by G. Bailey
“When the war in Dragca is over, and I am on the throne, I will send people back to Earth to find you. Anyone that wants to come to Dragca will have a home there,” I explain to Jonas, placing my hand on his shoulder in comfort. “Jace was my family, and I couldn’t save him. I wish I could have, and finding you feels like I have a chance to honor his memory. I will always be here to protect you, and you will have a home with me in the future. Jace was my family…so are you.” Jonas stares up at me with teary eyes, and I only look away as someone steps in front of me. Winter smiles at us, before tucking some of her long hair behind her ear.
“It’s true that you will always be protected from now on, not only by Isola. Plus, my home is pretty cool, and I have a stepson around your age you might get along with,” Winter says, smiling at Jonas who seems to relax a little as he wipes his eyes.
“You will see me again?” Jonas asks me, staring up at me with those eyes so much like Jace’s that it hurts. It only reminds me that Jace’s murderer is still alive, and I’m likely going to be fighting her soon.
“I promise you I will see you again, Jonas,” I tell him, knowing he needs to hear me say it, and I hope to god I can keep my promise and not die before I have the chance to fulfill it. Jonas nods, holding his head high before walking off to the group of children.
“Is he your child?” Winter asks me, watching Jonas like I do.
“Nope, but he is the brother of someone I lost,” I explain to her, and she nods in understanding. I look at her for a second and suddenly remember why her name was bothering me.
“I met your aunt. She said hello,” I say, and Winter laughs, before realizing I’m being serious.
“My relatives are all dead. You must be mistaken,” she replies sadly. “I don’t have an aunt alive anymore.”
“I’m not, though the old lady could have been lying to me. I met a fate, an old lady in looks, but she was much stronger than she would admit. The fate told me we would meet and to say hello to her niece,” I explain to her. “She seemed to know we would meet.”
“My mother was a half fate, and my grandmother was a fate. Maybe she had another sister I didn’t know about,” Winter whispers to herself, looking happy. “If there is another fate out there, then I hope I get to meet her at some point.”
“Perhaps you can come to Dragca to visit when I take the throne back,” I smile, and offer her my hand to shake. Winter knocks my hand away and pulls me into a tight hug, which I happily return. There is something about this woman that makes me trust her. I don’t know what it is, but she feels like my friend already.
“Good luck winning your throne back. The war is never easy, or without great loss, but trust me, peace is worth the fight. You get happiness within peace, I know this,” she whispers to me, and lets go. Winter walks away toward Atti, who holds a hand out to her, his other hand touching the head of the wolf shifter who is called Jaxson apparently, and his giant wolf wasn’t happy shifting back with dragons everywhere. I don’t blame him. They all disappear with the children until there are only dragons left in the forest, and the falling snow can almost be heard drifting in the silence.
I turn around, looking down at my arm at the spear, and I press the red jewel. The bracelet uncurls, snapping out into the deadly spear I remember. The spear feels like it was always meant to be in my hand, and I was always meant to fight with it. I place the end on the ground and look over at everyone staring at me. Dagan has Bee sat on his head, Korbin is sliding a sword into his belt, but he looks at me with a determined look. My uncle is ready for war, that is the only way to describe him as the tip of his sword rests in the snow, and he holds both hands on top of it. I have a feeling none of the dragons here have ever had something worth fighting for. Dagan and Korbin never wanted to fight for my father, they were forced by the curse. My uncle was much the same and lost everything, despite doing as he was told by my mother and father. All these dragons have been kept here like animals and caged…with nothing left to show now that they are free. I don’t know what inspires me to speak, but I know I have to.
“We return to Dragca today to save whatever is left of our home. I know most of you do not know me, and likely only remember my father or my grandfather…but I am not them. I am not weak, selfish or cruel. I will not keep secrets that will destroy my world, and I will not hide from who I am meant to be. If you support me as your queen, I will fight till my last breath for my people! I will rule with kindness, and I will win us this war! I know how to do what is right and how I want Dragca to be for our children. I want peace, true peace like we have never known it. Follow me to Dragca, let me lead you to a future we will be proud to leave behind!” I shout. Dagan kneels first, then Korbin and my uncle following. Then every single one of the dragons kneels down, lowering their heads with their hands on their swords. Snow falls on them as my skin shivers with goosebumps.
“We fight for our queen! We fight for Dragca!” my uncle shouts, raising his sword in the air as he stands up before walking over to me. “It’s time for you to lead us. Where should we enter Dragca?” I wait until Dagan and Korbin get to my side, with the other dragons right behind them.
“The castle. No messing around or hiding. We head straight in,” I say firmly, and my uncle nods in agreement.
“It’s going to be one hell of a fight,” he warns me, and I glance at Dagan and Korbin. Their determination and belief in me I can see in their eyes just reminds me what I have to fight for. I love them…and Thorne and Elias. Peace is worth the fight. I remind myself of Winter’s words, knowing that is all I need to believe in.
“Thorne and Elias need me. I will always fight for them and Dragca. I won’t hide here and die on a world that is not my home. Dragca needs someone to fight for it, and it will be me,” I say, firmly. Bee flies off Dagan’s head and to my shoulder.
