by Eva Brandt
Eva Brandt
Winter's Dragons. Melting Ice
Soulmates of Seasons 1
First published by Eva Brandt 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Eva Brandt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Cover art is for illustrative purposes only. Cover art by Rainbow Danger Designs.
First edition
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Contents
Winter’s Dragons. Melting Ice
Anomalous Encounters
The Amazing Female
Three Dragons Are Better Than One
Jack Frost
The Bridge of Frosted Leaves
Enchanted
Of Nymphs, Satyrs and Thieving Dragons
Their Female
Their Treasure
Of Soulmates and Old Friends
Epilogue
Index
About the Author
Also by Eva Brandt
Winter’s Dragons. Melting Ice
One exasperated snow queen who simply can’t find reliable help. Three dragons who really just want to claim their female. What could possibly go wrong?
A firedrake, a wyvern and a ryū walked into a tavern…
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, and honestly, it really is. But I don’t find it all that amusing, considering that it’s not a tavern they’ve stumbled into, but my territory.
Apparently, it’s somehow become my duty to settle a dispute between three Alpha males who have more fire power than sense. Sometimes it is not at all enjoyable to be the avatar of Winter.
I suppose that, strange or not, the situation does come with its advantages. They may provide me with better company than my current, somewhat useless underlings. Even a woman with ice flowing through her veins likes having her bed warm once in a while, and if nothing else, it’ll make my sisters so jealous.
Melting Ice is a 52k words reverse harem fantasy romance that contains scorching dragon-shifter/snow queen scenes, no infidelity and a happy ending with no cliffhangers. Part of the Soulmates of Seasons series, the Winter’s Dragons arc. (Releases for the series will come out all throughout 2019).
One
Anomalous Encounters
Cheimon
“Are you sure about this, January? The flooding at the border is that serious?”
My lieutenant shot me a sheepish look that was barely discernible on his perpetually frozen face. “I’m afraid so, Your Majesty. It’s reached a point where despite our cooperation with the forces of the Lady Phthinoporon, we can no longer contain it.”
Oh, dear. And it had taken me so very long to arrange that too. Lady of Autumn though she might be, Pandora hated giving me even the slightest bit of quarter. She was all about rich harvests and bountiful crops, and I just... wasn’t. Whenever we tried to work together on any project, no matter how important, the whole thing tended to descend into chaos within minutes of us deciding to attempt it.
In this particular instance, it had been so bad that November, who acted as the official diplomat between our two kingdoms, had been driven to tears by our bickering. Granted, this wasn’t that difficult to accomplish, since as a rule, he tended to be a weepy person, but still, the fact remained that I had taken great pains to reach my goal, and yet, I had failed.
I was not happy.
“Has the dam broken already?” I asked January. “We finished building it last week.”
“It’s still holding up, but only just, Your Majesty. The yetis on the scene are constantly attempting to mend it, assisted by the Lady Autumn’s gnomes, but there is only so much they can do.”
“Wonderful. And still no sign of what could’ve caused the problem?”
“Actually, we’ve managed to pinpoint a tentative location, but it is too difficult for us to approach. The area seems to be surrounded by some kind of shield that makes our magic next to unusable.”
Well, this kept getting better and better. What was the point of having magical minions if they couldn’t use their magic?
Frost bloomed under my throne at my annoyance with the situation. The outburst of power made the icy seat more uncomfortable than it already was, which in turn, irritated me further. January’s skin tone turned from its usual white to a light blue.
“Oh, for gods’ sake, January, I’m not going to murder you,” I snapped at him. “It’s not like I can randomly spawn new months of the year.”
Well, technically, I could, or rather, I could spawn different incarnations of the month, different people to occupy January’s current position. I’d never actually tried, but I was pretty sure it was possible. However, my sisters and I had decided it would be better to take a cautious approach in that field. Past experience told us that creating life, especially in elementally rough conditions, was just not the best idea. These days, we left all such experiments to the youngest of us, Eranthe, and for the most part, the strategy had worked out well.
Besides, January was usually competent. Far better than December, who was perpetually exhausted, so much so that simply being in his presence threatened to drain me of all desire to work. Also, I didn’t much care for the idea of killing off my staff, even if their efforts to complete the tasks I’d given them were so often lackluster.
As such, it looked like this time around, I’d have no choice but to set my misgivings aside, step up, get my hands dirty and find a solution to the problem my minions should’ve been able to handle on their own. On the bright side, I wouldn’t have to sit on this annoying throne for much longer, so there was that. Who in the name of the gods had even come up with the idea that ice was a good substance to craft any kind of permanent seating from? Whoever it had been must’ve either had sadistic tendencies, or not been aware of the simple concept of providing comfort to one’s leader.
