Chapter 17 - Bargain DamonSomething in me snapped. Call it fear for my kingdom, fear of losing someone close to me again because of a stupid encounter, but I snapped. All I saw was read as I charged for Alora. She tried to move away from my grasp, but she was too slow. My hand wrapped around her throat, and in the next movement, she was pinned against a bookshelf. "Alora," The pixie screamed in horror. But I didn't pay her any mind as I turned all my focus to the pirate beneath my palm."I'm tired of your games. Tell me where the ring is, or so help me, I'll-" I snarled. Alora cut me off. Her chest pressed against mine, our breaths matching each other. Heavy and fast. A moment of panic filled her starlight eyes before she caught it."You'll what? Kill me. Lock me away in a tower and throw away the key." She scoffed, forcing a smile. The stars in her eyes seemed to twinkle pulling me in closer. She licked her lips, and my eyes fell to them for a moment—the overwhelming need to taste
Chapter 18 - HellstoneAloraAfter our forced agreement, I was shown to my room. One that, of course, shared a bathroom with Damon. The King of Dragons was down the hall. Apollo, Damon's general and the soon-to-be Captain of the Royal guards, was across the hall. I had no idea where Drabek was because he seemed to vanish into thin air at will, but Kier and Balthazar were on the other side of him, and Lir was bunked with Helga. I argued with them about that and tried to get her to stay with me, but they refused. Perhaps it was a smart move on their part because if given a moment to flea, she and I would take it. But with her out of reach, I was forced to stay and do their bidding or abandon my only friend and make her face the consequences of my actions alone. And I would never do that to her, and they knew it. I already felt guilty for dragging her into this mess, even though she claims she put herself here. 'Do you know where the ring is?' Damon's question still circled my mind. I
Chapter 19 - MadeGarrenAlora looked at me as if I had a third head. I had sensed her magic before, a few times in my life, actually. It was old, much like my own, and extremely powerful, but it seemed she either didn't know that or had enough control over it to make it seem that way. My guess was the former of the two because if she did understand the full potential of her magic, she wouldn't be here right now, or at least I wouldn't have been able to detect her. But it wasn't just her magic that intrigued me. It was Alora herself. Since becoming some form of deity myself after the whole Ryuu fiasco, I had been able to detect everyone's essence. It told me what they were, dragon, werewolf, vampire, and so on. But with her, I couldn't see it; I had never encountered that before. And when I took the bruise to my ego by asking Balthazar about it, he said he didn't know either.Though, I called bullshit to that because as much as I didn't like to admit it, Balthazar did know everythin
Chapter 20 - VulnerableDamonI didn't get a wink of sleep last night. My mind was too busy to allow me such a thing. I kept finding myself staring at the door to the bathroom and talking myself out of barging into Alora's room and demanded answers. But the thought of being alone in a room with her made me reconsider it. I found myself thinking of how much she seemed to call to me. Like she was my own personal siren. It made me feel so many emotions, the most prominent one being guilt. It felt like I was betraying my mate whenever Alora pulled me under her spell. Even though she was gone, I couldn't help but let the guilt overcome me. I gritted my teeth as I thought about our encounter in Garren's study. How she had me so distracted that she could use my own weapon against me. Never in all of my years of training/combat had that happened. I was always on guard, constantly aware of my opponent's actions. But Alora got under my skin and into my head, clouding it with rage. It made me
Chapter 21 - LostDamonI couldn't believe we were actually doing this. Trusting a thief and a pixie to help us, but I had to get back that ring and the only way to do that was to give Alora what she wanted. "We go in together. No tricks got it." I bade "Got is, Princeling. No funny business, or you'll punish me." The way she said it made me tense. I could hear the double meaning in her words, another way to get me going, even if she didn't mean it. Balthazar and Drabek didn't even try to hide their smirks, and she flashed them a smile. "I mean it," She rolled her eyes at me in response. "Are you going to hand over Helga or just keep chastising me like a child?""Watch your tongue, Pirate. If we didn't need you, you'd already be dead." Apollo warned. Alora didn't miss a beat; her silver-tongued mouth always seemed to run hot when she felt threatened. It was one of the many things I noticed about her the past couple of days."But you do need me, Poppet. So until you have that ring,
Chapter 22 - AloraThe realization hit me all at once. One minute I was ready to escape with Helga, a fool's choice but one I couldn't live with if I didn't at least try. The next minute I was being thrown through space. The cold clung to me as I felt my magic be ripped away from me right before Damon and I got spit out into an unknown realm. I could hear my mother's words haunting me as I was forced to face the male before me. Fear settled in as I realized how badly I messed up. And when he asked me what I did, I froze, unsure what to say because I didn't know. Everything got jumbled as Helga released her pixie dust, and my thoughts shifted, and I somehow brought us to this strange place.I had never messed up this badly before. I had never messed up at all, actually. Everything always went according to plan, but maybe that was the problem. Nothing about this was planned. The ring. The deals. Me ending up in the dragon realm. It all just happened.Damon's fist connected with the st
Chapter 23 - Friction Damon"Alora," I muttered, trying to get her attention. She looked at the small shack before us, but her eyes were far away again. Her mind had clearly wandered back to whatever haunting moment she relived earlier. Her shoulders were tense as she got lost in whatever she was thinking about and despite all my better judgement, seeing her like this bothered me. It reminded me of all the times I got lost in my past. All the time, I needed someone to pull me out of those memories but found myself alone.I gritted my teeth, my hands flexing as I gave her another minute to come too. Her hands started to tremble, and I cursed as I stepped forward and forced her to look at me. My eyes connected with hers as I called her name again. "Alora," I snapped. Her pupils dilated before she gasped for air. She blinked a few times, her long lashes sweeping across her freckled cheeks. Her breaths came out heavy as she tried to ground herself again. Her pink lips slightly parted a
Chapter 24 - TruceAloraI didn't know what to make of Damon after our confrontation in the shed. He caught me in a moment of vulnerability. I was lost in the haze of my nightmare before I fully realized what I had done. It was probably the only time I was thankful for being trapped in the realm of nightmares. It stopped my magic from attacking him first. I was able to play it off as a warning never to touch me again, but it was all the same in the end. As much as I wanted to believe that I was always in control of my emotions and magic, I wasn't. So me threatening his very well-being was the only way for me to protect him from whatever might happen if I lost control. But in the moment of weakness, I forgot that Damon wasn't just some young fae with no way of gaining the upper hand. He was a trained warrior, the Captain of the Royal guards and the soon-to-be King of Gardenia. He was trained to be the best of the best, and though I managed to catch him off guard again, he quickly reg