Dragon Vanquished: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 4)

by Zara Stark

  "Do you not want to escape? Or take on the Concilium?" I asked him.

  He sighed and looked away from me.

  "You can be honest with me, I won't tell anyone or be mad if you don't want to participate," I reassured him, he wasn't a super crucial part of my plan, I think we could manage without him if we had to.

  "No, I do not like being a captive, I simply do not have a place to go," He sighed. "My cousin staged a coup, stealing my fiance and my throne from me, I had no choice but to join the games if I hoped to go home. My people would accept nothing but a champion back. Now I lost a match and can't go back to the games, I have no chance of going home and it seemed my fate was to be stuck here for an eternity, feeding a parasitic deity."

  "Tough break," I whistled low. I felt for the guy that sucked. I didn't know the whole story but what kind of skank ditched her fiance for his cousin?

  "I absolutely do not want to remain here but if we escape I have nowhere to go," He replied honestly. "I wasn't unsure of your plan. I was unsure of my future."

  "That's tough, I honestly don't know what lies in my future either. I know we take out the Concilium and plan to go back to my time. I know Mab and Ciardha want to go back to the future too, why not come with us if there's nothing for you here?

  "Nothing for me here? I had a fiance," He growled.

  "How long ago was that?" I asked.

  "A year ago."

  "Tough love time, I hate to tell you this and burst your bubble but if she married your cousin a year ago, they have consummated their marriage many times over, didn't Tefra say sex and fidelity were sacred to the centaurs? She might even be preggers by now," I told him.

  He looked away from me. "I know that. She never loved me. We had been betrothed as children. Me a prince and she a lady of a noble clan, daughter of my father's oldest friend. She was always far more interested in my cousin than she ever was with me. I was boring and studious, focused on my training and being the best king I could be. Not the first heir in line, my cousin had a lot more freedom. He was half wild and always having fun. He was always far more popular with the female centaurs because of his wild, bad boy image. When he overthrew me after my father's death, she jumped at the chance to marry him instead. I thought she had loved me, she pretended she did, all false smiles and giggling. I thought she was flirting with me, interested in me, I thought she was falling in love with me. But no she loves power, she is interested in whoever wears the crown and that was me and now him."

  "I'm sorry, that's terrible, I hope you know all females aren't that way, I'm sure you'll find one that doesn't treat you like that," I sympathized with him. I had dated plenty of dudes that were only after superficial things instead of liking me for me. I remembered the cruel sting of being lied to and discarded when my usefulness had passed. It hurt less now that I knew true love. I hoped this misunderstood centaur prince would find his happily ever after somehow.

  "I want to escape this place and I want to defeat the Concilium but I'm afraid I can't go back to your time period. I'm fine with losing my fiance, I've accepted that, I've accepted the betrayal from my own flesh and blood but I can't leave my clan in the hands of such a duplicitous, reckless king," He looked over my shoulder, deeply lost in thought.

  "Well, I'm sure you won't need to win a Concilium tournament to get let back in if you show up as one of the warriors that took the whole Concilium down," I smiled. "Whatever you need to do after we take down the Concilium is your business but for now we're a team and we're in this together. I know Mab and Ciardha joke a lot but that's their strange way of showing affection."

  Lelras nodded.

  "You ready to get to work then, big guy?" I asked and he nodded again.

  We went back into the room and Ciardha flickered back into view as we came in.

  Ciardha held up the tarot cards for me. Joy filled my entire body as I took in the wooden deck of cards.

  Chapter 6

  "Wow, you got those fast!" I clapped my hands together, rubbing the drachma between my hands.

  "Quick as shadows and darkness. I'm a hell of a lot faster when I'm not carrying human baggage side-long," Ciardha smirked, holding the tarot cards out to me.

  "I'm ignoring your rude ass mouth only because you got me such a wonderful present," I gripped the cards. As soon as I felt their weight in my hand, another heavier emotional weight lifted off of my shoulders. I felt safe again, confident again.

  Ciardha disappeared again and reappeared with his arms full of swords. He passed them around like party favors to the rest of Team Wildcard.

  I turned the cards over in my hand. These cards weren't paper or card stock nor were they the metal of the deck Cobalt gave me. These were made of slivers of sanded wood, etched and stained into tarot cards. Powerful magic thrummed from the cards, whatever wood they were made from was a powerful one.

  "You guys ready to fuck shit up?" I asked them.

  This time they all grinned, even Lelras.

  --

  Together we marched from the cell. Not bothering to hide. It was a wild gamble what we were doing but I had a feeling that luck was on my side.

  We followed the same path that Ciardha and I had taken the day before. It was a much longer walk now, the anticipation making the distance to the monster cell block feel even longer. This was a totally dumb idea but sometimes you got to risk it to get the biscuit.

  As we stepped into view in the monster cell block, Mab oohed and awed at the glowing green light. Typical faerie loving anything green, it seemed like a very faerie thing to do.

