His True Love

by Khardine Gray

  My girl...

  He really considered me his.

  I could have relished in the words forever but I didn’t get the chance. Jupe waved his hands and a wall of blue electrical fire came up between me and Eric, separating me from everyone. The fire turned to glass.

  In the same moment a red dragon appeared on Eric’s neck, similar to the dragons on Gabrielle’s arms and when he looked to me his eyes were blue fire.

  He looked to me for a few seconds and I saw the difference he meant. The difference and the sadness in his eyes.

  Turning back to Gabrielle he held out his hands to either side and lifted his chin.

  “I am Prince Eric of Bavrock, son of King Agrippa by the order of his majesty I command you to reveal yourself.”

  As soon as he finished speaking the dragons on Gabrielle’s arm moved. I thought they were going to fly off again but they didn’t. They simply transformed into two tall women with long white hair and golden robes comparable to what the Greeks wore.

  Like Eric their eyes were blue flames. They bowed to him but stood with Gabrielle.

  I pressed my hands to the glass before me, unable to believe or comprehend what I was seeing.

  What was I really seeing?

  Chapter 10

  Eric

  ***

  Yesterday when I called Gabrielle My lady, I thought it was a slip of the tongue. Sometimes that happened to me.

  I’d say things like that because it was so common to say it in Pandir when talking to noblewomen like my sister. All the years I’d been away and I still did it. I thought it was that.

  It never occurred to me that the words had come from the innate recognition of a member of the Coven of Shadows. The highest coven of mages and witches, old as time itself. They made dragon shifters, and as such our guardians, a warrior class of dragon shifters watched over them.

  Didn’t matter about the war that ripped everything apart. These guardians stayed with them.

  That was the deal. Their purpose was to protect against everything. Imbued with the powers from the highest court in the Celestial Realm, a place where the creator of all worlds lived with his heavenly host of angels they were immortal beings that could only be harmed if they came up against a wraith demon.

  History.

  That was my history. Stories Caleb and I grew up with. We learned how the guardians of old served the coven and protected other magical beings. They left Pandir to fulfil this purpose.

  I’d never seen one until today. The fact that Gabrielle had two was something I was having difficulty getting my head around. It told me she was both a being that needed protection and had either some type of skill or ability that needed guarding.

  I’d never met a being who needed the service of two guardians before.

  But, I couldn’t focus on myself right now.

  Gabrielle clearly didn’t know who or what she was, and my dear Ariyah was in complete shock from what she just witnessed.

  She was in shock from what I became and the shock would only get worse. I had to unleash my true dragon essence to command the guardians. When I did that the red dragon, the insignia for the royal bloodline would appear and all my powers would unveil themselves.

  It would be too much for a human to handle. Jupe’s barrier would alleviate some of the pressure.

  I turned back to Ariyah who had her hands pressed on the glass . Her eyes searching mine. I sensed her curiosity and the shock of what she was seeing, but that was it. The attraction had faded. The love was...

  Well, I couldn’t feel it.

  “Eric, what is going on?” Gabrielle asked breaking my stare with Ariyah.

  I turned back to her. “We’ll talk later and I promise to tell you all that I can. I have to go now.”

  “Hey, don’t you mean we?” Jupe cut in.

  “I need you here. Whatever is going on at home is... well it’s something I need to look into. Caleb knows she’s important to me. I can’t just leave her with nothing.”

  “The guardians are here,” Jupe argued.

  “And they will protect the witch.”

  “I’m a witch? A real one.” Gabrielle asked.

  I nodded. “Jupe. There are two of them. I don’t have to tell you what that means.” He knew. Just as much as I did what that meant. It also meant that if Ariyah was in danger they would probably take Gabrielle far away from it. Leaving Ariyah defenseless.

  “Be careful Eric.” Jupe placed a hand on my shoulder.

  I looked back to Ariyah, her hand was still pressed against the glass barrier and she was still looking at me.

  “Ariyah, I’m so sorry. This wasn’t the way I wanted to tell you, or show you what I was.” I apologized.

  “What are you?”

  “A dragon shifter. Half human, half dragon, but still yours.”

  A tear ran down her cheek as I spoke. “Mine?”

  “Yours. The green puddle is a portal to where I’m from. I have to go.”

  She shook her head. “No, please, what if I never see you again?”

  “You’ll see me.” I promised. I didn’t know how I could make such a promise, but it was her. “I’ll come back for you.”

  Moving her hand over the barrier she reached up to where my face was and stroked the glass like she would my face.

  That’s when I felt it.

  Love. Love in its purest and finest.

  “You better come back to me. Not for me, to me. Come back to me,” she spoke with conviction. Words straight to my heart. “Please be careful and come back to me.”

  Hearing those words was energy. It was everything to me. It told me she didn’t care what I was. She wanted me.

  “I most certainly will. I promise you.” I pressed my hands to the glass meeting hers. Then I moved, stepping back. There was no time to waste.

  “Guardians of the coven may I have safe passage to Pandir?” I asked the guardians.

  They both nodded, reached out their hands and waved them over the puddle which turned to the color of the sky in Pandir. Bright blue.

