Fire Heart: A Dragon Fantasy Romance (The Dragon of Umbra Book 1)

by Emma Hamm

  Margaret knew when she gave in, long before Lore had known she would give in. “That’s my girl,” she muttered. “Listen to me. This dragon could be more useful than any of us imagined. Borovoi has a point, he’s only following the King because that evil man has something over him. If we take the dragon away, then we leave him more vulnerable. You’re the first person who might be able to do that.”

  “I thought you wanted me to kill the King.”

  “I want you to do both,” Margaret snapped. “Take his life, and then bring me that dragon. You think the King will fall and that all the other pieces are ready to align right into the vacancy? The entire kingdom is going to crumble the moment you put an arrow through that villain’s neck. Which means we’re going to need all the help we can get in the coming months.”

  It didn’t escape Lore’s notice that Margaret was absolutely certain that she would succeed. The realization shouldn’t have made her proud, but it did. The other elf’s opinion mattered a great deal, and at least she knew she hadn’t let Margaret down so far.

  But this plan... It was madness.

  Lore swallowed hard. “I already cut ties with the dragon. He knows he killed my mother, and that I want nothing to do with him.”

  “People change. You were understandably angry, and he can’t take that away from you. But you will go back to him, Lorelei. Convince him that you still need him, and that you were cruel for no reason.” Margaret waved a hand. Leaves fell from the oak trees behind her and landed on her shoulders in a brightly colored shower of green. “Dragon or not, men are easy. They are not confusing beasts, Lore. You know that as well as I do.”

  Borovoi seemed to bristle at the tone, but then even he shrugged.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and took a slow, even breath. “You want me to seduce a king and a dragon?”

  “You will do whatever it takes, girl. Grab this kingdom by the throat and make it bend a knee to your will.” Margaret eyed her with a piercing gaze. “Can you do that?”

  No.

  She was just Lorelei of Silverfell. A young elf who had barely seen the old days before they had all ended. She didn’t know how to act around people and so far, she’d only had one chance to kill a king and she had wasted it.

  She was no closer to her goal than she had been at the beginning of all this mess. The only people she had on her side were a mortal girl, a pixie who was still hiding, and potentially a dragon who thought she hated him.

  This wasn’t a mission. It was suicide.

  She opened her mouth to tell Margaret that, but the elf clapped her hands. The sound sent a shock wave through the forest and everything fell silent. As though even the trees were holding their breath and waiting for what she would say. “Good. Then you will do this all for me, Lorelei. You will complete your mission and then I will name you a hero.”

  “I don’t want to be a hero,” she whispered as they both walked back to the split in the tree. “I just want to be me.”

  Margaret disappeared, but Borovoi stopped to look at her one last time. “Miss Lorelei, have you ever considered that maybe those two people are one and the same? The woman you want to be, and the hero you don’t.”

  He left the clearing as well, and Lore found she had forgotten to breathe. Her head throbbed with his words that echoed over and over in her head.

  Maybe those two people were the same.

  Was she the hero? She didn’t want to be. Heroes never ended up happy in any story. But the people who did end up happy were the ones who weren’t involved at all. They were the side characters in the background. The farmer whose field was originally destroyed, but then made better. The mermaid who drowned the sailors but was left alone when no one could find her underwater grotto.

  That’s who Lore wanted to be. The forgotten character who remained in the background for all eternity.

  The trees shook over her head. Leaves fell through the air, but these weren’t green at all. They were yellow and egg-shaped, with pointed tips and serrated edges.

  Birch leaves. Just like the ones she’d grown up with and played in while her mother watched with a smile on her face. Birch leaves that had always reminded her of where she came from and who she was.

  Lore tucked a single yellowed leaf behind her ear and nodded firmly.

  So be it. If fate wanted her to be a hero, then a hero she would be.

  Chapter 23

  Abraxas

  “What do you mean she got away?” Zander screamed. His cry echoed throughout the dragon’s cavern.

  Abraxas had yet to return to his dragon form. Instead, he stood on the last ledge of stone before the cave that opened up into a pit of gold coins and jewelry.

  “She wanted to go through the forest and return to the castle on her own,” he muttered while counting each gold piece in front of him. “She said the journey wouldn’t take long, but that she had enjoyed the hunt. I already told you how she made her apologies.”

  “You know that makes little sense. Even you couldn’t come up with a lie that poor.” Zander walked up behind him and shoved his shoulder. “Tell me exactly what happened, Abraxas. No lies this time.”

  He already knew what the King feared. Zander thought that Abraxas had found one of the brides to be entertaining and that he wanted to take one as his own. He was right, of course. Abraxas would sooner die than see her in the hands of this horrible king.

  But he also couldn’t let Zander know that. The fate of Lorelei rested on his shoulders now. Along with the fate of the entire dragon species.

  He hadn’t felt like this in a long time. An overwhelming maw of anxiety and fear waited at his feet for him to take the plunge into the darkness that would swallow him up for months to come. It would be so easy to retreat. To dive headfirst into that dark place that refused to allow him to leave.

