Everlasting Kingdom (The Winter Court Chronicles Book 3)

by Stephany Wallace

  “You’ve changed, you know?”

  My brows gather at Kah’s words, and I stopped, focusing on her. “What exactly do you mean?”

  She bit her lip, gazing into my eyes. “I’m not entirely sure, but ever since you transformed for the first time there is something different about you. It’s like you are more comfortable in your own skin, not wound up so tightly. More relaxed, and confident even.” She nodded towards Ash’s room. “The Nyx I know would have been horrified, insulted even, by Ash’s behavior, and probably hyperventilating at that scene. You basically just saw Gabriella naked while your brother pounded her brains out against the wall, and you didn’t even blink.”

  I stared at her for a moment then chuckled, shaking my head. “Perhaps you are right. I think I have noticed that too, but didn’t pay it much attention. The anxiety I was certain I suffered from, was my dragon form fighting to be noticed. Since I have recognized it as part of me, I don’t feel nervous anymore, or easily stressed about the changes around me, because now there is something anchoring me down—the other side of me. Ever since I can remember, it has felt like there was a battle inside me, as though there was a part of me fighting me at every turn. As it happens, it wasn’t battling me. It was fighting to come out. It wanted to be recognized, to be there for me and give me strength. I guess since both sides of me are present now… all that is left is the man I am. Maybe, the one I was meant to be all along.”

  A small smile stretched my lips, as I felt the confirmation inside my essence. The scales pulsed along my skin more intensely then, sending tingles all over my body, pleased by my conclusion. I was freed.

  “Now, all I feel is peace.”

  *

  “Where is your brother?” Father asked, as I disrobed in the garden. He and Kyr were already in dragon form.

  “He’s having sex with Gabriella.” I answered honestly, and Father laughed. “He should be here a bit later.” I shrugged and closed my eyes, giving myself to the dragon until I stood in full golden form in front of my father and brother. I sighed, content. “Much better.” Kyr chuckled, and I smiled, facing Avra once again. My tail swished against the soft wet grass.

  “Drayvok are sexual beings,” Father explained. “It’s another form of ensuring the proliferation of our race, so there will always be Drayvok protecting men and our universe. In our man form, we exude a thin mist that seeps into women’s pores, enticing them to desire us. Some of us produce more of the hormone than others, making our effect on them more potent. Your brother, Ash, is one of them.”

  My gaze instantly connected with Kyr’s and our slitted eyes widened. “Oohhh.”

  Avra chuckled. “Actually, he gets that from me.” He winked, turning towards the gates just as Ash entered.

  “Let’s do this!” He dropped the robe and transformed as he walked towards us. A full smile stretched his lips once the emerald dragon took the final steps.

  “What is our training comprised of today?” I inquired, regarding Father. “We have already mastered our forms, speaking, flying, and have practiced fighting as dragons during the past week. Not to mention, Ash finally found his dragon penis, so he won’t interrupt your teachings anymore.” My lips twitched.

  Ash huffed. “Well, how was I supposed to know it was in hiding?!”

  “It is not ‘in hiding,’” Avra corrected, the humor evident in his voice. “It is protected by the scales, like the rest of our dragon bodies.”

  “Will today include more sparring between my brothers and I?” I probed, ignoring my brother.

  “No, today I mean to find out what your powers are.”

  Father’s words confused me.

  “What do you mean? I thought we already knew what our abilities were.” Kyr questioned. “They manifested when we were children.”

  “As a man, yes, but not as dragons. The abilities you have mastered are an extension of your dragon power. For example, Ash could shift, and hear, see or smell anything within a hundred mile radius. As Drayvok, we transform and our senses are not only sharp, but also more enhanced than that of a mere man. Now that you are in your dragon forms, all of you are able to perceive things as Ash does as a man.” His gaze focused on me. “You have already experienced that, Nyx, by not needing your glasses anymore.”

  He looked behind me in the distance, and my brothers and I faced the place where his eyes fixated.

  “A hundred miles from here, there is a small hill filled with a flock of sheep. Before you search for it with your eyes, I want you to close them and focus on their heartbeats.”

