by Olivia Hart
She was just as detailed and just as beautiful. Her hair was blown in the gentle breeze that ran between the torl trees. She was young, not more than four hundred years old, and the wings that rose from her back mimicked the shadowed wings of the Dark Court fairies.
These two danced like lovers to the soft sound of drums that I hadn’t heard earlier. I watched in awe as they moved smoothly from one step to the next. The wisps of smoke rising from them making their dance look more magical.
Then the song ended, and they both reached out to me. I stood up in surprise at their interaction with me, and a real male fairy, full of color rather than blacks and grays, stepped out of the smoke that surrounded the clearing.
I stepped back in surprise, and the fairy grinned. Black hair cut short and dark eyes that seemed to laugh drew my attention away from his simple garments. He had soft gray wings, but there was an odd purple tone to them that I’d never seen before. “May I have this dance?” he asked as the drums became louder.
I should have known that a smoke weaver was nearby, but I’d been so entranced by the display that I’d almost forgotten that the dancers had needed a puppet master.
Even as the fairy spoke, the dancers began to move, twirling and jumping just like they were at a ball. The fairy reached out his hand, and though I would have normally turned away from someone dressed like this in the Court of Light, there was no one here to see his poverty.
I decided to let myself do something ridiculous for a moment. I let the shield fall as I put my hand in his, and I felt something I’d never felt before. Something that I doubted anyone else had ever felt.
I didn’t need to know this man’s name. I didn’t need to know his family or his position. But I needed him.
People spoke of love at first sight, and this was not that. This was love at first touch. When his fingers touched mine, I felt myself become at ease. All of the thoughts and worries that plagued me constantly were gone. I was overcome by rightness. Not a decision, and not a desire. It was a surety as clear and obvious as any that are witnessed by seers.
This man was mine. Not a consort. Not a husband.
A soulmate.
I looked into his eyes, and I said, “I’m Seraphina.”
He gave me a mischievous grin, his eyes holding a laughter that he never allowed to escape. “Nice to meet you Sera. I’m Nicolai or Nic as my mother calls me. Are you going to dance with me, or will I have to find another beautiful woman in the middle of the woods?”
I gave him a half-smile, and for the first time, my heart began to flutter as I worried that I would make a fool of myself. This man mattered to me already.
“I’d love to dance with you, Nicolai.”
Pain flooded my mind and body as the memories took over. I saw every movement in crystal clear detail. Heard every word as if it were happening for the first time.
I remembered that first dance. The way that the walls around my heart and emotions began to crack. It was impossible to be cold with him near me. He was a flame that never ran out of fuel, and all of his attention was on me.
I felt my heart thaw all over again as I remembered his touch against my waist. The way that his laughter gave rise to my own giggles as he stumbled in a dance he didn’t know. The way that my body felt just being near him. The warmth that began to fill my body, my heart, and my very soul.
He was mine, and I’d never wanted to let him go.
And then he was taken from me. The vision in my mind’s eye changed to the moment that I’d held his broken body on the day that Sebastian killed him. The pain ripped through me unshielded as I embraced the agony and experienced the loss of my soulmate all over again.
I felt his soul ripped from me, an agony with no chance of healing. I would never see this man again until the void took me. I would never feel his warmth. I would never hear his laughter. I was alone in this world, and the only chance that I could stop feeling that agony was to forget him, to forget his touch.
It took everything inside me to keep from forcing the blade through my heart, to end the suffering that I knew would follow me until I finally died. But then I’d never see him again. Not even in the void. Those who kill themselves are not allowed into the void. Their souls die forever.
Instead, I pulled with the crystalline dagger, drawing the pain from me. As the tears fell down my cheeks, I grieved for him all over again, I felt the memories of the only man I’d ever loved fade from memory.
Like dandelion seeds blown into the winds, I felt each one drawn out of me, and I mourned it. Nicolai was dying all over again. When this was done, I wouldn’t even remember his name. I wouldn’t remember his touch. I wouldn’t remember his voice.
The tears began to dry on my cheek, and the pain receded as that night that I held his broken body disappeared from my memory.
The last thing I saw was his face. The laughter in his eyes. That crooked grin. The face that had given me a reason for living.
And then it was gone. Like all the rest.
All I was left with was an agonizing pain in my breast where the blade pierced my flesh. I gritted my teeth and yanked the blade out. My magic immediately began to reknit the flesh, healing the wound.
I felt strange like something was missing. Like a fog filled my mind. I looked down at the blade and a single thought came to me. Hide the blade and never touch it again.
I knew enough about glamour to know to trust those thoughts. I was too powerful for another to glamour me, so this could only be a decision I had made. I wrapped the blade in a silk cloth and opened the dresser to the hidden compartment. I mentally broke the connection between myself and the blade. If I couldn’t see it again, I needed to make sure that I didn’t draw it from its hiding place on accident.
I looked down at the mess covering my dress and was immediately frustrated by the blood that coated it. This was one of my favorite dresses. One I’d had for a long time. Ever since I was young.
