Ethereal King

by Ariana Hawkes

  “Come on!” Kyle sprinted after it with Tamika in hot pursuit. Josie followed too, her heart hammering.

  By the time she caught up with them, Kyle and Tamika were stooped over a figure lying on the sand. She came up behind them and peered at it. And then she stifled a gasp. It was a man. He was big, muscular, and completely naked. His eyes were closed and his chest was rising and falling rapidly.

  “Oh my god, are you hurt? I can help you. I know first aid,” she blurted out.

  His eyes opened, and they were like no eyes she’d seen before. Saffron yellow, elongated, and watching her with such intensity she felt like they were projecting a beam of golden light into her soul. An uncomfortable feeling clutched at her chest, but she couldn’t look away. His face was glowing radiantly, so incredibly handsome with angular planes and a strong jaw. A warmth had erupted in her stomach, and was spreading through her limbs.

  “Are you—?” she began, having no idea what she was saying. She scanned his face, taking in deeply tanned skin, full, firm lips and longish dark brown hair, highlighted with golden strands.

  Kyle’s head snapped toward her. “Looks like he had a bit of a fall, but he’s not badly hurt. I’m a trained EMT. I can see to him. Why don’t you go join the others—you don’t want to miss out on seeing the meteoroid.”

  “B-but?” she stammered, but Kyle’s eyes flashed with something wild and forbidding that gave her pause.

  With a reassuring smile, Tamika rubbed Josie’s arm. “It’s okay, dear. He’s in good hands with Kyle, I promise. Go enjoy yourself – we’ll be along soon.”

  “Okay, I guess…” Uncertain, she backed away, Kyle’s expression making it very clear she wasn’t needed.

  When she was around six feet away, Kyle flashed her a grin, his usual charm returning. “Hey, Josie? Don’t mention this to the others. There’ll be selfie sticks everywhere!”

  “Sure. Of course not.” She turned and ran the opposite direction, although she was shaking so much she kept stumbling in the sand.

  “What is he?” Tamika’s curiosity and fascination got the better of her. “I’ve never seen anyone like him.”

  Kyle hunched over the injured man, regarding him with concern. “I believe he’s a dragon.”

  “Goawy dout fothisev seanf sini,” the man said, and both his hands reached for Kyle’s head. Kyle shot a sideways look at Tamika. She shrugged. Slowly, Kyle leaned forward and allowed the man to lay his hands either side of his head. Then, with a sharp tug, the man pulled him all the way down until their foreheads touched.

  “Hey!” Kyle called out, and right away, his skin started to bristle and tufts of fur came through his flesh as his wolf tried to force its way out of him.

  “I think it’s okay.” Tamika laid a calming hand on his forearm. “I think he’s trying to communicate with you.”

  Kyle grunted and stopped struggling. “My head feels hot,” he complained.

  The creature held him for a minute more before releasing him at last, and Kyle rubbed at his forehead where a large, red welt had formed.

  “Yesss, I am a dragon,” it said, startling them with a deep, cracked hissing voice. And its face morphed into something more reptilian, nose elongating and the pupils of its golden eyes narrowing to slits, while the cheekbones became sharper and more pronounced.

  “What did you just do to me?” Kyle demanded.

  “I learned your tongue. It only takessss a sssshort time,” he said, and a long, forked tongue flickered from between his lips.

  “Seriously? Just from butting our heads together like that?” Kyle scowled. “What am I, a hard drive?”

  The dragon raised one scaly, ridged eyebrow as if confused.

  “Pretty much,” Tamika said with a giggle. She stroked her thumb over the smooth skin on Kyle’s forehead, hoping to ease his discomfort.

  Kyle huffed, his scowl easing momentarily. “Anyway, so you fell from the sky? Are you hurt bad?”

  “No, jussst winded. I wasss trying to get through the ether, but it rebuffed me.”

  “Why?”

  “We fell to Earth, my clan and I, monthsss ago, when the meteoroid breached the boundary between our worlds. We can’t get back home. The hole sealed up in minutes, and the barrier is impassible. It might as well be made of rock. Now we’re trapped here, on this miserable planet, losing our powers. We lost our leader, our intended mates. We’re doomed.” The more he spoke, the more human his voice became, the hissing s-sounds all but disappearing.