  “I got them!” Ash said first. It was natural he would find them first, since it was an ability he had mastered from a young age.

  I closed my eyes and listened. Suddenly, a million sounds hit my ears, but they weren’t muddled or overwhelming as I expected. Instead, it was as though each of them occupied its own space and I could not only hear them, but recognize, and identify them as well. Without waiting for further instructions, I took flight and traveled to them. My lips stretched into a smile as I saw the hill with ten sheep on top. They were eating from the pasture, at ease and unaware of my presence.

  “Baa.” The sound greeted me while I softly landed a few feet from them. The sheep glanced up at me and continued eating, as though I posed no threat to them. I chuckled as Kyr, Father and Ash landed behind me.

  “Well done, Nyx.” Kyr praised.

  “You also share Kyr’s regeneration. As Drayvok, we are nearly impervious to any harm, which means it takes a great deal to kill us. We would need to be gravely harmed, and the attack must be constant so we are not allowed to heal. And well, you can all fly like Nyx could.”

  My brothers and I exchanged a glance at Father’s words.

  “Now that you can understand the concept, we need to find out what your true abilities as dragons are.” Father added. “Based on a general rule, our breaths hold power. In my case, being an Ice Dragon, I am able to generate blasts of sub zero air and ice.” He regarded my older brother. “My Ice Breath can not only freeze a target to temporarily paralyze it, but also—depending on its potency—slow their temperature, to suspend them into an inanimate state for an unlimited amount of time. Or penetrate their cells in such a way, that it will freeze them on a molecular level, shattering the victim from the inside out, and killing it.”

  My brothers and I exchanged a startled glance, taken a back by the information. I didn’t think any of us ever thought of an Ice Breath as anything more than simply creating, well, ice. I should be embarrassed to accept that fact, but it was the truth.

  “As my first born,” Avra continued. “You are innately an Ice Dragon, just like I am.” My gaze went to Kyr who straightened, stretching his wings in a show of pride. Ash and I smiled. “Because of this, it is natural to assume you have Ice Breath, and we have already established that we also share Psyche Manipulation, for which you have begun your training since the moment Kah brought you to me. This makes you the strongest Drayvok, and my successor as the Dragon Lord.”

  “What the Fuck!” Ash cursed, and I pushed him. “Sorry,” he mumbled, but I couldn’t deny I shared his shock.

  Father’s lips twitched, but his gaze remained on Kyr as a silent communication passed between them. I stared at them in awe. I had never been more proud of my older brother.

  “The more you train, the stronger you will become, and the bigger your dragon will grow, son. It’s imperative that you never falter on your daily routine. Once this is over and the Everlasting Kingdom is born, our people will need you. Not only as their ruler, but as their Dragon Lord too. A ruler the kinds of which this realm has never seen.”

  Kyr took a deep breath as the weight of his destiny fell on him, but I was certain he was strong enough to carry it. He bent one knee, his head lowered as his wings extended in a gracious bow to our father, accepting his destiny. Avra gripped my brother’s shoulder, signaling him to stand, and pressed his forehead to Kyr’s. There was a moment of silence as we witnessed the
vow between them.

  Kyr straightened. “I will do my best to make you proud, Father.”

  “I already am.”

  Emotion slammed into me so strongly, that I was forced to take a step back to steady myself. I had never felt anything like it…. then again, I had never truly felt. My heart thundered in my chest as I blinked, trying to find a balance between the flood of sentiments now rushing through me.

  “You will get used to it,” Avra assured, knowingly. I realized then that everyone was focused on me. My breathing faltered. “All these feelings were trapped inside you for too long, son. Now that your true self has been released, and your dragon form is present, many things will be different for you. Before, you only experienced ghost emotions. You’ll feel everything much strongly now.”

  I was forced to agree with him as the emotions blasted through me. It wasn’t what I was used to before, when I believed to suffer from panic attacks. No. This was as though I was fully experiencing every emotion on its own, except it was all happening at once. Fear, joy, anticipation, surprise, trust, sadness, admiration, tenderness, devotion and anger in their purest form rushed within me, awaking and consuming my every cell all in one second. I feared the touching moment Father and Kyr had shared, had ruptured the dam inside me that had held them back before.

