Withone perfect smile,Toricompletely destroyed that control.Itwas like the gods had made her just to test me, to break me.Shewas my mate, so, in truth, they had.Dragonswere not soft creatures.Weraged with the deep fires of the earth, and violence followed our every step.Ihad been given a delicate creature as the guardian of my heart.
Ichuckled.Iknew she would hate that.Andyes, by fae standards, she was fierce and unbreakable.Butshe quickly cameapart under my claws.Oh, how delicious her ecstasy and fear were.
Isighed.Iunderstood why she stayed away, but every piece of me that still clung to this life yearned for her.Ihoped to see her just one more time before the end.
Ileaned into the void of nothing that surrounded me.Isearched for what seemed like years in this empty place, butIfound nothing.Therewas no beginning and no end to it.Well, that’s not true; there was an end, a great wallowing black hole that sucked even the meager light of the stars into it.Itcalled to me relentlessly.Nomatter how farIflew, it stayed with me, inviting me to that final resting place.Butthe tiny golden glow at my heart clung to me, guiding me away.
Timestretched beyond measure.Thepast and the present swirled together in an inescapable mosaic.
Isaw my mother, golden and beautiful.Herscales sparkled like late evening sunlight caught in a warm rain.Herheart’s fire was white, tinged with just the smallest hint of blue, and reminded me of the clouds she loved to chase me through whenIwas just a fledgling.Myfather had taught me strength and precision in the air, but it had been my mother who taught me how to fly.Shewho had loved me enough that whenIstepped off that cliff for the very first time,Iknew she would always be there to catch me.
Iremember her white, golden-sheened hair tickling my face when she would lean over and hold me close, reading me poetry by the fire in her room.Iremembered the sweet sound of her floating laughter afterIdrew an unflattering portrait ofKingObion, who had come visiting and put her in a foul mood.Shewrapped me up in her arms, kissing me all over my face untilIsquirmed and wiggled out of her embrace.Sheplanted one more kiss on the back of my head and called meVerstak, which she had told me meant “my mischievous one.”Oneof my auntslater told me it more closely translated to “littleshit,” but it warmed my fading heart all the same.
Iremembered my father, a beast of few words, whether dragon or fae.He’dbeen a force of nature and had flown with me out into the kingdom untilIhad learned every nook and cranny.Butthe land was always changing, andIalways needed to keep a watchful eye.Ialso needed to watch and protect the humans and fae who lived in our lands.Asa young, exuberant youth,Ihadn’t understood.Theyare so small, father, their lives so short.Whyshould we care for them?
Hehad laughed at me then.Whenyou live as long as we do, my son, you forget.Youforget the beauty in a sunset, for you have seen thousands.Youforget the magic woven into a song because you have heard so many.Thesemortals live with such abandon because of their fragility.Thatis more precious than all the gold in the land.Onelife is perfect, no matter how long or short.Theygift us far more than we could ever gift them.Wemust protect them.Ihadn’t understood him then, but he hadn’t let me forget it, and with time,Ihad learned the beauty that was each precious life.
Thenthey all lay before me—destroyed.Mymother was first.Everythingabout the scene was wrong.Howsoftly the setting sun reflected off her, the field of white flowers she lay blowing gently in the calm spring breeze.Theperfect open sky.Howcould these things exist while she lay dead?Thickrivulets of dark red blood cascaded from the bolt lodged in my mother’s side, piercing straight under her front leg, perfectly lodging into her heart.Anunbelievably lucky shot, or truly, a perfectly unlucky one.Ihad never seen my father cry, but the sounds he made shook the very earth, and he lost himself.Hisdeep red fire scorched the flowers and the surrounding forest.Heclawed at my mother’s dead body as if he could somehow force the blood back into her.Buther heartfire had been extinguished.Idared not approach him.Iwas still not yet fully grown, andIknew that he would destroy me unknowingly ifIcame between them.
Mymother had died that day, butIhad lost my father as well.Hewalked beside me for another two hundred years, but only as a ghost.Islept at the edge of the field, waiting for him.Butas the stars twirled overhead, without saying a word, my father bolted into the sky, heading southwest.Itwas the direction of the closest town.Itook off after him, but at that age,Icouldn’t catch him.Imanaged to save a few lives that day before he took them all, butIhad lost him that day, too.