  The muscle in Kyle’s jaw stopped twitching. “You can never get back?”

  “I don’t think so. We try, day after day, hoping we can find a gap in the blockade, but it’s useless. We only hurt and frustrate ourselves.” He gestured to his body, which was now covered in indigo scales and bore several wounds, each oozing thick, green blood.

  “Did you break any bones?” Tamika asked.

  He shook his head sharply. “No, I’ll be healed by the time you leave. Physically anyway,” he said, and his eyes filled with a very human look of misery.

  Her heart went out to him. “I’m so sorry to hear this. But you can make a good life here on Earth.”

  He gave a loud hiss and gestured toward the craggy peaks of the island. “On this barren island? Where we hide in plain sight among the miserable lizards that creep around here?” His expression became a little haughty. “We come from a noble line. Chameleids. The most evolved of all dragon species.”

  “You can change color at will,” Kyle cut in.

  “Right. And we can assume the human form, fully, or by degrees. My people are a royal clan. In the Ethereal Kingdom, we lived very comfortable lives. But here we’re penniless. We live like lizards—” He broke off and spat in disgust.

  “What’s your name?” Tamika asked.

  “Xephyr. Prince of the Royal house and third in line to the throne,” he said, and his scales mutated from blue to green to yellow to reddish gold, all within the blink of an eye. Tamika’s breath caught at the stunningly beautiful sight, the scales rippled and sparkled, like sunlight reflecting off the surface of a fast-moving stream.

  Tamika was too transfixed to introduce herself for a moment. “I’m Tamika.” She coughed. “Tamika Montefiore. And this is my mate, Kyle Montefiore II.”

  The dragon looked at Kyle with a sudden curiosity. “What species are you?” he demanded.

  “Guess,” Kyle said, showing a lot of teeth.

  The dragon’s tongue darted out again, and Tamika fought to prevent her distaste from showing on her face.

  He scowled. “Humans don’t like that?”

  “Not so much,” she admitted.

  “Okay, I’ll remember that.” He turned to Kyle. “Some kind of canine.”

  “The biggest, baddest kind, buster,” Kyle replied.

  Xephyr’s eyes turned canary yellow. “Wolf,” he pronounced triumphantly. “In my world, you would be food.”

  “Right.” Kyle bristled, only seconds away from shifting.

  “You said you left your mates behind?” Tamika cut in.

  The dragon’s scales turned midnight blue again. “Our intended mates. And here, without the mating bond, we won’t survive long.”

  Tamika’s eyes sparkled. “Do you like human women?”

  “Tamika.” Kyle cocked a brow at her, as if to warn her not to go where he knew she was heading.

  She shushed him with a finger to his lips.

  The dragon’s eyes became a vivid yellow, and he ran his eyes over her curvaceous figure. “Some. Earthlings that look like you, and the other. But we can’t possibly mate humans. Our kind needs our dragon mates to survive and keep our bloodlines pure.”

  She clasped her hands together. “How do you know for sure if you don’t try? Maybe I can help you, my dear—”

  “No!” Kyle interrupted. Tamika shot him a wounded look. “No, honey,” he said in a softer tone. “I know where this is going, and you’ve got enough on your plate. These dragons are going to have to find
their own way. And no, they can’t move to Hope Valley either. This isn’t going to become Dragn, or Chameli-date.”

  A jet of smoke puffed out of Xephyr’s nostrils, and Tamika shot back a couple of feet. He drew himself up, shoulders squared. “Why are you mispronouncing the name of my species?” he snapped.

  “I’m not,” Kyle said with a sigh. “It’s… It’s complicated to explain.”

  “Let me at least give him some pointers,” Tamika cut in.

  Kyle rolled his eyes. “Okay. Maybe you can send one of your employees to give them some advice. If anyone would be willing to hang around here. Anyway, the boat’s leaving in ten minutes. We’ve got to go.”

  Kyle got to his feet impatiently, but as soon as his back was turned, Tamika took her business card out of her pocket and slipped it into Xephyr’s hand. “You’re not alone, my dear. We’ll be in touch.”

