You can’t fail! I told myself.
I transformed. As a human, I was much smaller, which also meant I was much more difficult for the wraith to hold on to. I slipped from his grasp and fell into the void of night. I transformed back, but couldn’t finish the transformation before I struck trees, though I did manage to get to my dragon form before I struck the ground.
I lay there, gasping in pain. I didn’t know where I was or where the wraith had gone. I didn’t know if Gerard had killed Dormir or if Dormir needed my help.
I can’t give up. Quist said I am the light.
I stumbled to my feet and staggered to the side, then fell back to my belly. I could barely stand, let alone walk.
And then came a sound I never expected to hear. The trees around me leaned, and two of them pressed against my side.
“They are coming,” the trees said. “The dragons are coming.”
“Hold on, Light.”
“Get to your feet.”
“The dragons are coming.”
I took as big a breath as I could summon, and that alone caused stars of pain in my eyes. The wraith must have collapsed one of my lungs. I forced myself back to my feet. The trees were talking again. More importantly, they were talking to me. And their message was one of hope.
If the dragons really were coming, we could defeat this wraith for good.
“That’s it, princess.”
“Into the sky!”
I spread my wings and heeded their directions. I flew into the sky. The agony in my body pulled on me, pleading with me to stop, but I had a job to do.
The village was already engulfed in flames, and the flames were spreading to the orchards.
I scanned the skies and spotted one dragon frantically flying in a circle. They were too far away for me to see who it was, but I headed in that direction with caution. I summoned the magic to me that had brought me to Gerard so quickly, and my speed increased just as it had before. I forced it to a stop when I was close enough to slow down.
“You’re all right!” Mother gasped, flying over to me. “Your father and the wraith hit the ground, but I can’t find where in this darkness!”
“The trees told me the dragons are coming,” I said. “If the trees are awake again, perhaps they are speaking to Father. Maybe even protecting him.”
“Let’s hope,” she said. “If we fly over the trees, we might be able to find him. Come.”
We both dropped until the tips of our wings almost brushed against the trees.
A roar echoed, followed by a series of others. I lifted my gaze, and in the distance, lights in the darkness approached. My heart leapt with joy!
“They have come!”
“The dragons are here!”
“You can disperse the darkness now!” the trees exclaimed.
“You are the light!”
I grinned at my mother, who smiled back at me.
Her gaze suddenly shifted, and she shouted, “There!” She dove, and I followed.
My father had somehow managed to get the wraith out of the sky and onto the ground. It was only when we landed nearby that I saw the wraith’s wings were torn.
The wraith snatched my father’s tail and dragged him near.
“Hey!” I shouted and clamped down on the wraith’s tail, using its own trick to distract it.
The wraith roared at me in frustration and snapped at me.
But we had managed to distract the wraith long enough. The dragons overhead roared in unison. I flew up into the sky, soon followed by my father and mother, and then as a hoard, we attacked.
Dragons of every kind descended on the wraith, blinding him with light, striking him with lightning, burning him with fire. As a group, we broke his defenses, pierced his unseen scales. Beneath him, a pool of darkness began to form. The shimmer of it reminded me of the dark pool from whence Gerard had summoned it.
I took a breath until my ribs screamed, and with everything I had in me, I released my magic on the wraith. Light blinded the area, as bright as the afternoon sun. The rays burned into the wraith dragon and its shadows dispersed until the bones themselves peeled away like ashes on a log.
With one final defeated roar, it collapsed into the puddle of blackness and disappeared.
I joined my people as we cheered. But I knew defeating the wraith was only one piece of the problem. The other piece was Gerard, and if he had the time, he could summon the wraith again.
“We need to get to the ruins of the castle. The faeries are there and hopefully Gerard. We need to capture him,” I ordered.
Everyone flew in the direction of the castle.
To my surprise, when we arrived, Gerard sat on his knees, arms bound behind him, and Dormir held a sword to his neck. A gag was wrapped around his head, preventing him from talking. The faeries had lit torches and stood like protective sentinels.
I landed in front of Dormir and transformed. I was covered in my own blood, barely able to breathe, let alone stand, but I was ready to exact my revenge on the one who had started this all.
“You!” I snarled.
I stormed over to Gerard and snatched the sword from Dormir’s hand.
“Wait, Elisa—” Dormir tried.
“You killed my sister!” I screamed and raised the sword.
Terror filled Gerard’s green eyes. His pupils were dilated and he leaned back as far as he could. Fear. He was afraid. But he closed his eyes and straightened, resigning himself to his fate.
“You will always remember this moment,” I heard Dormir say behind me. “How are you going to choose to remember it?”
“By law, we can kill you,” I spat. “Sentence you to death for murder alone.” Tears blinded me.
Gerard held his head high, his jaw clenched tightly. The muscle in his jaw flexed.
I lowered the sword and put a hand on my stomach, touching Dahlia’s crusted blood on the front of my shirt. By law, I could have. When I saw Gerard helpless, frightened, and very much alone, I pitied him. He didn’t have an army of men at his side to command. He had a troupe of the undead. Quist had told me he was raised in darkness, and I couldn’t even pretend to imagine what that would be like as a child. Who had taught him to play with dead things? How old was he when that training began? How had he been trained?
