by L J Andrews
Wrapping my arm around Liz’s shoulders, I shook my head. “Come inside,” I said. “I think you should learn a little bit more about Mr. Sapphire too. And I’ll tell you all about my tattoos.”
Chapter 3
The Queen
Two days and I hadn’t seen an inkling that Teagan had sensed the signal.
“It isn’t instantaneous,” Ced whispered when Amber and I settled with the prince in the private study adjacent to his bed chamber. “Energy travels quickly, but we don’t know where your mage—”
“His name is Teagan,” I insisted. “And he’s not just my mage—he’s mine in deeper ways.”
Ced smirked and brushed a strand of his dark hair from his face. “Pardon me, we don’t know where Teagan is. Amber, we don’t know where your mage—do you have a name you’d like me to use?”
Amber chuckled. “Her name is Rochelle, but I’m afraid our friendship ends at mage and wyvern. We don’t have quite the relationship Jade has with this Teagan Ward.”
Heat colored my cheeks, but I didn’t mind. I enjoyed talking about Teagan. I could hardly believe I was in the lindworm manor, with the prince, talking about my feelings for a mage. I was overwhelmed in the moment with gratitude for Prince Ced.
“Okay, Rochelle and Teagan. There, are you two royals pleased?” Ced continued. “Such snobs.”
I chuckled. “Oh, Ced you’re just as royal and just as snobbish.”
“I suppose,” he smiled. Ced had a nice smile, it was small and showed his uncertainty in his own strength. Any sort of smile was out of character for most of the hardened lindworms we met each day. “All I’m saying is we have to be patient. You both know Bron added tighter mage patrols around the area. Who knows what sort of warding they’re putting around this place.”
“You’re right,” Amber said softly, causing me to raise a brow, though she didn’t notice. “Ced, when can we go to the prisons?”
He sighed. “Night is when I can be most useful to you. The energy you can’t harness and all,” he chuckled. “There is someone I need you to meet before any of the warriors would even consider joining with us.”
“Why are they so disloyal?” I asked.
Ced swallowed hard and stared out the window of the large study. “Because my father is not a merciful king,” he answered darkly. “For the slightest infarctions, most of their families have been slaughtered—mates, children, anyone, all to prove a point how far their king will go to demand loyalty.”
A sick wave crushed through my chest. My palms burned and my stomach clenched when I met Ced’s dark eyes. “How have you survived here for so long?”
“It makes you all the braver for doing what you are now,” Amber added. “Knowing what King Nag is capable of, I mean.”
Ced scoffed and leaned back in the chair. “I’m not brave, nor am I a hero of any sort,” he snapped.
“Ced, you’re risking so much—” Amber began, but stopped when Ced shook his head fiercely.
“You want to know the truth?” he asked, glancing at us both. “I ignored the terrible things that went on my entire life—until…it got personal. I didn’t feel deeply enough for others to act before my father hurt me personally. So, there is the truth. I’m selfishly motivated.”
I furrowed my brow and took a step closer to Ced’s chair. “What are you talking about? How did your father hurt you?”
Ced’s jaw flinched angrily, and his gaze was lost in the fading sunbeams filtering across the grand rug. “All of Nag’s sons are half-brothers. Did you know that? Yes, my father had—has—many mates. He’s incapable of loving, you see, or attaching to anyone for too long. All the mates live in a different manor,” Ced pointed out the window, though I saw nothing.
“Why would he keep them away?” Amber asked.
Ced’s lip rolled over his bottom teeth, and for a moment, I worried he would break the skin with how hard he was clamping his teeth. “So he can have his mates answer to his every whim whenever the desire rises. I lived there for decades,” he said slowly. “Only when sons are matured can we come to our father. And daughters, well, I’ve had many sisters. Do you see any of them here? I will let you imagine what King Nag does when his children are female.
