(Shade) Nova was magnificent. I had missed her so much when she was gone, but now that she was back, I didn't want to waste another minute. I had to mark her, we had to mark each other. "Should we shift?" I looked at the tempting creature standing in front of me, already half naked. She nodded her head, black hair whipping in the wind. I could see the goosebumps on her naked flesh, I could smell her arousal. She smelled the most delicious, and everything in me screamed for her. It was my instinct, primal, basic. She was everything, and for me, nothing else mattered. Mateo had his parents, his family, friends, Draconiá, but I only ever had two things. Mateo, and now, I also had Vera and Nova. Nova danced closer to me, her n*pples hardening and visible through her white bra. I slid my palm over her breast, making her moan. "Yes, we should," she said, but I could see from her eyes she wanted more with me, like this. Her hands were slowly trailing down my pants, as she opened my zipp
(Vera) The woman had walked away, but I couldn't stop myself from following her with my eyes. Something about her was odd, and I didn't like the feeling in my stomach. I felt nervous and agitated, and Nova was too. I could feel her restlessness."Where did I see that serpent ring, Nova?" I thought and my dragon shook her head, looking frustrated."I have no idea. You must have seen it when I was gone, or when I was not there."I shook my head as I watched the woman talking with the queen. Her expressions were sweet and sugary, but her eyes- the look in them was so wrong. Mateo walked towards me with a glass of Elven Snow Gin. "You want something?""That was what you were drinking when I first met you," I whispered as I grabbed the glass from him and took a quick sip."I blame it for my actions.""No. You would have done everything you had done that night even if you were not drinking," I said with a teasing look in his direction and then I was distracted by a loud laughter. The woman
(Vera) I was talking with Tatienna when Amyra barged towards us, sweaty and pale. Her fingers were trembling and I could see whatever she had heard was not anything good. She looked like she had just seen a Spectre or something."It is- she is not- this is a -" Amyra blinked and took in a deep breath as I put a hand on her shoulder, turning her towards me."Look at me, Amyra, look. Take a deep breath, and now tell us what you have heard.""We should go somewhere else. Grandma, your private chambers...""Go, I will ask Mateo and Blaine to come meet you.""Keep and eye on Claudine, Grandma. Tell mom and dad, too, to meet us," Amyra said as she hurried away and I followed her. She was almost running, climbing two stairs at a time, and we finally reached the room. She looked around, walked in and soon Blaine, Mateo, the king and the queen were all there.Amyra nervously tugged at her hair as she stared at us. "You are right, Vera. She isn't as harmless as we believed," Amyra started, and
(Orna)Tymeria walked the entire length of the dungeon, her nostrils flaring in irritation. Her cheeks were flushed as she kept mumbling under her breath. I felt a tickle of amusement as I pushed the woman inside the last cell and locked the door. There were annoying sounds of sobbing, which irritated me to no end. I wanted nothing more than to silence them, but for now, I needed them. I had to keep them safe here. "Fucking Claudine," she hissed, before she whirled around and looked at me her eyes narrowed in agitation. I could see her rage, but I didn't care about Claudine. Everyone was a means to an end. I knew she wouldn't babble, and that was enough for now."It isn't really her fault, Tymeria. Like I said, my niece is smarter. She has always been." I felt a flicker of pride. It was fun playing against someone who was as smart as me. If she had been someone like me, if she had acquired the genes of Estrild's daughter, we could have destroyed Draconia together, and built somethin
(Vera) "ORNA.""Orna what? Who?" Faye muttered as I crumpled the paper in my hand as my claws poked into the leather-bound book. I left a dark growl as I looked around the destroyed house. I thought she had died. My mom was the one who told me she had died a few weeks before she fell sick. Orna was the one who killed my mom. The bitch had planned her game from the week she had staged her own death. It was perfect, and I had to give her that, but I would pay her back for that. For everything she had done to me. "The bitch killed my mom. I knew it.""Who is she?" Mateo asked, his voice a dark growl. I could see the flash of anger in his eyes. "My aunt." They all gasped. "Yes. She is my dad's half sister. They were really close, too," I said as I thought about all the days I had spent with Orna. She was a fun aunt to me, always telling me stories. And having a freaking photographic memory meant I remembered everything. Every stories."Who here knew the story of Estrild and her thr
(Vera)"If she was dead..." Blaine took a deep breath, his hands quivering. He stood up, and the book fell to the ground. "It would be my fault. I didn't even try to find out the truth. I refused to talk with her when she came to talk about-""You were just seventeen.""I was almost eighteen, there were just three months for my eighteenth birthday, a day I would find my mate, finally, and my dragon felt besotted with her, too and he felt this pull towards her, and I had been holding on to the hope that she was mine. My mate. The other part of my soul. I wanted it with everything in me. I wanted her with everything," he whispered as his face morphed into one of grief and pain. It hurt me to see him like that. We had always joked around, and this was the most we had ever talked with each other. Now that he was sharing all of this with me, I felt like he had accepted me as his sister as well. I squeezed his palm in mine. He had a grateful look in his eyes as he stared back. "That was wh