  I’d enter from here and come through the sky, that meant I had to be in dragon form.

  Ariyah was about to get another shock.

  I lifted my head and started the transformation process. The skin on my arms was the first to go. It was replaced by the blood red scales of my armor.

  Next was my face. Sharp spikes jutted from my chin as my head became more elongated to make room for my fire chamber. Then I grew.

  I was big so I couldn’t allow the whole transformation to take place here. I stuck my head in to the portal first and dived into the sky just as the rest of my body took shape.

  I spread my wings wide and flew high, higher and higher into the brilliance of the Pandir sky.

  Two hundred years hadn’t seen me like this, and I had to admit the freedom was like nothing I’d ever experienced in my life.

  It was exhilarating and true elation. It felt like I’d unlocked my true self and as I steadied myself and looked beyond to the two suns in the sky, I missed home.

  However. Below me, right below me I saw the evidence of what I was about to face. Ahead of the expanse of forest was a thick fog of darkness.

  It covered the area over the palace. Rich and black like smoke after the hottest fire had consumed it.

  This was Caleb. This was his doing.

  I flew over to it and nearly choked on the smog. The darkness may have looked like smoke but it wasn’t. It was dark essence. I descended to the ground and transformed to my human form just as I hit the ground.

  That was when sadness took me. There were dead bodies of dragon shifters everywhere and the whole palace and the surroundings had been blown up. Destroyed with blue fire that still burned in some areas. It looked like the war that drove me from here. How ironic for me to return to the same setting.

  I rushed into the palace courtyard looking everywhere for my family, feeling truly selfish now for the way that I left. The way that I left my little
sister especially.

  I never thought anything like this could happen.

  “Eric,” someone called out to me.

  I stopped and turned toward the stables. Out came Shaneia, the oracle. Then Aurora, my sister.

  I diverted to them.

  It was Aurora who threw her arms around me first, although I’d reached for her. She hugged me fiercely and started crying. When I left she was barely a hundred. She always resembled our mother. Now she looked exactly like her.

  Exactly like her with the same long blonde hair, golden like the sun, and the same bright blue eyes. Eyes like the sky. Eyes like Ariyah.

  Those same eyes beheld me with tears.

  “You came,” she winced.

  “Of course I came.” I may have left never to return but that didn’t mean I was going to abandon my family.

  The minute I knew I couldn’t travel to Pandir I knew there was trouble and coming back somehow, someway was the only answer.

  I just never expected the way in which I came.

  “I sent the message to the witch,” Shaneia said. Her bright red hair flowed out against the wind.

  “You did?” I asked releasing Aurora.

  “I saw Caleb’s disaster coming in a vision, and looked for other portal stones to the realm. I never expected to find her. It’s bad Eric. Caleb has found an etherstone and cursed your father, then used the powers of hell to seal off the passage to Pandir. Keeping you out.”

  “An etherstone?” I couldn’t believe what the hell I was hearing.

  “Yes. Possibly the only way to get the kingdom.”

  If father died the dragon essence would chose the next king. I understood Caleb’s plan completely. I’d have to be here for the essence to choose me, or direct it to choose someone I thought was worthy of it. Me being out of the picture would enable all of that to happen.

  “Where did he get the etherstone?”

  “We don’t know. A sorcerer maybe. Must be that, only they have the power to fashion one. Whoever helped him must have been very powerful.”

  Very powerful indeed. An etherstone gave the wielder the ability to command the darkness amongst other things. The dark forces from wherever they were. Blocking passage to Pandir was just one thing.

  Caleb already consumed dark essence that was why he looked the way he did.

  With an etherstone he could do all manner of things. Who would have helped him like that? And, why?

  This was starting to feel like it was above me. Completely above me. Nothing added up. It just didn’t and represented part of a bigger problem that neither of us could quite see.

  “The guards had sightings of him last week.” Aurora stated, dabbing her eyes. “We looked everywhere and tried to prepare as best as we could but we weren’t powerful enough. Eric he came with all kinds of creatures from hell.”

  I should have known something like this would happen. Caleb wasn’t the type to back down for anything, or anyone. It took him all this time to formulate a plan. A very good plan from what I could see.

  What had he done to father and the land?

  “What is he doing now? Where is he?”

  “We don’t know. The hell fiends disappeared after the massacre.”

  We looked around at the ruins. The place looked like desolation. What used to be vibrant architecture from our people of old was just ashes, crumbled walls, nothingness.

  “He’ll be back,” Shaneia muttered. “He’ll sense your presence.”

  That was one sure thing. Caleb would sense me and sense that I found a way to get here.

  “Come, please. Father is ...he’s fading.” Aurora winced.

  Father...

  I didn’t know what it would be like seeing him again.

  In my mind I still had the same feelings as I had toward him when I was last here. Father watched me leave, knew why I left and never came after me.

  He was right and I was wrong. That was the law of our home. To him my humanity made me weak. Caleb was the favorite.

  But Caleb betrayed him in the worst way.

