[Millicent] I am dark and cold. There is no light to see, so I feel around with my fingers. Where am I? There is something warm, slick, and hard beneath my hands. Beyond that something stirs. Impossibly large, it wraps itself around me. I know I am safe when I hear her humming. Her voice is beautiful, the melody low and deep calming me as I settle against her warmth… …There is heat. I am being carried, although the world is still dark around me. I miss the heat of that warm body as I am placed somewhere cold and dry. Cries of pain and roars of outrage boom in the darkness. I am afraid… …In the distance, I hear a man. He is crying, roaring in pain. I move toward the sound, but he is locked behind a wall of solid stone. Placing my hands and face against the stone I cry with him, even though I do not know why he weeps. “Let me in,” I beg, pounding on the wall. “Why won’t you let me in?” He replies not with words, but with the mournful cry of heartbreak… “...As she was about to
[Millicent] I am bubbling over with anger, even as his kiss sends tingles into every part of me, my body aching to respond to his touch. As he leans into me, I smell the fresh clean scent of soap, feel his clean hair tickling my cheeks, taste the fresh sweet taste of berries and cream on his mouth and I want so much for this to be real. I would have given anything to have Leon touch me in this way--like he wants me and cannot live without me. I've had a small crush on him since that first night he found me in the main hall, scared and alone. He was the one who picked me up and cared for me and dried my tears when Primus was done with me. A man who seemed to care for me when nobody else had ever shown me kindness. I could spend the rest of my life with Leon if he wanted me. This person sitting next to my bed is not Leon. Leon would never reach for me in this way. Leon would never be this bold. The imposter presses me closer to him, trying to deepen the kiss. I open my mouth
[Primus]Her beautiful golden eyes grow dark, hard, and cold as tears roll down her cheeks. “Get. Out.” she points at the door. “Carnelia I…” She shakes her head. She has no interest in hearing anything I have to say. “I never want to see you again,” her arm is unsteady and her whole body begins to shake. “I don’t care what face you are wearing,” her voice is still weak, strained from her illness. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” Each of those words feels like I am
[Millicent] “Hullo” an unfamiliar feminine voice calls from the other side of my stone wall. I choose to ignore it. I refuse to open my eyes right now. The person begins to bang on the door. Not knock, bang, like a sailor back from leave ordering beer at a tavern. someone raps at my door. “I know you are awake, I can hear it in breathing,” she explains as she continues to knock. “Can I please come in?” “No,” I moan. “I promise I’m not Primus.”
[Primus] My sister is a sadist. She would make an amazing dictator, the way she bends people to her will, forcing them to do whatever she says is “in their own good.” She's also a much better liar. Maybe I should just hand her the throne right now and save myself the trouble of ascension. That way nobody would need to plan a coup to depose me when they discover my mate is a human. Just one small action would solve so many of my problems. Especially the problems waiting for me on the other side of this door, the ones I really do not want to face. I'm not sure why Ona insisted I wait here when she doesn't even know if I will be allowed to enter. Staring at the wall which is also the door to her room, my left hand reaches up to trace the letters of her name with my fingers. I remember how angry she was to find it there. Carnelia. Her new name was one of the first gifts I ever gave her. Like all the other things I had given her, she had hated that gift too. It seems like I am not so go
[Millicent] I want to curse this beastly man from my room, to yell at him until he feels exactly how much pain I am in, how much pain he has caused. But as he just demonstrated, it wouldn’t do me any good. I might as well give him a few moments to explain himself. “Alright,” I announce as I adjust myself enough to aim the full intensity of my disapproval at his face. “I’m listening.” “I’m glad you’re feeling generous,” he mocks. “I am sure you have a lot of questions about,” he waves his hands in the air, “Everything. What do you want to