“I knew what Nag was like, but part of me wanted to be just like him. I couldn’t wait to leave. I said farewell to my mother, the other mates, and proudly came here. Then I saw what happened. To my own people! I tried to ignore everything, as I said. My brothers all have some skill set that my father finds useful. I spent years trying to find a way to make him proud, but I soon learned it’s impossible. The idea to bring you here as my mate was the best idea I’ve ever had in his eyes, because he knows how powerful your family is.”
“But what happened to turn you against him?” I finally asked when Ced stared away distantly.
“Forgive me,” he offered. “I haven’t ever spoken of it. It’s more difficult to say than I thought.” Clearing his throat, Ced glanced to Amber who knelt by his chair, then to me. “My mother was kind, believe it or not. I knew she wanted to see me again—my mother knew how to love. And even though I was in the throes of trying to impress my tyrannical father, I loved her. I’d been parted from her for nearly ten years when she came to the main manor searching for just a glimpse of her son. I was there when it happened.
“My father was furious—he had her dragged before all his sons, his warriors—me.” I held my breath when Ced took a long, agonizing pause. “Nag placed her in front of me and slit her throat at my feet. I couldn’t even make a sound or I would’ve died. That night was when I knew I would never be my father. I knew he didn’t deserve the title of king. I’ve been silently resisting him ever since.”
Amber wiped a steaming tear from her cheek and clasped Ced’s hand reassuringly. I couldn’t speak—how would I express how angry, horrified, and tormented his story made me?
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” Ced snapped, his dark eyes powerful and dangerous. “I don’t want pity, I want it to never happen again. I want our people to be ruled fairly, with respect—and Jade, you are the royal who will do this. You, Amber, all the elemental bloodlines will do this.”
I was overcome with a sense of duty. Nodding, I spoke softly. “When we succeed, there will be a sixth bloodline. The night bloodline, Ced. You will always be the Prince of Night.” The small smile spread across his lips again, and he bowed his head slightly. “Now, let’s go to these prisons.”
The earth was damp below the manor, and a pungent smell of decay burned my sensitive nose. Ced was right about his energy. He could see for miles in the dark, and more than once he detected lingering lindworm patrols when Amber and I saw and heard nothing. Placing his hand against a bolted door that would only open for the lindworm warden’s key, Ced gathered a tight ball of black energy. It was so thick and the darkest pitch I’d ever seen, I couldn’t imagine such blackness. With a firm hand, Ced surged the darkness against the impenetrable door, and slowly, the lock lifted.
Ced held a large piece of parchment he’d stolen from his brother Olc. The plans of the underground prisons had to be returned before sun up when Olc returned from his nightly lusting and bloody hunting trips.
“This way,” Ced hissed, nodding down a stone corridor that had at least ten cells built into the walls. Behind the bolted iron doors, I heard snapping jaws. Sometimes dark snarls broke through the rancid prison. It seemed most of the lindworms were in their true form—I wondered if they were forced to remain cramped and huddled in the dark.
Ced stopped abruptly at the final cell and placed a hand against the door. “He’s here.”
“Who?” Amber hissed.
“His name is Magnus,” Ced whispered. “He was once the lead lindworm warrior. He hates my father—and, in turn, me. With his influence we could convince everyone here to stand with us—without it, we will be facing a lost cause. Back up, I must speak with him in wyvern form.”
Amber and I backed along the far walls. Ced took a deep breat
h, and slowly his pale skin peeled back, replaced with jet black scales. Ced’s scales weren’t smooth like mine—lindworm scales looked like jagged glass or knives. To my surprise, Ced wasn’t as snakelike as I imagined. I hadn’t seen him shift since we’d flown away from Teagan, but on that day I wasn’t looking at the lindworm prince. His wings weren’t tattered like zomoks’; instead, they rose like massive black sails. Quickly, Ced folded his wings along his slightly ridged spine. Ced had large back haunches, and his head was strong, with spiraling ebony horns atop his skull. Though his body was long and curled like a serpent, I didn’t find him repulsive. Neither, it would seem, did Amber.
I nudged her shoulder when she gaped at Ced’s wyvern form. “What?” she answered in a hoarse whisper. “He just wasn’t…what I expected. He’s sort of…powerful-looking.”
