by Meg Xuemei X
My blood dripped to the land in a stream. It tainted the snow bright red and sank into the soil.
“Daisy Danaenyth,” the goddess asked, her voice vibrating with a divine power, “will you guard and protect the land to your best ability?”
“Yes,” I said, my blood still flowing freely.
“Will you put the realm’s need above your own?”
“Yes, I will.”
She raised her voice and there was charged anger in it. “Will you purge the enemies who have harmed the realm?”
“Without hesitation.” I pulled my lips back with a snarl.
“Then repeat after me: I pledge you to accept my blood. Accept me as your Keeper, your watcher, and your forever protector. From this day forward, you’re mine and I’m yours. Heed my call.”
I repeated the vow solemnly and brightly.
The bleeding in my palm stopped.
“The realm has accepted your oath,” the goddess said with a smile.
I waited, but nothing happened. I stared at Arianrhod with questioning eyes. “How do I know the land has admitted me? I don’t feel—”
A ripple moved across the ground beneath me; a warm wave pushed through the wind.
Then, a red, thorny rose sprouted out from where my blood had spilled in the snow.
The dragons let out an awed cry and praised the goddess.
No one thanked me, and I was the one who had spilled blood to make it happen.
Arianrhod arched her thin eyebrow at me. “Do you want more proof, daughter of little faith?”
“Maybe a little more?” I dared ask. “I need to feel a real connection to the land, not see some parlor tricks. I need to be sure the land will aide me in my time of need, as I’ll protect the realm with my life when it calls me.”
“Ask the land,” Arianrhod said with a shrug.
And I asked.
A violent wind with spectrums of bright colors sprang from the ground and shot into me. I threw my head back and spread my arms as its unbelievably great magic traveled in me, making me drunk with the power of the whole planet.
A vine of fire and light crawled up my arms, expanding all over me. They whispered to me. The realm became alive with its needs, wants, and secrets.
A change of seasons swirled, aligning with the movements of the stars, moons, and the sun. They wove together in order and chaos at once. A new magic from ancient eternity threaded through me and bonded to me. It imprinted in my cells, telling me that I was wanted, needed, and trusted.
I bowed in humility and pride and awe. I vowed to never breach its trust.
I’d become the realm. It was mine.
My gaze swept over my mates, who gazed back at me with love, pride, and adoration. Elvey smiled. The dragon guards were just wide-eyed and stunned, still kneeling in the snow.
My grandfather had excused himself quietly and made his exit some time ago.
I looked down at myself. I beamed like the midnight sun.
“Go, Daisy Danaenyth,” Arianrhod said formidably. “Purge the evil off the land. The black witch is only the first wave of evil invading the realm. Many more will come. You don’t want the war, but to war you must go.”
The goddess started shimmering and fading.
“Wait!” I cried. “I need to ask you about my mates’ masks. Do you know how to lift their curse completely?”
A musical laugh. They need to accept . . . A wild game is coming.
“Accept what?” I shouted. “And what game?” I really didn’t like the sound of the wild game.
Arianrhod vanished without a trace.
“She isn’t what you expected, is she?” Elvey whispered beside me. He was the only one, beside me, who hadn’t knelt to her.
“I’m not done with you, Elvey,” I said harshly. “She won’t take you.”
I shifted to my dragon form and flashed my fangs as Elvey smirked at me.
All the dragons shifted after me.
CHAPTER 21
We flew toward the City of Amethyst.
My mates—a silver dragon, a fire-orange dragon, and a storm-gray dragon—flanked me, two on each side of me and one above me in a guarding position.
It was a bright day.
The sunlight glinted off the skyscraper of glass and steel. Lysandra’s coronation had just started on the rooftop of the Empire Tower, outside a glass hall.
A live hologram played on the tinted glass wall for all citizens of the six cities to watch.
The elite crowd sat in their cushioned seats, waiting and chatting excitedly, while the security guards milled about.