“Then after you, Queen Isola of Dragca. The last ice queen and her kings,” my uncle states, using a title that I suppose is right. No matter what happens now, there will be no more ice queens on the throne. Any child of mine will be half fire dragon at least, and Tatarina can’t have any more children…so we are the last of the royal ice dragons. We will fight, and one of us will win. I turn, walking into the forest to a portal my uncle said is close. Time to go home.
Chapter Seventeen
Thorne
My dragon lands on the balcony entrance to the castle, feeling a little surprised that no dragon tried to stop me flying up here from the forest and landing. I shift back, knowing if my mother was going to attack me, she would have by now, and I need to talk to her. I try to keep any thoughts of Isola out of my mind as my body comes back and I stand up straight, but I can’t stop thinking of her. If my mother kills me, Isola would be devasted. Isola is the only person in the world that cares for me, loves me, and if I didn’t have to do this, I wouldn’t. Just imagining her sleeping on my chest, and how I was lucky to spend the night watching her...Isola is everything good in my—no, everyone’s—world.
The cold air blows against me as I watch the three dragons in their human forms standing like statues outside the entrance door. The wind moves their hair and cloaks around, but other than that, they could be statues. They have black lines crawling all over their faces, matching their new black and white uniforms with a white, dragon-shaped, metal clip holding their cloaks to them. Seems mother wanted a new royal crest. The ice blue royal symbol of the Dragice line is gone. They don’t seem to even notice I am here as they stare ahead, only the movement of their cloaks making them even seem alive.
I walk down the stone pathway to the giant doors, every one of my footsteps echoing on the stone. I stare at the burning pots of fire by the doors, and there are more in the corridor ahead, that light everything up. The fire casts daunting shadows over everything, making even the normal dragon statues on the walls seem dark. I walk through the open stone archway, into the silent corridor full of more dragon guards who stand by the walls, with pots of fire between them.
&nbs
p; This time, they are much closer, so I can see their dead looking black eyes as they stand still as statues. The black eyes match the black lines crawling over their faces, and the strange uniforms. I glance at how each of them has a hand on the dragonglass swords clipped to their sides. What the hell has happened to them? I wonder if they were dragon guards once, before they became these dead looking people…but the curse is broken, so they should have left. I doubt a single one of the old dragon guard would have wanted to fight for my mother.
I keep walking down the corridor, trying not to feel creeped out by how silent and still these dragons are, before arriving at the entrance to the throne room. The doors are open for me once again, and I walk straight in with my head held high, seeing my mother sat on the throne at the top of the room. She doesn’t even move when she sees me, not even a twitch. My mother looks darker than ever before, almost unrecognizable with her now black hair, black veins crawling all over her skin that I can see, and her thin frail-looking body. She has a white leather outfit on, and that dark spirit sits on the seatback of the throne, watching me with clear interest. I meet my mother’s dark blue eyes for a second before she looks away again, and I still have some hope there is something left of my mother inside of her.
I stop right in the middle of the room, crossing my arms as I look at her. All the way here, I came up with a million things to say. A million things to ask her, yet when I actually see her, I don’t know how to speak. I should hate her for everything, and part of me will always hate her, but she is my mother after all. Isola taught me that the greatest gift is to truly forgive someone, with hope they can change their ways.
“Mother,” I say coldly, my voice slightly echoing around the room, and she twitches a little at the sound of my voice before her eyes finally seem to focus on me. I try not to look at the throne she sits on, remembering how she killed Isola’s father on it.
“Son. Where is your sweet Isola?” my mother asks, and I tighten my hands into fists, hating that she had to bring Isola up already. From the way my mother said her name, she is still so bitter about Isola’s father and so determined to destroy Isola for simply being born and loving me.
“Isola is clearly not here. You will never get to touch her,” I warn, and she laughs. A cold, cruel laugh.
“The ice princess must die. How can you not understand this, son?” she enquires. “We kill her together and you can inherit the throne from me. Dragca will be happy…everything will be right for the first time in hundreds of years! Dragices have only brought Dragca pain and destruction.”
“Isola has never done anything but fight for Dragca. She isn’t her father or even her mother,” I exclaim in frustration.
“Don’t speak of those betrayers!” my mother snaps, showing real emotion for the first time since I got here. Seems speaking of the people she killed out of jealousy gets her attention.
“I can’t understand why you gave birth to me when you clearly only ever loved Isola’s father. I saw everything…I know everything you have done and what he did to you,” I say, and she briefly seems shaken for a second.
“I didn’t love him. He loved her,” she growls, ice spreading from her hands down the throne.
“Yes, he did love Isola’s mother…but Isola’s mother was your best friend, and she loved you. Then you killed her,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“I asked her not to marry him, but she told me she had no choice. That Dragca needed a real, true queen,” she angrily says. “My best friend and the love of my life betrayed me and had a child they thought deserved to be queen. I will prove she is no queen.”