I chuckled and turned my attention back to where Ced leaned his head against the iron door. Ced blew a puff of steam from his nose and growled in the back of his throat. What were they saying? Time ticked by slowly—at least it felt as though Amber and I had stood silent for hours. Finally, Ced blew out a cloud of steam, and his enormous form melted back into the strong human body. Ced was draped in a gleaming black robe that reminded me of a starry sky when he stomped toward us.
“You’re angry,” Amber said. “What did he say?”
“He called me many names,” Ced snapped. “He doesn’t trust me, but he said he might consider my proposal if I proved the elemental queen was willing to speak with him.”
I nodded instantly. “I will.”
“You must be in wyvern form, and it will send a surge of energy when you shift. We will need to be quick before mages come—or worse. Are you certain you want to do this?” Ced asked breathlessly.
Considering the risks, I glanced toward the cell. After a tense moment, I nodded. “Yes. As you said, with lindworm support it could change everything.”
Ced nodded, and he and Amber moved aside as I closed my eyes until the burning sensation rippled along my skin and my neck lengthened, my legs were powerful, and my skin hardened into my green scales. I desperately wanted to stretch my wings to full length, but in the cramped corridor, I ducked my head low and pressed my skull against the iron. The metal had a surge of dark energy rushing through the grains. Without a doubt, something enchanted the cell.
Are you the queen? A husky voice filtered through my mind.
I am, I responded. You are Magnus? I’ve come to ask you to stand with us against King Nag.
A wheezy laugh echoed in my ears, though I knew I was the only one who could hear. You expect me to trust the queen who gave up her people to join her enemies? You stand with the little prince. You will turn on your allies as soon as your power is secured—just like Nag.
I wouldn’t, I demanded. You do not know what I have done to protect my people. I see Prince Ced’s desire to have peace. I want peace for the wyvern race.
How can I trust you, young queen?
I thought for a moment before lowering my mental voice. Magnus, I was orphaned because of King Nag, yet I am in the house of my enemy without a fight. I never got to know my mother or grow under my father’s wisdom. I know you understand the pain of Nag’s slaughter too—I feel it in your heart. Tell me how bringing peace to the people of wyvern would not honor the memories of my parents? For that is all I have left—memories.
Magnus was quiet for at least a dozen breaths. It is not enough, he finally hissed.
What will be enough? I snarled in return. I left my people, I left someone I love, I killed a dark mage to send word to the bloodline mages, what more must I do to prove I despise King Nag? I want him off the throne! I trust Prince Ced; he has helped every step of the way.
There was pounding steps from above. The mages were coming. I cannot stay and convince you to stand for what you know is right. Stay in your prison.
I began the warm tug that began in my heart to shift to my human form but stopped at Magnus’s hoarse voice. You say you killed a dark mage? That was you? The dark High Priest slaughtered all the mages down in the prisons for releasing the signal. Magnus chuckled maniacally in my mind. If you will dare be so bold as that, then I will stand by your side. I will convince my broken warriors.
Thank you, Magnus. How can we free you?
The steps were coming swifter and closer.
You cannot. Once each moon cycle we are given release from our cells, only to stretch our wings and only for a few short minutes. We rise up at the full moon.
No, I gasped in return.
“Jade,” Ced snarled. “We must go.”
Magnus, that is too far away. The king plans to force Ced and I to join as mates and rise with the lindworms. We must act sooner.
Magnus paused, and I heard his hot breath puff in frustration behind the door. Leave it to me, young queen. But when we act, you must be prepared to follow through.
When will I know? I whispered. Amber was tugging on my tail now.
You will know, Magnus growled. Now go, quickly.
Without a second word I embraced the shift, my scales rolling back to my smooth skin and draping my body in my gilded green gown. Amber took my hand and followed Ced toward the back door of the prison.
Ced cursed and glanced over his shoulder. “The mages have come. Both of you, touch me and do not let go no matter how uncomfortable it may be.”