I didn’t know any of them, who all rooted for their soon-to-be new queen.
Anxiety sliced up my spine.
But I had to do this.
We hovered above them as dragons, cloaked by magic, but it wouldn’t last long.
When the ceremony music stopped, Lysandra, wearing a violet gown in golden vertical lines and weaved with diamonds, glided out from the glass hall toward the front stage. Her coven trailed after her.
The six mayors from the six cities, all looking cocky with great self-importance, lined up along the glass façade like the witch’s henchmen. A gray-haired priest and his male assistant posed beside a crystal stand, on which a crown of gold and rubies rested.
The crowd stood to their feet and erupted in cheers and applause at the appearance of Lysandra. They started chanting, “Humans Superior and First! Long live Queen Lysandra!”
Lysandra smiled regally and brilliantly and waved at the mass. She knew how to work the camera, for sure. The live hologram recording showed how graceful and queenly she was. She stepped up to the podium, ready to make a short speech before she accepted the crown.
She raised a hand, and the conclave hushed and sat back down. “My fellow citizens of Danaenyth Republic—”
I dove toward the space between Lysandra and the audience in my dragon form. I looked glorious, my wings carrying the wind, my scarlet and blue scales reflecting in the sunlight. But the gathering didn’t seem to appreciate it.
They let out terrified cries, shouts, and curses.
I shifted to my Fae form before anyone could react and shoot me down. I stood tall, pushing my shoulders back in a regal manner.
My mates and the other dragons hovered nearby, still cloaked with Elvey’s spell. He and Rosalinda hadn’t come with us. They’d left the mountains before us, and I had no idea where he’d gone. I’d like to have his support, even just morally, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him after I’d performed my blood oath and landed the deal with the realm and the goddess.
My three mates, Adrian, and I, had talked about my entrance. I’d come up with this style—to confront Lysandra alone at first.
One dragon wouldn’t pose a threat, but a group of dragons crashing the coronation would cause a great conflict before I could challenge the witch.
Fear would make humans do rash, stupid things.
I raised my hands in the air, adrenaline pumping in my bloodstream.
“I’m Princess Daisy Danaenyth,” I pronounced loudly for all to hear. “And I’m not armed.”
They wouldn’t shoot an innocent, unarmed woman, would they?
The mass gasped, and a camera turned and focused on me. I could see my own image on the glass façade.
Opposed to Lysandra’s diamond dress, I dressed in a glowing white gown that flowed down to my feet. On my head, I already had a crown of gold, diamond, and emeralds with the crest of a royal dragon carved on the surface.
I outclassed the witch by the design.
“Lysandra, unfortunately, I can’t allow you to keep doing this,” I said. “You cannot legitimately take the crown, and you never will be.”
“Seize her!” Lysandra screamed, forgetting she needed to keep a graceful public image. “Seize the assassin!”
“I’m unarmed, and I’m far from an assassin,” I said in dark amusement. “Think you can’t handle one opponent? If you want to be the queen to my realm, you’ll need
to up your game.”
“You aren’t allowed to be here,” she hissed.
“Why is that?” I asked. “Afraid my presence will prove that you’re the fraud?”
“Kill her!” Lysandra screamed at the guards. “She’s a threat to the crown.”
“My crown, you mean?” I asked. “It’s appalling that you’re so desperate to take what’s mine and eliminate me before the people get to know me.”
“It can’t be her!” one of the mayors whispered. “The lost princess—”
The guards rushed toward me, and at the same time, the witch’s coven tossed their spells at me.
Fire poured out from above. Blaze and a few other dragons spat fire at the spells before they could reach me. The dragons removed their magical cloak and revealed themselves, their shimmering scales carrying the sunlight.
A gray-storm dragon’s thunder rolled across the sky, and lightning struck. That was Rai’s signature. Then Iokul shifted to his human form, a current of icy wind pouring from him, pushing the human guards back.
The audience screamed, jumped from their seats, and scurried for cover.
