Chapter 1

Azura POV-

Some would argue that fate was a beautiful thing and should be cherished. Yet, what happens when that fate marks a target on your back? My name is Azura Chasm, I am the keeper of the Dragon Stone, and this is my story…

Looking at the email I just received, I was having a grim time breathing. For years I have been trying to find a publishing company that would accept my work and my demands. Now a publisher was interested in me and not only that, but the owner of the company was also my favorite author.

At first, I didn’t know he was the author of my favorite books, but he told me he was and that was part of the reason he was interested in my work. His books are what inspired me to write fantasy novels. The main topic I focused on was dragons. Cyran also wrote dragon fantasy, but unlike mine, his weren’t focused on romance.

Having read the email a hundred times, I still couldn’t believe that in just three hours I would be meeting my idol. It was weird that I would be meeting him at his house, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Many people now preferred the comfort of their own homes.

Plus, it wasn’t like I wanted to go to a big office and be around a lot of people. One of the demands I had was that no one could know who I was when writing books. I used the pen name Azurite since I was named after the stone.

At least that is what I was told in the orphanage that I grew up in. I didn’t know who my parents were, only that I had been found abandoned in a cave, where a climber had discovered me. I had a necklace that had the name Azura Chasm on it etched in a beautiful azurite stone.

To this day, I still had the stone, since it was the only connection, I had to whoever had left me in the forest. My entire life I prayed that as long as I wore the stone, one day the person that left me would find me again. I spent most of my life trying to track down anyone with the last name Chasm but never came across anything.

As of eight years ago, I stopped searching because I realized that there was something different about me. Since then, I have cut myself off from the rest of the world, doing my best to hide. The thing was, I was thirty-six years old, but didn’t look a day over twenty-one.

I thought I had exceptionally good genes, but when people started questioning me, I realized that I shouldn’t look as young as I did at nearly forty. To make matters worse, I had gone to a hospital to get checked out and found out that my body stopped aging. If I hadn’t overheard a few doctors talking about contacting a science lab, I would have ended up as a lab rat.

I ended up leaving the hospital as quickly as I could. When I returned to the little apartment I had, I packed up everything that was important to me and left. Instead of staying in the United States, I drove to Canada, where the cave where I had been found was.

When I arrived, I was unable to locate the Cave or the orphanage where I grew up. I heard that an earthquake completely destroyed part of the mountain and the orphanage. It was weird since I investigated it and there hasn’t been an earthquake in the area for hundreds of years.

Maybe it was just my luck though, as I seemed to have a lot of bad luck following me. I was perhaps the unluckiest person to ever live. It is like every time I turn around, something bad happens. The fact that I received an email from Cyran made me think that my luck was finally turning around.

Some days I had been afraid to leave my house because I was worried something bad would happen. The other day I had been driving and out of nowhere my car blew a radiator hose. I took it to a mechanic, and they didn’t see a reason for it to blow off.

I have even cracked a tooth or two just from brushing my teeth. It didn’t happen daily, but it happened enough times for me to think that I had done something bad in my past life that was bringing out all the bad luck around me. Hopefully, my luck will soon change for the better.

Closing my laptop, I packed it in my bag and finished getting ready. I have changed my outfits a few times, unsure of what to wear. All morning I have been going back and forth from getting ready to reading the email repeatedly. Since I only had three hours, I couldn’t waste any more time.

Any time I had to go somewhere, I always made sure to leave the house extra early just in case something bad happened. The last thing I needed was for me to be late because I spilled coffee on myself or had a bird crap on me. The last one happened often, so I always carried an umbrella every time I left the house and had two changes of clothes in my car.

Finally deciding on an outfit, I examined myself in the mirror. Standing only a few inches over five feet, I wished my legs were just a little longer and my hips a little wider. It didn’t matter what I wore, as nothing ever fitted me the way it should. It was either too tight or too loose.

Today I decided to go with a pair of black slacks, that were just a little too big around the waist, so I matched it with a white belt. I also wore a long sleeve turtleneck shirt, that I tucked inside my waistband. Since it was cold, I also put on a black suit jacket, that I purchased with the slacks.

Normally I hated wearing high heels, but they made me feel taller and kept my pants from touching the ground. The heels weren’t special, just a pair of black four-inch heels. Lastly, I tied my long blonde hair into a loose ponytail, allowing my curtain tail bangs to frame my face.

I didn’t want it to look like I was trying too hard, so I only applied a little makeup. Using just enough to enhance my natural beauty but to look natural as well. I wouldn’t say I was the most beautiful woman in the world, but I had little to no need for makeup.

Since I haven’t aged since I was twenty-one or so, my complexion was still youthful, and I have never had to worry about pimples or other imperfections. My lips were also full and a slightly darker shade of pink, which made it look as if I was wearing lipstick all the time. The only thing I ever added was mascara, to make my eyelashes look darker.