  Xephyr snorted, releasing a burst of flame which singed the ends of her hair. Tamika smiled tightly as she stood, patting her hair. “Okay, well goodbye then.”

  “Dragons,” Kyle snarled as they headed in the direction of the meteoroid, looking for Josie.

  “What’s wrong with them?”

  “What isn’t? You think lions are full of themselves?”

  2

  Look out for the blond female who’ll be there when you fall…I can help you.

  The words of the Oracle churned in Xephyr’s brain as he dragged himself painfully to his feet. He’d visited the crazy old woman only a few days before the dragons fell to Earth, and she told him that a catastrophe was about to befall him and he had a mission to save his kind. Xephyr didn’t believe a single word she’d said. How could he? The woman had lost the ability to shift to her dragon two years earlier, and she was quickly losing her mind. Most of his friends no longer heeded her portents and had stopped visiting her, but he continued out of respect for his father who was very fond of the ancient customs and traditions. The last time he saw her, she seemed more deranged than ever. She walked around him in circles, wrinkled and shriveled, permanently trapped in her dwarfish body, staring at the ground, mumbling undecipherable words to herself, and every now and then she’d raise her head, stare at him with manic eyes and shout out snatches of words and phrases, arms spread wide.

  He climbed up onto the jagged rock face of the cliff and crouched there, studying the group of humans retreating gracelessly along the rocky path to the harbor. He curled his lip contemptuously. Odd creatures with spindly legs and no wings. But the words of the Oracle haunted him. She’d been right about the catastrophe that had ripped his clan from their kingdom. He turned over the rest of her vague and cryptic utterances in his mind.

  It would be upon him to lead his kind and save them from doom. The female – the blonde female who’ll be there when you fall – would show him the way. And survival could only come if they helped the inhabitants of this world.

  “I can help you!” the Oracle had bellowed.

  “How?” he had asked her.

  “No, not me!”

  “Then who?”

  “I can help you!”

  That was as far as they’d gotten, going around and around, the same senseless words drilled into his brain until he was about ready to explode. Then she showed him images of the race he was meant to protect. He snickered and then laughed outright. A harsh wind kicked up and lightning flared, and she ordered him out of her temple.

  Later that day, the unthinkable happened.

  Xephyr and his friends were deep into their weekly ball game, played with sticks, nets, and a huge hunk of flaming gemstone. Since Xephyr’s team had led at quarter-time, their opponents started playing dirty. Caiden slashed Notus’s back with his stick, incurring a free toss penalty. The goaltender, Boreas, stopped the jewel from entering the net, puffing extra fire on it before hurling the ignited rock back to the center of the playing field. But something went horribly wrong. The trajectory of the molten stone veered unexpectedly.

  Every dragon on the pitch chased the hunk of rock as it streaked across the field, its flame trail a magnet, forcing them to follow like iron filings. Xephyr had been closest when it punched a hole in the barrier between their world and that of the humans. One minute, he’d been flying in his realm, the next gravity had tethered his body and pulled him into a void. Caught in a monstrous vacuum, both teams, all twelve dragons, had been sucked through the tear between the worlds. Spinning and tumbling out of control, they’d hurtled toward the craggy red cliffs of the island, before being hurled onto gray dust. Xephyr’s shoulder muscles twinged as he shrugged away the sour memory of the shock and pain.

  “I can help you,” the human female had said, crouching over him, her blond hair swinging into his face like a sheet of satin. No. That couldn’t be it. She couldn’t be the one. He snorted, releasing twin puffs of smoke from his nostrils. She was beautiful—if humans could be described as beautiful—with her wide blue eyes, the color matching the brilliant sky overhead, and her toothsome, curvy body. But help him? That was highly unlikely. How could an earthling possibly help them get back to Ethereum?

  But there’d been something in her eyes… She’d looked at him as if she knew him already, in the same way that dragons who are each other’s intended recognize each other, the workings of fate driving their subconscious, instinctive knowledge. He shuddered and tightness coiled in his gut. No. It wasn’t possible.

