by G. Bailey
“Thanks,” I reply when the guys don’t say a word and it gets beyond awkward. Uncle Louis seems to be giving them the “dad stare” I’ve seen other parents do to their kid’s new boyfriend or girlfriend in movies.
“The showers are good places to talk…alone,” my uncle suggests, meaning they don’t have cameras in there. I nod at him once, looking at Dagan who briefly glances at me with a look that suggests a shower talk later with no one around. When I see the heat in Dagan’s eyes, my cheeks go bright red with the thoughts of shower time with him.
“Do the hunters come around often?” I turn and ask my uncle. I need to talk to Hallie, and I hope she will come around here at some point, but I need to know when to look. I only need her to talk to me.
“Why?” he asks. “The hunters won’t be easy to make friends with. I only know of one who even talks to one of the dragons here.”
“I need to talk to one of them who is already my friend. A girl with green-tipped dyed hair,” I explain, and he looks at me curiously but answers anyway.
“The hunters are around from four p.m. to five p.m. to make sure we get back into our cages. They don’t like killing us for no reason,” he explains.
“Thanks for the information,” I reply with a tense smile.
“Though the hunters won’t speak to you while the cameras watch. It’s pointless,” my uncle states. “Unless you can somehow get them where the cameras don’t watch.”
“Maybe. It will be difficult, but I have to try,” I shrug.
“Can I have a moment alone with your dragon guards, Isola?” my uncle asks, and I pause, looking at them all who give me little nervous smiles.
“I don’t think it is safe for Isola to be wandering around alone,” Kor replies first.
“No one here will hurt Isola. The hunters won’t try to kill her because they clearly want her to control us all. Isola is the safest one here. You should be more concerned with them hurting you to control her,” he remarks, basically speaking my greatest fear of this place. I remember Graves’s cold eyes and how the human felt like he would do anything to control this place.
“As long as they don’t touch my Isola, it doesn’t matter,” Thorne replies, and a low growl escapes Dagan’s lips when Thorne says “my Isola”. I place my hand on Dagan’s knee, and it seems to calm him a little.
“Young love. I forgot how much I despise it,” my uncle scowls at Thorne’s answer and looks back at me, waiting for my choice. Dagan nods at me, making it clear he is back in control and okay with me leaving.
“I have someone I want to speak to anyway,” I say, standing up as the guys give me a worried expression. From the look on my uncle’s face, I wouldn’t want to be them either. I hold in my smirk as I walk away from them, hoping my uncle doesn’t scare them too much.
Making my way over to Jace’s brother, I know I need to speak to him for Jace’s memory, let alone anyone else’s. I won’t leave here without any of them, but this kid is different. Jace was my first love, my best friend and family to me. I thought I’d lost every part of him when he died, and I never thought I would be lucky enough to have some part of him in this world. This is Jace’s brother, and I will protect him. The boy looks up at me as I get to his table. He is alone now, his friends are playing and running around behind him.
“You again,” the boy drawls nervously, looking up at me with eyes just like Jace’s. My heart hurts as I stare down at him and pause, speechless, for a moment.
“May I sit here?” I ask.
“Sure,” he says cautiously, and I try to ignore how it’s not fair a child his age is so cautious and has so much fear in his young eyes.
“I won’t hurt you. You don’t need to look at me like that,” I tell him, wanting to comfort him and shut the boy away from the world he is in.
“They said that too, and they hurt me,” he replies, and I try not to show the heartbreaking emotion I feel at his words and instead remind myself that the people here will pay for what they have done.
“I am not them. We are not heartless humans like them, we are dragons,” I growl and regret it when he seems more scared. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Isola.” I hold out my hand, and he stares at it for a while. I’m about to put my hand down when he reaches for my hand and shakes it.
“The people here called me number forty-two, but a friend of my mother told me she called me Jonas when I was in her tummy. You can choose,” he shrugs. I pause for a second before I answer, wondering why they would call him forty-two, but it dawns on me that Graves said the others didn’t survive. I bet he was number forty-two of the experiments. Forty-two dead dragon children before him. When I get my dragon free, Graves is going to pay for all of this. All the hunters are.