I tried to remember where I’d received it, but I couldn’t think of it. There was a period of time that just kept slipping from my mind. It had to have something to do with that glamour that I’d placed over myself.
Going into the closet, I quickly changed. I needed to meet with my war council. We would plan how to end this Queen of Shadows. She held too much power. She was dangerous.
It was time that I found a way to exploit her weaknesses. It was time that I showed her that sometimes, cleverness was far more important than raw power.
Chapter 2
Rose
Sebastian snored next to me as I stretched out in the bed. Our bed. The man that had been so annoying when I’d first met him had become the most important person in my life. He’d become my everything. My finger ran over the diamond-studded wedding band Sebastian had given me. It was made of interwoven gold and obsidian with gold filigree on top in the shape of intricate flowers holding tiny diamonds in their centers.
We’d been married in a flurry, and it was only two days ago that I’d received my wedding ring. People talked about them as though they were heavy, but to me, it was a reassurance. It reminded me that no matter what happened, the only man I’d ever loved would always be there with me.
He was mine, always and forever, and I grinned at him as he snored.
It was funny to see him laying like a typical man under the silk sheets. One leg stuck out the side, his toes hanging off the edge. A pillow lay between his legs, and he slowly rubbed himself against it. I wondered what kind of dirty dreams he was having.
I had to stifle a giggle as I reached under the blanket. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face though as I felt his naked butt. We had too much to do today for any kind of playtime this morning, but I could still do this. Something that I’d been planning to do for days now, but he always woke up before me.
I ran my fingers right below his butt, where his thigh ended, and I began to tickle. It was the only spot I’d found that was ticklish on his entire body, but I’d found it. He immediately
began to kick his legs in an effort to stop the tickling, but he wasn’t awake enough to understand what was happening, and I just kept going.
Finally, his eyes snapped open, and he tried to get away from my vicious tickle attack. Rolling out from under the sheet, his eyes went wide as he realized he was so close to the edge. His hand shot out to try to catch the post as he rolled off the bed, but he was too late, and he hit the floor with a thud. The laughter that had been building up inside me couldn’t be kept leashed any longer.
I let it out, barely keeping myself from becoming hysterical, as he sat up and gave me a very frustrated look. “I thought we had agreed on no funny business while the other person was sleeping,” he chided as he rubbed his eyes. Even though he was acting grumpy, he let out a yawn that ended in a grin.
“I thought you just meant sex!” I said in between giggles.
“You seem to think this was funny, so I’d classify it as funny business.” He stood up and stretched, finally looking like he wasn’t half-asleep.
“Well yeah, but funny business is sex. Not things that make you laugh!” He looked me up and down before squinting his eyes, a scheme coming together in his mind. I pulled the sheet up over me as I prepared myself for something ruthless, something cunning.
He got back onto the bed, a predator and I was his prey. I inched away from him, and I was about to jump out of bed to keep him from whatever he was planning when screams came from the halls outside our room. Sebastian jumped out of bed, his body moving without thought towards the door.
“Robe!” I called out, and he pulled it off the rack hanging from the door. Swinging it around himself as he opened the door, he tied the closure before stepping barefoot into the hall, daggers forming in his hands.
A set of goblins ran past him, screaming in terror. I jumped out of bed, completely naked as well, and threw my robe on before stepping outside my room. Sebastian was already halfway down the hallway, running on mist-covered feet when I set out to follow him. My wings lifted me into the air, and together we raced to whatever trouble had found us even here in the Dark Tower.
What ran out of the sitting room at the top of the Tower was nothing that I could have ever expected. A lizard the size of a large dog raced into the hallway, a long neck snaking around and leaking smoke through its scaled nostrils. It was covered in smokey gray scales that seemed to glow with power.
Scales made of magic.
This was no lizard. It was a dragon. Just as I’d seen in the caves. Creatures that I thought could never be killed. Its pillow-sized wings flapped as it ran as fast it could towards Sebastian and me. I glanced at Sebastian, and he got into a crouch. Shadows wrapped around our bodies as we stared down a baby dragon on the attack.
I struggled to keep from running away. The image of those massive creatures running through my mind. But there was no one else to deal with a dragon. I put my hand out, and a stream of living shadows as dark as midnight rushed through the air, slamming against the creature.
But the dragon continued to run towards us without even slowing down. Sebastian leaped, striking out with his dagger, but the obsidian slipped off the dragon’s magic filled scales. The dragon was only a foot away from me when he leaped.
I braced myself for the weight of the creature, ready to take flight. It obviously couldn’t fly yet, and so maybe I could injure it by letting it fall from the top of the Tower. Those claws would shred my flesh, but I only had to get out of the tower. The wounds would heal. The pain would fade. The disaster would be averted.
The dragon hit me in the chest, and it weighed more than I’d ever expected. Like a lead ball shot from a cannon, it passed through my shield and pushed me backward, my feet slipping out from under me. Landing on my back with the dragon on top of me, I immediately tried to get my hand under its neck to keep it from biting my throat or face, things that could kill me.
But the dragon was determined, and soon enough, I was looking into eyes that held a fire that no Fae could match. Even one this small held more magic than the strongest of the Fae. Even more than me.
