by G. Bailey
Isola
“Thorne,” I shake his shoulder a few times before he abruptly sits up, his hand automatically going to his sword. His eyes focus on me, and he seems to relax a little as he sees that I’m okay.
“What happened?” he asks, and I rest my hand on his that covers the sword and shake my head.
“It’s okay, the lady just needed to talk to me alone,” I tell him, and he looks over my head, where the old lady–well, goddess–is sitting on the gold throne again. She just smiles widely, and in a pretty creepy way, too.
“Don’t do that again,” he warns her, and she chuckles as I help Thorne stand up.
“I promise,” she winks at me, and I roll my eyes at her playful attitude.
“What is this?” Thorne asks, first holding my arm out to look at the staff and then looking at my necklace.
“A long story, and something that can wait,” I say, pleading with him to trust me. He does, nodding his head once, and he links our hands.
“How do we break the curse?” I turn and ask the lady.
“Simple. You must mate with the half ice and half fire prince. The curse was made so no dragon guard and ice dragon could ever be together. So that dragon guards could never get the throne, and no half-blood would rule. If you two are mated, the curse will break. The curse was made from a place of love, from a mate desperate to save her king. The curse was never there to stop this. Fire and ice must rule, and the curse must break,” she says, muttering the end as I stare up at Thorne.
“It can’t be that simple!” Thorne refutes, shaking his head.
“Love is not simple, boy, you know this,” the lady says, tutting at him.
“So, any half-blood could have stopped the curse by marrying a royal?” I ask.
“Yes. There is a reason the mixing of ice and fire dragons was kept secret. Your father knew how to break the curse, but that would have risked his army. So, he sent dragon guards to kill any half-bloods, just in case, to prevent you from ever falling in love with one. Seems he didn’t find them all,” she says as she winks at me again.
“Wait, we never agreed to mate,” I whisper, looking up at Thorne.
“I won’t push you for this. I know you don’t love me fully yet, and it’s too soon,” Thorne tells me.
“You only need to say the words, share the blood, and I can bless you both. The rest of the mating can wait. Many have been mated without love or feelings. You do not need them,” she informs, and pulls out a white stone. “I happen to have your mating stone right here.”
“Isn’t that meant to appear to me? To us?” I ask.
“Who do you think drops them for people to find? Sounds like a job for a fate, no?” she winks at me once more. What is with all the winking?
“Can Isola and I have a second alone?” Thorne asks, and she nods, leaning back in her chair. We walk around a pile of gold, and Thorne starts pacing the moment we are hidden.
“Stop a minute,” I say, grabbing his arm.
“I can’t make you do this; you don’t want this. You don’t want me. I don't want you to mate with me out of obligation. I want you to choose this and want it, want me,” he sighs, pushing my hand away, “and I can see it in your eyes that you don’t.”
“I do want this, Thorne. Maybe not exactly mating yet, but I’m already bound to you in a way. I hate that I want this when I should still hate you. I hate that I can’t tell Dagan, Kor, or Eli before we do this. I hate that we don’t have more time to get to know each other, but I don’t hate you. If anything, it’s the opposite,” I say, placing my hand back on his arm, and this time, he doesn’t push me away.
“Isola, you don’t have to say that,” he says, and I grab his other arm, making him look down at me.
“I would never mate with someone I wasn’t sure I want in my life. This curse needs to be broken. Let me give you back your dragon, and we can spend the rest of our lives working on us. Even if we end up as just friends, I want you in my life, and we will always mean something to each other,” I say, and he smiles.
“You sure?” he asks, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.
“Positive,” I grin, and he kisses my forehead. I lean in, closing my eyes, and breathe in his smoky, almost frost-like scent.
“I haven’t got all day, you know!” the lady shouts, and I chuckle, linking my hand with Thorne’s as we walk back over to her. She stands from the chair as we get closer, making the white mating stone float into the air above our heads when we stop.
