Marked by Pain (The Marked Series Book 2)

by Cece Rose

  “Come on, I’ve got something fun planned,” I greet him.

  “Fun? I should be terrified, right?” he replies teasingly.

  “When is being scared ever not fun?” I reply, leading the way through the large building I call home. I lead him to the secret exit, tucked away behind a large painting of the sea is the tunnel that leads right out to the small cove. It had once been used for smuggling, before the human pirates were all but wiped out anyway.

  “It’s a bit late to be sneaking out, Zu,” he says, following me down the pathway anyway.

  “I just want to go for a quick dip in the water, Jay,” I reply, trailing my fingers along the wall in the darker parts of the tunnel to make sure I don’t walk into anything. Not that I really need to, I know the route from memory by now, considering I sneak down here most days to take a dip in the sea. I try not to feel guilty about my secret, but I know that not even James would approve of me sneaking down here by myself. He thinks we only ever come down together, but I doubt I could stay away from the water for that long to wait for the days when he’s here.

  “We won’t have long if we’re going to be inside by dark, Zu,” he says.

  “What if we aren’t inside by dark?” I ask.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, that’s way too dangerous,” he answers.

  “Why is it? They haven’t bothered this island for years. It’s been years since they raided here and yet we all still hide away in our homes. How is this any different to us going in the sea during the day? We’re not supposed to do that either,” I reply, challengingly, not slowing my pace as we walk through the dark.

  “You know it’s different. We never go out too deep, if something happened we could always get to shore and with the sun up, there’s nothing they could do once we reached the land,” he says.

  “It will be fine, don’t be such a bore, James. I thought you were more interesting than your two brothers,” I reply, trying to hit the right nerves to get my way. James was easily far more interesting than his two older brothers. William and Archie were two of the most boring people I’d ever had the displeasure of meeting, they ranked up there with Mr Burcham himself. It was a wonder James had come out as interesting as he had. I like to credit that to all the time he spent with me growing up, but he’d always been like a spark in my life.

  “You know that I am far more interesting than those two fools,” he mutters. I stop and turn to face him as we reach the opening to the cove.

  “Then prove it, what have we got to lose? Just this one time, let’s take a dip in the moonlight?” I offer, stepping close. “It could be romantic,” I add slyly.

  “Fine, what’s the worst that could happen?” he says, giving into my demands as always. I smile and slide into his arms.

  “This is going to be so much fun,” I whisper in his ear, as I tug off his blue jacket, letting it fall onto the sandy ground.

  “That’s what you always say before getting me into trouble,” he replies wryly.

  “And yet you keep following me,” I tease.

  “I’ll follow you anywhere, Zu,” he replies sincerely. And I know he would, James has been in love with me for years after all.

  Wings of Ice

  Four Dragon Guards. Three Curses. Two Heirs. One Choice…

  Forbidden love or the throne of the dragons?

  Isola Dragice thought she knew what her future would bring. On her eighteenth birthday, she’d inherit the dragon throne, but one earth-shattering moment destroys everything.

  As war looms heavy over Dragca, Isola is catapulted out of her pretend human life and thrust into a world, she knows little of. One life-threatening accident, when she loses control of her dragon, ends up with the whole of Dragca Academy hating her.

  When the four most powerful dragons in history are ordered to protect her, they find themselves with an awkward problem. Her family cursed them centuries ago, relegating them to slaves of the throne and they hate all royals. Especially an ice dragon princess with no control over her powers that can kill fire dragons. Which the whole school is full of.

  What happens when fire falls for Ice?

  Wings of Ice Prologue

  Everything inside me screams as I run through the doors of the castle, seeing the dead dragons lining the floors and the sight making me sick to my stomach. I try not to look at the spears in their stomachs, the dragonglass that is rare in this world. Where did they get it? The more and more bodies I pass, who are both dragon and guards, the less hope I have that my father is okay. No, I can’t be too late, I can’t lose him too. The once grand doors to the throne room are smashed into pieces of stone, in a pile on the floor, and only the hinges to the door hang off the walls. I run straight over, climbing over the rocks and broken stone. The sight in front of me makes me stop, not believing what I’m seeing but I know it’s true.

  “Father…” I ask quietly, knowing he won’t reply to me. My father is sat on his throne, a sword through his stomach and a wide mouthed expression on his face. His blood drips down onto the gold floors of the throne room and snow falls from the broken ceiling above onto his face. There’s no ice in here, no sign he even tried to fight before he was killed. He must have never saw this coming because he trusted whoever killed him.

  “No,” is I can think to say as I fall to my knees, bending my head and looking down at the ground instead of the body of my father. I couldn’t stop this, even when they warned me and risked everything. I hear footsteps in front of me as I watch my tears drip onto the ground, but I don’t look up as I know who it is. I know from the way they smell, my dragon whispers to me their name but I can’t even think it.

  “Why?” I ask as everything clicks into place. I should have known, I should have never had trusted him.

  “Because the curse has to end. Because he was no good for Dragca. Our city needs a true heir, me. I’m the heir of fire and ice, the one the prophecy speaks of and it’s finally time I took what is mine,” he says and every word seems to cut straight through my heart. I trusted him.

  “The curse hasn’t ended, I’m still here,” I whisper to the dragon in front of me but I know he could hear my words like I just spoke them into his ear.

  “Not for long, not even for moment longer actually. Your dragon guard will only thank me when you are gone. I didn’t want to do this to you, not in the end, but you are too powerful. You are no use to me anymore, not unless you’re gone,” he says. I look down at the ground as his words run around my head and I don’t know what to do. I feel lost, powerless and broken in every way possible. There’s a part of the door in front of me that catches my attention, a part with the royal crest on. The dragon in a circle, a proud, strong dragon. My father’s words come back to me and I know they are all I need to say.