It stared into my eyes for several seconds before making a strange clucking sound very similar to a chicken. Then, faster than I could stop, it moved even closer to my face.
And a thick black tongue slid out of its hardened jaws. Smoke rose from its nostrils in strange shapes as it began to lick my face no differently than a puppy would.
A freaking dragon was licking my face.
It was like time had stopped as I made the realization. I slowly let up on the pressure on his neck, and he made no move to do anything beyond licking me. I knew this exact sensation. It was the same as when a hundred-pound pit bull jumped on you. At first, all you saw were the teeth, but then he starts licking your face, and you realize that death wasn’t coming for you. Just drool.
I blinked, the terror and battle focus gone in a moment as I realized that this wasn’t the dangerous creature that we’d thought it was. It was just a doofus who happened to be stronger than me.
The memories of the laws that dragons lived by came back to me in a flash. Dragons weren’t allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Fae courts, and eating a Queen was definitely against the rules.
“Are you alright, Rose?” Sebastian asked in confusion.
“Yeah. It’s just a baby. The worst it’s done is teach me that baby dragons need toothbrushes. Why can’t dragons smell like oranges instead of rotten eggs?”
The dragon made another clucking noise and began licking me again. I pushed the heavy thing off my chest and tried to pet it like I would a dog. It was strange to think of a dragon as a baby, but it acted so similar to a puppy that if you took away the scales and the strange smoke, you wouldn’t have been able to tell a difference.
As I ran my fingers over its tiny scales, I noted how hard they were. They were warm to the touch, but not hot like the larger ones had seemed. There were no heat waves rising off this little guy.
“How did a baby dragon get into the Dark Tower?” Sebastian asked as he squatted down next to me. The dragon moved his head towards Sebastian, and I could visibly see him sniff Sebastian’s hand before pressing his head against it.
“Do you think that Seraphina had something to do with this?”
Just like a puppy, when Sebastian began to scratch along a ridge of soft spikes that were growing from its jawline, the dragon stuck his tongue out and began to lick his hand.
And for the first time, I heard Sebastian giggle. Like a little girl. I raised my eyebrow at him, and he immediately stopped, a serious expression replacing the childish one.
“It’s a baby dragon, Rose. Don’t judge me.”
I shook my head in amusement. “It wasn’t Seraphina. Dragons have rules that they have to live by. Even the babies. It’s part of why we rule the Immortal Realm even though they could eat us all if they wanted to. More than likely, he’s here for a reason and we just don’t know yet. The real question is what are we going to do with him?”
I realized then that both of us had already decided that the dragon was a male. Looking closer at him, I remembered the male in the cave having those spikes that looked almost like whiskers.
“I don’t know. I doubt that there are a lot of servants who want to take care of a dragon, and I’m positive that we can’t discipline him. Your dagger bounced off those scales and my magic did nothing to him. I don’t think that a smack on the butt is going to teach him anything.”
I sighed. He was cute and he was incredible, but I really didn’t have the time or energy to wrangle an idiot puppy of a dragon that could burn the whole freaking tower down if he didn’t get enough dragon chow.
“He seems to like us, Rose. And you did say that there was probably a reason why he’s here. Maybe we should keep him.”
We’d bound our souls together, and so I knew what Sebastian really wanted even if he didn’t say it. He was no different than any other little boy. He wanted this thing, and he wanted it to curl up in bed with us.
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“Fine. But you’re going to figure out how to take care of it. Not me. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is.”
A wide grin crossed Sebastian’s face, and he reached under the dragon’s belly. With a heave, he picked him up and held him against his shoulder. I thought I’d married the greatest assassin in the Dark Realm. The Prince of Shadows. I’d been wrong. I married a boy who wanted a freaking lizard. I was surprised I hadn’t found frogs in his pockets before.
“I’ve got to figure out a name for you, boy,” he said softly as we walked back into the bedroom, the catastrophe averted for now. I’d have to issue an explanation for why a dragon was in the Tower, but for now, I was going to have some coffee brought to the room. This was not the morning I’d been expecting.
As we entered the room, the dragon began squirming, and Sebastian set him down. Immediately, he raced across the room’s black stone floor and hopped into the hearth, scattering the logs. He started rolling around, making the embers spark as he seemed to be scratching his back on them. I just blinked and tried to ignore the creature that I knew was going to become the bane of my existence.
He was a dragon, and a part of me knew that I should be in awe just like Sebastian. I mean, it was a baby dragon. That’d be like a little girl getting a baby unicorn for her birthday. I would have been if he’d shown up at the village, but I was already so overwhelmed that any little bit of extra was just too much. I also happened to remember that unicorns were giant dicks. I couldn’t imagine how big of a dick a dragon could be if he decided he was annoyed.
I pulled a small string hanging from the wall. The string would run to the servants’ kitchen on this floor, and a bell would ring letting the servants know that we were awake and would like our coffee.
I turned to see Sebastian holding a flaming log by the unburnt side. He rubbed the dragon’s belly with it, and the dragon seemed to be purring. What the hell was wrong with my husband?
