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Chapter 29
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2022-04-19 12:07:39The following day, Brendan is called into another meeting with Percy and Waylon before they've even had a chance to eat breakfast.
As it is, Alcina - pouting blearily and still ridden with sleep - insists on walking out with him, until at least the main hall, before parting ways.
Here's another thing about finding all the depths of Alcina's affections returned to her following a lifetime of being chastised and sent away.
It's addicting, intoxicating, and exhilarating like nothing else.
Alcina finds herself rapidly growing attached in a way that defies common sense and rationality.
Alcina takes the chance to wrap her hands around Brendan's, reveling in the small, amused smile Brendan sends her all the while. Alcina, unable to do anything but smile shyly, sheepishly back.
She can't bring herself to stop testing out the boundaries of the space she's permitted to explore. Because each tentative step reveals to her that there are&
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Darla finds Alcina in the orchard by her usual tree.For a moment, Alcina is almost fooled into believing that it isGhost,given that the Lady Darla comes jogging up to Alcina in the form of a pitch-black wolf.Alcina is, once again, startled into pitching backward when the wolf suddenlyshifts into a woman,shrieking with laughter.Alcina pouts.Lady Darla drops into a graceful seat in front of Alcina with that unnatural, animalistic grace she always carries."Sojumpy," she teases, but it's without any malice.Alcina picks at the fabric of her dress, flustered and embarrassed and a little sulky."That's not very polite," she mutters, and her ears turn pink when Lady Darla, apparently, finds it uproariously funny."You're cute," Darla grins, sharklike.Alcina barely suppresses a shiver.And then, Alcina realizes what it must mean that Lady Darla is now out and about rather than shut in t
Last Updated : 2022-04-21My little Dragon Queen Chapter 31
At that age, when children learn to differentiate and understand various human emotions as displayed in the faces around them, The first emotion Brendan learned to decipher in his childhood was fear.The close second had come as- not quiterevulsion,but. Rather close.His mother, in particular, had never quite learned to overcome her knee-jerk reaction offear, terror horrorat her own son.As surrounded as Brendan had been by legions of people who feared and worshipped his “Gift,” he had nonetheless had an intimate opportunity to learn these same emotions from his own mother’s face.- and, to an extent, his father’s.But a child’s connection to his mother is the most intimate, strange, world-defying thing in the world.Being rejected by his own mother then had brought a crippling sense of alienation that cannot be replicated by the same rejection by his father, as devastating as both
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Brendan wakes from his sleep in the same instant way that he has a tendency towards.This means that Alcina doesn't have the time she needs to pull away and pretend shehadn'tbeen hovering over Brendan. That she was peering down at his features with curiously fascinated abandon.Brendan opens his eyes to Alcina's face, floating just inches above his. Alcina's doe eyes are round and glittering in the morning sunlight streaming through the curtains, seeming almost comically wide from the present angle below her nose.Heat floods Alcina's cheeks as she freezes, flustered, mouth parting and no explanation forthcoming save for incomprehensible stutters.Brendan's lips quirk upwards, transforming the blank cold face into something undeniablywarm. Creasing her features with lines that pull a weak smile from Alcina's lips, despite the blush still marring her cheeks."May I help you?" Brendan rumbles, perfectly polite even in th
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Darla comes swooping down upon them in the form of a screaming, bloodthirsty eagle.Alcina, startled clutches at Brendan, who tucks her in a fluid movement into his side, throwing up a leaping dark wall from their shadows.The eagle dodges smoothly, shifting mid-air and landing lithely on her feet in front of them.Still curled around a trembling Alcina, Brendan grits his teeth and sends Darla a scathing glare. “You,” he hisses. “Need to be neutered.”Darla preens. She seems to find it a personal victory each time she manages to terrify unwitting humans.“I came to let you know that Percy and I are departing,” she announces, with little preamble.Brendan straightens up, revealing Alcina, who scowls at her.“That was very rude,” she huffs, and Brendan can’t help the small, endeared smile that quirks on his lips.And then, Alcina blinks, having registered Darla’s words.