  “There’s a reason ice dragons hold the throne and have done for centuries. There’s a reason the royal name Dragice is feared.” I say and stand up slowly, wiping my tears away.

  “We don’t give up and we bow to no one. I’m Isola Dragice, and you will pay for what you have done,” I tell him as finally meet his now cruel eyes, before calling my dragon and feeling her take over.

  Wings of Ice Chapter One

  “Isola!” I hear shouted from the stairs but I keep my headphones on as I stare at my laptop and pretend I didn’t hear her shout my name for the tenth time. The music blasts around my head as I try to focus on history paperback that is due in tomorrow.

  “Isola, will you take those things out and listen to me?” Jules shouts at me again, and I pop one of my headphones out as I look up at her. She stands at the end of my bed, her hands on her hips and her glasses branched on the end of her nose. Her long grey hair is up in a tight bun, and she has an old styled dress that looks like flowers threw up on. Jules is my house sitter, or babysitter as I like to call her. I don't think I need a baby sitter at seventeen, not when I'm eighteen in two days anyway, and can look after myself.

  "Both headphones out, I want them both out when you listen
to me," she says and I knew this was coming. I pull the headphones out and pause the music on my phone.

  "I did try to clean up after the party, I swear," I say and she raises her eyebrows.

  "How many teenagers did you have in here? Ten? A hundred?" she says and I shrug my shoulders as I sit up on the bed and cross my legs.

  "I don't know, it’s all a little fuzzy," I reply honestly. My head is still pounding and I know it was the wine, or the tequila shots. Who knows? I look up again as she shakes her head at me, speaking a sentence in Spanish that I can't understand but I doubt it’s nice. I don’t think I want to hear what she has to says about the party I threw last night anyway. I look around my simple room, seeing the dressing table, the wardrobe, the bed I’m sitting on. There isn’t much in here that is personal, no photos or anything that means anything to me.

  "Miss Jules, looking as beautiful as always," Jace says, in an overly sweet tone as he walks into my bedroom. He walks straight over to Jules and kisses her cheek, making her giggle. Jace is that typical hot guy, with his white blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Even my sixty year old house sitter can't be mad at him for long, he can charm just about anyone.

  "Don’t start with that pouty cute face," she tuts at him and he widens his arms, pretending to be shocked.

  "What face? I'm always like this," he says and she laughs, any anger she had disappearing.

  "I’m going to clean up this state of a house and you should leave, you're going to be late for school. I don't want to have to tell your father that when I tell him about the party," she says as she points a finger at me and I hold in the urge to laugh. She emails my father all the time about anything I do but he never responds. He just pays her to keep the house running and to make sure I don't get into too much trouble. I doubt if he doesn't have the time to talk to me in the last ten years, he isn’t going to have the time to email a human he hired. Jules walks out the room and Jace leans against the wall, tucking his hands into his pockets. I run my eyes over his tight jeans, his white shirt that is ridden up a little to show his toned stomach and finally to his handsome face that is grinning at me. He knows exactly what he does to me.

  "You look too sexy when you do that," I comment and he grins.

  "Isn't that the point? Now come and give your boyfriend a kiss," he teases and I do a fake sigh before getting up and walking over to him. I lean up, brushing my lips against his cold ones and he smiles, kissing me back just as gently.

  "We should go but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mountains this weekend and try some flying?" he asks and I blank my expression before walking away from him and towards the mirror hanging on the wall near the door. I smooth my wavy, shoulder length blonde hair down and it just bounces back up, ignoring me. My blue eyes stare back at me, bright and crystal clear. Jace says it’s like looking into a mirror when he looks into my eyes, they are so clear. I check out my jeans and tank top, and grabbing my leather coat from where it hangs on the back of the door before answering Jace.

  "I’ve got a lot of homework to do-" I say and he shakes his head as he cuts me off.

  "-Issy, when was the last time you let her out? It’s been, what months?" he asks and I turn away, walking out my bedroom door and hearing him sigh behind me.

  "Issy, we can't avoid this forever. Not when we have to go back in two weeks," he reminds me and I stop, leaning my head back against the plain white walls of the corridor.

  "I know we have to go back. We have to train to rule a race we know nothing about just because of who our parents are. Don’t you ever want to run away, hide in the human world we have been left in for all these years?" I ask, feeling a grumble of anger from my dragon inside my mind. I quickly slam down the barrier between me and my dragon in my head, stopping her from contacting me, no matter how much it hurts me to do so. I can’t let her control me.

  “Issy, we were left here so we would be safe. We are the last ice dragons and our parents had no choice. Plus… being a dragon around humans is a nightmare, you know that,” he says, stepping closer to me.

  “I don’t want to rule, I don’t want anything to do with Dragca,” I say, looking away.

  "I guess its lucky we have each other, ruling on our own would have been a disaster," he says, stepping in front of me so I can’t move and he gently kisses my forehead.

  "I know. I just don't want to go back, to see my father and everything that has to come with that," I say, and he steps back to tilt my head up to look at him.

  "You're the heir to the throne of the dragons. You’re the princess of Dragca. Your life was never meant to be here with the humans," he says and I move away from him, not replying because I know he sees it differently to how I do. He is the ice prince, and his parents call him every week. I haven't spoken to any of my family in ten years and I have never stepped back into Dragca since then. It’s the only thing we disagree on, our future.

  "Issy, let’s just have a good day and then maybe I could get you that peanut bacon sandwich you love from the deli?" he suggests, running to catch up with me on the stairs.

  "Now you're talking," I grin at him as he hooks an arm around my waist and leans down to whisper in my ear,

  “And I could do that thing with my tongue that you…“ he gets cut off when Jules opens the door in front of us, clearing her throat and ushers us out as we laugh.