“How are you doing that?” Thorne asks, and she laughs as she pulls a dagger out of her cloak, not answering his question.
“Thorne, why don’t you start off with the ancient words? Do you know them?” the lady asks.
“I do,” he says, taking my other hand in his and holding them between us as he speaks. “Link to the heart, link to the soul. I pledge my heart to you, for you, for all the time I have left. My dragon is yours, my love is yours, and everything I am, belongs with you.” I repeat his words, watching as the white mating stone starts to glow, growing brighter with every sentence we speak. Our mating is blessed.
“Please hold out your hands,” she requests, and we both do. She cuts Thorne’s first and then mine as I hold in the pain-filled cry that threatens to escape my lips from the sting.
“Light and dark, good and evil, and everything that makes these ones dragons, please bless this mating. We bless you,” the lady says, and I lock eyes with Thorne as we link hands. A blast of white light shoots out of the mating stone, sending us both flying apart. I roll as I land on top of a pile of gold, the white light making it impossible to see anything. As the light dims, my eyes widen at the sight of Thorne’s dragon standing on a pile of gold. I’ve never seen his dragon before, and it’s amazing. The wings and body are red, but covered with blue spikes that match his blue eyes.
“Isola, my dragon is back,” Thorne’s deep, shocked voice floats into my mind, as well as a touch of his elation I can sense. We are mated. Holy crap. The dragon guard curse is broken.
“I can hear you in my head,” I chuckle, and I hear his laugh as his dragon snorts out ice and fire at the same time.
“None of that, I do not want my home on fire or frozen, thank you very much,” the lady shouts, stamping out the fire with her foot and shaking her stick at Thorne. I slide down the pile of gold, tripping a bit, but managing to land somewhat gracefully.
“Thank you,” I tell the lady as I walk over to Thorne and place my hand on the side of his head.
“Do not thank me just yet. Anyhow, you must leave,” she says and points a stick up in the air to the ceiling. “That is your way out. Good luck, Queen Isola Dragice. I do look forward to the day we meet again.”
“Goodbye,” I say, watching as she walks through the gold, looking back at me once more.
“When you meet a woman called Queen Winter, make sure you tell her that her aunt says hello,” she states cryptically, totally confusing me. Her body seems to slowly fade before she disappears altogether. I guess I will be meeting another queen. Let’s hope she is friendly.
“Well . . . that wasn’t weird at all,” Thorne mutters in my head, and I nod, still looking at the space where she once was.
“I can’t call my dragon in here. I have no idea how you are, now that I'm thinking about it, but I will climb up, and you can fly us out of here,” I say out loud, turning and pulling myself up onto his back after he leans down.
“If you wanted to ride me, you only had to ask,” he chuckles in my mind.
“Get your head out of the gutter. Besides, you need to prepare yourself. It's likely Eli and the others are going to try and kill you for mating with me once we get out of here,” I laugh, hearing his own grumble in my head. I slide myself between two of the spikes on his neck and wrap my arms around the one in front of me.
“They can try, now hold on,” he warns, and spreads his wings out, knocking over everything as he bats his wings and pushes down with his legs, shooting up to
the top of the cave. I hold my head down as Thorne slams into the ceiling of the cave, breaking out into the night sky. He flies up into the sky, levelling himself out as I look at the stars.
“Can you see that? Something is wrong,” Thorne’s worried voice drifts over to me in my mind, and I lift my head, seeing the forest on fire in lots of places, seconds before I hear the screams.
Danger. I sense Tatarina, my dragon hisses.
“Dragons incoming,” I shout, spotting five of them flying straight towards us, suddenly appearing out of the trees. They don’t look right; their dragons are flying way too shakily, and they look almost grey. What the hell are those? I move myself from between the spikes and walk down Thorne’s body as he tries to fly us away.
I’m going to shift in the air. We haven’t done this before, but we need to now. You ready? I ask my dragon, and she roars in my mind.
