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But behind the closed door, he found himself pacing as restlessly as Elza had. He just had too many unanswered questions to feel at ease down here… and his mind kept turning back to Lana, again and again. Had she really been manipulating them this whole time? Was her confusion really just an elaborate act? If it was, it had stayed consistent even in front of the Prince and his subjects. She’d seemed as confused as Seth was when the Prince had called her by her title… and though she’d given the dragons orders, she’d also seemed shocked when they were followed. Had she forgotten that she was the Queen, somehow? The worrying theory that the Fog had damaged her memory came creeping back. But Seth had access to ancestral memories of how Fog-damaged people behaved… and while Lana’s behavior was confusing, it didn’t quite match that kind of madness.
He needed to talk to her—ideally alone, away from the Prince and his pack and the rest of the dragons. Needed to get to the bottom of what was really going on here. Because there was something about her that made him want to trust her, and he’d been around long enough to know that his instincts generally steered him true. Ever since he’d looked into those ice-blue eyes of hers, he’d known, somehow, that she was important. For a moment, he’d even wondered if… but that was a thought he had to force down. Of course she wasn’t his soulmate. She was a dragon. Wolves and dragons barely spoke to each other, let alone… how would that even work? It wouldn’t work.
Exhaling hard, as though a heavy enough sigh might dislodge that troubling thought from his mind, Seth turned over, burying his head under the soft pillow and trying to force his racing mind to calm down. But his mind didn’t seem willing to leave the soulmate subject alone. He’d hoped that being officially appointed Alpha a few years ago might finally distract him from it. It wasn’t unheard of for a wolf not to have a soulmate. There simply weren’t that many of them, and being the only child of the Alpha, Seth had met every wolf in the valley by the time he came of age. The spark that soulmate pairs spoke about in such reverent tones simply hadn’t been there.
Would he have liked to rule as Alpha with a mate by his side, the way his mother and father had ruled before they passed the leadership on to their son? Of course. But it simply wasn’t an option. Some wolves didn’t have soulmates, and he simply had to make his peace with that.
The exhaustion of the day finally won out, and Seth fell into a restless, troubled sleep… dogged by dreams of an enigmatic woman with ice-blue eyes.
Chapter 7 - Lana
Lana was finally beginning to realize that she wasn’t going to be able to figure out where she was on a map any time soon. If there was an enormous dragon community inside a mountain anywhere on the planet, she’d have heard about it by now, and she hadn’t. Whatever this place was, where every single shifter she’d met spoke an ancient language and didn’t seem to understand what she meant when she said the names of the continents… it wasn’t anywhere she’d ever been.
And as ridiculous as it seemed, that meant she simply couldn’t be on Earth anymore.
Once she’d come to that conclusion, there was something oddly liberating about it. Finally she could free up all the brain cells that had been furiously trying to make all this make sense and dedicate all that power to actually enjoying where she was… and right now, there was a lot to enjoy. The Prince quickly split off from the other dragons, circling the interior cavern slowly and carefully as if ensuring she get a thorough look at the place. Lana caught one last glimpse of Seth’s face, which was grim as she’d ever seen it as he clung to the dragon’s neck for dear life, and then he was gone. Worry warred with affection. Would the wolves be well taken care of? The Prince had said they would… and what choice did she have but to trust his word?
The cavern was absolutely awe-inspiring. She’d visited a few dragon communities who lived in caves they’d hollowed out of mountains, but this one took the cake for scale and drama—there must have been room for a thousand dragons to live comfortably in here, though she suspected that the place wasn’t at capacity. Conrad circled lower and lower, and she realized that the carvings in the wall of the cavern were growing more ornate and beautiful as they got lower. Just how far down did this place go? There was nothing but a shadow on the floor of the cavern… but her attention was quickly caught by what was unmistakably the palace.