“You are not a number, and your name is Jonas LaDrac. Remember it. I knew your brother very well, and he told me stories about your parents. You are the only one of their line left. Wear that name proudly,” I tell him firmly before letting his hand go. It hurts to even say Jace’s last name after such a long time, but it’s important he knows it. Jonas stares at me like I’m crazy for a few moments before he speaks.
“My father is still alive, but they don’t keep him in here because he is a witch,” he tells me, shrugging his shoulders. “So, I can only see him on Fridays, but he doesn’t like to talk to me.”
“You’re a half witch?” I whisper, believing my uncle more now than before because the child seems too confused by my expression to be lying to me. I sit back in my chair, rubbing my face as Jonas nods his head. I look around me at the other children here and wonder if they are mixes of these other supernaturals and our kind. If they are, how dangerous could they be, and how will they ever know what world they belong in? I know that it’s impossible to know all these answers right now, and I guess it’s a problem for the future. If we have one, that is.
“I had a brother?” Jonas asks me, and I take a shaky breath as I try to speak about Jace.
“Yes. His name was Jace. I was going to be mated to him. We grew up together, and we were dating before he was killed,” I explain to him.
“Will you tell me about him? About my mother?” he asks, and I nod.
“I’d love to. It’s hard being the only one keeping his memory alive,” I whisper, more to myself than Jonas before starting to explain everything I can to Jace’s little brother, knowing it somehow helps to keep Jace’s memory alive.
Chapter Seven
Thorne
I lean back in my seat, taking my eyes off Isola’s uncle—Louis—to watch Isola walk over to a table where a young, familiar-looking boy is sat down. He looks at Isola with slight fear, and yet some part of him clearly trusts her, as he doesn’t walk away when she sits down. Though Isola isn’t easy to say no to. She has that quality every leader needs—respect. It doesn’t take me long to remember why he looks familiar to me. The boy looks like Jacian, Isola’s first love and the guy whose body I burnt because she asked me to when we first met.
With the amount of ice dragons here, even if all of them look like teenagers or children, something weird is going on. There are at least four fire dragons here, by the looks of it, and mostly men. If we can get them on our side, maybe we could have a chance of getting Elias back and stopping my mother. I think back to the last time I saw my mum, how she looked nothing like the mother I grew up visiting. That dark spirit has changed her too much, taken her soul and corrupted it further than what Isola’s father did once.
“Do you love her? Love her enough to die for her even if she wouldn’t want it?” her uncle suddenly asks us all, drawing my attention back to him. Isola’s uncle looks nothing like Isola at all, and his time on Earth hasn’t changed that. His dark red hair has grown much longer—and greyer—than when I saw him last. His burning red eyes lock onto me, and I know from the anger in them, he hasn’t forgotten how I betrayed Isola and his trust all that time ago.
“Yes,” Dagan, Korbin and I state confidently at the same time. Dagan t
akes a moment to glare at me before sighing loudly.
“We have all proven how much Isola means to us. She is Thorne’s mate, and soon to be mine,” Dagan tells him.
“Mine as well,” Korbin smoothly adds in. Part of me and my dragon want to tell them to fuck off, and my dragon briefly takes over in my mind, feeling possessive. I glance over at Isola again, staring at her long blonde hair which is somehow in perfect waves, the pale soft skin that glimmers in the bright lights of the room, and her slender body that I wish I could hold in my arms. I know I am not strong enough to protect her alone and love her as much as she needs. I know that she needs Korbin and Dagan in her life to be safe, to be complete and happy. She needs Elias too. There is something about how each of them seems to bring out a different side to her that is always content. Dagan makes her strong, Korbin makes her empathic, and Elias makes her a fighter. I don’t know what I make her, but she seems to want me in her life as much as I need her in mine.