(Mateo) "Blaine..." I put a hand on his shoulder as he pressed his forehead against the wall. He looked at me, his eyes blank, but I could feel the storm swirling underneath. It broke my heart to see him like that.We had always been best friends. Being only a year and two months apart, we grew up with each other, and we shared everything. So I knew how much it had hurt him when Izza ran away, or so we had assumed, but we had reasons to assume it. She sent messages from her phone, saying she was going to get out of this place. "You know... we would have done everything if we hadn't received the message," I said and he growled and hissed. "Even then, we should have done everything. I - I was so fucking angry that she chose someone else over me, I didn't even try.""You didn't, but mom tried, Blaine." "I did," my mother said as she walked to where we were standing around Izza's room. She put a hand on Blaine's shoulder and he shook her hand away. Her face fell before she put her ha
(Izza)I heard voices. There were so many voices these days. I didn't know who they were. They hissed and shouted and whispered, and I had a feeling they were not too pleased with whatever they were doing. "Claudine is dead. Did you kill her?" I knew this voice. Tymeria Blackstone. This other woman growled. "I didn't kill her. I don't know who killed her." I didn't remember her voice. I looked around my room and sighed."Orna. You should leave." Tymeria said. "And you, too." "But mom..." "Kill the hybrid and leave," the other woman said and my body jerked back in fear and pain. But then again, I knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. Stripped of magic and dragon, I couldn't do anything to fight back. "Why? We can easily use that memory spell...""Memory spell doesn't always last. We can't gamble on this. She might get her memory back in ten days or ten years or never. KILL HER." Tymeria said, her voice cold and aloof. "As long as we have Vera to destroy the crown, we
Warning: This is the same scene from last chapter, from Vera's pov. It is not officially a different chapter. It is just the same scene told from Vera's perspective. If you don't want to read, do not read.This chapter will not clear everything up, because like I said, I still have another book to write.With that being said, go on, and you will see some of you confusions answered here. ONLY SOME, though. Wink, wink.***(Vera) I saw Orna's body going still in my arms as her eyes stared straight into mine. There was no anger left in her eyes, and mine, as well. I gently closed her eyes as I looked at her.I could hear her softly reading the stories to me. Soft and gentle. Her eyes would always be fierce though. I remembered the marks on that special book. She called it her special book. I had never seen a book like that anywhere else. One time when I asked Orna about it, she said there was no other book like this in the entire universe."Sleep tight, auntie. May you find your peace i
(Mateo) The dragons were vicious, but Shade was just as vicious. He bit, tore and fought like the he was possessed.I was worried about Vera, though. I heard the growls and roars and ear-splitting cries, but Shade couldn't get away from the dragons continuously attacking Raek and him.When I saw Vera going into the clearing and Orna's dragon following her, my heart fell to my stomach. I was nervous, agitated. Shade tried to break away from the dragons around us, but I just couldn't. They were fast, fierce and unrelenting.I had a feeling they wanted to keep us away from Orna and Vera for whatever's reason they had."Don't worry, she can take care of herself," Shade said as he took a swing at a massive green dragon. She was quick, and she was ruthless, but Shade was hungry for blood. "I am going to kill this bitch and bury her in her own blood," he hissed with anger as he wrapped his tail around the massive Black and yellow dragon's leg and tugged. The dragon roared as she twisted awa
(Vera) Orna shrunk her nose, her eyes flashing in irritation."Just hand me the crown, Vera." I looked at the woman I had once loved with everything. I loved her just as much as I loved my mother. I looked more like her than my own parents. "I don't want to hurt you. I never wanted to-"I scoffed. "Liar."She gave me a frustrated groan.I couldn't forget the nights she sat by my bed, reading me stories and how much I enjoyed every moment I spent with her. Now, there was nothing between us. Only this chasm of anger and rage and bitterness. She would never understand why I hated her so much. Not just because she used me, but because she chose something else over me. Not because she wanted the crown, but because she wanted it, knowing that my death was the payment for her power.Was she that power hungry?I shook my head with a glare in her direction. "Why? I would be dead either way, wouldn't I? You won't care what happened to me. As long as you get your power, you have no qualms about
