AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But allowing a human here?—”
“Has been done in the past,” I snap. “For years, dragons with royal blood hunted for their human mates. Finding their human mates made their kingdom stronger, made us stronger. When we defeated the Nephilim during the first Great War, we knew we were surviving on borrowed time.”
I don’t need to rehash the history lesson. Everyone at this table knows it and falls silent. Even Aeron looks somber, which isn’t natural for him.
Nearly one hundred years ago, my father, along with the help of the rulers of Mescos, fought the Nephilim, tricking the giant monsters and trapping them within the mountains. The Nephilim leader, Gadreel, made one final curse before my father and the other could seal them away.
With his last bit of magic, Gadreel not only cursed all their bloodlines, but vowed that the Nephilim would return with a vengeance in one hundred years. That our powers wouldn't be enough to hold them back a second time unless we found our mates.
Our human mates.
However, Gadreel’s final rebellious act before being entombed in the mountain prison was destroying the portal between our world and the human one. No one has been able to go through since. No one other than Ender.
He remains a mystery to us all.
“Can we trust him?” one of the council members asks, breaking the heavy silence of the room.
“Do we have an option at this point?” I counter, and he remains silent. They all remain silent, because they know I’m right. We have no other option. Our hundred years are coming to an end and if we don’t want to be casualties in the upcoming war, then we have no other choice.
“So that’s it then. The Guardian will bring over a human for our king to marry and we simply hope they mate? And Ender asks for nothing in return? You can see why I’m skeptical, my king,” Aeron says, tone belligerent.
He has a right to be skeptical. I’m fucking skeptical and questioning my sanity. But as their king, I can’t allow Aeron to speak to me that way in front of the most powerful people in my kingdom.
The stone room heats up, my dragon fire coming to the surface. My eyes flash from green to gold, narrowing at Aeron. When I speak, my voice is full of command which makes his head dip in subservience.
“The decision has been made. The human is on their way here now. If anyone wants to challenge my decision, do so now. Be warned, I won’t be holding back.” My dragon nearly breaks through the surface, I feel scales cover my skin, ready to change at a moment’s notice.
No one but Aeron and Vivia meet my gaze. Aeron looks ready to rip my throat out, but does nothing except simmer in his own volatile emotions.
“We trust you know what you are doing, sire,” Vivia says at last. It’s not an agreement, but it’s something. I’ll take it.
Just then, the door to my meeting room opens and a small dragon the size of a cow flies in. He’s still a hatchling and the poor boy looks like he would rather be anywhere other than this room.
“My…King. I…” he stammers, darting his eyes around the room but never meeting anyone’s gaze. I can be a patient man when needed, so I wait for the hatchling to continue.
“I was sent to tell you, erm…that the, uh, human is here.” With his message complete, the hatchling spins around and flies out the way he came.
“Meeting adjourned. I have my mate to meet,” I say to the room and leave without looking back.
Mate. What an odd concept. Mate implies love, but in order to fall in love, you need a heart, and mine turned to stone so long ago. She’ll simply be my wife.
I brought the human here to save us. But I fear she’ll be another casualty of the biggest threat to our kind. And it will be all my fault.
Chapter 3
Rose
Iimagine being stretched in every direction and then rolled into a ball feels like this. Crossing through the veil is an experience I don’t ever want to repeat. According to The Guardian, I won’t have to. Grym Hollow is no longer my home. He’s made it abundantly clear that signing the contract would take me out of my world and there would be no undoing it. It hadn’t scared me then, but now I’m questioning my sanity.
Especially when I gather my wits and take a look around my new home for the first time. “Holy shit. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”
“My name is Ender,” The Guardian—Ender, apparently—says from behind me. “And I’ve been to Kansas. This doesn’t remotely resemble that state.”
I blink, wondering if he is messing with me, but Ender seems quite serious. So, he’s a literal guy. Got it.
But he is right about something. This place doesn’t resemble Kansas in the slightest. It doesn’t even look like anything in my modern world. I feel like I stepped through my TV into an episode of Game of Thrones.
We are standing in the middle of a large hallway with stone walls. Carved into the stone are intricate designs, some resemble a window, while others are simply decorative. The windows look as if they were taken from a cathedral, the beautiful stained glass adorned with images of dragons. The sun hits the glass just right to reflect the reds and blues throughout the room.
