Chapter Seven
Twenty-Three Years Prior…
I don’t believe that he thought himself as clever when a young boy, with jet colored hair and indigo eyes, showed up in the dining hall and introduced himself as Prince Marek Drakonis of Demarcus. To be honest, I didn’t believe my father knew how to be humorous at the expense of others.
Refraining from bursting my wings out and flying through the walls to strangle my father within a breath of his life, I welcomed the ten-year-old boy to join Aurora and myself for breakfast.
It's not the boy's fault.
Aurora was quick to leave my side and host the Dragon Prince.
Dragon Prince, what a laugh, I thought, thinking of the ridiculous moniker the Drakonis family gave their presumptive heirs. I was certain that Marek’s closest full-blooded dragon relative was a singular grandparent.
“Thank you, Princess,” Marek acknowledged with a nod and slight smile at her, causing her cheeks to visibly tinge pink against her pale skin. The boy didn’t even have to use charm and she was already beguiled by him.
My chest tightened watching the exchange, knowing that a mix of the two of them could cause problems down the road. Aeneas just didn’t seem to understand. She was all that was left of Queen Caeliora, and was far more valuable than an alliance with a nation that was guaranteed regardless if there was a match.
I wished that my worries stayed at the dining table as the three of us walked around the city. I attempted to keep myself between them, casually, but she maneuvered herself to be in the middle each time. I didn’t want her to become attached. I didn’t want him to have it in his mind that this contract was locked in. He was ten, not ignorant.
When it was finally time to confront Aeneas, I was at my limit of patience and slammed the door to his office behind me. He didn’t even look up from the small stack of papers before him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I gritted out, halting in front of his desk - the only thing keeping me from wrapping my fingers around his throat and popping his head off.
“Paperwork for new trade agreements,” he said simply, keeping his gaze down.
Talons cut through my human skin as I took a swipe over his desk and caused punctured papers to scramble onto the floor. His eyes flashed at the thrown, shredded papers and then to me, causing the limit to break. Slamming my transformed claws down on his desk, I lowered my tone.
“How can you be so heartless? How can you just treat your own child like some sort of exported goods? You can send any other female, why her?”
“Because I can.”
Fire licked at my skin, begging to be released. Begging to challenge him to a Drako Duel of Power, traditional and legal. If I lost there was no greater humiliation compared to a defeated dragon in the arena, but if I won I had the opportunity to overthrow him and take the job I never wanted. I still didn’t want it but…
I would do it for little Sun.
Heat from licking flames spread up into my eyes, a wave of power rose from the core of my stomach to the outer reaches of my skin, seeming to want to burst from my pores. I can save her. I had to. Sending a full dragon female to marry someone with a quarter of the blood, if that, meant a near-certain death in childbirth. Straightening my back, I stood tall and glared down at him.
“Aeneas of Thanatos, King of the Dragons, I challenge you to an honorable Drako Duel of Power.”
He gave out a snort and remained seated.
“No you don’t,”he responded, pulling a new stack of paper towards him.
“I’ll meet you in the arena tomorrow at dawn. If you don’t show I’ll consider it my win,” I finished before turning my heel only to pause with my hand on the door knob. Tilting my head slightly I wanted to drive the point home. “Unlike you, I will do anything to keep my family safe. Even if it means I take your place when I never wanted it. She’s worth giving up my own selfish desires.”
****
If I died, then he would have only one heir left and the likelihood of him having more was near nonexistent. If it was only her then he would have to acknowledge Aurora’s existence. But, if I subdued him, then I can stop the contract from going through. Either way, I stood in the middle of the colossal stone arena under the mountain waiting for him to appear. The walls rose up to a ceiling drowned in darkness. Full-grown and transformed dragons were able to duel easily enough in the arena, being able to fly up a good distance before hitting the top.
The enclosed space ensured that neither opponent was able to leave and the spectators, though seemingly few for such a match, kept the duel honest.
Something’s not right…
The night before I left, I handed Aurora over to Shelly, our timid maid. She didn’t need to witness her surviving family members fighting, potentially to the death. I hugged her, kissed her, and told her that my life was dedicated to her happiness. I just hoped she knew how much I loved her. Although being so young, I wasn’t certain if she understood the gravity of my words.
“Be good to Shelly while I’m away, little Sun,” I finished, kissing the top of her head one, possibly final, time.
“I promise,” and in her soft golden eyes I could see the confusion and uncertainty staring back at me.
Thanatos, Hypnos, please protect her.
Shaking the memory away, I dragged my focus to the stands. Each body, of only seven spectators - all counselors and aristocrats I noted, took seats with solemn faces and lay a heavy blanket of silence around them. My nerves began to buzz.