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Alcina spends the following week in what can only be described as a haze.Of rosy cheeks, that giddy euphoria that's unique to the blooming affections for someone new, and Brendan, indulging in all of Alcina's tentative growing bolder by the day explorations of the boundaries. Under Brendan's growing affections, Alcina comes to life. Like a blooming starflower, basking in the glow of the attention she'd never received before, effervescent and vivacious and ruddy-cheeked.In turn, Brendan finds this kind of Alcina utterly fascinating, enchanting like no other thing he's ever known. It makes Brendan want to give, and give, and take.At Alcina's request, Brendan takes her to the night bazaar again. This time, Alcina and Brendan intertwined and were drawn more to each other than the sights and wares of the market. Though Brendan still insists on wearing the hooded cloak - much to Alcina's dismay.But Alcina finds it isn't all bad, as the dark fabric allows Brendan to press her in again
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Brendan returns late that night.So late, in fact, that Alcina is practically falling asleep from where she’s curled up in the armchair, waiting. Her head is propped against her hand, facing the door and not at all concentrating on the book in her lap, when the door opens and a cloaked figure steps through.It’s strange to feel welcome excitement at such a foreboding figure - that faceless, hooded, ominous figure.“You are still awake?” is what Brendan dares to say after having wordlessly disappeared for an entire day.Alcina frowns, and it deepens when Brendan seems to find it amusing.“Well, I couldn’t very well go to sleep before knowing that you hadn’t been- been attacked by mercenaries, wherever you’d gone,” Alcina sniffs. With a miffed scowl, she looks away pointedly.Brendan tries (and fails) not to smile. “My apologies,” is all he says before pulling his cloak off.Alcina scowls. Is the lord not going to tell her where he’d been?Alcina doesn’t want to demand that her question
Last Updated : 2022-05-02My little Dragon Queen Chapter 36
Alcina can’t sleep.Try as she might, her mind races along with her pulse, her eyes blinking bright and wide up at the ceiling, long after Brendan has fallen to slumber beside her. For a while, she tries, clenching her eyes shut and trying to time her breathing along to Brendan’s.But something- something in her blood pounds.It feels like an itch, all along her skin, as though she were too large, suddenly, for her skin.As though something isn’t right.No.As though something is right.For the first time in her entire life, Alcina feels something settles.Something settled - and at the same time, like something has awakened, demanding payment in her blood, deep inside of her. From the center of her chest, something yearns to come undone. It feels like there’s a spark of electricity sizzling just underneath the surface.It makes her feel wound up.It nearly makes Alcina feel like she’s going to vibrate out of her skin.Finally, at two in the morning, she gives up.And she gives in. Sh
Last Updated : 2022-05-03My little Dragon Queen Chapter 37
Brendan stares.And stares, and stares, and stares some more.He opens his mouth, but no words are forthcoming. Lord Brendan of House Warner is rendered completely, utterly speechless for the first time in his life. What is he supposed to say, in the face of his new intended, draped in a silken sleeping robe, clutching a pair of wriggling dragons to her chest? Dragons, which have been extinct - if they were ever real to begin with - for hundreds of years.Dragons, which have been mythologized and made into countless stories of lore throughout generations.Dragons are venerated and worshiped as gods in some parts of the world. Dragons are said to have, at one point, ruled all over the earth - the skies, the ground, the seas, and everything in between - when they roamed the continents as the primordial lords of the elements.Dragons.Now curled like tiny, affectionate kittens in Alcina’s lap, their tails wrapped possessively around her forearms, nipping for her attention at her fing
Last Updated : 2022-05-05
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That afternoon, Alcina takes off for the Heartlands with Perseus to inform her family of House Warners’s decision, while Brandon remains behind to see Percy and Darla off.When Brandon makes his intentions known to the soon-departing lords of the Ranges, there’s hardly a pause before Percy shrugs.“Very well, then.”Brandon raises a brow. “Is that all?”Darla grins, razor-sharp and vicious. “I’ve wanted to gut those pathetic vermin for a while now,” she says as she stretches her neck, languid and incredibly dangerous.Conversational. “Ever since they reared their stupid heads and tried to act like lions instead of the prey that they are.”Ever since they managed to escape unscathed from the massacre of the wedding at the Heartlands, Darla’s been unsettled. Like a shark that smelt blood in the water, only to have lost its prey.Darla has the kind of bloodlust that won’t settle until she’s standing above the carcasses of her chosen prey.Percy merely smiles, as warm as an indulgent love
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They say that Captain Lincoln of the Western Plains’ military is a man unmatched, for he carries with him the favor of the goddess of victory, herself.Stella thinks they might be mistaken.For watching him now - watching the way he leaps into battle with nothing but a sword and his gleaming armor, having stepped down from his steed because he does not wish to risk harm to his horse makes Stella think-He is the god.Stella wishes to never fight another day in her life and has loathed fighting and everything it means and entails, but even she cannot deny that Captain Lincoln in battle is nothing short of mesmerizing.What a frightening man, to make something that Stella loathes like no other, into something- strangely beautiful.Even as the other men under Lincoln’s command have charged in to engage the others in combat, Lincoln remains at the front lines of the conflict, a dancing hurricane flitting across the ground to leave devastation in its wake.He takes on two, three, five, eve
