Dragon Embraced

by Viola Grace

  Alone in a world that wants her blood, she seeks out friends who embrace her and a new home where she can grow and evolve.

  Zzara has been learning magic forbidden to dragons. When the mage guild catches on to what her tutor has been showing her, they are both in trouble. Helping a dragon to learn magic is a high crime. If the dragon wasn’t the child of Magus Warrok, the dragon wasn’t allowed spellwork.

  Zzara has few choices. Either she can remain in her friend’s home and put her in danger, or she can leave with the knowledge she already has mastered. It is a choice that forces her to make decisions she wanted to leave for another year.

  Emory guards the blood dragon. He has been waiting for this moment for years. The moment the call came out for guards, he got clearance from the elders and made his way to the capital.

  The blood dragon was shorter than he had imagined, but she had an intelligence and a will that never failed to surprise him. He had to remain on his toes when she was around, and keeping an air of mystery was his first line of defense.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Dragon Embraced

  Copyright © 2019 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-987969-80-1

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Published by Viola Grace

  Look for me online at violagrace.com.

  Smashwords Edition

  Dragon Embraced

  The Covert Dragons Book #8

  By

  Viola Grace

  Books in this Series

  The Bastard Dragon

  Dragon Astray

  Dragon Engaged

  Dragon Undone

  Dragon Defiant

  Dragon Designed

  Dragon Denied

  Chapter One

  Waiting until the night was firmly in control was not her favourite thing to do, but Zzara read magic books while she practiced patience. She nearly dozed off when she jerked herself awake. The sun was down, it was time to head next door.

  She yawned and got out of her chair, stretching and holding out her hand. She didn’t know where the staff had been, but it smacked into her palm.

  She stared at it. “Where were you?”

  The staff didn’t answer, but there was a small flickering glow from inside it. It was with her now, and it was very content to be in her grip.

  She looked at herself in the mirror, reset her hair into a crimson mess on her head, and straightened the black collar of her shirt. Despite wearing black, she was relatively impervious to dust and smudges, so she did one quick pirouette, and then, she put her new slingshot in her pocket and grabbed an empty pouch. She needed something to carry the fire stones in.

  She eased her door open and crept down the stairs. Emory was nowhere in sight, but she could feel him nearby. She grabbed a sandwich and a flask of water from the kitchen, creeping out the kitchen door and to the workshop without incident.

  “Are you going to keep sneaking or just walk to Horcross?”

  She tensed but didn’t jump as Emory emerged from the shadows behind her. “I am going to keep sneaking. I don’t want to wake everyone. That’s rude.”

  He shrugged and followed her as she continued her escape to the ruined city on the other side of the magical portal.

  The rush of cool air caressed her features. There was a different breeze in Horcross tonight.

  She didn’t speak to Emory yet. Her first bit of business was to fill the small pouch with the exploding stones. They went into one of the pockets in the short skirt of her tight vest.

  “You are carrying those with you?”

  “The dragons aren’t going to stop just because I was at a press conference. They are going to have to be addressed directly.”

  He grumbled, “How do you know that?”

  “My dragon knows. She knows what it is to be hurt, hunted. She knows the pain of her human form being torn limb from limb in search of more blood.” She gave him a dark look. “I know what it feels like to die a hundred times. My mother used to hold me when the memories threatened to pull me under. It wasn’t horror, it was mourning. For the last seven years, I have mourned all the blood dragons that there have been, knowing that in some way, they were always me.”

  She paused. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

  Emory nodded slowly. “And yet, you did. So, you are reincarnated?”

  She finished tidying up the workspace and turned to the door. “That does seem to be what my memories are telling me. What they have always told me.”

  “Your mother knew?”

  “She did. She knew that it wasn’t what a normal dragoness was supposed to know and feel, so she held me when the memories of the past tortures swamped me.” She stepped out of the ruined building and looked around, pausing when she saw something new in the moonlight.

  Emory was next to her, his body tense. “Who is that?”

  She walked toward the dark figures in grey clothing, their skin a deep charcoal, and their hair as white as the moon. They were working on pacing and measuring around a flat and empty space. A single member of the gathering turned and walked toward her.

  She stared into the crimson eyes and blinked in shock. “Yutin?”

  The speaker for the Deep smiled and bowed. “You recognized me. That is good.”

  “What? It was just yesterday, what happened to you, to all of you?”

  Yutin came closer, and the wild scent of night came off her skin. “You paid us for our services, and what the speaker gains is shared by all.”

  “My blood did that?” She looked at Yutin, and she was now seeing eye to eye instead of looking down.

  “It did. The Deep have lost their magic over the centuries. We live under the ground, and we tend our gardens, but we were fading, near the edge of extinction. One drop of blood from you, and we have recovered our stature. Over the years we hope to earn another drop to regain our power.”