“The dragons are with me,” my voice boomed as I scanned the panicked crowd. “They won’t harm you if you don’t try to shoot them.”
A black dragon that was Adrian roared before shifting. Then the rest of the dragons shifted to their human shapes and formed a ring around me.
Someone recognized Adrian and shouted, “The general, the black dragon, has returned!”
“Yes, I’ve returned,” Adrian called to the mass, “for my legitimate queen Daisy Danaenyth. The lost Dragon Princess, the true heir to the throne and now Queen of the Danaenyth dynasty, has broken the curse placed by the dark Fae Queen. She’s returned home to reclaim what’s hers. No one shall harm her!”
“We don’t want her!” one of the witch’s minions screamed. “We don’t want any dragon to rule us! The dragons’ reign is over. Humans Superior and First!”
Damn, that minion was good.
She was calling for the mob to echo her. And before I could stop it from happening, the entire audience booed me and erupted with cries of, “Humans Superior and First!”
They didn’t want me. They didn’t want me to rule over them.
They didn’t care that I’d returned. I was a stranger to them. They didn’t know me. And there was no time for them to learn anything about me.
The dragon shifters growled. They fanned around me, ready for violence and taking out any threat coming my way.
There was no need.
This was my territory.
I drew power from the realm. Instantly, the land rumbled, and the Empire Tower swayed.
The crowd shrieked, but there was nowhere to run when the skyscraper trembled in rage.
I flicked my wrist and the building stabilized.
“I do not need you to verify my rule,” I told the crowd. “The land is mine. The realm has belonged to my lineage since ancient time. Only the royal dragons are its Keepers. I now exact my right to evict any of you who want to harm the dragons and want us extinct.”
“You can’t do that!” Lysandra said, a vicious, victorious smile floating to her lips. “Danaenyth Republic is mine now.”
“Then call the goddess of the land and see if she endorses you,” I said. “Call the realm and see if it responds to you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lysandra said. “The people have spoken. They don’t want you. They denied you. They’ve chosen me as their queen. We’re just going to finish the ritual.”
“Those who want the dragons to disappear aren’t my people,” I said. “They live on the land that’s not theirs but the dragons’. I was about to offer them self-reign, so all may live in peace. But if peace is not what they want, they can’t stay in my land. I won’t tolerate any racial discrimination, violence, and dark practices. That starts with you, witch. Get out of my land!”
The dragons roared in support.
I spread my arms, and colorful currents of light surged from the earth, reaching me. No building’s floors could stop them. The light of a rainbow licked my skin, twirling around me.
“My goddess!” A member of the recording crew clamped her hand over her mouth. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s true magic. Shit. It’s real.”
“Kill her, now!” Lysandra shrieked, not wanting everyone to see how the land’s magic responded to me. “Kill the dragon bitch and all the dragons. Humans Superior and First!”
“Humans Superior and First!” The mob roared and rushed toward me in waves.
They wanted me dead. They wanted to tear me apart. And they wanted to terminate the existence of my mates and all the other dragons.
A blast of bullets ripped through the air toward us.
I threw my hands up, but I was a little too late. I’d been focusing too much on Lysandra and playing with the land’s magic. Bullets tore into the dragon warriors, including my mates. A bullet or two grazed over my left shoulder and arm, even with the walls of the dragon guards shielding me.
Roaring with pain and fury, my mates and our guards shifted back to dragons despite their wounds.
The war with the humans was about to start right here.
“No, not yet!” I called, ignoring the blood dripping from my shoulder and tainting my white gown. “Stay in the sky. I’m handling this. Goddess Arianrhod wants all to see.”
The light of rainbows moved like waves, throwing off the attackers at the vanguard and pushing them back. The rainbow light spread out, melting every bullet along with the guns.
The enemy guards yelled in pain and curses.
My magic lunged at them, probing their minds and hearts. Those who had been following orders but had no malicious intention toward me and my dragons were spared. But the land’s magic had its own judgment. It tossed those who wanted the dragons dead from the roof.