It was at least a good thing that my underlings had managed to detect the source of the disturbance. Constantly dealing with the effects of a problem was useless if you didn’t remove its causes.
“Where is this anomaly located, exactly?” I asked January.
Once again, my lieutenant fidgeted in discomfort, and the reason behind this was made obvious when he replied, “Two miles north of The Bridge of Frosted Leaves.”
What? So close to the bridge? Why had Jack not reported it?
One of these days, he was going to push me too hard, and I would end up doing something he’d regret more than I would. Just last week, he had decided to trigger a fight between my yetis, and now this?
I hoped he had simply made a small mistake, because otherwise, past friendship or not, I would make him learn the consequences of his actions.
Clenching my jaw, I got up, my magic already swirling around me in a flurry of snowflakes. The glass doors of the balcony burst open, the blizzard responding to my command, like it always did. “Since it would appear that everyone around me is completely useless, I’ll have to tend to this matter m
yself.”
“Don’t you require an escort, Your Majesty?” January asked, wringing his still blue-tinged hands.
In all likelihood, he meant himself, since a lot of my troops had already been dispatched to control the flooding even before January had given me this unfortunate report. It was both foolish and something I’d long ago come to expect. No matter how much he feared me, he always unavoidably hovered, regardless.
I shot him an ugly look, then, upon reflection, manifested a small icicle and directed it toward him like an arrow. He dodged with practiced ease, as I had expected him to. “Next time, I won’t miss, January,” I warned him. “Do make sure to guard the castle in my absence.”
He bowed lowly, acknowledging my commands with his regular oath of fealty. “Yes, Your Majesty. I live to serve, Your Majesty.”
I would’ve put more stock in that had I not known he would’ve made the same vow to anyone who occupied that throne. But there was no point in dwelling on things that could not be changed. January was useful, and I didn’t have the time or the energy to train him to be loyal to me as a person.
Suppressing a sigh of annoyance, I turned away from him and launched myself out the window. The chill wind blew through my hair, and frost crystals grew on my lips and eyelashes. Ah, so relaxing. Perhaps I should go on flights more often. At this height, at least, the temperature was always so pleasant. The sight of the white expanse of The Hoarfrost Tundra greeted my eyes, so beautiful when viewed from this altitude. Occasionally, I could catch glimpses of motion beneath me, different creatures stopping what they were doing just so that they could watch me fly past, and sometimes even shouting greetings.
Normally, I might have stopped to speak to at least a few of them, but today’s journey was not meant for leisure or for communicating with the populace. It concerned an investigation regarding an issue that should have been dealt with already. This meant that I was forced to keep going for a while longer, until eventually, my comfortable blizzard brought me to the Topaz.
The problem January had mentioned had been plaguing my lands for a couple of weeks now. Some kind of anomaly had caused the Topaz—the river that flowed between my territory and Pandora’s—to swell. This had led to damage in both my kingdom and that of my sister. At first, neither of us had thought it was that worrisome, as flooding could occasionally happen, especially if Tarasia decided to be annoying and play a prank on us. But our summery sister wouldn’t have meddled quite so deeply in our affairs. This was something different.
Also, more serious than I myself had anticipated, I noted as I descended from the clouds. As a rule, my side of the river was completely frozen over. While I had expected that to have changed, I didn’t expect the cause of the melting to actually start evaporating the water.
If Jack had kept this from me out of some stupid desire to spite his father—which, come to think of it, might be a real possibility—there would be hell to pay.
As I landed on the ground, I took in the sight in front of me in a mix of distress and annoyance. It almost looked like some kind of meteorite had landed in the middle of the river, cracked the ice, then proceeded to wreak havoc on both my and Pandora’s lands.
The actual rock wasn’t visible, but that would’ve been a little difficult considering the massive wall of flame that surrounded it. Honestly, it was a minor miracle the damn meteorite hadn’t done more damage. I had to handle it at once, before that changed and permanently affected my territory. How irritating.
January had skimmed over a lot of details in his report, possibly because he had feared being impaled on a bigger icicle than I had shot at him. You’d think that he would have remembered to mention the ‘anomaly’ he’d identified was a massive chunk of space rock, but apparently not. Perhaps I had overestimated his efficiency. Between his behavior and Jack’s, it was becoming clear that I needed better minions.
To give him some credit, he had been correct in that the heat emanated by the meteorite made it difficult for the peasants to approach. The closer I got, the higher the temperature became, and by the time I reached the still visible edge of the river bank, the air was barely breathable. It wasn’t much of an issue for me, of course. The magic of winter never left my veins, and no matter what my sisters thought, it was the most powerful of the seasons. I didn’t actually need air to breathe. My magic alone could sustain me for indefinite amounts of time.