“Your mother is on a war path, and I know she will destroy Dragca, and then she will come here,” Louis states, and I nod once at him, leaning back in my seat. “Either way, there will soon be nowhere to hide Isola that she won’t find.”
“I am aware of my mother’s plans,” I reply.
“If you love Isola, you will make a plan. When we escape here, which we will, you need to go to Dragca alone and face your mother,” Louis states.
“Why do you think I could stop her?” I ask, remembering the way my mother looked at me the last time I saw her.
“She loves you, and she will not kill you straight away. Dagan and Korbin, with my help, will make a distraction, and you must go back alone,” he explains. “You’re her son, and there is a reason you are still alive.”
“Tatarina will kill him,” Dagan practically growls, and I give him a surprised look at his protectiveness. He shrugs at me with a small smirk. “You mean a lot to Isola. If we helped you walk into your death, she would hate us. You might be an asshole, but you’re family now.” I suppose his logic makes sense, in a messed up way, and Korbin nods his agreement.
“Getting the closest people to Isola killed is not a good idea. Isola has lost enough, and any more…there won’t be a queen left for the throne. Just a broken woman,” Korbin retorts while I stay quiet.
“You all just told me you love her enough to die for her. Even if she wouldn’t want it,” Louis states. “Sometimes we have to make the hardest choices for the people we love.”
“There are hard choices, and there is sending her mate to his death bed,” Dagan replies, but Louis ignores him to look over at me.
“Isola needs you to kill your mother and give her the throne in the ashes. I know my niece’s plan is to escape here and go to save Elias. Tatarina wants exactly that, and it will get Isola killed,” he says. “At this point, it is your life or hers.”
“I will do it,” I say, ignoring Dagan and Korbin’s instant disagreement as I look at Isola as I speak. “Elias being taken was my mother’s only way of getting Isola to come back and fight her. I stand a chance…Isola does not, and I love her too much to risk it. If I die, don’t let Isola ever come back to Dragca, and keep her safe here.”
“I can’t do this to her,” Kor disagrees.
“Then you don’t love her as much as I thought you did, boy,” Louis snaps. “Did you think being in love with a royal was going to be easy? I do not want my only family to die for nothing! Tatarina has destroyed everything that means anything to me, and she will not stop until Isola is dead. I will not let her be killed for simply being my sister and the king’s daughter. I won’t let her be killed because of jealousy.”
“I didn’t know you care so deeply for Isola,” Dagan replies, leaning back in his seat, taking in Louis.
“I’ve always cared for Isola. I loved my sister and watched as her whole world lighted up because of Isola, her sweet little girl,” he replies. “I watched in secret as that child turned into a lost princess of a world she didn’t understand or want to be part of. Then the woman that walked into here today was every bit the queen her mother was. If Isola falls, so does Dragca. So, make your choice. Love…or her life,” Louis tells us before getting up and walking away as we all sit silently processing his words.
“Your mind is already made up, isn’t it?” Korbin asks me, leaning forward, and I glance towards him.
“She is my mate and my everything. If there is even a slight chance I can save her, isn’t that worth risking it all?” I ask, my mind made up. I owe Isola, and I know Louis is right. If I don’t stop my mother, no one can.
“We will help you leave, even if it costs us everything. Isola must live, because I know none of us can live without her,” Korbin replies, and Dagan still sits silently, clearly thinking it over.
“I don’t know. When the time comes, I will make my choice. If I can see another way to save Isola, my brother and you, I will take it,” he states.
“We should explore and talk to the dragons here. We need alliances,” Korbin interjects when none of us say a word. “And one of us is staying in the cage with Isola tonight. The collars say we need to be in a cage, not which one.”
“Good plan…but it might get one of us killed if the collars shock us for not being in the right cage,” I reply.
“It’s a possibility…that’s why I’m thinking you should take the first night,” Korbin says with a deep laugh as he gets up, and Dagan chuckles too. Maybe being killed might come sooner than I thought.
