Chapter 20

CERION

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Kira had a dragon. A beautiful giant blue creature with dark- and light-blue colored scales. She was both regal and terrifying.

Celen thrashed inside me, proud of his mate and admiring her strength and beauty.

Another attack came from behind me, this time of arrows dipped in fire.

Without warning, Kira ran forward, her powerful dragon fixated on one thing and one thing only—our attackers.

Her footsteps along the walkway of the mine nearly shattered the stone beneath her as her dragon powered forward in full force, dedicated to stopping the threat. When her dragon opened her mouth, I was expecting the blaze of scorching fire to float over my scales. I was expecting the smell of ash to reach my nose. I was expecting their burned skin to float through the wind.

But it didn’t happen.

Instead, I was even more surprised to find that cold flew over my skin, as her dragon breathed ice instead of fire.

Kira was an ice dragon.

Amazing.

She moved some distance forward, as if she was asking me to follow her. I’d follow this incredible woman anywhere, even to the edge of earth.

She compelled me by body, soul, and dragon.

As we got to the edge of the mountainside and walkway, Kira’s dragon stopped, her cerulean eyes searching mine for answers. She must be having a difficult time acclimatizing. I had my father to help my brother and me. Kira had shifted on her own. It must’ve been incredibly painful and confusing. It looked like she was unsure of how to fly when in dragon form.

She stared at me for a moment, her eyes stricken with strain and confusion before she began shifting into her human form. Her body tumbled to the ground, her skin bruised and bloodied. She was struggling to keep her eyes open. My dragon curled around her protectively.

My soldiers had finally arrived at the mine. It was a long journey and hard on the human body. They seemed tired and out of breath, but my soldiers were strong.

They lunged forward, attacking the few mercenaries that came piling out of the mine’s entrance looking for a means of escape.

The rest of my soldiers entered the mine with swords unsheathed. The clanking of metal and screams of men reached my ears.

It was as if the mountainside had gone quiet and still.

My best soldier and fiercest warrior, Narja, pinned an older man to the corner of the mountainside. A yelp left his mouth as the back of his head hit the jagged rock.

Dirty-blond hair spilled over his head as blood seeped across the nape of his neck. It was King Harold.

He pleaded, “Please, I am a victim in this too!”

Kira stirred, her gaze shifting upward and meeting the eyes of her father—the father that had kidnapped her and used her as a pawn in his horrible plot.

“You are no victim!” Kira said weakly, water forming beneath her eyes. She was trying to fight back her tears.

Rage filled every inch of my dragon as I watched the emotion in Kira’s features.

I wanted to hold her, but I knew this battle was hers and hers alone.

By now, my soldiers had left the mine’s entrance after killing every last one of King Harold’s mercenaries.

“Leave him here,” Kira ordered. “He’s a pathetic excuse of a father!” she spat as the rage built in her eyes. There was that fire I had seen before, but I knew now it wasn’t fire. It was ice.

The soldiers stepped away from Harold. He ran back into the mine without a single word. He knew his plot was ruined.

Narja ordered the rest of the soldiers to fan out and look for mercenaries. He came over to me and stripped himself of his black velvet cloak. He left it on the stone as a sign of respect for Kira, since she was still nude from shifting.

I picked up the cloak in one claw and draped it around Kira, then curled my wing around her protectively, wrapping her closer into my scales.

I raised my nose to the air to scent a familiar smell—fire.

Smoke drifted out of the mine entrance. I nudged Kira into climbing on my back for protection from the rising and burning flames.

“Celen! They’ve rigged the mine with blasting powder. It’s going to explode!” she said weakly in a rushed scream.

I took flight just in time, high above the mine, as rocks flew in the air and a loud boom sounded from the explosion below.

I felt Kira slump against my dragon. I needed to fly slowly and carefully to ensure she made it back safely.

Kira was fast asleep when I laid her on our bed. I didn’t care if she dirtied the sheets with blood and dirt. I would run her a bath later and clean her by hand, then insist that she eat until she regained every ounce of her energy. She needed her rest for now, and I needed answers.

Kira had a dragon, and if anyone would have answers, it would be Elder Vair. He was the oldest and wisest of the elders and would have knowledge of her family’s dragon lineage.

***

When I made it to the library, Elder Vair was paging through a book slowly, not even bothering to acknowledge my presence.

This old man had some balls on him, but I decided to forgo an argument for Kira’s sake.

He looked up finally, his finger holding a page delicately, then he ushered me over to him.

“I have found something quite peculiar,” he said, as he pointed toward the leather-bound book.