  I blinked, taking deep breaths in an attempt to control what was happening within, but I failed. I staggered back, needing space, yet Father followed. “Are you all right, son?” He sent into my mind and I nodded. It was the truth. I was fine, but I also happened to be going through every single emotion I seemed to have been blocked from.

  “Why is this happening?” Ash questioned, concern dripped from his every word.

  “The spell Selenia—the Bloodcroix Witch—did on you while in your mother’s womb, had never been used before.” Avra explained, without taking his eyes from me. “No one had ever tried to suppress the dragon in a Drayvok, but we couldn’t risk it showing, and allowing the Dark King to find out who you truly were. So she did her best to suppress it, without affecting anything else. Except, in your brother’s case, it also suppressed the main connection to his emotions.”

  “So now that he is a dragon, he is experiencing everything he never could before.” Kyr concluded, rushing to my side.

  I ruffled my wings behind me, attempting to hold on to sanity until it all passed. My tail swept the ground violently over and over, while the tingling I had once felt on my skin built within my chest and throat, making my insides feel hot and charged.

  “Awe, little brother, I knew you weren’t dead inside.”

  My head whipped towards Ash at his joke. I opened my mouth and roared as hard as I could while the tingles exploded inside my throat. Except, no sound came out. Instead, a yellow bolt of pure lightning shot out, hitting my brother in the shoulder. Ash was blown back as tendrils of yellow electricity spread over his body, like a net. He yelped in pain, falling a few miles away. The ground shook beneath our feet, as his body harshly connected with it. He skidded over the earth, ripping a few trees from their roots in his path.

  My eyes widened, and I rushed towards him. “Ash, are you okay?” I asked through our bond, but he wasn’t moving. I could feel Kyr and Father flying right behind me. They didn’t speak. I landed next to Ash and pushed him with my head, but his body bobbed. He was unconscious, and the scales over his shoulder seemed charred. “Ash!”

  “Calm down, son.” Avra said, grasping my shoulder, but I moved away from him as I struggled to breathe.

  I had hurt my brother. Ash was probably dead and I had done this. I killed my own brother with a power I didn’t even know I had. Tears welled in my slitted eyes.

  “Close your eyes, and listen to his heart,” Kyr whispered in my mind, and I did.

  I forced myself to breathe and listen. The steady rhythm of Ash’s heartbeats suddenly reached me. “Ash, wake up!” I sent to him and pushed him again and again. “Wake up, damn it!”

  Ash’s body twitched suddenly and he jolted up. He shook his head and blinked, trying to regain his bearings and his murderous gaze fell on me. I cringed. I would never hear the end of this. His mouth gaped as he roared at me, enraged. His voice suddenly cut off, and a stream of acid shot out in its place. I gasped, jumping away from it. I knew it was acid, because it engulfed the tree beside me, and it fundamentally disintegrated it before our eyes. Smoke rose from the charred piece of tree trunk that remained. One could still hear it sizzling.

  “Are you crazy?!” I whisper-screamed—which in actuality, was really difficult to do as a dragon. I guessed I hadn’t completely changed.

  He shrugged. “First of all, I didn’t know that was going to happen. I was just yelling at your ass. And second of all… Damn it, Nyx! I deserved that, but still.” He frowned. “Well, I didn’t see that coming. Who knew I would ever add your name to that sentence.”

  A rumbling laughter reached us, and we turned to see Kyr’s shoulders shaking as he looked at us.

  “You think this is funny?! I could have killed him!” I screeched, fisting my hands and turned to face him. Father chuckled. “You too?”

  He cleared his throat and moved closer. “Yes, son. You could have killed him, and were you aware of your power, and in full control of it, perhaps you would have, but you are not, so you did not. You only zapped him.”

  “Well, aren’t you a know it all?” I huffed, ruffling my wings again.