“I wish things were different for you back then…but did you ever love my father? Why did you have me if you only cared about revenge on Isola’s parents?” I ask her these questions, knowing I need to hear her answer. I suspect it was because she needed me to get the throne…but part of me wants to know the truth rather than a guess. My mother stands up off her throne, closing her hands together in front of her and looking away from me at the glass mirrors on the one side of the wall. I doubt she even recognizes herself anymore. The sweet little girl I saw in the memory cave is long gone.
“I loved your father…make no mistake of that. But he betrayed me when he died and left me alone. Having you…well, I hoped you would be the first man never to betray me, and yet you did,” she almost whispers, not wanting to admit it. “Your father loved the dark side of me and helped me remember there was more to life than death and revenge. Yet he is gone because life doesn’t give you what you want.”
“I loved you though. I am your son, and I should have been enough! Yet you hid me with adoptive parents, made my adoptive father kill your best friend, and then married her grieving husband. Life didn’t give you what you want because you never fought for the things you were given! Like a son that loved you so much, and yet you abused that love!” I shout at her, losing my temper in frustration at her innocent, the-world-wronged-me act. My mother finally looks at me, her eyes filled with tears. “I did everything you asked me to, and you only lied to me. You used me. The sad thing is, I wouldn’t have betrayed you if you could have only forgotten your need for vengeance.”
“All men betray you in the end. You lie,” she says, yet her voice cracks, and I bet she doesn’t even believe her own words. I watch as she keeps shaking her head in disbelief, stepping back and then rubbing her face with her hands.
“You are my mother, and I wouldn’t have. You only had to believe and love me. In the end, you chose revenge and darkness over your child and still expected that child to fight on your side,” I say gently, walking over to her until I’m close enough to touch her. I still pause, not knowing how far I can push my mother now. I know she is lost to the darkness, but I am unsure how lost. My mother doesn’t stop me as I place my hand on her shoulder, and she looks up at me with tear-streaked cheeks. There is so much emotion in her eyes that I can’t look away, I can’t even move. Somehow, I see love in her eyes too. I don’t know how long it has been since I’ve seen her look at me like I am her child and not some massive disappointment. I know it is way too late for my mother and me to have a normal relationship because I could never trust her around Isola, but I want to give her some kind of chance to live a life.
“I love you as well, my sweet son. The day you were born, I cried because I was so happy. I held you in my arms, singing sweet songs of fire and ice to you, knowing that one day you would be something special. That is why it hurts so much to let you die,” she whispers, lifting a hand and placing it on my cheek. “If Isola weren’t around, you would have been king.”
“I will be king when Isola has the throne…but I will support her fully. I know she is meant to be Queen of Dragca, and I wish you could see that,” I whisper to her.
“I will never support a child of his…He was evil, and Isola looks so much like her father,” she replies.
“That isn’t her fault, mother. You could change all of this. All you would have to do is give the throne to Isola and walk away,” I tell her, hoping that I can talk some sense into her, but from the look on her face, I know it is too late.
“It is a little late for a happy ending for me now, son,” she says and moves her hand, stepping away from me. “I only have the throne, and I will protect it until I die. I know you can’t kill your mother, and I cannot kill my son…but there are other ways to deal with the problem here.”
I watch her as she goes back to her throne and clicks her fingers in the air, her face back to one of zero emotion. The door behind the throne room opens, and Esmeralda walks out, looking, well, disgusting. Her once beautiful features have faded into dead grey skin, and her red eyes and hair are the only bits of color that make her even seem alive, yet they look close to death as well. She wears painted-on red lipstick and a red leather outfit that is dotted with old and new blood. I don’t look at my aunt for long as Elias walks out of the door after her, wearing an all-black leather outfit. His hair is cut short, and his once blu
e eyes are completely black. I hold my ground as Elias looks towards my mother, bowing his head.
“Elias…” I whisper in shock at his appearance, and his whole body goes rigid at my voice. This is going to break Isola to see Elias like this.
“Kill the traitor and anyone that tries to stop you, Elias Fire,” my mother’s cold voice demands, and I finally know how she plans to deal with the problem of me. I ignore the sharp pain in my chest that my own mother is sending him to try and kill me as Elias walks towards me, and I have to focus. Elias doesn’t even look like himself, his cold and aggressive demeanor is much like my mother’s, and his body is thin, the muscles he once possessed faded away. The black eyes are just strange on his pale face, as is the all leather black dragon uniform I’ve never seen him wear before.
“Elias! What the fuck are you doing?” I shout at him as he keeps walking closer, and I step back a little.
“Killing the enemy for my queen,” he replies unemotionally, robotically almost.
“I fight for Isola. She is your queen! I am not your enemy!” I shout, stepping back again as he spreads his arms out, and I know he is going to shift. I could fight him, but my ice dragon side would kill him easily, and Isola would never forgive me. This is why my mother sent him to do this. She knows I won’t really fight Elias, and that means he has a chance of killing me. This is a game and a big fucking trap for Isola. I consider sending a message to her, but we are so far apart that she would never hear me.
“I don’t know who this Isola is, but you are a threat to the throne,” Elias growls, his eyes glowing red as black smoke covers him. “I am here to deal with any threat.” The way he speaks is so sure, and I know straight away that my mother has made him forget Isola somehow. How the fuck am I going to get Elias to remember?
