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
Azura POV-Rattled by the turn of events, I wanted to flee from him. It was one thing for me to feel thrilled to meet my idol, but the emotions that flowed through me weren’t that simple. Unable to comprehend anything at this moment, I took another step back, trying to put more distance between us.“Do you not recognize me?” Cyran sounded baffled.Shaking my head repeatedly, I started to make myself dizzy by the sudden movements. Officially I knew who he was, but not enough to let him touch me inappropriately. Okay, maybe he didn’t touch me inappropriately, but he had certainly raided my personal space. “This is the first time I have met you.” I took an additional step back, although he hadn’t moved.“You mean to tell me that preceding now, you have never seen me before?” The expression on his face appeared as if I had afflicted some sort of pain to him by some means.An image of him flashed in my mind, but it only lasted for a second. It was long enough to show him in different att
Azura POV-My head felt as if it were splitting as I slowly opened my eyes. Completely disoriented, I wasn’t sure where I was. A blinding light hung above my head, and I could hear the chatter of others around me. I couldn’t hear what was being said.It took me a bit to remember what happened before fainting. Terror plunged into me like a knife as I tried to sit up quickly. I was pressed back down on the table I was lying on, as someone placed an arm over my chest.“Not so fast, Precious Stone. You have something that we need.” I recognized the voice of the mechanic.Tilting my head to the side, I saw a sinister smile spread across his face. He pinned me down with one arm, as he leaned down and licked the side of my face. Bile rose in my stomach as I turned my head away from him.He let out a chuckle as a hand grabbed my chin and forced me to look into the eyes of the one that held me captive. “It is too bad that I can’t play with you first.”As hard as I tried, I couldn’t break free
Azura POV-In spite of the fact that I knew I couldn’t outrun him, that didn’t stop me from trying. Running barefoot across the cool hardwood floor, I made my way toward the front door. I had to run between the living room and kitchen, which was an open floor plan.Cyran didn’t even look up or make any attempt to pursue me. When I reached the door, I looked back to see that he was still sitting on one of the two brown leather couches which were facing each other. His feet were resting on the glass coffee table in the center. As he turned the page in his book, he remained indifferent.Taking that as a sign that we were going to let me leave, I opened the door and rushed out. There were three layers of concrete steps that led off the porch. The top layer had six steps, while the other two had four. Each level was separated by a wide platform.Taking the steps two at a time, I tried not to let the searing concrete distract me. My feet burned but it didn’t slow me down. Once I was off the
Azura POV-“Don’t mind him, he is just upset. How would you feel if you found the person you loved for thousands of years only to find out they don’t remember you?” Kellan moved back to the other couch.When he put it that way, I didn’t blame Cyran for acting the way he did. I even felt a little sorry for him. Glancing toward the direction Cyran left, I felt a ping of guilt in my heart. There was a slight part of me that wished that what they were telling me was real and that I could remember everything.Remembering that Kellan could read minds, I quickly pushed the thought away. Focusing on him, I tried to think of random things to keep him from hearing my thoughts. He smiled at me, and it was obvious that he knew what I was doing.“Did you read his mind too?”“I didn’t need to. I have known him for a long time. Besides, I can’t read other Dragon’s minds. If I could, we would have found out who killed you a long time ago.”“If what you are telling me is true, why did someone kill me?