  What had the wolf called her? Oh yes. Josie.

  “Jossssie,” he tried out her name, hissing the S as was his natural way of speaking.

  Concentrating, he whispered it again, mimicking the human woman, Tamika. “Josie.” A jolt of adrenaline coursed up from his gut. Just the taste of her name in his mouth awakened something in him.

  He watched her and her companions take up the rear of the group, moving easily, talking and laughing. Her hair was like the pale flame from a candle, swinging in time with her ample hips. She was gesticulating with her hands as she spoke, as if her words excited her. His supersensitive ears identified the tinkling sound of her giggle, and at the same time, her scent came back to him—spicy and sweet like the flowers bordering the palace walk at home. His dragon growled and his heart surged, suffusing his chest with a wild heat. What on Ethereum was his dragon so excited about? The woman was just an earthling. Why was his dragon lusting after her as if she were in heat? He was a prince of royal blood. He shouldn’t desire a human. He’d never even chased dragonettes; they chased him.

  He huffed, wishing he’d taken the Oracle more seriously. What had she meant when she told him that this woman would help? Perhaps Josie knew—as unthinkable as it was that a human would know something a dragon didn’t.

  The group of human visitors disappeared around the cliff face. He shouldn’t lose the woman. He leaped from his perch and scurried down the bare rock, intent on keeping the woman in sight. His dragon clawed him, fighting for the chance to come out and fly after them, purring louder and louder as Xephyr got closer to the blonde. Shut up. Placing one hand on his chest, right over his firebox, he fought his dragon’s need to shift. His body still hadn’t healed from his fall back to earth. A muscle in his back zinged painfully as he hurried along the stony path trampled by so many humans. Maybe he’d injured his head during the fall. That might explain why his dragon was acting all head over heels.

  He turned the corner, and the woman came into view again. She was wearing blue shorts that clung to her curves and a blue and white striped top, the bottom riding up a little and revealing a swatch of bare flesh. His dragon calmed, but heat simmered impatiently under the surface, pressing him to catch up to her and steal her away. Yes, his dragon was definitely ailing.

  They approached the natural stone pier in the deep harbor. When he and his fellow dragons had fallen to earth, the island was uninhabited. Now, in three months, the place was busier than the grand palace of Ethereum during the centennial celebration. Humans walking around all the time, looking at the gemstone embedded in the earth. He
’d heard them call their ball a meteoroid. Whatever that was. Their presence on the island had forced Xephyr and the others to hide in the natural caverns below the volcano’s crater, a place humans wouldn’t go. But the hot temperature was just fine for a dragon.

  A boat tied to an iron pole in the jetty rocked in the waves that washed against the stones. Josie boarded the vessel with her friends. Xephyr suppressed a shudder, relieved that his wings freed him from the need to use such a miserable vessel.

  The engine roared to life, bringing the acrid smell of burning fuel. Xephyr’s lip curled in disgust, and he held his breath. With a shout and a whistle, the captain called for the mooring lines to be released.

  As the blond female floated away, his heart beat fast. If she was the one the oracle foretold, he couldn’t lose sight of her. She might be his only chance to return to his own world. His dragon’s roar to be freed and shift to his natural form shook his body, and a second later, Xephyr’s bones crunched with the spontaneous change. Scales rippled over his skin, breaking through the flesh. Claws erupted through his fingertips and toes. Still not completely healed from his fall, a stabbing pain blasted through his back as his wings unfurled. Air moved around his body as he flapped his wings wide. His vision sharpened, so that the tiny boat plowing through the waves appeared to be paces away instead of leagues. His foot claws scrabbled against loose gravel as he lifted off, effortlessly slipping off the bonds of gravity.

  His scales turned from gold, to sea green, and then to a perfect sky blue, concealing his path as he flew up high, gliding among the clouds. His clan had learned enough of the history of humans to know they feared the firebreathers who’d preceded him in this world, and chameleids were lucky to be masters of camouflage.

  He coasted above the humans as they rocked and lurched in their clumsy vessel, making their sluggish way back to the mainland. His dragon’s jaws parted in a sharp-toothed grin. There was no danger that his target would give him the slip.