Chapter Eight
Isola
“Isola,” Dagan says from just behind me as I laugh with Jonas. It’s taken a few funny stories of Jace to make him lighten up a little. I want to get him out of this place so much and let him have a real childhood. Jonas doesn’t even talk or act like a child, and it’s so sad he has to feel that he can’t be free. I hate that he was born in here, and when I get this damn collar off, I’m freezing the entire place and having my dragon guard burn the rest. They say we are the monsters they need to keep in here, but really, they are the monsters who cannot see themselves as what they truly are. Evil.
I look up to see Dagan smiling down at me, before introducing himself to Jonas. At least my uncle didn’t scare or hurt him. I remind myself to ask what they talked about later when we are alone. I look around the room quickly, spotting Thorne and Korbin together, talking with a group of five fire dragon men who seem entranced by whatever they are saying.
“I’m Dagan Fire. Anyone who makes my Isola laugh is my friend,” he says, and Jonas shyly smiles at him before reaching to shake his hand.
“Jonas LaDrac,” Jonas says, making me smile widely at the use of his name. “It is nice to meet you.”
“A LaDrac, huh? I heard your family were known as some of the fiercest ice dragon warriors Dragca has ever seen,” Dagan tells him, and it is true. The LaDrac fought alongside the Dragices in the ancient wars of Dragca. Our families were always close to each other, always fighting at each other’s sides.
“Really?” he asks in wonder, looking eager to learn more about his family history.
“Yes, really. I have to borrow Isola for a little while, but I will come to find you another day to tell you what I know,” Dagan promises, making Jonas’s whole face light up.
“I’d like that,” he replies and turns to me. “Are you going to talk to me again? Please?” he asks. I slide out of my seat, walking around the table and crouching down right in front of him, lowering my voice so only he and Dagan can hear me.
“I will be here every day to see you, and one of these days, I am going to free us all. I need you to be brave and be ready,” I tell him. “You need to be a strong boy for just a little longer like your brother and mother.”
“I can do that,” he replies with a nod of his head. “I promise.”
“Good,” I grin at Jonas before pulling him into a hug I know he doesn’t expect. He doesn’t push me away like I somewhat expected him to, but instead he wraps his arms around my neck. I event
ually pull away, standing up and stepping into Dagan’s arms. He squeezes me gently before letting me go to lead me around the table.
“I thought we should look around. Korbin and Thorne are introducing themselves to the dragons here, so we have time to explore,” Dagan says, kissing the side of my head in a comforting way.
“Good plan. What did my uncle say?” I ask. I’m surprised to see Dagan seeming so calm after a talk with my uncle. I thought my uncle would drill into them all about how they will be kings once I take the throne and the important responsibilities they will bear. I know Thorne will be a good king because he has so much knowledge of Dragca. Dagan and Korbin might not know as much, but they have good hearts, experience of both the good and bad in people, and that gives them good judgement.
“Nothing more than you’d expect an overprotective uncle to say,” he replies, amused at my slightly confused grin back.
“I never knew he cared,” I reply, keeping my eyes on the seductive way Dagan rolls his lip ring between his lips and how tempting it is.
“None of us did, but for what it is worth, you have an uncle that cares deeply for you,” he tells me, leading me through the tables but holding me close. I meet the eyes of a few of the dragons as we walk past their tables, and each one of them bows their head in respect. I don’t expect them to bow, but it is good to know I have their support, even in a place like this. It makes me sure that I might have some chance of an army when we get out of here.
Going back to Dragca alone isn’t the best idea, but nothing will stop me from going back to Elias. Everyday I’m here, is another day Elias is with her, and I know we can’t stay here long in this collar because Elias will suffer for it. My dark dragon has always been lost in darkness, and he never wanted to be saved. I know he needs me to save him now. I don’t answer Dagan, I just lean my head on his shoulder as we get to the door my uncle said was the library and rec rooms, and Dagan opens it. I walk into the big room, which has three bookcases, sofas and some cabinets lying around.