Azura POV-My first thought was that Jade returned. I highly doubted Cyran would knock so lightly. It was so light that if I had fallen asleep, I more than likely wouldn’t have heard.Crawling out of bed, I walked to the door while rubbing my eyes. Unlocking the door, I opened it and then quickly closed it. Nope, it wasn’t Jade. It was Cyran. Without asking what he wanted, I slammed the door in his face.“Open the door.” Cyran spoke from the other side, not sounding as angered or annoyed as he has been.“What do you want?” Now it was my turn to be annoyed.“Right now, I am doing my best to be nice, but if you don’t open this door, I am going to get pissed.” He kept his voice relatively peaceful, but I could only imagine that he was glaring at the door. “You don’t want to test my patience, as I don’t have any.”Exhaling slowly, I opened the door again. He was standing in the hall, holding a tray with food on it. Without waiting to be invited, he walked in. Before I could ask what he wa
Azura-“What made you think that this was okay?” The familiar sound of Jade’s voice pulled me from what felt like a dense fog.I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew that I was lying on a bed. The last thing that I remember was… Wait, what did I remember? I recollected lying down about to fall asleep, when… I tried to remember, but nothing came to mind.It was weird, but without opening my eyes, I knew I was in the bedroom that I had been staying in and that Jade was sitting on the bed next to me. With a little more concentration, I also knew that Kellan was standing at the foot of the bed. I could sense that he was glaring at Cyran, who was leaning against the wall next to the head of the bed.I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did. My eyes were undeniably closed, as I could not see anything but darkness. In a sense, it was like I could just sense them. I could also feel Cyran looking at me, but I couldn’t tell what kind of expression he had.No one was making a sound and I wa
Cyran POV- I wanted to wring that pretty little neck of hers. When I left her room, I started toward my room, only to alter my course. If I didn’t get as far away from her as possible right now, I was going to kill her myself. Making my way down the stairs, I went outside and in a fit of anger, kicked over the grill. “Hey! Why take out your frustrations on the grill? I bought it.” Kellan rushed to the grill and picked it up, examining it in the process. “Then buy a new one.” I spit out as I made my way to the pool. If I didn’t release some of this anger inside me, I was going to become destructive. “It is fine, nothing a little glue can’t fix.” I didn’t bother with a response. Pulling my shirt over my head, I tossed it to the ground, before unbuttoning my jeans. After pushing them off and kicking them to the side, I paused at the edge of the pool. Looking over my shoulder at the house, my eyes landed on Azura’s bedroom door. With windows making up seventy percent of the house, I
Azura-“Are you ready?” I knocked on the bathroom door, where mine and Cyran’s sixteen-year-old daughter was getting ready.“Almost!” Angel yelled although it wasn’t necessary since I could hear her clearly.Tonight was the anniversary of Dragon’s becoming exposed. Everyone called it D-day. This meant that now that Angel had her Dragon, she could fly with her father for the first time instead of as a rider. I was a little envious of them now that they could fly around freely. Somedays I wished that I had become a Dragon and could fly with them.Then again, I was perfectly content with being a Rider. Ever since Dragons have been exposed, things have changed drastically. At first, things had been bad, and we never thought that humans would accept Supernatural creatures.Not all of the supernatural were ready to expose themselves, but that was up to them. Those who have, joined society. There were some that have become employed by humans. Some joined the police force, fire department, be
Cyran-“Release the shield!” I yelled.When the barrier was down, Arion flew into the sky, fleeing as quickly as he could. A moment after he left, the last of the rubble from the building fell, until everything was settled. A large block of cement was atop me, but I was able to throw it off of me with ease.Checking to make sure Azura was okay, I moved away from her when I saw she was fine. Checking the others, I saw that everyone was mostly okay, except for the now humans that were crushed below the rubble. Part of me felt guilty that they didn’t survive, now that they were human, while at the same time, I was relieved they would no longer be an issue.Helping a few to their feet, I returned to Azura’s side and attempted to wipe away the dirt on her face. She placed her hand over mine and looked up at me with love shining brightly in her eyes. She was safe and that was the only thing I could think of right now.“You need to go after him. Until he is dealt with, this isn’t going to be
Cyran-Leaving with Kellan, Azura, and Jade, we made our way to the headquarters of the council. The others lingered behind, so they could prepare. The goal was to catch everyone off guard, which meant we couldn’t try anything right away.Walking into the building with just Azura, Jade and Kellan stayed behind to greet the others. The guard at the entrance wouldn’t allow them to enter anyway. It would be better if Kellan went in as well, but I understood they were being cautious.Standing in the room with the council members and Arion, I had to force myself to refrain from showing my hand just yet. Azura was doing a better job at acting, as she stood behind me, using my body as a shield. I could sense she was nervous, which I was too.There wasn’t any guarantee that things were going to work out in our favor. Right now, all we could do was have a little faith that everyone would do their part. No one spoke a word for a long time until Arion stood up and moved around the long table.“I