We didn’t question. Amber gripped Ced’s arm while I held tight to his hand. Ced closed his eyes and I felt a wash of strange, painful energy. I wondered if Ced was uncomfortable or if it was just Amber and me. The darkness enrobed us in a blanket of ink black energy, which created a shield around us. Amber breathed heavily, and I felt Ced wrap his arm around her shoulders to hold her upright. My head spun, but I held my breath when the prison door burst open and half a dozen dark mages shoved into the corridor.
“There is nothing,” a large mage snarled.
“I felt the surge—either a bloodline mage is here or a royal. I know it.”
“Will you be the one to tell the High Priest, only to have him find nothing? You know the consequences,” the first mage said.
The mages turned, one staring straight at us. Ced gripped my hand tight when I felt as though the suffocating, agonizing night energy might rip my life from my chest. How could Ced tolerate such terrible power? Yet, the mages seemed oblivious that three royals were in the exact area. After two wretched minutes, the mages abandoned the deep prisons and rushed back to their upper posts.
Ced released his shield, and Amber crumbled to the damp ground, clutching her chest as she yearned for air. I leaned against the wall, breathing deeply until the spin in my head ceased.
“I know that was difficult,” Ced muttered. “You both did beautifully.”
“Why is the night energy so painful?” Amber gasped.
“It isn’t to me, but you absorb the earth’s elements. Darkness is more my specialty. It’s a misconception that darkness is evil. Night energy can do many beautiful things. Heal, for example. I’ve seen the power of night overwhelm even the elements to heal the most morbid of wounds.”
“Well, I…think…I’ll leave the night to you,” I stammered.
Ced scoffed and opened the door, checking the outer stairwell for any lingering mages before he signaled for us to follow. “What did Magnus say?” he asked after we were near Amber’s and my room.
“He agreed,” I whispered through my excitement. “He told me to simply be ready to act. I don’t know when Magnus or the warriors will try to break free.”
Ced sighed, looking to the ceiling. “That could make it difficult. We’ll make do, I suppose. I will leave you for the night. Thank you, both of you, for what you are risking as well.”
Amber smiled sweetly before turning into the room after Ced stalked away. I watched him disappear around the corner, elated that our plans seemed to be coming together. But I missed the dark, watchful eyes staring from the shadows when I turned into the room after Amber.
Chapter 4
The Mage
Inside the cave was warmer than when we’d first found the warriors. Thane kept fires roaring now that a new life had ignited in my father with his family restored again. Liz clung to my arm, smiling softly as we walked toward a space Athika had cleared for her to sleep. She would be surrounded by mages and safely tucked away from any stray wyvern streams of fire in the night.
“I have to say, Aunt Liz, you’re taking this all pretty well,” I chuckled.
“I’m still not sure I’m alive,” she teased. “I think there was something that happened when your mother touched me. It just sealed this as truth in my mind.” I watched her study my arms, tracing her fingers a bit over the markings. “So, this is armor, huh?”
“Yep. You’ll only see it, though, if I’m protecting…Jade.” My voice dropped, and I realized we’d talked about nearly everything that night except Jade. I didn’t know whether I intentionally avoided the topic because with each new day the ache to have her back grew until there were moments I couldn’t breathe, or if it simply hadn’t come up.
“Oh, I was going to ask about her,” Liz replied sweetly, until her eyes widened. “Wait, protect her? Is she a mage…or whatever you call yourself?”
I chuckled. “No, she’s not a mage. She’s actually a dragon.”
Aunt Liz cocked her head. “You mean to tell me that polite, beautiful young lady is a fire-breathing dragon?”
I laughed and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “Yes, I do. She’s not just any dragon, either. Jade is the queen.”
Aunt Liz stepped back, slapping me on my chest in her disbelief. “A queen? Teagan, what have you gotten yourself into? Well, where is she? She was so enjoyable to be around.”
I shoved my hands into the pockets of the athletic pants a mage had dug up through the endless hordes of collected clothes through the decades. Mitch had a blast trying on suits, hats, and coats from across the ages.