I glanced over at the book and read the words slowly. ~The First Dragon Queen.~

The words jumped from the page and rang through my mind.

It was a biography of the first Dragon Queen. It would definitely be of aid for Kira.

~Princess Ventria of Valon was the world’s first Dragon Queen. Her dragon surfaced after her marriage to King Parliv of the Caxon Dynasty. Queen Ventria’s dragon was a powerful ice dragon named Vanna.~

~Queen Ventria birthed seven male children, as the gods wished, and all children carried a dragon. The Caxon Dynasty saw many great years thanks to the strength of their line and dynasty and was the strongest dynasty in the Year of the Dragon.~

She lived, and she lived to birth seven children!

Hope engulfed me for a moment as I kept reading.

~Queen Ventria lived a prosperous life for many years with her dragon. The partial immortality extended her years, as it did with all who wielded a dragon. She was regarded as the most powerful of her dynasty for that time, even beyond that of King Parliv. Due to her uniqueness, she was seen as a god to those below her.~

I scanned through a few more pages with haste, hoping that I’d find further information on her life or anything else. There was too much to read—hundreds of pages—of her life, her history.

This is exactly the hope I had for Kira’s life.

I grasped the leather-bound book in my hand, feeling hope radiate from my grasp.

This book would help give Kira answers and assist her in the course of her life. It would give her the hope she needed to navigate her new life ahead.

I hadn’t given much thought to any of what had transpired through the last week. I hadn’t realized I’d come to care deeply for the queen I chose, or that she would become a weakness of mine, or have a dragon of her own.

It was astonishing, after all. I hadn’t seen any of this coming, but it had, almost as if it was an ironic fate. That I’d find a woman to match my strength, with compassion and sensitivity in her heart, instead of the violence and destruction in mine.

I had wanted a queen to satisfy the council, to ignore, to do her duty as a queen. But she was much more than duty, and she satisfied me beyond the council, and I couldn’t bring myself to not fill my mind with thoughts of her. Ironic, after all.

I could see myself changing before my eyes, for Kira’s sake.

I grasped the book tighter, then walked out of the library, offering a small nod to Elder Vair, along with Verion.

I knocked on the door of our bedroom and waited for Kira’s lovely figure to appear beyond the threshold.

And there she was, just as I had foreseen, standing beyond the threshold, ethereal as ever.

Her skin was clean and pristine again. Her blonde hair fell across her shoulders and backside, as her intense gaze rested upon mine, and her lips formed a gracious smile.

“I’ve found something for you.” I extended the book to her, waiting for her to take it.

“It seems you’ve brought two things for me, my king.” Her eyes changed to the light yellow and orange they had been earlier, as I saw her dragon dance beneath her gaze. It was amazing that her dragon brought forth such different colors within her eyes, instead of their usual crystal blue.

“Where is that subtle innocence you embodied before?” I smirked, feeling my thirst for her boil within me.

“Gone, I suppose. Now, I’m an animal bound to my carnal desires, like you, my liege.” She chuckled, tucking her soft hair behind her ears as she brought her fingertips to touch my neckline.

“We’re in trouble now,” I said with a chuckle, reaching out to touch her cheek. She leaned into my hand, her eyes closing.

“Two wild animals who can’t control themselves around each other. Who’s going to be the responsible one now?”

“I’ll always be the sensible one, my king,” she said with a smirk, her eyes still closed as she enjoyed my touch. Her voice was soft, almost teasing, and it made my heart skip a beat.

I could see the struggle in her eyes, the way she was trying to make sense of her emotions. It was as if she was looking at her past through a foggy window.

“I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s as if that trauma is beneath me now, maybe because of my dragon,” she continued. “Now I have her to think about; she clouds my mind and my thoughts, not as much as my experiences now.”

I could tell the compassion and emotion she once had were still within her, but they were muted somehow.

She was learning to navigate this new reality and learning fast. ~She’s incredible~, I thought to myself.

“You’ll always feel it, especially anger,” I explained gently. “Because your dragon feels anger and violence more deeply than any other emotion. It’s in their nature.”

I gripped her hips a little tighter, feeling a surge of desire. “But certain emotions are further from the surface for dragons, and your dragon will help control those emotions. It’s incredible you’re already realizing that, Kira. You are strong.”

I saw strength radiate from her, and she hadn’t lost her sense of self either. She wasn’t allowing the carnality of the dragon to fully embody her.

I closed the door swiftly, my eyes never leaving her. She was a vision, and I couldn’t believe she was mine.

A soft giggle erupted from her mouth as I scooped her up into my arms. As I carried her to our bed, I knew that whatever challenges we faced, we’d face them together.