  In some strange way, it was comforting to let the anxiety take control of his life. The control was what he lacked, after all, and at least if he were hibernating in his cavern, then nothing bad could happen again.

  Zander shoved his shoulder a second time. “Are you even listening to me? What is this habit that you keep getting into? I’m your king! You have to listen to every word I say, and you know the consequences if you don’t.”

  He’d lose everything. Yes, he understood.

  And he lived with the mountain of guilt that came from working with Zander. The guilt of his own extinct kind. The guilt of an innocent woman’s soul who only wanted to save this kingdom from a child who wore a crown on his head. How much more could he take?

  “I understand,” he muttered, his voice pitched low and his heart racing in his chest. “I know what threats you wave before me, King of Umbra.”

  “Good, then you understand the gravity of the situation.”

  “Certainly, my king. If I do not follow your every whim, I truly will be the very last of the dragons.” And that thought terrified him more than anything else.

  Abraxas had clung to the hope that someday he would see another dragon. He longed for the flash of scales in the sky, like starlight, but so much brighter. He dreamt of a roar that shattered the clouds like thunder. Even now, the thought of seeing someone who was exactly like him made tears prick in his eyes.

  He wanted that more than anything. And he would stop at nothing to get it.

  “The last of your kind,” the King repeated. “That must weigh on you. The rest of the kingdom believes you really are that, but you and I are the only ones who know just how tied to me you are. Without me, all your hopes and dreams crumble. Don’t they?”

  He licked his teeth, feeling the canines lengthen as he desired nothing more than to turn back into the dragon and crunch the King’s bones between his teeth. “I fail to see why you’re bringing this up, Zander.”

  “Maybe I want others to see what I know. Maybe it would be better if the entire kingdom knew why you were at my beck and call.” A fanatic light grew inside the King.

  Abraxas thought it was a stupid idea. There
were plenty of bleeding hearts in Umbra who would hear of his plight and want to help him. But the King clearly didn’t see it that way. He thought that if the kingdom knew he held the dragon under his thumb with good reason, and the entirety of the dragon species, then they would think him even more powerful.

  Zander had never seen very far into the future. He’d always thought the world revolved around him and his decisions. It would be his greatest mistake to release this information to the world.

  The dragon would not stop him.

  Abraxas turned around, towering over the King while he breathed out a low growl. “I fail to see what game you think you’re playing, Zander.”

  “I think you fear the others, knowing that you’re so thoroughly tied to me. You don’t want anyone to know your greatest mistake is in falling under the control of mortal men.” Zander grinned, as if he’d discovered a secret he wasn’t supposed to know. “Is it embarrassing to be my slave, dragon?”

  “Embarrassing?” The word slave burned through his mind. Not for any reason that Zander might think, but because it was such an insult for a dragon to be called that.

  He was no slave.

  He stayed because of his honor and duty to his kind. At any point, he could fly away from this horrible castle and this childish king. Abraxas could choose to be the last dragon and live out his long life in the mountains where no one would find him.

  He was a good man at his core. That is why he stayed. That was why he allowed the King to run his mouth and not be killed.

  With a sharp toothed grin, he let a long snarl erupt from between his teeth. “You know nothing about me, Zander. Don’t think you are capable of understanding a creature who has lived ten of your lifetimes.”

  “I think I understand you very well.” Zander lifted his hand and the gold coins beside them shifted.

  The circular coins clinked against each other as the mountain of wealth rolled, shifted, and revealed the box that contained the eggs. The enchanted box that changed the entire world for Abraxas.

  He couldn’t even get close to it. That was part of the problem. He would give his right arm if he could hold one of the eggs. Even just to touch them to make sure the magic of his people still lingered underneath the cold crust of the shell. Something. Anything to ease the fear that the eggs had died, not that they were dormant.

  Zander walked up to the box and opened it. The twin eggs that lay within were so stunning. They could have bought a kingdom if he ever dared to part with them.

  The anger at the death of the other dragon bubbled back to life. Abraxas had buried it deep, hoping that he could forget the traumatic event so he could save the other two. But the dragon in his chest wanted to destroy this king for what he’d done.

  “Look at them,” Zander said under his breath. “I remember the first time my father showed me these eggs. Do you remember?”

  “Of course.” How could he forget? The boy had been little more than a child then, and he’d looked at the eggs as though they were toys that he’d been given as a gift.

  “I thought they were the most beautiful things I’d ever set my eyes on. Little did I know how much I would adore the feminine form when I got older,” Zander chuckled. “But these eggs still have a certain charm to them. A hope that lingers underneath the gemstone shell. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  “I do.”

  “What is that hope, Abraxas? Even I feel it when I look at them.” Zander touched a finger to the sapphire egg, then stroked the emerald one. “They make me feel strong every time they are visible. And I don’t think that’s because they are the reason why I control you.”

  “That hope comes from the realization that you hold in your hands the power to destroy or begin a species of creatures that once ruled this realm.” His words turned into a deep growl filled with strength and pride. “It is a hope that burns in all of us from the lives we lived before. Our souls remember what it looked like when dragons flew through the clouds. When we could look to the sky and see a flock of dragons as they migrated to their winter hunting grounds. And those souls wish for that time to come again.”