How could someone raise a child to summon such creatures?
I crouched and loosened the gag. I looked Gerard in the eye. “What good is another death?” I whispered. “You’ve caused … so much heartache.”
His lips tightened.
“But I am going to show you mercy.”
Gerard’s brows shifted from resignation to confusion.
“Whoever you work with, you can tell them that we are not a weak people. The humans, dragons, and faeries will work together from now on. Griswil is not weak. We have learned from our mistakes, and you will never return. If you do, I won’t be so merciful. Do you understand?”
“Do you think this is wise?” Misla’s voice was full of bitterness.
I looked up at her. “He’s alone. Can’t you see how frightened he is?”
Gerard turned his face away when Dormir met his gaze. “I … had resigned myself to death. And now you let me go?”
I nodded. “Dormir, release him.”
Dormir reluctantly sliced the sword through the ropes.
Gerard stared up at me, confusion lining his brow. He slowly climbed to his feet. “Why?”
I stepped forward so only he could hear. “Because you were raised in darkness,” I whispered. “And someone needs to show you the light.”
Gerard’s face softened.
I reached up and touched his cheek. “I hope you never forget us.” I kissed his cheek and then stepped away.
The crowd parted.
Gerard looked around one final time, then lim
ped off into the darkness.
Everyone turned to me, Crown Princess Elisa of Griswil, or Aura the Favored Light. Whichever I preferred, according to Quist.
But I could be both.
I let out a breath and shook my head. “Thank you. All of you. I propose we find somewhere to sleep tonight. We need to tend to the wounded and … and bury our dead.” My throat tightened, and I put a shaking hand to my lips.
Dormir walked over to me and wrapped me in his arms. He didn’t even need to say anything. He just held me while I broke down.
“You heard her.” My father, Rowen, clapped his hands. “Dragons, let’s make some fires to ward off the night air. The fae are tending to the wounded. Those soldiers still capable, come with me to find the people of the neighboring town and see if they’re all right.”
My other father and mother hesitantly approached me.
Marigold broke free and ran over. I pulled away from Dormir so I could catch my youngest sister and hold on to her as we knelt in the dirt and cried together.
The whirlwind of emotions was hardly over.
With the adrenaline gone, I found out just how badly I was wounded. I had been trying to help guide the people of Sloval to our makeshift camp when I collapsed.
Marigold struggled to pull me to my feet. “Elisa, what’s wrong?”
“Just a little dizzy. That’s all.” I tried to get up but failed.
“Someone, help!” she yelled.
Dormir pushed his way past people and scooped me up into his arms, one arm under my knees, the other around my back. “You’re as white as the moon. Are you bleeding?”
“Oh. Yeah.” I touched my side, only to hiss.
“You forgot?” He raised one of his blue eyebrows. “Part of taking care of the injured includes yourself, you know,” he said, sounding like a father scolding his child.
He carried me to the most brightly lit space, where faeries worked feverishly to see the wounds, burns, scratches, and bruises of all injured. The rest of the faeries had come when the rest of the dragons arrived. From what I had seen, not one had hesitated to step in and help the humans in spite of their history together.
Dormir laid me down in the dirt. “Amilee, would you mind taking a look at Elisa?”
The woman walked over and knelt at my side. “We need to take off your shirt so we can see how bad the wound is.”
Dormir stood to leave, but I grabbed his fingers.
“Don’t go,” I asked weakly. “Please?”
Dormir smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “You want me here?”
“You can close your eyes.” I smiled.
He chuckled and sat down before closing his eyes.
“Just don’t pass out,” I teased.
“I’m not injured enough to … hey.”
The nurse removed my shirt, revealing a gaping wound in my side. She made a comment about how she was surprised I wasn’t dead, but her voice was far away. All I saw was blackness around the edge of the wound before my stomach lurched, and then there was nothing but darkness.
Twenty-Six
When I woke, Dormir was sound asleep, lying on his side facing me. He used one arm for a pillow and his other was on holding my hand. I couldn’t help but smile. I reached up and touched his chin and then his lips. His warm breath caressed my finger. I ran my finger down his cheek, then lowered my hand. I don’t know how the gods had cursed me and blessed me at the same time.
“How do you feel?” a familiar voice asked.
I looked to my other side and was rather shocked to see Queen Rachel sitting there. “I don’t have much pain right now,” I answered, though I could feel the radiating pain through my side, down my leg, and up through my ribs.
“We nearly lost you.” She flashed a weak, but genuine, smile. “You’ve been asleep for days. Your … mother and I spoke.”
I watched her carefully. “Oh?”
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, there were tears. She looked utterly exhausted, with bags under her eyes and wrinkles on her forehead. “I’m so sorry for everything we did to you. I thought we were doing what was right for our people.”
I reached down and played with Dormir’s fingers. The air was suddenly stifling. “What you did … was wrong. You took me from my home. My family. I should have been raised all of these years to be a dragon. I should have learned how to fly and fight. I should have been with people who loved me.” I looked at her when I said the last bit.
