AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, so everyone goes crazy until Knight finds his Queen.” I hate that that felt like acid coming up my throat. “What else?”??
“Well.” Kaia flicks through the book, and I lose focus once more when that burning orange hue in the sky deepens to a darker shade. Not quite red, but no longer orange.
“Fuck.” Kaia squeezes her eyes closed and a bead of sweat slides down the side of her temple. Her lips form into an O and she slowly expels a steady breath. “Okay, as I was saying, everyone starts to expose their shadow selves. This means the parts that they hide from the world, purposely or by denial. We are not good people, London. We’re all animals, essentially, just mystical beings all living by one single code. One code that allows us to coexist with one another, and that code is nonexistent during Yemon.”??
“What code is that?”??
The ground vibrates beneath my feet and birds fly from the trees around us. The sky slips into a murderous red, and Kaia’s voice comes out soft. “That we’re not enemies.”??
“Kaia…” I warn, stepping backwards slowly.??
“I won’t hurt you, London.” Kaia shuffles forward quickly, disappearing through a doorway that leads to her room. I follow her, desperate for what else she can give me but understanding the urgency.??
She’s buried in her closet, clothes flying out from the glass encasement. Not a single wall in this house isn’t made from glass, except that bookshelf, that has probably disappeared now.??
A thick patch of white cotton is laid out on a smaller section of the room, with little leaves as pillows. A large tree grows directly from the center of the room, shooting up out of the ceiling and stretching out to the sky, and behind that is a miniature pond, with water the same color as portals. A glassy mirrored color, that my fingers itch to touch. It looks like it’d feel like silk to touch. I want to touch it.?
Something is shoved into my chest and I’m staring back down at my earth fairy friend.
“Don’t touch it.” She dashes behind me, and I slowly turn to watch her. “As I was saying, you don’t have to be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you. My shadow self doesn’t care to hurt you, but there are a lot of people here who do simply because their King deemed you unworthy. If they find out who your dad was, it will be ever worse, so you need to get to that ridiculous fortress as quickly as we can get you there. There’s a protection shield around the Royal Estate, and the Faelific Fortress is located at the furthest edge of it, so Yemon never interferes with courtships while they’re happening. Everything in there should remain the same. It’s nature’s way of reminding us why it’s important to have a King and Queen lead.” She’s opening and closing drawers when I swear, I hear her mumble, “So long as no one breaches.”??
“Will you tell me your shadow secret?”??
She scoffs, finally zipping up the final items into the small duffel bag I’m holding. “No. Well…” she drifts off slightly. “Maybe one day. But you’ll hate me.”??
“I doubt that.” I want to roll my eyes, but I don’t. “But why don’t I feel weird?”??
Her eyes turn to slits. “Don’t know. Good question. Ask someone else because you need to go.”??
“Am I portalling?” I ask, internally gearing up for the whirlwind of a trip.??
“Only a Royal can portal onto the Royal grounds.” Her mouth stretches wide as she wiggles her brows. She presses her fingers into her mouth before whistling out loudly. I hear the clap of wind in the distance, so I automatically look up ahead of myself, wincing when the fiery red sky burns my retinas to even gaze at. Just as I’m about to give up, a dark figure glides through the air. Two wings that span out so wide I don’t see the end points, and a large neck connected to a body.??
I swallow roughly, ignoring the way my mouth dries at the sight of a— “Dragon?”??
She wiggles her brows at me. “Yes. But you can’t keep him.”?
I stumble to the ground slightly when a loud thud almost shatters the glass at his landing. “Yours?”??
“Well… long story.” Kaia takes my hand with hers and drags me through the house, until we’re at the front entrance of a clear door. She waves her hand in front of herself, and it swings wide open, exposing the deep shamrock shaded scales of an actual fucking dragon.??
A big one. Not a small one.??
“Guess you can tell me along with your shadow story.”??
I reach out to touch its rough scales but think again when its large, red eyes find me. Shit, this thing is scary, and I know they come bigger than this—usually in a different shade of black too.??
I don’t even get to ask her who this person is behind the shift when she tosses me onto his back where a saddle harness is strapped around his large body and his scales pinch into my skin.??
Kaia cups her hands around her mouth as she yells up at me. “Hold on! He flies fast!”??
“What?” I yell back, the wind already causing my long hair to whip around my face. Kaia doesn’t even answer when the dragon pushes up from the ground with an aggressive float and I hold my breath as the forest house below me comes more into view. I hold on to the harness and peak over the side, the smile on my mouth stretched wide enough to break my face. Wow. Kaia’s house is bigger than I thought. I can see the almost invisible outline of her house, but nothing inside of it. So, we can see out from inside but not from out to in.??
Good one.??
The dragon’s wings?hit the air fast as his nose drives forward, so fast I almost slip, grabbing on to the leather straps tighter. I swear I hear him huff beneath me as he continues to glide us forward. Did this dragon just side-eye me in dragon talk???
Black clouds part for us as we gain speed, and it’s so scary how different Yemon is to what Rathe usually looks like. The planets all line the sky, only this time they don’t look like pastel backdrops to your favorite dreams, they look different. Angrier. Darker. Soiled.??