[Primus] I pull her to me, kissing her fully. She doesn’t resist, she lets me kiss her. Moaning, I deepen our kiss, pressing her gently against the pillows. I want to devour her, to drink her tears and kiss her every hollow. I need to join with her, I need to feel complete. “Carnelia,” I growl, my fangs elongating, preparing to mark her. “Primus, what are you doing!” She shouts, trying to push me away. “I’m going to mark you and make you mine,” I begin nibbling along her neck. “Everyone will see that you are mine, only mine.” “Primus you need to stop,” she begins to cry. “I did not say…” I quiet her with my tongue. Foolish woman. She bites me again. I pull back excitedly. “Yes! Bite me! Mark me again!” “ONA!!!” She screams at the top of her voice. “I NEED YOU!” There is a scraping at the door but I use my will to keep it shut. My sister is a meddlesome crone. “I know you want me, Carnelia, I can smell it.” “Not like this,” she shouts, crying. “This is too soon, I don’t eve
[Ona] I am stuck between two stubborn fools. Primus refuses to even think about Carnelia. If I even say her name around him he ignores me, sometimes leaving the room to get away from having a conversation about the topic of his mate. He has decided to lock himself in his den as far away from her as possible. He thinks I haven’t noticed that his mud people take her used clothing and place it in the bottom of his nest, but I know he doesn’t wear silk dresses so the only person he is fooling is himself. He’s acting like a big baby, and I refuse to indulge him any longer. He hasn’t left his room in two weeks. And Carnelia…that girl has a temper and holds a grudge like a concubine denied her chance in bed. If I hadn’t promised Primus I’d take care of her until she is fully recovered, I’d have shipped out days ago just to relieve some of the stress she has put me under. I ache to feel my wings beneath a starry sky, the burn of salt on my scales…instead I’m stuck babysitting. Still, she i
[Carnelia] When I sat there, tied to that wagon almost a year ago, I had no idea how my life led me to that place. I couldn't even remember who I was or where I came from. It is amazing how much can change in such a short amount of time. When I was a hurt, angry girl, I had no idea that one day I'd wake up and be seen as the mother of a kingdom, or that my children would not only be heirs to all of Luxandra, but to the Solar Throne of the Southern Continent, a rebirth for a royal line thought long dead. Nor did I understand that my old life, and everyone who existed within it, would be nothing but ash and sour memories before the next summer blossomed. All I knew as I fought against my bindings was that in the next few minutes, my life would either end drastically or it would be changed forever. Because even if my body were not destined to die as a dragon’s meal that evening, something in me realized that the girl I had been up until that moment would die that day. There was n
[Eleanora] “Your Majesty, you shouldn’t be down here,” the small man sniveled as I entered the new lab. "This is no place for a lady." “Where else would I be?” I demand, cracking my knuckles as I stare down my nose at the human technician in charge of keeping my husband’s body from dying. “My husband is here, so I am here. I wanted an update on his condition.” “We could have written a report and sent it…” he begins to sniffle but I raise my hand and he bows low before me, his back deeply bowed as is proper. “I wanted to SEE him, you dolt,” I correct the fool shaking before me. Humans are so weak-willed and this one is weaker than most. I brought him from my family home because I can trust he will be loyal. He'd sooner tattle on himself for a perceived mistake than risk being accused by someone else. Similarly, he's the first to report when anything seems amiss. The perfect little worm to place in any apple. Because while he is telling on everyone else, he is also spying for
[Segundus] “Greetings citizens of Imperial City,” My queen and I shine brightly as the sun begins to set, our white clothes studded with diamonds so that when the spotlights shine on us, we gleam like fallen stars, fitting since our intention tonight is to make celestials fall from the heavens. “The Celestials have lorded over us for several millennia. Living in their sky throne, they control our resources, taking what they want and leaving nothing behind. Their children, the Sun Dragons, were especially notorious. They controlled the power that fueled our cities, and if we didn’t make proper payment, they would burn our cities, raid our farms, and send their blight to wipe all life from our land.” I pause to let my words settle into the hearts and minds of those gathered. A gentle hissing roar throughout the crowd assembled. My wife, Queen Eleanora, squeezes my hand in encouragement, smiling sweetly, projecting her confidence and trust. “My brother, Segundus, sought to alig