Unlike the upper levels, which had featured row upon row of caves and ledges for all the world like apartments with little balconies, the palace featured only one grand entrance at its lower level—though there were dozens of windows set in its imposing stone facade. It had been carved with evident care and artistry, countless figures of dragons rendered in the thick stone… they almost seemed to glow in places, especially their eyes, and she wondered again just how the cavern was lit. It was like the stone itself was what illuminated the place… and though that sounded impossible, so did a dragon city in the heart of a mountain.
Once they’d landed on the grand ledge outside the palace, she slid down from the Prince’s neck, her attention still riveted by the intricate stone carvings. She felt him step up beside her, human-shaped again, following her gaze up to the wall.
“Carved by the dragons who first excavated our home here,” he said softly, and she could hear the reverence in his voice.
“They’re beautiful.”
“They’re portraits.” He was smiling. “Portraits of the generations who preceded us. Shall we?”
“Of course.” Feeling a little humbled by the history before her, Lana followed Conrad up the huge steps to the palace. These weren’t torn and gouged by dragon talons, she couldn’t help but notice. Conrad seemed to follow her gaze.
“The palace was designed for these bodies,” he explained, gesturing down at his human form. “The records seem to suggest it has something to do with making the palace a place of trust for visitors, though we’re not sure who they envisioned visiting us.”
“The wolves?” She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Your nearest neighbors?”
“Perhaps.” But he didn’t sound convinced. Wherever she was, it seemed that these people hadn’t gotten the memo that the dragon versus wolf battle was old news—it was all about shifter solidarity these days, especially with the threat of human discovery. That was strange. Nobody here had mentioned humans once.
“This is a great hiding place,” Lana observed, hurrying after Conrad as he led her through a grand entrance hall. There were more carvings on the wall, but she was determined not to get distracted again. “But don’t the wolves worry about being discovered?”
Conrad glanced over his shoulder at her, and for a moment she was reminded of Seth—that confused smile, as though her question made no sense. “Discovered?”
“By humans.” Conrad blinked at her, and she exhaled. “Humans? They look like this, but they can’t turn into beasties?”
“You really are from somewhere else,” Conrad said softly.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Forgive me.” Conrad exhaled, looking suddenly tired. “I was going to offer you a tour of the palace, but I have a feeling you’d prefer to talk first.”
“Why not both?”
That won a surprisingly broad smile from him. “Very well. I suppose I should have guessed that would be your answer.”
And with that cryptic little comment, Conrad led her through an ornate pair of stone doors—and any questions that might have arisen quickly disappeared. The palace, she learned quickly as they walked, was immense—it reached much farther back into the walls of the cavern than she’d anticipated, and its inhabitants had filled room after room withstuff. Her father had always been proud of his library, an enormous archive both physical and digital of some of the rarest and most ancient books and resources on the planet. She’d regularly gotten lost in there, but that was nothing compared to what she was encountering here. Room after room of enormous tomes, huge shelves crowded with books that reached all the way to the high, vaulted ceilings—and it wasn’t just books, either. Among the palace stores were occasional objects that glowed with an unusual light. She found herself gazing down at a pendant, set with a blue stone and embossed with a symbol that was vaguely familiar to her.
Conrad was lingering nearby, clearly torn between wanting to get on with the tour and respecting the meandering path her curiosity had been leading her on. She grinned apologetically as she moved away from the pendant, but something made her linger, just for a moment.
“That symbol—this is probably silly, but it reminds me of a friend of mine who was obsessed with astrology.” She used the English word, assuming Draconic didn’t have a name for something so silly. Astrid, that was her name—not the name her parents had given her, she’d confessed with a musical little laugh, but the one she liked best. She’d drawn that symbol on the inside of Lana’s wrist after she’d interrogated her about exactly when and where she’d been born… questions that were traditionally considered rather rude, by dragons. But Astrid was a human, and her delight in discovering she’d been right in her guess about Lena’s star sign was too charming to maintain any resentment. “What does it mean?”