The sun hadn’t risen yet, as rays would begin to cascade in through the vented holes in the walls. But, I knew the time was drawing closer. Surely, he would come rather than take a hit to his pride. He had to. I needed him to. I had something to prove.
Just as the merest hint of rays wisped through the vents the echoing of heavy, taloned footsteps came from the massive double doors that lead to a poorly lit corridor and left open. It was the entrance for the defender.
Pulsating rushes thundered in my ears as my palms became itchy at my sides. I lived a long life. I just wished that I could have had more time with my little Sun.
No, I can’t think like that. I can’t give up now!
The ground quaked. Pebbles leapt from the ground. From the depths of the shadows first emerged a translucent breath of steam followed by the slightest of glints of talons.
This is it. This is when everything matters.
A foot with scales as black as jet began to protrude from the darkness, causing my heart to plummet. It was not my father coming to face me. Rather, as more of the enormous frame came into view, it became evident that this black dragon was not of typical origins.
I had never met him before, nor did I think he was still alive. Dragons grew old, sure, but being over five-thousand years old was simply unheard of. Not that any part of his massive physique gave away his age. I assumed that he looked nearly identical to the day Belinha brought him to life, raising him up from the magma deep within our mines.
A caving sensation spread through my chest as I listened to my instincts and did not transform. How was I able to when in the view of such a presence?
My mind barely had the functioning skills to acknowledge that my father did finally enter the arena, but was sitting with the counselors high above. High above the carnage, I was certain to face before this legendary beast that was as close to a god as one was allowed to be. For one of the few times in my extended life, I wasn’t sure of what to do next.
There was no time to think, however, as Alexius shifted into the form of a human man in his thirties. His height eclipsed my own and I wondered if it cost him energy to appear so young or if he naturally looked that way. His dark hair rested on his shoulders as his indigo eyes seemed to survey me.
A block of air sat at the bottom of my lungs as he drew closer, his expression passive.
"Huri, correct?" His tenor voice asked stiffly, though his shoulders appeared relaxed. A subtle nod was all I managed.
"I need to show you something."
One of his large hands came up to rest on my shoulder as his gaze bore into my own. Swallowing hard, I nodded again knowing to not look away as the indigo color expanded and took over my vision. What replaced it was a rapid succession of images containing a beautiful young woman with golden hair as she rubbed light circles over her swollen belly, followed by a vision of the same woman laying in a plush and elegant bed with two identical bundles in each arm. I floated closer to the bundles to peer inside them. One baby had a patch of golden hair, like the young woman and myself, the other had hair as black as the dragon before me.
Seemingly floating backwards, I was paused a short distance away as the image fluttered into a new one in a brightly lit ballroom. A black haired young boy with indigo eyes that held golden rings in them, shuffled from foot to foot, absently rubbing his chest as he fixated on someone from across the room. In a distant corner I could make out a little girl with just as dark of hair and bright green and gold flecked eyes being busied around the room by a boy who appeared similar to Regnum's young Prince Jovan.
Just as the boy was about to walk up to the girl, the vision melted away again to reveal me, only with pinkish hair, appearing to berate a young man at his obsidian desk. The young man was clearly the boy from the last image. But before I was able to think about the similarities, a flash occurred showing a bright display of the new Black Dragon, his wings flared out with crimson catching the light, as he stared down at a young woman - the same from the ball, with massive glittering feathered wings protruding from her shoulder blades.
Hot trickles of liquid trailed down my cheeks. She was coming back - the Goddess. The moment that all of dragonkind was waiting for would finally come after five-thousand years. And maybe... perhaps... She could save our people from the sickness that plagued female dragons.
Indigo returned and receded back into the eyes of Alexius, the original Black Dragon - the one who belonged to Belinha.
"I'm not long for this world, Huri," he began softly as he lowered his hand. "I have lived too long and waited for the time to come to see her again. To hold her again."
Alexius paused, seemingly trailing away with his thoughts of a forgotten past. When he returned his gaze to me his eyes hardened and his mouth seemed to set firmly.
"She cannot return unless I'm born again. But I have to be born from a line that is of both Hypnos and Thanatos, as she will be born from the line of Belinha and Cato. There is no other way."
No other way... because there is only one line that connects the two.
"So, you need Aurora," I concluded aloud. Alexius nodded, causing my heart to sink into the darkest depths of my mind.
"Can you promise her survival?" It was all I wanted. It was all I needed to know. Just let her live.
Alexius' grimly lined mouth caused more tears to trickle down my face.
"I can't promise anything, Huri. For that, I'm sorry. However," the pitch of his tone grew lighter, "if anyone could help with this sickness that plagues our females, it would be Bel."
Hope? Could I live with that small trace of it and allow for my father to bargain Aurora away to the Dragon Prince? What if by the time Belinha came of age, it was too late? What if I lost my Sun regardless?
I need to find a cure before she goes to Demarcus.