  His words rang through the cavern like an omen. Even the King could have felt the tragic wonder of what their history used to be.

  The time of dragons had ended centuries ago. Mortal kingdoms had risen and fallen in the time since Abraxas had last seen all the dragons in a flock. Their numbers dwindled from a plague. Then they fractured among themselves. Until it was just his clan left. Then the mortal king had come, and now, it was only him and the eggs.

  How long had he been alone? How long had he suffered, hoping and praying that he’d get the chance to wake those eggs so that he could see a scaled face one more time?

  He was too old now. Too old to do what he had to do and too weak to kill this king. Too weak to find someone who might break the enchantment on that box without the King’s interference.

  Zander sighed. “Ah, is that what it is? The hope that someday I will release these creatures upon the world? Maybe if I could train them to become like you. What do you think about that, Abraxas? Shall I have three dragons on a leash?”

  If he tried, then Abraxas would kill him. He’d rather see those tiny dragons die in the eggs than endure the same life he had suffered through.

  The King’s eyes saw through his thoughts too easily. Zander chuckled and shook his head. “No, I think not. I can see that anger in your eyes, you know. It’s like looking at a dragon rather than a man, even in this form.”

  Abraxas snarled in response.

  “Just like that,” the King replied. “That’s exactly how I thought you would respond.”

  He wanted to leave this place. He imagined turning into a dragon and forcing Zander out of his cave. But he couldn’t, and that frustration was slowly eating him alive. If only...

  If only. That was where the thought ended every time he tried to think about it. Abraxas could torment himself with what his future could be, or he could realize that he lived here. Now. And it would never change, no matter how hard he tried.

  Zander slowly closed the lid of the enchanted box, then patted the top. “I sent a large group of the brides home. They were no fun during the hunt, and they continued to fall behind. They clearly are not the women I am looking for in a partner. But I have decided I now wish to have a brave wife as well. A wife who would be comfortable holding a dragon in the palm of her hand.”

  The swift change of subject nearly gave Abraxas whiplash. He struggled to keep up with the King’s intent in this conversation. “I suppose a brave wife is something that all men desire.”

  “But I am not all men. I am a king and she will have to suffer through more than wandering through this life as a princess or a queen. Life is difficult enough as it is.” Zander laughed. “And to think, I had thought this would be easy to pick from a set of beautiful women.”

  “You have only seen the women from Tenebrous,” he reminded the King. “You’ve never thought to look to the Highlands or the Lowlands for a bride.”

  “That’s because I don’t want a woman who won’t appreciate that I plucked her from poverty and gave her a life like this.” Zander threw his arms wide. “But my next plan will ensure that only the best of the women remain. Only the few who deserve to be here.”

  A pit knotted in Abraxas’s stomach. He’d heard this before from the King, and now there were only going to be a few women left.

  Would he send Lorelei home? No one knew where the elf had gone. Even Agatha sent her maids through the entire castle, but they could find no trace of the young woman.

  “What of the girl?” he asked, risking sharing how much the elf intrigued him. “The one who slipped through the forest?”

  Zander waved a hand in the air. “It doesn’t matter. She’s proven herself to be a rather impressive young woman, even though I hate to admit that to anyone. She can stay.”

  Relief flooded over him. His ears rang from it, so hard that he almost didn’t hear what the King sai
d next.

  “I want them to steal an egg from you,” Zander continued. “I think that would be the most entertaining challenge to watch yet. Even though no one will succeed, of course. But we’ll have to see who gets close enough. You will, of course, do your best to stop them.”

  Abraxas surely hadn’t heard the King right. No one could touch the box but the King. If one of those women even tried, the magic in it would kill them. It had almost killed him, and he was a hundred times larger.

  He shook his head and took a step away from the box. “You know what will happen if you do that. You could kill one of them, Zander.”

  “If they die, they die.” Zander shrugged. “There’s so many of them, anyway. But I want to see if any of them can get to the box. It’s a good test to see how capable they are. Besides, if they can trick you, then they’re someone to watch. It’ll be fun, Abraxas, don’t ruin this all with your worrying.”

  He wasn’t trying to ruin it. He feared for the lives of these innocent young women that the King simply did not care for in the slightest. Zander had little pity when it came to those he thought could provide him with a little fun.

  It made Abraxas sick.

  “Fine,” he muttered. “If this is what you want, then this is what we will do.”

  “It’s what I want. And I know we’re going to do it. I already sent news to the ladies.” Zander preened in happiness. “Now, I’m going to leave the box here for the ladies to find, but they’re going to come into the mouth of the cave at the bottom of the cliffs. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re asking them to do the impossible.”

  “Yes, I am.” Zander clapped his hands, but then opened the box one more time. He grinned down at the eggs, then let it slam shut too fast. Too hard. “After all, rumors are the best way to get people to start talking, you know! The first one who realizes there are dragon eggs here will tell everyone. You have an hour alone with them, Abraxas. Then I expect you to be ready to stop my brides from stealing what is yours. You’re able to do that, aren’t you?”