[Carnelia] There is a bright glow as I close my eyes and I know that it is the last time I will ever see Cressida, that she sacrificed her spark to save me. My screams turn into howls of pain and sorrow. Cressida, the kind mother who nursed me through the birth of my babies, and accepted me into her family even when she thought I was a human. I didn’t even really get a chance to know her, and now I am mourning her, along with the loss of my mate, trapped on the other side of a gate I cannot cross. “CLOSE THE GATE!” one of my captors bellows through the entry gate as we arrive at the Northern Sky Portal, “By order of Queen Cressida. This is her final command!” The drakes at the gate go immediately to work, tapping buttons on clear surfaces lit from within with swirling and changing images of blue, red, and green. The surface beneath our feet shifts and shakes and I scream in fury as I watch the large metal iris of the portal snap shut. “How could you,” I pound the chest of m
[Segundus] “Sir,” one of my aerial knights bows before me as I ready myself for the next phase of the war. I had just sent my generals from the room and was looking over a map of Luxandra. I already have an idea of what this knight is going to say before he opens his mouth. Looking at the map, I have marked several cities that have recently been destroyed, each one a hub for an energy hub. I had them each commit to continuing the story of Skyfell, telling the untruths of how the treacherous Celestials came down to Terra, burned our cities, and stole our light. In many ways, these new attacks on major city hubs are feeding into our story, except for the unpredictable element of them being completely untrue. “Report,” I am getting irritated by all the bad news I have been receiving. My generals didn't have anything good to report from their respective lands, and the lack of resources coming into the capital was starting to make me anxious. It has become harder and harder to hide the
[Primus] Ever since I first saw her tied to that cart, there was something about her, something that captured my heart. Seeing her taken from me, held roughly by the hands of those trying to save her as she is taken away, screaming my name--that broke my heart. So much has happened since that fateful evening when she was left as a sacrifice at the foot of my mountain. She had fire in her then too, but it was buried deep within her, almost smothered by a lifetime of hate and abuse. Once I started to brush away the ash and soot of her previous life, she began to glow, her fire mostly directed at me, but fire nonetheless. Even when she tried to extinguish it, when the weight of the world and her sadness threatened to crush her spirit, she came back to me, her fire bright and true. Loving her has been hot and pure and never boring, never predictable, almost like flame itself. Right now, burning with rage, with righteous indignation, she is the brightest I’ve ever seen her.
[Carnelia] The still of the morning is shattered as everyone moves into position to protect Primus, Cressida, and myself. We all drop to the ground as another beam of light shoots over our heads. “How many do we have below,” the queen bellows, commanding her men, her body rigid with fear and power. If she is afraid, it is impossible to see, her movements sure and precise. “At least a full platoon of air drakes with another half platoon of fire, My Queen.” One of the guards answers back as another shot zooms overhead. “Possibly more hidden beyond the ridge.” “Un
[Segundus] My back aches as I land near Hatchery L11. It is early morning, just after dawn. Eleanora was still sleeping when I left. I have a feeling the doctor will give us auspicious news today about her health. Based on the color of her cheeks and her increased appetite, I am certain she is carrying our first clutch. I leave my small group of guards behind in a nearby town. I cannot have anyone who enters these facilities other than myself cannot leave once they enter. We cannot risk trade secrets leaking out to our competitors. I know that Elfholm is considering creating its own factories using a different breed, but as it is now with energy being one of our main exports, I do not want to give away anything that will lessen their dependency on our sources.
[Ona] The fighting has stopped. We are vastly outnumbered. Thankfully, the Imperium soldiers on board were given orders to stun and contain us, not shoot to kill. Even so, we lost more than a handful of sun dragons to the battle that ensued. Including Daax and myself, the number of resistance fighters on the boat is down to 36. Four days ago, at the start of this adventure, we had more than 60. By the time we reached the end of the tunnel, we numbered 42. I try not to think of all the bodies we lost during the evacuation of Segundus’ lab. So many had never awakened when released from the pods--and there had been hundreds of them. Drakes, drakaina, and some little more than hatchlings. Watching them die as they took their first free breaths in decades is a memory I will torment me for all the remaining moments of my life. There were more bodies on the ground than walked out of that room. I have been fighting this battle against the Imperium for the last four decades but on