The land wanted to set a few examples.
If they wanted violence, violence would find them.
Before my mates and Adrian had agreed to my method of entrance, they’d warned me of the violent history of the humans. They’d told me humans always set out to destroy other species in order to dominate the planet. And then they tore each other apart.
Bloodthirstiness was in their nature.
I hadn’t thought they would attack us in the open when we’d only wanted to show them who I was and reason with them.
They didn’t want reason or peace. They wanted our blood. They craved havoc and destruction.
They injured my mates and my warriors.
Fire, frost, and lightning flared out of the dragons’ nostrils, and the murderous fury in their eyes told of their intention to kill every human here.
The same rage coursed in me. I could kill them all, every one of the humans.
But I did not want to plunge into the carnage. It would be what Lysandra wanted, and more to the point, it was what Tianna wanted.
Luckily for the humans, I still had an ounce of mercy.
I restrained the dragons from burning the humans on the rooftop.
But if one of my mates or the warriors had died under the attack, I wouldn’t have spared any human here. I’d slaughter them myself, all of them.
The realm would agree with me. It was less mercy than I would have granted them.
While the light of rainbows held the mobs at bay, I pulled the magic from the land again.
It filled me with power, giving me full support.
I had been worried the link between the land and me in the city would be weak. I had been wrong. The whole realm, including all six cities, was mine. I was its rightful Keeper.
My ancestors hadn’t bothered to extend their powers outside the Dragon Realm, but here I was, claiming the cities back and showing the humans who owned the land.
They’d think twice if they still wanted to eradicate the dragons. I’d make sure they would not forget so quickly after today.
I threw up my hands in the air and com
manded the land, and it gladly obliged.
The City of Amethyst quaked. Buildings swayed. Rifts opened on the streets, and some empty buildings toppled down. Tremors spread throughout the land.
Screams rose all over. Yet I hadn’t destroyed a life that hadn’t threatened a dragon. I held the land’s magic in rein and didn’t allow it to touch the humans in all six cities.
“Call the other five cities and see if Turquoise, Jasper, Heliotrope, Sodalite, and Chrysocolla are all having an earthquake at the same time,” I ordered the reporters from the news media team, and one of them flipped open a communication device.
The crowd—the rich, entitled class—on the rooftop held onto their lives, fear and hate on their faces. The realm’s colorful light bound them and shielded us. A few dragons flew around them, puffing fire, to further remind them to behave.
A reporter called back loudly, “All six cities are having an earthquake. There have been no deaths, except for those on this rooftop.”
At the same time, a live feed of the other cities’ earthquakes swirled on the glass façade. A camera flicked to a cloud of dust and smoke rising into the air as a building on an abandoned block collapsed.
“There’ll be enough death if the Humans Superior and First movement make another move,” I said. “The land is mine. Stop being dense, humans! You want a war, you’ll have it, and you’ll lose. Only fucking morons pick a fight they can’t win.”
I flicked a wrist, and all the quakes stopped in sync.
The camera lens returned to me as I glowed like the goddess of war in wrath, blood on my white gown. “I’m Daisy Danaenyth, the legitimate queen to the Dragon Realm, to the cities Amethyst, Turquoise, Jasper, Heliotrope, Sodalite, and Chrysocolla. I’ve returned to reclaim what’s mine. You don’t need to like it. You’re welcome to leave my land and you won’t take anything that belongs to my land. Those who mean the dragons harm will have three days to leave the cities. Should you stay, the land will purge you without mercy. It’s sentient, as I’ve showed you. It recognizes any hostile force.
For those who are allowed to stay, keep this in mind: don’t abuse the land. Don’t treat it as your servant and do whatever you like with it without considering that it’s also living and breathing. Respect it. I’ve come back to this planet to guard it. Those who want peace are welcome to stay and live a life of freedom and prosperity. The land won’t harm you. Humans Superior and First is unacceptable as Dragons Superior and First.”