Hehad forbidden my transforming near the end of theWarofMagic.Ihad been young enough that they had managed to keep my existence as a dragon a secret from the world.Theyhad never even given me a dragon name.Abraxaswas the bastardized fae translation of what my mother had wanted to name me, but she had never told me.
Andso,Iwas stuck in my bastardized form, weak and bound to the ground asHadeon’stroops flooded the streets ofXyr.Ihad just been another commander then, following my father’s orders, or soIthought.Oncethe army entered the city, every other cohort turned their weapons on the outsiders, and blood ran in the streets.
Protectour people.Ithad been the last thing my father had said to me.Andyet, he led them straight into a slaughter.Ifelt the great clash of magic betweenHadeonand my father outside the city walls, andIlonged to go to him in my true body and fight at his side.Butas my people spilled out onto the body-strewn streets and screams filled the air,Iknew thatIcouldn’t.
Wehad finally gotten everything under control whenIfelt it.Theearth shook beneath my feet, and the wind kicked up to gale forces.Everythinghad pulled away, like the tide receding before a tsunami.Ifell to my knees on those saturated streets and knew the truth.Myfather was dead.Thelast bits of magicthat lingered on this earth were swelling, but they would be lost soon.Myfather’s death channeled them one last time.
Thebeast in my chest roared for freedom.Icould feel my skin pulling back, my scales emerging.Itwould be the last time, andIwasn’t as strong as my father.Ilikely wouldn’t killHadeon.Thepart of me that was dragon screamed for me to fight, destroy, and devour.Myskull split as horns began to burst forth when a hand grabbed my shoulder.
“PrinceAbraxas,PrinceHadeonhas turned the rest of his army on the city.Noone can locate theKing; what do we do?”AyoungAvlynlooked at me with such need and pure desperation.Thepart of me that was dragon saidfight.Thepart of me that was still a man saidprotect.
Imade the choice that would shape everything. “Gathereveryone you can at the front gate.I’llbe there shortly.”
Avlynfled, andIgrabbed the closest male bodyIcould find.Theman had been stabbed in the back, all too fitting.Thebest glamours were rooted in truth.Magicwas almost gone now;Icould feel it slipping through my fingers like sand on the beach.Ihad just enough.Iwrote the glyphs for the glamour in blood and watched as the body in front of me changed to look like my father’s.Icarried him to the front gates of our city.
“Openthe gates,”Icalled to the soldiers up top.
“Butsir—”
“Isaid open thefuckinggates.”
Thereinforced wood cracked open to reveal a sea of soldiers clad in gold.Istrode out onto the field, stepping over corpses and the crows who feasted on them.Icarried the body in my arms, its long dark hair blowing in the wind as more blood dripped from its open wound.
WhenIwas close enough for them to see,Idropped the body. “KingAmarosis dead.IamKingof this land now.”
Thesea of gold parted, and he emerged astridea horse.Hepulled off his helmet, and mahogany tresses flew in the wind.Hewas covered in deep red blood, my father’s blood.Myrage flared, andIcalled to my magic, my heart’s fire.Nothinganswered.Therewas nothing but a great resounding emptiness as my father’s spirit drifted away on the wind.
PrinceHadeonapproached me, looking down on the body at my feet.Asmirk crossed his face thatIcould have ripped off if he was only closer.
“Andhow did he get that wound in his back?”
“Youhave defeated theWorldBreaker, and theKingwho defied you is dead.Letus end this now,PrinceHadeon.”
Hadeon’sgrin only grew wider.Helifted his hand to me, andIsaw the end.AtleastIwould go with my father, at leastIwould see my mother again.Iwouldn’t be alone any longer.Ishould have been concerned about how muchIwelcomed the death he threatened me with.Theblow never came.Hadeon’sface twisted, andIsaw what looked like fear in his eyes.Iknew then that his magic was gone, too.Myhand went to my sword, butHadeonwaved to his troops and rode off beforeIcould even breathe.
Thegolden light of my vision twisted, no longer a horrible searing memory but something soft and loving.Iknew she was coming.Thelight was growing, and a semi-corporeal world surrounded me.Ifound her waiting.Myheart galloped in my chest, both with excitement and dread.Ilonged for her with everythingIwas, but what wouldIsay to her now?Noapology would be sufficient.