  “Yes, I am,” Father answered, fully grinning. “You get that from me.” I chuckled while he winked. “So, now we know what your breath power is. I believe it is Thermoelectric Breath.” He focused on me. “Which means, you can expel lightning, either to strike once—electrocuting the target into unconsciousness—or fry their synapses, essentially killing them.” My eyes widened in shock. “But based on the sparks of fire that I saw on your breath the second after you fired at your brother, I think your lightning can also erupt into dragon fire. It’s just a matter of teaching you to control each of them as desired.”

  “Damn, Nyx. You are a bad ass.” Ash said in awe.

  Kyr chuckled. “Yes, he is.” I smiled, looking at Avra, who shared their reaction with a full grin. I, on the other hand, was still a bit shaken by it.

  “And you, son.” Father looked at Ash. “You have Acidic Breath, it allows you to spew streams of acid, which as we saw, consumes anything it touches in seconds. But there was a green mist at the very end of your stream, which leads me to believe that you might be able to expel the same acid in mist form, to paralyze a target on contact, and/or inhalation.”

  “What does that mean?” I inquired, honestly interested in the answer.

  “It means I’m a bad ass too.” Ash grinned, and I rolled my eyes.

  “I mean, what does the duality in each of our abilities mean. Is that common? Does it have anything to do with the fact that we are not blue dragons as you expected us to be?”

  “Who told you I expected you to be blue?” Avra questioned, shocked.

  I reached for my face to fix my glasses, but then I remembered I was a dragon, and I no longer had glasses. I grunted, missing my trusty companions while Kyr smiled. He had noticed. “Well, you asked the Bloodcroix Witch why our potions weren’t all blue, and afterwards when we each turned into our dragons, we became the color of the potion we drank. Consequently, it stands to reason that is what you meant. You expected us to be blue.”

  Father let out a heavy breath and reluctantly nodded. “I did. The Bond of Three always creates blue dragons, yet you are not only a different color, but also I had never seen this combination together. That makes you very special, and I’m not just saying that because I’m your father.” We chuckled. “The breath powers you possess are always seen alone, never together in this way. You either have acid stream or poison mist, not both. The same goes with you, Nyx. Normally, a Drayvok can either create fire or lightning. Not both.”

  Avra turned to face Kyr fully, a calculative gleam entering his eyes and he became quie
t for a while, as though he was assessing the implications.

  “Let me see your breath power, son. All you have to do is concentrate the energy in your throat until you feel the same tingling that courses over your skin, then push it out of you. It will feel cold and hot at the same time. Aim it at that tree.” Father added, pointing at a small cluster of trees near Ash. My brother moved away and stood between Father and I as Kyr prepared to fire.

  Our older brother took a deep breath and concentrated on the middle tree, his jaw opened, and anticipation mixed with excitement within me. The next second, his subzero breath shot out of him in a large stream, hitting the tree until it was engulfed by it, but it expanded to the five trees around it, consuming them all. Avra gasped as the ice moved around the trees and we were left speechless. It wasn’t ice at all.

  “FrostFire,” Father whispered, utterly shaken by the realization.

  “Fire? How is that possible?” Kyr questioned. “I’m an Ice Dragon like you, Father, aren’t I?”

  Father nodded, but remained silent as he approached the trees. The flames were a cool blue, and hazy white with a slight violet hue in between them. It slowly swayed with a controlled rhythm over the trees, holding an almost hypnotizing quality. There were no sparks around it, no fizzling out, and it didn’t generate any heat like regular fire would. Instead, it released a thin, virtually nonexistent, cool mist, which seemed to fuel it. The blue flames were constant and thriving, while it consumed the life inside it.

  “Dear Goddess,” Avra exclaimed in a whisper. “FrostFire Breath is the rarest form of power for a Drayvok,” he explained, still taken aback by the display. “It can melt anything, level mountains, and it kills on contact, but most of all, it cannot be extinguished. It will thrive until it has annihilated its target, and nothing remains.”

  He turned to face us all, as the trees burned behind him.

  “It is so rare, that until this day, I had never seen it. Only one Drayvok has ever held that ability. My grandfather, Isrug, had FrostFire, otherwise known as blue fire, and he was the first Drayvok our Goddess created. He was the very first Dragon Lord.”