  "Last chance human, do you truly dare to do this?" Tefra asked.

  "Hell yeah, I do," I grinned. I flipped my coin in my hand and approached the wendigo cage. The bloodthirsty creatures stopped tittering and clawing at each other and watched the four of us with glowing red eyes. I clenched the coin in my hand and flipped it onto the back of my hand.

  "Heads, good luck to you wendigos," I grinned. The wards on their cell started to dim. It looked like we would have a chance to finish up with the other cells before the zombie-like deer humanoids would be free and attack us.

  "She's going to get you guys killed," Ciardha told the others.

  "And not you?" Mab asked him.

  "No, I'll ghost if this starts going south, offense definitely intended," Ciardha told the faerie dragon.

  "Offense taken. If you even try, I'll illusion you into thinking you're safe when I toss your scrawny ass into the wendigo cage myself," She growled at him.

  Ciardha laughed at her. "I would expect nothing less from you, faerie."

  We continued on down the line. Freeing the anaconda-bird that Tefra told me was a real basilisk, apparently, we could look into its eyes without turning into stone. Our eyeballs would merely pop out of our skulls like grapes. I avoided looking at the creature as I freed it. Just like with the wendigos, the wards started to face slowly.

  I walked to the two kraken cages next. Instead of taking a long time for the wards to face, the smaller krakens cage blew open, the metal door flying off of its hinges. The larger one's cell door opened gently. The smaller beast pulled itself up out of its deep pool and crawled on its tentacles into the larger one's cell. Even if it was the smaller of the two it was still gigantic, giant dome-shaped head almost touching the fifty foot ceiling, it's body was a light lilac purple mottled with pink and a deeper dark purple, it's large green eyes flickered to me for a moment and I could have sworn I saw gratitude and elation in those very alien-like eyes. Its beak was the same almost black purple of the suckers on its tentacles. The larger kraken pulled it into the pool and the cell door closed again, the wards reigniting into a brilliant green. They were happy now that they were together.

  "Good luck to you krakens," I saluted them.

  "Guess they don't want to leave," Mab said, her voice colored in confusion.

  "Don't you see? They don't care where they are, as long as they're together, everything is alright with them, home is anywhere t
hey’re together," I explained. We didn't linger long, the thought of the wendigos and basilisk's imminent release enough to hurry us along.

  The next four cells were those elephant-snakes.

  "Grootslangs," Tefra told us. "Monsters all the way from caves in South Africa. Cruel things that feed off of pain instead of flesh or plant. They like nothing more than the taste of cruelty. Highly inquisitive though, mesmerized by anything shiny like gems."

  I was wondering what those things were," I told him.

  "To have so very many, Tar must have been collecting them for millennia. Smart bastard, collecting a bunch of creatures that power him up that he doesn't need to feed. Just feeding off of the pain of those two krakens being separated from each other," Tefra shook his head. "I expect nothing less than this level of intelligence from such an ancient deity."

  "And yet the big dog hasn't shown yet. Does he not care?" Mab asked.

  "I don't think he does, look how poorly everything is taken care of here," I gestured around. "I think that so-called big dog is in a rut. He's not crazy about his job anymore and is slacking at it."

  "Sounds like he needs a vacation," Ciardha shrugged.

  "Or a lover to help him unwind," Mab purred.

  "Let it go faerie, he's not going slumming with a science experiment," Ciardha scoffed.

  "Slumming? How dare you? You're just jealous, you would jump at the chance to be with me," Mab shook her head, rolling her eyes at Ciardha.

  "I thought we already established this?" Ciardha laughed.

  "Enough foreplay in the middle of our escape, can you idiots resume this later? Perhaps when there isn't an imminent wendigo attack and I might have an opportunity to watch?" Tefra snapped.

  "Oh boy," I grit my teeth. Awkward. Mab and Ciardha shot each other wide-eyed glances and then continued on.

  "Wow, way to kill a mood, Teflon," I laughed.

  "What's Teflon?" He asked.

  "A material nothing sticks to, it's used on pans for cooking," I explained.

  Tefra cringed. "Tefra is a very old and respected name. I can't believe modern humans have given something so stupid a name similar to mine."

  "How about you worry about that later idiot?" Ciardha snapped. "When a wendigo attack isn't imminent?" Ciardha mocked.

  Tefra just gave Ciardha a creepy smile.

  I shook my head, Tefra really had something going on with Cirdha. They really needed to kick each other's asses or make out. Or both.

  "Come on children, everyone link arms with a buddy so we don't get lost or left behind," I told them all.

  Mab linked her arm through mine, the one I would be used my cards with. I gently let her go.

  "Sorry girlfriend, you partner up with Lelras, I need my arms free for cards," I told her.

  Ciardha reluctantly stood next to Tefra.