(Vera) "Your queen is dying.""NO. I am not." Nova looked smug as hell. My claws lengthened as I looked around the room, my eyes assessing everyone. I didn't know who talked, but I had a feeling they were hiding in the crowd.I closed my eyes as I felt the magic of the crown. A soft chant left my lips. "Please protect them, Freyr," I whispered as I shook my head.There was another loud, thunderous explosion that rocked the ballroom, causing the chandeliers to sway and the guests to scream in terror. I stood up, my heart jolting in anger. I had anticipated this, but it still made me angry.Chaos erupted around as people scattered away from their seat and clamored around in fear. There was too much noise, too many people, but I knew that I had to stay calm. I looked at my family and friends in the front of the line and they all nodded as I saw them moving between the panicked people, trying to talk to them and calm them.Mateo immediately stepped in front of me, shielding me from harm,
(Vera) "You look like a queen. You are a queen." Amyra said as she handed me a box full of accessories that looked like it would cost me a lifetime to pay for that. Oh, yeah, no, I could just steal some Euvens and pay them back in a blink."Oh bitch," Nova said with a smile.Faye and Bianca helped me with the necklaces and rings and bracelets. I was shining, and my heart was dancing. It looked beautiful. I looked beautiful."I am grateful to have met you when I was just sixteen. It was destiny, Vera. And I am grateful to Maseir for that one moment in my life that had gone right despite every bad thing," she said as she hugged me sideways and wiped her eyes. It made me want to cry too."Bitch, I am not going to go in front of everyone with black stain on my cheeks," I teased Faye and she let out a quick burst of laughter.Tatienna laughed as she handed me something. "This is what I gave Esmeralda when she become my son's queen. Now it is yours." It was a beautiful hairclip with emeral
(Orna) "So Estrild said to Sabius, I will come back a million times, even after death. I will destroy everything you have built, and then Draconia will be mine. Her voice rang above the silence of the night. Sabius cut his fingers on the crown's sharp edge and looked at Estrild's vanishing figure. She wasn't really there, but he could feel the ice running through his body, despite the fire that was always burning inside him." I read from the book, and the girl grumbled under her breath, pushing her plate back. I ignored her as I turned the page. "With this blood and the last of my daughter's blood, I bind your daughters' powers to the crown. As long as the magic hums in the crown, as long as Azura's blood runs through the veins of her children, you will never get what you want."Estrild's laughter rang out as she watched her three daughters grabbing on to their stomachs. The pain in their eyes was evident. She felt their pain as if it was hers.""They deserve the pain," Lili said as
(Vera) I shook my head with a growl as I wiped my tears away. I was done crying. No. I wouldn't cry anymore. I would make Orna cry.Mateo had a troubled look on his face when the same guard ran towards us again."They are here," the guard said."Who is here?" Mateo asked as he looked at him."Lord and lady of the clan Red Thunder. Their family too."That made me look up. Mateo stood up and gave me his hand. "Let's go see now, okay? Don't jump to a conclusion before here and there."When we walked out, the queen also joined us. The queen hugged Arax's mother before she turned to his father."You can live here, Rosalie, Kenneth, as long as you want. I am so sorry you lost your home. We will bring them to justice."Rosalie Red, Arax and Marvis's mother looked at the queen, her eyes shining in gratefulness. "I know, Esmeralda. We are fine, thanks to Sun God. We are so sorry for my daughter's part in this.""She was only a young girl who had been brainwashed. I am sorry you lost her. Come
(Vera) My fingers trembled as Mateo grabbed the note from my hands.Blood. Lili's blood.Every bone in my body burned in rage. If I saw Orna now, she would die a painful death. I wouldn't spare her, not at all. Mateo growled as he finished reading the note."Monster," he said with a dark rumbling growl. "How can she play with a little girl?"Oh, yes, she would. She didn't have any qualms about using a little girl to succeed in her plans."Lili is another one of her pawns," I hissed. "Lili is the pawn she made to control me."Amyra and Mateo nodded."She is undoubtedly smart," Amyra said with a frown."She is. She has always been."Orna didn't decide to steal the crown out of nowhere. No, it wasn't random. Nothing she had done was random. Everything was moved in such a way that when we came to this place we were in right now, she would have the King, that she would be the one calling check mate.She didn't decide to send Ezra and Lili to me, just for the heck of it. No."She knew Lili
(Blaine) The anger inside me was like a roaring sea and I feared that it might destroy me, destroy everything in my path.I wanted to burn everything down. As Raek soared above the cloud, his massive wings flapping in a frenzied motion, I wanted to ask him to let out his anger.He felt agitated and restless too.Mateo's dragon, Shade, followed us close behind. I was grateful he was accompanying me. I knew I couldn't do this alone.I needed Mateo here with me. My eyes burned from the tears I didn't want to shed. Not yet. No. If I cried now, it would mean that she was no more. I didn't want to believe that.She was my best friend, and I made a mistake when I didn't look for her when she was first gone. I should have. This would stay with me, this immense guilt, all through my life, if she was really gone, and if we had absolute proof.I was so angry back then, but now, I regret my every decision, my every action. She didn't deserve that from me, her best friend.When she suddenly disap