Aria Archer promises to give up her thieving ways and embrace the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, her resolve doesn’t last long. Silas, the wolf-shifter who took her in from the streets when she was fourteen, is gravely ill, and cannot pay for the treatment he needs to stay alive.
When the mysterious Drakkar Raedwulf offers Aria a million dollars to steal the Bloodstone from the five dragon princes, Aria has no choice other than to accept. Though everyone in her life warns her about the dangerous dragons, Aria is determined to help Silas.
But the five dragon princes are onto her, and the instant she opens the safe she’s been hired to empty, they appear around her…
…And claim that she’s their mate.
Rather understandably, Aria’s not inclined to trust the dragon princes. She waits until the dragons are asleep, robs the safe and sneaks out of their apartment to meet her client.
Unfortunately, Aria doesn’t have the Bloodstone. Enraged, Raedwulf almost kills her. In the nick of time, Bastian rescues her, though he’s wounded in the attack. Raedwulf and one of his wolf-shifter companions manage to escape, but the third wolf-shifter is taken prisoner by Bastian’s guards.
Aria has abilities that are far greater than any Norm, and the dragon princes try to uncover the mystery of her identity. Silas tells them that he’s been working on the same thing. He kept his findings in a diary that’s stored at his friend Pete’s house. Unfortunately, when Silas and dragon prince Erik Valder get to Pete’s apartment, they discover that the Norm had been killed by Drakkar Raedwulf, who’s also taken the diary.
Aria mourns Pete and decides to confront Raefwulf’s associate, who is being treated for concussion in a hospital. When she gets there, she’s taken prisoner by Dr. Brown, a one-time associate of Raedwulf. Aria’s able to harness Dragon Prince Mateo Valentini’s magic to free herself from the doctor, another sign that she’s not entirely Norm.
The dragon princes grow concerned at the danger Aria is in, and want to send her away, but Aria realizes she can’t leave. She’s part of a five-hundred-year-old prophecy, and she’s the dragons’ mate. She’s ready to break the curse that’s draining magic from the world.
Trust builds slowly between Aria and her five dragons. After an argument about her safety, Aria convinces the dragon princes to let her leave the apartment. The dragons decide to woo Aria; each of them takes her out on a date and gets to know her better.
Aided by the blood magic, the simmering attraction between the dragons and Aria flares to life.
Aria’s slowly getting used to her new life when Gideon Zyrian, the Dark Dragon responsible for the curse that’s draining magic from the world, invades her mind. He starts haunting her dreams, and in every one of them, he kills Silas Archer. Dragon Prince Mateo Valentini wards his mate, but he knows that Zyrian is far more powerful than he is. Any measure he can take to protect Aria is only temporary.
Meanwhile, the search continues to discover the secret of Aria’s missing identity. When Aria discovers that her CPS records are missing, she immediately realizes who’s responsible. Hagen Nygaard, the Arctic fox shifter crime lord who protected her on the streets when she was a runaway. She goes to see Nygaard along with Dragon Prince Erik Valder, and the two of them convince the crime lord to part with the missing records, which tells them that Aria’s first foster home was with a woman called Pauline Summers.
Aria and Silas go to meet Pauline in a nursing home, but the old woman is suffering from dementia. All she remembers is that Aria’s mother tried to kill her as a child.
While the dragons are uncovering Aria’s identity, Zyrian’s been testing the wards of protection around Aria. At a party for Bastian, he manages to break through. Aria draws magic from Mateo to fight back temporarily, but it leads them to realize the only way for Aria to stay safe is to go to Castle Jaeger, where the wards of Bastian’s dead mother, Maija Essen, will protect them.
Her first night in Castle Jaeger, Maija Essen comes to Aria in a vision. She reveals that a piece of the Bloodstone is in Aria, and she gets her magical abilities from it. Maija tells Aria that she’s all that’s standing between the dragons and utter ruin.
Which brings us to…
1
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. Ther
e 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.
2
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.
