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“Why did you do this?” Hollis asked, her question directed at Cyrus, but her eyes were on me. Guilt ate atthe inside of my stomach, and I so badly wished I could fill her in. Let her know that I was not doing this out of badness, but necessity.
I was not here because I wanted to be. That is what I had to keep reminding even myself.
Cyrus looked at her, his face calm as he placed his water down on the floor by his feet.
“I am not a bad person.” He started, and Hollis rolled her eyes. Tarian hummed low in his throat, glaring at his sister, who glared right back at him. Cyrus, to my surprise, laughed. “No, I completely understand that reaction.” He smiled, “My father stole from your kingdom, and signed away your Queen to me in hopes it would farther his kingdom. That reaction is entirely what I expected.
“But I promise you, my ideas are not the same as his. Kira is my equal in every way. I never wanted our Kingdoms to be at war again.”
Hollis’s eyebrows furrowed, and she leaned forward, her crossed arms resting on her knees as she peered across at Cyrus.
“What do you mean‘again’?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
“Before we were four Kingdoms, we were two. Veton and Everfell. Everfell was to the West and was what is now Earth and Water. Veton was to the East, and when the Kingdoms broke, we became Fire and Air. We gained the names through the main sources of magic. Wieldersin the West found their power in the waters and through the earth, just like magic is found here through Fire.”
My eyebrows shot up as I registered what he was saying. I had tapped into my magic for the first time when he had been conjuring fire and I had touched him, but my mind whirled with thoughts. I was born in Earth, and gifted magic by an Earthen wielder — would I be able to wield from both sources?
“The King of Veton at the time, my namesake, King Cyrus the Great, found out that the lands of Everfell were home to dragons. He became obsessed. He wanted them more than anything… enough so that he sent his youngest daughter, Princess Oriana, to Everfell the second she turned sixteen. He had intended for her to be married to the Everfellian Prince, Maxwell. No doubt where my father got the idea for our own… situation.”
Cyrus’s eyes flickered to mine, a small, almost apologetic, smile on his face.
“Oriana was killed not long after she arrived. The Everfellian royals had her drugged with a truth serum and she told them everything — her father’s plan, her instructions to find the dragon’s eggs, all of it. They beheaded her in front of the whole city.”
“She was only a child,” I frowned, my heart breaking at the story. It was not one I had heard before, and I was beginning to wonder just how much of our history had been kept secret from us at home. Rage bubbled in my stomach.
“She was.” Cyrus nodded, sipping at his water, and looking over to where even Aepein was watching him, listening intently. “Her father was furious. He sent his entire army over the seas with the intention of bringing Everfell to the ground, but when they arrived, they did not make it even a mile inland before the dragons burned them where they stood.
“The King fled, naturally, but he fled to what is now Air. He was looking for more people to fight with him, for him, and the people there… they refused. They did not want to serve the man who was now known as the coward king for fleeing battle.
“Everywhere fell into disarray. Veton was no more, and the borders were drawn between the two countries. Families were torn apart based on whatever side of the border they lived on, and Fire and Air were born. Everfell lasted longer, but not by much. The nobles who lived there could not agree on anything after the killing of Oriana, and eventually, they separated, too.
“Allies were formed, naturally, and while the countries were no longer, they kept each other close. Air, eventually, also joined the allegiance between Earth and Water, and Fire was left to fend for itself. Not that we’ve done a bad job of it.”
The snippy tone at the end of his sentence took me by surprise, and I tilted my head to the side. Hollis was frowning deeply, her eyebrows knitted together in thecenter as she tried to work her way through the story Cyrus had spun for us.
A heavy feeling sat on my chest, and I sipped at my water slowly, trying to rid myself of the unwelcome anxiety.
“Why did he want the dragons?” Hollis asked, finally, her voice loud in the now silent bunker, “And your father. What is it about them that they wanted so badly?”
Cyrus shrugged his shoulders, his eyes wandering back over to where Aepein had laid her head down on her paws, her eyes closed and her breathing deep, the egg burrowed underneath her.
“They are wonderfully powerful,” He smiled, “I think they thought that if they had them, they would be ruler of… well, everything.”
“They’re powerful but they are not without morals.” Tarian said, his tone low and his eyes focused solely on Cyrus. “They would not serve anyone who wanted them purely to do harm.”
Cyrus held up his hands, a smile working its way onto his face.
“I am aware, that is why I do not agree with my father’s ideas.” His lips pressed together in a thin line, “But, I will remind you, that Earth used them against us not that long ago.”
“We had our reasons.” Tarian snapped, his arms crossed over his chest and his gaze turned to me.
Silence fell over the bunker. The tension in our small group grew even more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked past.
I watched Aepein where she slept, her large form curled into a ball as small as she could manage and tried to imagine what it had felt like for her. Years away from her child, her others unable to hatch without their sibling, her mate asleep. It must have been devastating, and as soon as she woke, she went straight to battle for us. For her family. A lump formed in my throat, and I tried to swallow around it, rubbing my hands on the fabric of my trousers.
Hollis cleared her throat, pulling me from my thoughts and making me look across to her as she stood from her stool. Her eyes were also on Aepein, and she had a determined look set about her features. Aepein’s head rose, as though she could feel herself being looked at, and she huffed a breath out of her nostrils, fluttering my hair even from here.
“How about we get that egg back to its brothers and sisters, huh?” She asked, smiling at the great beast across from us.