  Two hundred years ago Caleb struck up a deal with one of the generals in Father’s army. A shifter called Philias. Caleb promised him untold wealth if he betrayed our father.

  The plan was set in motion but failed. Philias was supposed to give Father poison to drink, but mother had it instead and died. With guilt in his heart Philias came to Father and confessed his crimes. Confessed and told him about Caleb’s betrayal.

  Little did we know how deep his treachery lay. There was a war similar to the war of old. We’d grown up on the stories from that time and that was how I imagined it to be. Dragon shifters of Pandir and Caleb with his forces from hell. We won and father banished him from Pandir.

  Up until last night that was the last time I saw my brother, and the same day I left Pandir too. I left because father didn’t just banish Caleb, he killed Philias and his whole family.

  His grief over losing Mother made him issue the most severe punishment deliverable for high treason. It didn’t matter that the man confessed. It didn’t matter that his family were innocent. It didn’t matter that he had children.

  It didn’t matter that Father was keeper of the law and could change it if he wanted to. He could have shown some compassion. He didn’t.

  Father killed them, all of them.

  To me he and Caleb were the same.

  So I left. I left my family. My sister and my father, banishing myself.

  Now this had happened and father was fading.

  “Okay.” I nodded agreeing to see him.

  There was no time for my reservations, and the actions from the past that weighed heavily on my mind. No time.

  Chapter 11

  Eric

  ***

  We went back through the stable, into the courtyard and down into the chambers where Father used to meet with his councilmen.

  Three of them stood around him as he lay on a flat stone bed. He turned his head when he saw me and tried to sit up but the councilman closest to him stopped him.

  I glanced at Aurora who gave me a nod, telling me without words to go to him.

  I did and as I got closer I saw for myself that he was indeed fading. His entire bottom half was transparent. It was just his face and torso that had solid form. Even the robes he wore had taken on the transparency.

  “Eric, my son.” He spoke sounding like his voice was so very far away.

  His councilmen gave way, giving me space at his side.

  “Father. I...” I honestly didn’t know what to say.

  What could I say?

  What should I say?

  This was all so awkward for me.

  “I’m so sorry, for everything. I’ve been a truly stubborn old fool,” Father began. “Our humanity is a part of us. It makes us who we are and I never embraced it. I saw it as a weakness and the dragon essence the more dominant entity inside us. My lack of desire to embrace both made me stubborn and I lost you.”

  “We need to think about how to fix this.”

  He shook his head. “No, I can’t fight, and neither can you. I’m fading fast. Thank the guardians of old that you are here so the dragon essence can choose you.”

  “No. That’s not going to happen. And, I don’t want it. I don’t want to be king. I won’t accept. You’re king. You, and you will not die this day on my watch.”

  Someone cleared their throat in a loud exaggerated manner that made us all turn.

  It was Caleb.

  He stood by one of the pillars, resting against it with his leg on the sacred altar. That was where the priests laid the Book of the Fallen, our most sacred book that held records of the old kings and the guardians.

  At first he looked like his normal self, blonde hair, green eyes, clothes normal.

  Then he moved and became the darkness.

  “Look at us all together again. Father and his slaves, our dear sister and you Eric. Not sure how you got here but you won’t get the chance to decide whe
ther or not you want the kingdom, or make promises to Father you can’t keep.” His eyes rippled with the dark energy.

  “Think you can talk big because you have an etherstone?” I challenged stepping away from Father.

  Caleb’s face darkened even more when I said that. He flew across to me in such a rush and with such a force the earth shook. I had to move fast to get Aurora out of the way, shoving her behind me.

  “What do you know of the etherstone?” Caleb asked getting up into my face. Then his gaze snapped to Shaneia. “You, you evil bitch you did this. You found a way to bring him here.”

  He lunged after her but I moved at the same time as him and blast him with a fireball that sent him reeling backwards. I couldn’t do this last night because it was too dangerous with Ariyah in the house. I also didn’t know what I was up against.

  Caleb snarled at me and started to transform right there in the chamber. His face changed first, not into the dragon I’d seen him as. Not the red dragon he should have become that was similar to me. No, not that at all.

  His face took on the dark wispy smoke that had surrounded him and within the smoke was the dark form of a dragon. The rest of his body transformed too. Wings black as night with spikes on the edge and his whole body covered in solid black armor. The size of him was enough. He broke through the roof and the staircase behind him crumbled away as he flew up into the sky.

  I looked back to Aurora. “Shields up. Keep them up. Shaneia do what you need to.”

  With that command I transformed too, happy that it didn’t take as long as it did the first time. In the past I was able to take whatever form I wanted within seconds.

  Just like Caleb, and just like Caleb I surged into the sky.

  A blaze of black fire, hot and virile like it came straight from hell cascaded over me. I could feel the heat burning through my thick armor. That had never happened before.

  Caleb sailed through the sky like a nightmare, coming dangerously fast my way. I just about managed to dodge another fire blaze, and the few seconds that I buoyed myself allowed me the chance to open my mouth and send a fire blaze of my own. It hit him, but did nothing.

  A blaze like that should have taken him out.