  “Earn, how?” Zzara cocked her head.

  “By service to you, Lady. We are anticipating your needs based on the records of our seers. We are building you a home, providing it with water, and making it comfortable for you. It will be done in a few days.”

  “Days?”

  Yutin chuckled. “We have some magics left to us.”

  “Why are you making me a house?”

  “You will need one. The mages forget. They claim to record all, but they forget the details that make all the difference.” Yutin smiled. “We record all that the seers whisper.”

  “Do you have anything that I could borrow, could read?”

  “All of our records do not leave our caverns, but if you would like to view them tomorrow evening, I would be happy to escort you down and translate what you find.”

  Emory spoke. “Why not tonight?”

  Yutin glanced at him and quirked her lips. “Tonight is for discussing her home, what her water needs are, and how much food she requires daily.”

  Zzara looked and him and sneered, “Yeah. Like a new pet.”

  Yutin gasped and quickly said, “That is not what I meant.”

  Zzara chuckled and inclined her head. “It was not taken that way. It was just the reminder of what my mother told me about keeping an animal in the house. The place you keep it is just as important as how you keep it.”

  Emory murmured, “What did you want to keep?”

  “A tortoise. It walked through our yard every year,
and I wanted to keep it. I was eight. My mother explained that it had a path to walk and that it might not keep the tortoise as safe as I would; it wanted the freedom to walk where it wanted to. Holding it back would be for my own satisfaction.” She chuckled. “It was an interesting lesson on choices affecting others. My mother wanted to keep me near her, my father wanted to keep my mother, everyone wanted something, and in the end, we were all disappointed.”

  “So, what was your desire? What did you want for yourself?”

  She paused and looked out over the dusty landscape and the night sky. “I never formed a particular want... but if I did, this would be it.”

  Emory looked around. “This? This is nothing.”

  Yutin gave him a narrow-eyed look. “It is our home.”

  Zzara stepped between them so they couldn’t glare at each other. “This is a place where there is no particular shape for me to take. No people to please or hide from. It is nothing in the way that I can begin my life from this point. This is where I will learn magic. This is where I will live on my own, and this is where my friends can find me.”

  Yutin smiled. “I hear you call it Horcross. Perhaps it needs a new name.”

  Zzara sighed. “It is far too early to know what I want to call my new home.”

  Emory smiled. “You have decided to move here?’

  “I know that the folk of Rekker will get irritated with my flashes of magic. They have regulations, testing, authorizations, and licenses. Aeli has been great in simply teaching me to defend myself and work with magic to understand why I am so useful to it, but I know she has skipped a few steps in her society’s rules and regs.”

  Emory frowned. “Aeli is a dragon doing magic?”

  “And how many others are there? She is unique. She was a mage before she was a dragon, and that is not something I can claim. I didn’t blend in at home, I don’t blend in on the run, it is time to find a place and shape it to suit me.”

  Yutin nodded. “We stand by to fulfill your requests.”

  Zzara looked at her and the others beyond her. “Why? I paid you for the ingredients, fair and square.”

  “What you have woken in us is worth far more than the herbs and minerals we provided to you. We will owe you through your life and possibly into the life of your offspring.”

  She smiled. “Well, in that case...”

  Zzara outlined her ideas for what she considered to be a perfect home with plenty of places to work, create, and simply be. She drew the plans in the silt in front of them, and an engineer from the Deep came over and began drawing what she laid out with the tip of her staff and the dirt beneath their feet.

  Emory and Yutin offered suggestions, and their information was taken down. It took hours, but they finally managed to get all of the bits and pieces of what would make her perfect home come together. It was a grand plan, and there were no materials to execute it, but the engineer and Yutin looked smug when Emory and Zzara headed back to Rekker. They had something up their sleeves and were having fun with their possibilities.

  Zzara was just hoping for drinkable water.

  Chapter Two

  Sauntering into the kitchen for breakfast, the butler scowled at her. “You look cheerful, miss.”

  “Thank you. It takes a lot of effort.” She looked around. “No one else this morning?”

  “The master and mistress have left for an emergency council meeting. They have stated that they will return before noon.”

  Zzara reached for the coffee pot, but the cup was filled and carried to the table for her before she could snag it. She grimaced and went to sit as he pulled the ingredients of an omelette together.

  “Do you know what the emergency meeting was about?”

  He flicked her a glance. “No.”

  He tossed the contents of the pan and folded it neatly into thirds as he slid it onto the plate, garnishing it with a sprig of parsley, and then, he delivered it to her with her cutlery tucked into a wrapped napkin.

  “So, what is your name, sir?” She put the cutlery on the table and draped the napkin across her lap.