Also, I added light black eyeliner, to enhance the color of blue in my eyes. To finish off my outfit, I grabbed the necklace that I still had from when I had been found. It matched the color of my eyes, and I spent a few years trying to find the same kind of stone to make a matching pair of earrings.

Now that I was finished, I left the small house I owned, making sure to grab my laptop bag and keys on the way out. I had been surprised when I looked at the address I had been given, that Cyran lived just on the outskirts of the town where I lived. The company he owned was a few towns over.

I lived in the most remote town I could find, near the cave where I had been found. It was weird that the one place I chose was so close to Cyran. I wondered if I would have left the house more often than I had if I would have run into him at some point. Not that I would have recognized him, since when I looked up his name, I couldn’t find anything.

I couldn’t look up his last name since he never told me it. Realizing that I was distracted, I made my way out to my car. It wasn’t anything special, but it was mine. It was just a little brown sedan, that I have managed to keep for five years.

Since I have had to keep my identity a secret, I have been working for an online blog, writing things that didn’t interest me. It was how I made money though. I started doing it when I moved to Canada.

Getting into my car, I placed my laptop bag in the passenger seat and tried to start the car. Mechanically there was nothing wrong with the car, but for some reason, it wasn’t wanting to start. It was because of things like this, I always had to make sure I left the house early when going somewhere.

Groaning, I leaned my head back on the seat and silently prayed for today to not bring me bad luck. Although I knew it was pointless, I attempted to start the car again. When it didn’t start, I looked at my phone and pulled up my navigation to see how long it would take me to walk to Cyran’s house.

It was only about a thirty-minute walk, but I was guessing it would be an extra fifteen minutes in heels. Since I couldn’t drive in heels, I kept a pair of sandals under my seat. Reaching under me, I pulled them out and changed my shoes.

Pulling my keys from the ignition switch, I shoved them into the side pocket of my computer bag. Grabbing my wallet, which I kept in the middle console, I put it in the same pocket as my keys. Making sure to grab my phone, I reached down to grab my heels.

Exiting the car, I grabbed my bag before locking the car. Taking the small umbrella that was in my bag, I placed it on top of the car. Placing my bag over my shoulder, I wedged my heels in the side pocket until they seemed secure.

After putting my phone into the pocket of my jacket, I grabbed the umbrella and opened it. Hoping nothing else would go wrong, I started walking toward Cyran’s house. With each step I took, my eagerness to meet my idol grew.

Thinking about the books he wrote, I was able to distract myself from thinking about the walk. Luckily the town wasn’t noticeably big and after taking a few shortcuts, I arrived at his house in less than thirty minutes. Since I still had time, I changed my shoes and mentally prepared myself for the interview.

Technically I wasn’t officially hired yet. He only told me he was interested in my work and was willing to meet my demands. I had sent his office a sample of my work two years ago, so it had been a surprise to hear from him. More than that, the fact that he contacted me directly was also a surprise.

Now that I was standing outside of his house, my nerves went into overdrive. Looking at the house, I wondered why I never noticed a neighborhood this nice. Well, to be fair, there were only two houses that stood side by side at the edge of town.

The town only had eight houses, all of which had a block or two between each other. My house was the smallest one, but it still had a little charm to it. Other than the two houses I was standing next to, none of the houses were this nice.

They both were large enough to be a mansion. The modern architectural design was a mixture of cement and wood, giving off a very warm and inviting feeling. The wood was chestnut brown, which was only on half of the front side of the house. I couldn’t see anything past the large cement fence that surrounded either house.

At most, I could see the second level and it was enough to see how beautiful each house looked. Cyran’s house had floor-to-ceiling windows and from what I could see it was just as great inside as it was outside. I couldn’t wait until I was able to look inside the house.

Just then, the gate to Cyran’s house opened. Quickly closing the umbrella, I jammed it inside the pocket of my bag, before smoothing out my hair. Moving forward, I was ready to greet Cyran as soon as he stepped out.

The second I saw him though, every thought I had disappeared. Everything I had prepared to say to him was forgotten. The moment my eyes met his, it felt as if the entire universe stood still. Had I not been looking; I wouldn’t have noticed the way his eyes went from blue to purple the second our eyes locked.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked at him. He had to be the most handsome man in the world. There was something oddly familiar about him, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. The way he was staring at me was as if he recognized me. Yet as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of a time I met him.

“Azura…” Cyran whispered, his voice sounding breathless.

I don’t remember telling him my name, other than Azurite. Tilting my head to the side slightly, I wondered how he knew my real name. It was only when he spoke my name, did I snap out of the trance I had been in.

“How do you know my name?”

He looked at me strangely, as if he didn’t understand the question. When he started walking toward me, I had this overwhelming feeling to either run to him or run away from him. It was hard to tell what I was feeling, but either way, I couldn’t seem to make my feet move.

When he stops in front of me, he reaches up to touch the side of my face. His touch is gentle and when our skin connects, something sparks inside me as if coming alive. Gasping, I take a step back and try to understand what just happened. For a split second, I saw an image in my head, but it didn’t last long enough for me to know what it was.