Chapter 31 - CracksPenelopeI woke up to the smell of fresh rain and smoke; the warmth of a firm body radiated from behind me as the weight of an arm rested across my lower stomach. I was in a blissful haze; my body ached all over but in the best way possible, not from countless hours of training or from cleaning out horse stalls. But from my body experiencing levels of euphoria I hadn't even known existed until last night. I didn't want to welcome the new day ahead of us; just wanting to stay in this reality forever. The one where nothing else existed outside of this world. This place where only Garren and I lived, our bodies entangled with one another, losing ourselves to each other over and over until we were left breathless and completely satisfied. Garren let out a low hum in the back of his throat, his hand gripping my stomach tighter as he pulled me closer to his chest. His voice thick with sleep as he pressed his lips against my ear. "Keep thinking whatever it is you're t
Chapter 32 - HonourPenelope "I guess I'll have to restart my count for how many days it's been since you were last here, Penelope." Perseus teased as he entered my room. His onyx hair pulled back, his gray eyes sparkling with amusement. "Haha, so funny." I groaned as I adjusted myself on the bed. Due to my lack of dragon warrior fighting skills, I visited this place more often than most. And because of those frequent visits Perseus and I formed a patient-doctor friendship. It was nice to know the male who was working on me, but at the same time, I would have much rather gotten to know Perseus from a different standpoint. "You should be proud of me, Perseus. I managed to go for a whole eight hours of training today." "Ahh yes, well, as great as that is, I believe your body would say otherwise, Poppy," Perseus muttered, his voice dropping to a more serious tone as he moved his hand across my jaw. I let out a slight hiss of pain as he pushed against a fresh bruise before moving to m
Chapter 33 - Blow upGarren "Did Penelope cancel our meeting, and you just forgot to tell me?" My mother's soft voice filled the silence of my study. I stopped my pen mid-swoop. My head snapped up, unease filling me as I stared at my mother in confusion. Her blonde hair was down today, making her look younger than she was. To a human, she would look like she was in her mid to late forties. When in actuality, she was well over eight hundred years old, my father fifty years older than her. "No," I said cautiously, my voice coming out calmer than I felt. Ever the King as I was forced to remain calm even though I wanted to run out of the castle like a madman. I was insisting that a search take place to locate my mate. My mother watched me with assessing eyes, the corner of her mouth tipping down into a frown. "Well, I'm sure she just got caught up with training. I will reschedule with her. There isn't much more training I can do anyways. She is a fast learner, that girl. She reminds
Chapter 34 - Burden Penelope My body felt like it was made of bricks, each movement requiring more effort than the last. I groaned in agony, the light from the sun filling my room through the glass ceiling, basking me in all its miserably warm glory. Of course, the one time I go out drinking, the sun decides to make an appearance. I rolled across the bed, blindly brushing my hand across the top of my nightstand until I found my phone. I hardly used the thing here, only needing to use it to talk to Hilary or my parents whenever they called or wanted to video chat. They all knew I was busy, Hilary believing it was work when my parents knew the truth. It was a hard pill to swallow, the constant lying and evading of certain questions that Hilary berated me with every time we talked. I did my best to redirect the conversation back to her, which worked most times, but the guilt never gave. Instead, it only seemed to eat away at me more and more. It made me think of Reyna and her partn
Chapter 35 - LimitsGarren "Is she getting better? Is she even worth all this training?" Hydra growled, his tone filled with annoyance as he ran his fingers down his snow-white beard. I had been listening to the same debate for the last ten minutes. Hydra being the sole cause for my rising anger since the beginning of this dreadful meeting.He was older than dirt, his face wrinkled from age, his gray eyes dull. His hair was as white as snow. How he managed to stay in the council for the last two centuries is beyond me. Perhaps it was his incessant need to have everything stay the same since the beginning of time that kept him here, knowing that most dragons hated change as much as he did. Or maybe it was just that fact that people feared the stories of his past. Though from the looks of him, I didn't think those stories were true at all. Hydra probably hadn't lifted a single finger in his life. The stories of his past were just that, stories. Not a single scar marred his ebony ski
Chapter 36 - FaithPenelopeThis sword weighed a ton as I forced my arms to hoist the giant piece of metal into the air. I don't know how my cousins made it look so easy to wield anytime I watched them train. Goddess above watching Mildred practically twirl the sword with a single hand was a miracle all on its own, let alone the two swords she had strapped to her waist. "You're still slouching. Push your shoulders back and straighten your spine." Mildred instructed in a bored tone as she leaned against the fence."You know-" I panted, gripping the sword in a death grip, trying to keep the handle from slipping through my sweaty palms. "-I'm starting to think you're just doing this for your own enjoyment. You haven't even tried to fight me yet." Her golden gaze locked on mine, an amused smirk forming at the corner of her mouth."Fighting you right now would be like swatting a fly. You wouldn't even last two seconds. I deserve a better challenge than that. So quit your complaining and
Chapter 37 - Boundaries PenelopeI worried my lower lip as I stood in front of Garren's door, rethinking whether this was a good idea or not. In the two and a half months since I had arrived in Caspian, I had never made a move to enter his room. It felt like crossing an unspoken boundary, one both of us weren't sure we were ready to cross. We hadn't done anything since coming back from Kailani. We hadn't even spent much time together after the blow-up we had last week. It felt ridiculous, always overthinking every move Garren and I made. The constant push and pull we seemed to find ourselves in every time we were alone. Especially since we had already crossed a line when he had me screaming his name while he sent me into oblivion, but there was what we did, and then there was what we didn't do, and I wasn't sure if I could handle the weight of that on my shoulders on top of everything else. It didn't seem fair to Garren or me, even though he told me time and time again that I wasn
Chapter 38 - Death Garren *Five hundred years ago* The war between the witches and Dragons was going strong. It seemed like it was never going to end. It was even worse than we could have ever imagined. Our relationship with the witches had always been strenuous, but now our hatred toward them was set in stone.They were always after our ancient magic, trying to find ways to steal it to feed their thirst for power. However, not all the witches were as evil as the ones who first attacked us. Some I had grown to know over the years still helped us despite many refusing them, making wards to conceal our location and other types of spells to help heal the sick and wounded. Most of them were tasked with keeping the royal family and our kingdom under the radar. Their loyalties to our family and our kind never faulting in the harshest moments.But even that wasn't enough to stop the inevitable from happening. Not when our own goddess abandoned us and gave the witches all the information