  We hurried along, past this room and wandering in the same direction that Ciardha and I had before. We came to the room with the elf-like creatures and I flipped my coin, the cell door popped open.

  All of them jumped up from their straw cots, looks of concern widening their sharp features.

  "Don't mind us, if you don't want to leave that's cool too. We're just causing a bit of mayhem," I smiled and waved. None of them spoke so I looked back at Mab. She was staring at them with wide eyes. her hands went to her ears. hidden by her dark waves. It looked like she was feeling the tips of her ears, to see if they were similar to the elf-like women.

  Ciardha shoved her forward. "Come on, science experiment, identity crisis later and escape now."

  "You insensitive cretin," Lelras snapped at Ciardha but he gently nudged Mab forward too, a look of resignation on his face.

  "Pretty protective horse boy for being the same guy who donkey kicked her across our cell earlier. I just made a sassy comment, you probably cracked a few ribs," Ciardha huffed. No one responded to him as we came to the demigod beefcake cell.

  Mab didn't speak as we continued on.

  I flipped my coin again and it landed on heads again. The door didn't immediately open, instead of like the ghouls, the wards started to fade.

  All of the men in there were asleep and didn't wake. I looked back at the group and they all shrugged.

  "Alright then," I turned back around and continued on.

  We left their hall and entered a new one, the hallway widening again until it came to two pathways. I paused, totally lost.

  "We went right last time," Ciardha reminded me.

  "Gotcha," I told him and we started to go right.

  The coin leaped out of my hand and rolled down the left hallway.

  I chased after it, the group tailing after me. For one little coin that had fallen from my hands, it was getting some distance. Further and further it lead us down the dark left path.

  "It smells ancient in here, the dust has been untouched for a thousand years," Ciardha coughed behind me.

  "Light on your hooves, Prince Lelras, if you please. If you kick up any more dust, we'll all choke on it," Tefra told him.

  Lelras grimaced and took more measured steps.

  "What the frick frack? Why would your little coin lead us this way?" Mab asked.

  "So we agree that it happened for a reason then?” Tefra grinned. “What an interesting development.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, I really felt like he knew more about my powers than he let on.

  "What do you know?" I asked him

  Tefra shrugged. "Know? Nothing. Hypothesize? Definitely."

  "Tell me what--" I was about to demand answers when the entire prison shook, sending dust everywhere. I pulled part of the silken fabric of my dress up to cover my mouth and nose. Clenching my eyes shut to keep the dust out of them.

  Mab, Lelras, and Tefra coughed, their eyes watering. Having duller human senses worked in my favor for once! Ciardha partially disappeared the dust in the air passing right through him.

  “Well I think some of the beasties got free, probably killing each other, my money is on the grootslang wiping the floor with the wendigos,” Ciardha laughed.

  Tefra shook his head. “The grootslang might tear the wendigos apart and win for now but the wendigos will always win in the end.”

  We all shivered at that thought. A bunch of zombified grootslang didn’t sound very appealing. No way.

  “So it isn’t just humans that get undead and zombie-like?” I asked to fill the eerie silence. Whether it was the design of the hallway or whatever, there was a terrible creepy feeling the way we were going.

  "No, wendigos can infect anything. Gods, dragons, centaurs," Tefra answered me, staring at Lelras.

  Lelras look alarmed. "I had never seen a wendigo before I joined the games.”

  "I'm not surprised, your tribe is from the Mediterranean and wendigos are Algonquian," Tefra explained, looking from Lelras back to me. “You're from that continent right?"

  "Uh yes, it's called North America in my time period though, how do the wendigos make it all the way across the Atlantic to here if they're such mindless killers?"

  "Shipped in of course, just like anything exotic the upper class wants," Tefra huffed. "I'm sure they were brought in during a supposed dull period of the games where contestants weren't being maimed enough for the audience to enjoy."

  I cringed at that.

  "So the three of you are from North America?" Lelras asked.

  "Yes, I'm from the state of Iowa in the United States," I told him.

  "Yes, I believe I'm from a lab in Los Angeles," Mab explained.

  "I'm from Canada, the country above theirs," Ciardha told him.

  "I spent so much time ignoring you that I didn't even think about that fact that I was interacting with people from the future," Lelras looked a little shell shocked.

  "Understandably shocking, I've never met a centaur before you so we're all just a bunch of firsts for each other," I smiled.

  "No centaurs?" Lelras asked shocked. "You mean in the New World?"

  "Uh," I scratched th
e back of my head, trying to think of a way to explain it. "Well, I kind of mean period. I haven't been anywhere but America in my century but our modern world is all pretty connected to each other. If someone had met a centaur it would be all over the web."

  "Web? Like spiders, giant spiders?" Lelras asked.

  I shook my head. "No not like giant spiders. I probably shouldn't explain, I don't want to fuck up the timeline and create some sort of weird butterfly effect."