Be right back, mate, I say to Thorne, who doesn’t seem to realise what I’m about to do. I run and jump right off his tail, falling and opening my arms as my dragon takes over.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dagan
“What the hell is wrong with them?” I shout, driving my sword into the heart of another dragon guard. I look down at him, examining his black eyes and the black veins all over his pale skin. They are almost like zombies, and they fight like them, too. The dragon guards should be more trained than this.
“Tatarina has done something to them!” Elias shouts back as he kills two of the guards in one broad swipe of his sword. I look around, seeing only a few more of the dragon guard coming for us. I’m running straight through the woods when I see a little girl screaming as she runs away from three dragon guards who are trying to kill her. She can only be eight, and they are attacking her. I catch up to the little girl and push her behind me. She's shaking and absolutely terrified.
“Stand by that tree and close your eyes,” I tell her. She does as I ask with a single nod and tears streaming down her dirt-covered cheeks. I turn to face the guards, anger burning through me.
“Come on then, don’t you think you should play with someone your own size, you bastards?” I shout as they run at me with their black eyes. I kick the first one, slicing my sword across his neck and swinging to meet the next guard. He slams his sword against mine as the third guard runs for the girl. From the corner of my eye, I can see where she stands, still holding onto the tree with her eyes closed.
“No!” I yell, pushing against the sword with my other hand, cutting it, and slamming the guard back. I quickly pull out a dagger from my belt and slam it into his chest, and I keep moving, running at the girl, trying to reach her before she gets hurt. Kor appears from behind the tree, throwing his sword into the guard’s chest just before he can get to her, and the guard falls to the ground.
“Good timing, man,” I breathe out, going back to yank my dagger out of the other guard and sliding it back into my belt. Kor kneels next to the girl, who won’t open her eyes and shakes her head of red hair. I walk over, placing my hand on Kor’s shoulder. He looks between us and stands up.
“I will keep an eye out,” he says, standing behind me as I kneel in front of the girl.
“Hey, what is your name?” I ask gently.
“Isie,” she mumbles, sobbing on her words.
“Isie, I need you to open your eyes and answer something for me,” I tell her.
“Okay,” she says shakily and finally looks at me. “You saved me. You are like a brave prince.” I smile at her words and pull my cloak off my back, wrapping it around her shoulders.
“What happened in the seer village? We don’t know anything as we were here waiting for princess Isola to come out the cave,” I explain to her, spotting Elias walking over to us. She grips my cloak tightly before she answers.
“The guards came while we were all sleeping, and the woman with black stuff all over her was telling them to kill us all. The guard killed my mummy, and my father told me to run,” she says, bursting into tears again. I pick her up, holding her close as I turn around, hearing the sound of footsteps.
“Someone is coming,” Elias says, stepping in front of me and the child, guarding us with Korbin. We watch the treeline anxiously as we hear people running, and a woman comes into view. She runs, holding a baby, and five other small children are with her. They all look covered in dirt and blood. Maybe whoever did this let them go?
“Auntie!” Isie shouts, wriggling in my arms to get down, and I let her. She runs to her aunt, who holds her close as we come over.
“What happened?” Elias demands. The woman is clearly panicked and scared, her cloak is covered in blood, and her brown hair is littered with leaves. The children all hide behind her, looking terrified.
“The queen has done something dark to all of those guards. I was in charge of the nursery for the night. We barely escaped. They don’t know who we are, who they are, and have no control over who they kill,” she blurts out and looks behind her before staring at us. “We have to leave. The children are not safe. You could come with us and protect us.”
“We have to wait for the princess, but keep running. We won’t let anyone follow you,” I say firmly, and she nods.
“Good luck. If we make it, we will pray for the princess. The true heir of Dragca,” she says, bowing her head, “and her mates.” I nod back before she runs carefully through the forest with the children trailing close on her heels. Isie waves once before following them, clutching my cloak.