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A figure has come to stand beside her, tall and broad and armor gleaming under the moonlight, white teeth sparkling in a roguish grin-“Commander?”It cannot be.But it is.Commander Lincoln stands before her with all the casual grace of a man out for a stroll, confidence is as alien as it is captivating on the shoulders of a person who stands on a battlefield and yet still somehow manages to look as though he is at home.Stella gapes at him.Lincoln smiles.“What- wh- what are, what are you-““The cavalry has arrived,” Lincoln announces grandly, cheerfully. Always so bloody incomprehensibly cheerful, how-“What?”Lincoln’s smile turns just an edge softer, for just a moment. He tilts his head backwards, and Stella swivels her head, only to choke at the sight of- of soldiers, several hundred of them, bearing the glorious banner of the Western Plains-Stella’s wide eyes must betray her stupor, for Lincoln drops gracefully to a single knee beside her.Stella’s stupor turns into a stilted
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“And where were you, when this intruder managed to slip past our defenses?” Brandon drawls.“Sinking the edge of my blade into his stomach, my lord,” Lincoln replies.They share a grim smile.“I only regret that I could not do so sooner, before he had killed the serving girl,” Lincoln sighs. At that, Brandon’s expression darkens.Alcina had been near catatonic with grief.Ridiculous, in some ways, that a princess should have grown so attached to her servant that she’d mourn Mary’s death like so. But that ridiculous heart is Brandon’s.They’ve hurt what belongs to the Shadowed Beast, and penance will be forcibly wrenched by payment in blood.“They’d likely been searching for Alcina,” Lincoln says. “Or at least, any viable intelligence on her command of the dragons.”“Yes.” Brandon has been made all too well aware of Duke Albrecht’s interest in the dragons. An interest that had spanned years before Alcina’s ever came into the world, if that dilapidated fortress were any indicator.For h
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Brandon emerges from their shared bedroom with keen intent in every step, cloak swirling behind him. Alcina remains in their room, curled along the window seat, Orion’s quiet rumbles bringing her whatever semblance of peace is possible.He pins a standing guard with a raised brow. “And where, pray tell,” he says. “Is Commander Lincoln?”The answer makes Brandon’s brow curve higher and higher on his forehead.* * * * * * * * * *Long before he becomes Commander Lincoln, the man they whisper to be graced by the goddess of victory, the man who leads the greatest military force in all the land to nothing but absolute triumph and glory, Lincoln was just a Lin, a penniless street urchin who’d grow up in an orphanage that had too many mouths to feed and too few beds.It’s been a long time since Lincoln was that skinny, trembling boy in rags with dirt smeared across his cheeks and an aching in his belly; a long time since he’s tasted anything but the sweet, euphoric taste of victory and iron
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With a bloodthirsty vengeance perched on her shoulder in glittering hues of ruby red, Lady Alcina arrives back at the Western Plains to find the castle sunk deep in discord.Although nothing looks to be amiss, it is undeniable in the very tension that permeates the air, that something is wrong.As the two of them enter through the main doors, Alcina can see the flicker of trepidation in the gazes of every guard and attendant who welcomes them back home.Something has happened.“Brandon,” Alcina murmurs, and feels the weight of her husband’s hand pressed against her back in response.“I know,” Brandon says. He too has sensed the unease.Even Lincoln - who ordinarily would be the first to greet Brandon upon his return from any excursion - is glaringly absent.The party has long ended and the lavishly dressed throngs of attendees have long since waltzed out of the castle doors to their own homes. It isn’t odd, then, for the castle to be so quiet, given the circumstances.What is odd, how
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The iron shackles laying at their feet, massive and heavy and bolted to the floor with chains so great that even in their rusted state, have not deteriorated in strength, were clearly once used to contain a beast of unimaginable size and power.A beast terrible - and fearsome - enough, to have warranted such an egregious means of constraint.Alcina’s hands - those gentle, kind things, soft to the touch for how few hardships they’d ever seen, so tender that they’d blistered and bled when she first began to take up swordplay, unused as they were to adversity - curl into fists, still resting against the ivory.Brandon watches as they curl so tightly that he fears Alcina’s nails may draw blood on her own palms, shaking - not with fear, but anger.That is when something new catches Brandon’s eye.Something that catches one of the scant few rays of light, flitting in from the broken doorway.Something that looks like a massive jewel, curved vaguely in the shape of an egg.Something nestled
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Mary catches them just as Perseus dips his head low for Alcina to climb aboard.From beside him, Orion paws at the ground with an irritated snort, displeased at being left behind. But with Perseus’s darker scales, Alcina had thought it would grant them a far better chance at going unnoticed at all, in the inky blackness of the night.“My Lady!”Alcina turns, just in time to see Mary run up to her, her breaths visible in foggy clouds in the night chill. In her arms is a dark bundle, revealed to be one of Alcina’s warm cloaks, lined with fur. Mary heaves for air as Alcina turns to fully face her, having evidently run the entire way from the palace.“My Lady,” Mary says breathlessly, expression lined with worry as she holds up the cloak. “You cannot simply take off into the night without even a cloak,” she says, edging close to a reprimand.Even as that pull pounds with a vengeance in Alcina’s chest still, ever stronger now that she’s recognized the call for what it is, Alcina can’t help
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Alcina catches Nordin's eye from across the room, and though her brothers are unable to extricate themselves from the political small talk they are caught in, they send her a warm smile nonetheless.She beams back, and something in Nordin's smile softens, ever so slightly, at the sight of the sheer happiness the Lord of House Warner has managed to put on their sister's lips.When Brandon had suddenly declared a ball at the week's end, he and Alfred had shared a momentarily skeptical look. But then, Alfred's eyes had dawned with recognition, and he'd stifled a quiet laugh into his hand. Had, as Nordin demanded what was so funny, explained-It would seem that the great beast is entirely bewitched by our willful little sister.And Nordin had felt his own lips twitch into a helpless smile in turn, at the frankly ridiculous lengths it would seem the Lord was willing to go to if it would bring a smile on their little sister's lips in such dire times.Brandon leans down to ask if Alcina woul