“We did love you, Elisa.” She took my hand. “I … had grown to love you too much. With the prophecy and Jarrett’s magic, we tried to suppress your dragon side, but every now and then you would have these outbursts of anger. I thought for certain we would lose you. So I began to push you away. I thought if I did that, it would hurt less when you transformed and left us.” She closed her eyes. “I was deeply wrong. And with Dahlia gone—”
“Did you have her funeral?” I asked.
“No, no, not yet. You didn’t miss it.” She patted my hand reassuringly.
Dormir stirred. He groaned and stretched before he opened his eyes. Immediately, he grinned and sat up. “You’re awake.”
I gave him a relieved smile. “Of course I am, silly.”
“Did your …” He paused and glanced at Rachel. It felt weird to call her that. He cleared his throat. “Did she already tell you they’ve started clearing out the debris from the castle?”
I looked around. At some point over the last few days, I had been moved onto a cot and placed under a canopy. Indeed, much of the castle was already gone, and men and women sorted through the rubble, loading up wagons and wheelbarrows.
“We would like to talk,” the queen said. “I’ve spoken with Queen Misla as well as your real parents, and we want you present. We need to know what we are going to do moving forward.”
Knowing what to do moving forward was far more difficult than I imagined. We sat around a fire while those who had once been servants of the castle cooked breakfast.
The king and queen sat with Marigold between them. I took a position at the side of my true mother with Rowen at her side, and Dormir. Dormir’s mother sat beside him. I looked around at our historical group.
My eyes settled on Marigold again. It was the first time I noticed Marigold’s arm wrapped and leaned to Dormir to ask about it.
“Ah, it was a dark magic spell of some kind,” he responded in a low voice. “They’ve got an ointment on it for now, but the healers say it’s easy to heal.”
I sighed in relief.
“A meeting like this has never taken place,” Queen Misla started. “This is wonderful for all of our people.” She gave everyone a kind smile.
I nodded in agreement. I wasn’t ready for this conversation. We hadn’t even properly buried Dahlia yet, and my side still ached terribly, which wasn’t helped at all by sitting on the hard ground.
“I assume you want to talk about who has rights to the throne,” Queen Rachel jumped in.
Misla nodded. “This is Dormir, my only son and heir to the fae throne.”
Dormir lowered his head in a polite bow.
My previous mother glanced at me. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Dormir and I liked each other.
I cleared my throat. “I think dragons and faeries have both proved they will step in and assist in times of need. Had it not been for the dragons and faeries, Gerard would have successfully usurped the throne.”
“And who knows what a necromancer would have done to the kingdom,” Rowen added.
The queen sniffled with indignation. “Moving forward, who has the rights to the throne, then? The faeries? Merely because they had ancestors on this land? I too had ancestors who owned this land.”
“Because they took the land out from under us,” Dormir said with a frown.
“Are not all king
doms won through battle?” she countered.
“Then should we have allowed Gerard to take Griswil?” I asked.
She tightened her lips.
“Elisa was raised to be the next queen,” the king spoke up for the first time. The father who had raised me had always been rather passive.
“Who better to know how to run the kingdom?” Isaline asked, giving me a grin.
“A dragon on the throne?” Queen Rachel muttered. “It isn’t even her birthright …”
Marigold jumped to her feet. “Well, I don’t want to be the queen. Elisa has prepared her entire life to run the kingdom. She knows everything. And she’s a dragon! How cool is it that a dragon would rule Griswil? The dragons would be able to come out of hiding and help down here. Did you hear the trees whispering? That’s because that guy talked to them.” She pointed to Rowen, who tried—and failed—to hide a grin. “Besides, Elisa will marry Dormir, and then a fae will rule at her side. It’s a win-win. Done.” Marigold dusted off her hands and sat down.
I didn’t even know how to respond. Dormir and I had only known each other a short time, and even then I still didn’t know much about him or his people, or even his family. I glanced in his direction, and he gave me a quick wink.
“That was a short conversation,” Rowen said. He got to his feet. “Who is ready for breakfast?”
“What about the humans?” Rachel interjected.
What should have been a calm hour-long conversation evolved into an all-day discussion bordering on the edge of debate. What it really boiled down to was Rachel being reluctant to give up her crown.
Finally, Nicholia intervened. “Let us put the spring stone in the center of the group. One person from each race will step forward, and whomever the spring stone glows for will rule the kingdom.”
“Dormir,” Misla said.
He straightened. “I don’t have it. I gave the stone to you.”
“No, you had it after the fight with Gerard,” she insisted.
He quickly patted his pockets and met my gaze with panic.
I exhaled. “Gerard got what he ultimately came for. It appears we will have to make this decision on our own. Besides, we shouldn’t rely on magical artifacts forever. If everyone feels satisfied, I will step up and take the throne. My people already know me, already expect me to take over. Rumors have already begun to spread that I am a dragon and faeries have returned.” I looked at the woman who raised me. “After everything that has happened, I feel I am ready for this. I wouldn’t mind some help now and then, and I certainly wouldn’t expect you to live in a shack.”
The Dragon Princess: Sleeping Beauty Reimagined (The Forgotten Kingdom Book 1) Page 22