  “I do not believe that knowing my name is necessary for my duties, Miss.”

  “That is kind of a weird response, sir.” She settled and started eating.

  “It is the only response you are getting, Miss.”

  She shook her head and kept eating. When she was done, she set her fork and knife aside. “Thank you. It was very good.”

  “You are welcome. Your guard is lurking around the corner.”

  She nodded and got to her feet, knowing that it wasn’t Emory. “Teymor. Good morning. I am heading to the library. Have you eaten?”

  “I have, Miss.”

  “Good. I am going to be studying, so I shouldn’t be too much trouble.” She didn’t want to ask, but she felt she had to. “Where is Emory?”

  “He is at the meeting with the Kreelos.”

  “Ah. Right. Okay. I guess I am on my own today.” She cheerfully passed him and entered the library, waiting until his back was to her before she started searching for what she needed.

  With the mages getting together and wanting her education to stop before it really got any traction, Zzara wanted to make sure she could get the information she needed when she needed it. Mirrors, water, and a bit of quicksilver were the key.

  She made notes, sample spells, and was deep in her studies when she was no longer alone.

  A quick glance at Aeli’s face and Zzara nodded. “They want you to cut me off.”

  “How did you know?”

  “A lucky guess. You are an exceptional dragon. You knew magic before you were a dragon.”

  “Yeah. It is like you were there.” Aeli was perplexed.

  “The Deep gave me a warning last night. I am taking steps, and they are making me a house.”

  Aeli was shocked. “Whoa. Are they taking custody?”

  Zzara paused in her research and looked at her. “No. I believe it is more like I am moving to adopt them. I feel strangely comfortable with them, and it isn’t just my blood in their veins.”

  “Their?”

  “Oh, yes. What the speaker gets is shared by the rest.” She grinned. “They got taller and darker.”

  Her instructor paused. “Taller and darker?”

  “Yes.”

  “With white hair?”

  “Yup.”

  “Brilliant red eyes?”

  Zzara shook her head. “No, but they are like banked coals.”

  Aeli looked around the library, whistled, and held her hand up while a huge book flew from the shelves and into her hand.

  She slammed the book down on the table. “Now, my father wouldn’t let me study this, but when Nole and I got married, I got one of these lists as a wedding present.”

  The pages were covered with images of creatures that weren’t just dragon, they were shifters and others. Zzara had never seen images of the others before.

  “What are those?”

  “A dead race. Well, like the dryads.” She paused and opened the book to an image of a green woman wrapped in a fine dress of bark, her hair swept up and cascading down her back wrapped with moss and studded with the seeds and nuts of trees.

  “Wow. That is... she’s stunning.”

  “I believe it is an image of one of my mother’s sisters, drawn over six hundred years ago. The dryads were not generally members of public life and rarely posed for paintings or etchings.”

  “So, you are half dryad.” Zzara suddenly understood. “So, this half entitles you to learn magic.”

  “Well, I already knew it by that point. They couldn’t remove what is lodged in my mind. Not without me tearing the city apart, not to mention what Nole would do.”

  The mental image made her laugh. “Yeah, that would be a bit messy.”

  Aeli nodded and kept flipping through the pages. The scent was old. This book had to be nearly the same age as the image of the dryad. Zzara saw a familiar face as the pages passed, but she kept that
to herself.

  “Here. This is the page I remembered.” Aeli pressed her finger to the page. “Dark elves. They are not fond of sunlight, though it just makes them very hot. They do have magic in their veins, and they are master gardeners where no light shines.”

  “They are the dark bazaar.” Zzara read the page and learned about the Deep and the sparse details that were available on them.

  She got what she could and flipped back a few pages to the image of the woman that was so very familiar in a crowd of men and women who had hair the colour of leaves.

  Aeli audibly sucked in air. “That looks like you, Zzara.”

  She read the title of the creature on the page. “Hedge elves. Elves of herbs and nature who live near to human settlements and offer their services to unwary travellers.”

  “Unwary travellers?”

  “A gift from these elves creates a lifetime of obligation.” Zzara chuckled. “They will return and spend money every season. Like clockwork.”

  Aeli blinked. “Do you think your mother was one of these creatures?”

  “Read what it says about relationships.”

  The mage ran a finger along the text and translated, “Once a heart is given by the hedge fey, it is given for life. The declaration is a locking spell that links the two beings together. Should a fey choose a human, they will live as long as the human or until the end of love.”

  Zzara exhaled slowly. “That was it. It wasn’t the end of his love. I doubt she truly had it long, but after he struck her, it broke whatever love she had been clinging to. I saw it in her eyes. She began to die at that moment.”

  “Hey, this is great news. We can ask the mages to test you for fey genetics and magics. I am pretty sure that you have some.”