Convenient, yes, but hey, being an avatar of winter had to come with some perks, considering how much of a pain it could occasionally be.
The chill I myself radiated protected me from the distressingly high temperature. When I walked onto the water itself, the remaining boiling hot liquid froze beneath my feet. It took but a flick of my fingers to dissipate the wall of flame that impudently dared to stand in my way. It valiantly tried to resist, almost as if it was sentient in nature, but the attempt failed as soon as it was initiated, and the heat cowered before my righteous wrath like a frightened yeti cub. Not that I’d ever frightened yeti cubs—they were pretty cute, really—but details.
With the wall of flame now no longer a problem, I fully expected to be able to reach the supposed meteorite that had given me so much trouble. But alas, even the magic of winter didn’t protect me from the whimsy of fate. Once the shield fell and I took in the true source of my predicament, I immediately started to get a headache.
Three dragons lay on the still steaming river bank, having obviously been the ones emanating the heat. They were sort of curled up together in a tangled mess of serpentine limbs, and simply looking at them reminded me of the balls of yarn Eranthe’s Cat Sìth played with every single time I made the unavoidable mistake of visiting her domain. Of course, this particular ball would be more problematic than anything textile. The different colors in their scales guaranteed that I could sort of distinguish each individual creature from his fellows, but that didn’t actually help me solve the problem the dragons had created through their presence.
I poked one of the unconscious serpents with the tip of my boot, all the while using my magic to make sure the water didn’t decide to swamp us now that dragon fire was no longer there to protect us. “And here I thought the possibility of a fallen meteorite was bad,” I commented, even if I knew they couldn’t hear me. “No, the three of you just had to land in my lap.”
The draconic nature of the anomaly did explain my subordinates’ inability to deal with the situation, as well as their reluctance to discuss it. Dragon magic frightened beings of limited power, even when they didn’t really understand where said magic was coming from.
The dragons must have landed in the river—although their reasons for coming to Chronikos were anybody’s guess—and the freezing temperature had caused them to go into hibernation. Their own magic had likely responded, leading to the flooding.
Ah, well. Liberating myself of the dragons’ presence wouldn’t be as easy as destroying a meteorite, but I’d done more difficult things before. Granted, I could have simply moved them from the river and onto Pandora’s territory, but that wouldn’t have answered any of the questions I had regarding their identities and the circumstances of their arrival. If this was a serious matter, the last thing I wanted was to hoist the responsibility onto Pandora.
The three dragons were all clearly of different species. Despite the confusing way they were huddled together, I could still tell that much. The firedrake was in the middle, with the black wyvern on top of him and the ryū sort of... curled around them both. I couldn’t quite tell how the ryū had managed to accomplish this despite the fact that the wings of the other two should’ve been in the way, but perhaps I was simply underestimating the extent of a dragon’s flexibility. In any case, the view would’ve actually been cute if not for the lingering traces of claw marks on all of their bodies.
If they had been involved in some kind of battle that might pose a problem in the future, I needed to know. They might have simply engaged into a brawl over some kind of magical treasure, as dragons we
re nothing if not greedy and possessive of their shiny belongings. Still, draconic politics was, from what little I knew of their land, quite problematic and complicated. It would be better to make sure greed was the only cause, and that this little spat—or any other incident of a similar nature—didn’t spill onto Chronikos in the future.
At the same time, it was strange in the extreme that they had ended up here to begin with. Terra Dracones, the homeland of most, if not all dragons, was on the other side of the world, past two oceans and one other continent. Even assuming that they’d managed to fly here or something like that, Chronikos had specific barriers around its borders to keep intruders out. At the very least, I should’ve sensed their arrival. I needed to figure out what method the dragons had used to circumvent that.
Also, the whole thing might even be entertaining, once the unavoidable happened, and the serpents awoke. If I remembered well, February had a bit of a dracophobia. He’d visited Terra Dracones when I’d been younger and he’d never gotten over whatever he’d seen there. He would panic so hard once he finally came back from his trip to Tis Ánoixis.
The thought improved my mood, and I set aside all of my misgivings in favor of focusing on practicalities. Until I could take advantage of the terrifying nature of the dragons or ask them all the questions that troubled me, I had to make sure my unlikely guests were safe. The fire wall had protected them from the extreme temperatures in the Topaz, but only up to a point, and in The Frozen Peaks, the cold was even fiercer. How in the world was I supposed to transfer three serpentine creatures to The Palace of Serenity without killing them?
* * *
Cheimon
My return to the palace was greeted with much enthusiasm and just as much surprise. I could not blame my underlings for their shock. After all, it wasn’t every day that their queen came back from fixing a magical anomaly levitating three hibernating dragons in her wake.
