Chapter 5

Sitting down, a wave of exhaustion sweeps over me like a heavy rainfall. My eyelids grow heavy, and despite my best efforts to stay awake, I find myself dozing off on the bench.

( Kaden )

The past few months, I could feel the darkness surfacing from inside me, clawing its way out, eager to consume what little good I still had left. The council members had warned me to find a mate before the darkness completely overtook my body, but their words felt like a distant echo in a void of despair. They believed that finding a true mate would save me, prevent me from turning, but I was skeptical, filled with doubt and frustration.

    Finding a mate was one of the rarest and most elusive quests, and I had searched tirelessly for the last thirty years, my hope dwindling with each passing day. The council’s relentless nagging over the past few years had only added to my burden. They had paraded countless suitors before me, hoping one of them might be my destined mate, but my heart remained unmoved, uninterested.

    With every piece of myself the darkness claimed, my desire to find a mate grew further away.

    The stories my grandfather told me as a child were filled with warnings about dragon shifters. According to him, if a dragon shifter did not unite with their true mate, they would become a dragon permanently, losing their humanity and moral compass. This transformation was irreversible, and they would no longer distinguish between right from wrong.

   None of my grandfather’s tales mirrored my current situation exactly. I wasn’t a dragon shifter, but I was desperate to avoid succumbing to the darkness within me. I was willing to do anything to prevent the fate—even if it meant seeking out mate.

   The true cause of my inner corruption was a mystery. For a time, I suspected that Cassandra, a with whom I had a brief affair years ago, might have cursed me. She had been furious when I ended our relationship but couldn’t imagine she would go as far as to curse the King  of Elementals and risk the wrath of my kingdom.

   In order to understand my plight, I ordered my men to scour every book in the castle’s vast archives for any mention of elementals consumed by darkness. Despite their effort, they found no definitive answers.

   Among the ancient tomes were books about dragons. However, these texts were written in a language so old that only the previous dragon-shifters could decipher them. Dragons had been extinct for decades, hunted to extinction by a cruel king in a distant, abandoned realm called Dravonia. This king, legend had it, was cursed by a witch after he killed her mate—a dragon.

    The witch ensured that the cruel king would never escape his kingdom by casting a dark, smoky barrier around it. This impenetrable cloud prevented anyone from entering of leaving, except for dragons. Tragically, this curse also trapped countless innocent lives within Dravonia, leaving them to suffer the consequences of the king’s actions.

   When she cursed the king and his men, she marked their faces with a distinctive feature. This was to ensure that if they ever managed to break through the barrier, they would be easily recognized. Unfortunately, the specifics of this features were lost to us because the ancient books detailing these events were written in the long-forgotten Dragonian language. Moreover, this all occurred so many years ago that it was unclear whether the king and his wicked followers were even still alive beyond the barrier. Without any dragon-shifter left to read these books, the secrets remained hidden.

    I never attempted to read those ancient books myself; being neither a dragon nor a dragon shifter, I assumed they held no information to my situation. Besides, I doubted they contained the answers I was searching for.

      This morning, I informed my soldiers that we would be taking a walk through the kingdom. They are now preparing for our departure.   

“ Kaden! We are ready for our departure through the kingdom.”

    “ Thank you, Deon. I will be right there.” Deon is my trusty righthand man and  soldier for many years now, and one of the very, very few of my subjects who gets to call me by my name. He has earned that privilege. Earlier, I gave him the instructions on preparing the men for our travel. It takes about a few days to travel through the entire Valtor kingdom.

    This morning, I decided to take a different route that usual, and as I wandered through the grounds, I felt a strong pull drawing me towards the castle’s front entrance. It was as if an unseen force was gently tugging on me, guiding me towards the grand doors. I couldn’t quite explain it, but the sensation was strong, like a magnetic pull that I couldn’t resist. Without realizing it, I found myself walking towards the entrance, my feet moving on their own.