“I don’t like this. Melody and Bee are in the village,” Kor says, rubbing his face. “My parents are, Darth . . . we have to go back.” I catch his shoulder as he starts to walk that way.
“No. Isola needs us,” I remind him.
“She will never forgive us if we let Melody and Bee get killed,” Elias points out, and I shake my head at them both.
“We can’t–” I stop as a light bursts in the sky, a bright light like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and a warm feeling slams into my body, causing me to fall to my knees.
Fly, my dragon hisses in my mind, the shift taking over before I can even think or comprehend what just happened.
You’re back, I say, feeling so relieved and whole. My dragon stretches out its body after the shift, and I know somehow Isola has broken the dragon guard curse. I roar, looking over at Korbin’s and Elias’s dragons. They seem to be in shock, just standing there, shaking their heads.
Minnnee, my dragon hisses, turning its head to the sky just as a dragon breaks out of the mountains and into the sky. I instantly recognise the blonde head of hair as Isola riding on Thorne’s back through the skies.
Danger, I shout to my dragon, seeing five other dragons flying towards them. My dragon stretches its wings out just as Isola stands up and jumps straight off Thorne’s back.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Isola
Fight, my dragon hisses in my mind as her wings spread out in the air, and she starts to fly. We turn around mid-air, feeling Thorne’s dragon at my side as we face the others as they get closer. They shoot fire in the shape of spheres at us, and my dragon drops under them, shooting straight towards them.
Kill them! I demand of her, and she shoots her own spheres of ice at them in a flurry of ice and fire that Thorne shoots with me. I drop down as the dragons get too close, and Thorne does the same, but he goes above them. My dragon looks up just in time to see two of them get hit with Thorne’s attack of ice, and they drop into the trees. One of the dragons slams into me while I’m not looking, digging his claws into my wings as we fall together, and I cry out in pain. I look up, seeing three more dragons flying towards Thorne as he fights two off on his own.
No! I scream in my dragon’s head as we fall through the trees and land on the ground, his claws finally coming free of my wings, so I can move. I shoot ice onto his wings as he tries to fly and keep shooting it until his entire dragon is frozen to the ground. His dragon’s eyes almost dead as I stare at him encased in the ice. I look up, not seeing Thorne or
any other dragons flying around.
“It has been a long time, Isola, don’t you think?” Tatarina’s cold, dead-sounding voice says from behind me, and my dragon turns to roar at her. I feel down my wings, knowing the damage to them is too much, and I won’t be able to fly out of here for a bit. There is only one thing we can do, even if it makes me vulnerable.
Let me takeover, I ask my dragon, who doesn’t hesitate as we shift back. I stand up straight, keeping my head high as I face Tatarina. She stands still like a ghost; her dark, nearly brown hair blowing in the wind is the only movement. Her eyes are completely black, and they match the dark glow her skin now has. I look over as a woman steps out from the shadows of the trees, making me take a step back.
“Bu-but, I killed you!” I gasp as Esmeralda stands by her sister’s side, smiling widely with her blood-red lips. Her eyes are now as red as her hair, and her pale skin is littered with black veins.
“Death was not my ending,” Esmeralda replies, her voice croaking and broken in places. Her head twitches as she speaks, and Tatarina places her hand on her sister’s arm.
“I will remember to chop your head off next time,” I sneer. “Just to be sure.”
“There will not be a next time, for this is your ending, Isola,” Tatarina says, holding her hands out at her sides. “You are alone, and I am queen. Is this what you always thought would happen?”
“I kinda hoped I would have killed you by now, but I still have time,” I say, feeling for the staff on my arm and knowing I can fight her.
“You could join me,” she says simply, and I just laugh.
“The throne is mine! I am the heir, and I will claim it back when I have killed you! You killed my mother, my father, and had your sister kill Jace! There is so much death on your hands, and you do not deserve to live!” I spit out at her, and for only a brief second does she flinch at my words.