Cyran-With the members that would be joining the council, we released the others to return to whatever they were doing. They all agreed to help in any way that they could, but right now we needed to establish the plan. Taking the meeting to Trenton’s house, which was larger, I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.At first, when Trenton told everyone what was going on, I wasn’t sure if they would agree to help. They didn’t seem to trust me, and I didn’t blame them. What my father did was beyond anything I could have imagined, and I had witnessed a lot of it.As Trenton talked more about everything, I began to see hope gleaming in their eyes. It didn’t take as long as I had thought it would for everyone to be on board. Now that we had the members to create a thirteen-member council, including Charles, I knew we were on the right path.The only member on the council that wasn’t a Dragon, was Azura. I discussed it with her as we walked to Trenton’s house, which she had
Azura-“With everything we have, is there a way to face Arion and the council, or do we need more?” I glanced around the room, hoping someone had an idea.Between what I found out about my past and Cyran learning what he did, there had to be something we could do. The only one who seemed deep in thought was Cyran, while the others looked as if they didn’t know what to do. No one said anything for a while, but then I had an idea.“In the past, I had spoken to Trenton about having him meet with Cyran to discuss a way for all of us to work together. Maybe we can still do that. Now that we know they were treated unjustly, perhaps Trenton and the others would be willing to work with us for a long-term solution?” My eyes landed on Trenton as I spoke and hoped that he was still willing to change our future.“I was thinking the same thing. For me to put an end to the current council, I would need new members to appoint. If I could put together another council, we could clean up this mess. Of
Cyran-“That is part of it, but I don’t know the rest of it. I can’t find anything in your memories about it, so I think it was something that happened before your time.” Trenton answered without looking at me.Since there was nothing, I could do about it now, I turned back to watch. We still needed to figure out how to stop the council, but so far all I was seeing was that my father hadn’t been the King I thought he was. Nor had he been the father I had admired.“Why don’t you stop this? As the council, aren’t you supposed to ensure that rules are followed? Isn’t this against the rules?” Little Cyran asked the council member who stepped forward to observe the younger version of Trenton who was being beaten with a whip.“Little boy, your father holds all the power. The council is here to enforce his rule and we all agree with him. It is because your father chose us as his council that we are able to do what we can to control things. Since you won’t remember this, I have no problem tel
Cyran-“Let’s track down any potential Dragon Stone Keeper that was born around the time of Cyran. Cyran was born. Most Keepers are around the same age as their Guardians. Once all of them have been captured, we will expand our search to capture others.” My father said while getting agreeable nods from the others.I wasn’t sure how to feel right now. There were too many feelings rushing through me. There was anger, confusion, disbelief, shock and so much more.“What will happen after we capture them, and you die? How can we ensure that they will be killed?”“Let me worry about that.” My father had a smirk on his face like he already knew what he needed to do.I waited for them to talk more, but shortly after they began to leave, and Trenton sped time along. When we stopped, we were now standing in the backyard, where my father had us kids trained. I didn’t see him or Arion, but Arric and I were training with one of my father’s warriors.A few minutes passed and I wondered why we stopp
Cyran- “Are you ready for this?” Trenton asked the moment he walked in the door. Looking over at Azura who was snuggled next to me on the couch, I could tell she didn’t want me to go. We already discussed it this morning. She was worried about something going wrong. Tightening my hold on her, I pressed my lips against her forehead. “It will be okay.” I assured her, although I didn’t believe it myself. She nodded her head after a few moments of hesitation. Giving her a smile, I pressed my lips against hers, before releasing her and standing up. Azura stood up beside me and threw her arms around me, faster than I had ever seen her move. “Please be safe and no matter what happens, remember I am here waiting for you, and we will get through it.” She spoke into my ear and clung to me. “I promise.” I wrapped my arms around her and almost had to pry her from me, although I wished I didn’t have to leave her. The words she spoke were similar to the words I had whispered to her after she
Azura-My head felt as if it were pounding. Every molecule in my body felt heavy as if I had been drinking heavily the night before. Pressing my hands to my head, I heard myself groan. I didn’t open my eyes, but when I felt a soft touch against my forehead, I sighed contently.“How are you feeling?” The sound of Cyran’s voice jarred me and I quickly opened my eyes and sat up.“Fine.” I blurted, although I was far from fine.He moved toward me, with one arm sliding across the back of the couch. Scooting away, I pulled my feet onto the couch, while wrapping my arms around my legs. I still remembered what happened, so I believed that Cyran was better off not having me around.Not that I was going to kill myself or anything, but I needed to think of a way to keep myself safe while staying as far away from him as possible. Kellan scoffed and I immediately knew he was invading my thoughts. Glaring at him he held up his hands in defense.“We made a promise, yes, but I had to at least make su