Crown of Dragons

by Nina Walker

  “People?”

  “The police,” Dean offers. “You shouldn’t have stayed, Khali. You don’t understand how human police think.”

  I swallow hard, still stuck on the fact that Dean was there last night, too.

  He’s still staring at his friend and I’m sinking into my bed like I don’t even belong in my own hospital room. “Khali, what happened to you? Why would you risk coming here?” He takes her hands in his.

  “Drakenon needs your help.” Pain wells up in her eyes. “Bram needs you. The Occultists have him. And your brother, Owen…” Her voice catches.

  “I already know,” he whispers in a dark tone, gaze flicking to me. “Owen is dead, isn’t he?”

  Realization hits me then. Owen is the spirit dragon with the blue eyes. He was here to find Dean, to relay a message about helping Khali. My mind goes back to that place, to that moment Landon was choking me, and I remember how Owen’s dragon appeared again and fought the reaper long enough for me to get away the first time. But something must have happened to him after that because he disappeared. I swallow hard. I can’t bear to say a word about it now. They’ve already lost him once, they don’t need to know the rest.

  “Knock knock,” the doctor says as he comes through the door. “How are you feeling, Hazel? Doing all right?”

  Dean and Khali press themselves into the corner of the room, whispering quietly among themselves, their eyes still trained on me. Two residents, a nurse, and Mom all shuffle into the room. It’s filled to the brim now and everyone’s looking at me like I’m a broken piece of china they’re trying to meticulously reassemble with tweezers and super glue.

  The doctor launches into a myriad of questions, all of which I do my best to answer. He tells me my wounds will take a few months to heal but the plastic surgery department did a great job fixing me right up and not to worry. He then goes into a psychiatric referral and says I’ll need PTSD therapy soon.

  It’s all too much to handle. I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s doing if he thinks I’m going to need a phyciatrist. Dang, my life is crazy!

  “When can I get out of here?” I ask, my voice pleading. “I want to forget this ever happened and get back to my classes and my life.”

  He answers to Mom. “I think she’s going to need at least another few days of observation but it’s up to you if you want to start the discharge process sooner.”

  “Why is it up to her?” I challenge, angry that I’m not being listened to. “It’s my body. I should get a say here, too.”

  He frowns. “I’m sorry,” he says, “but since you’re a minor for two more months, it’s up to your mother.”

  “December sixteenth isn’t that far away,” I snap. “I’m not a child. I’m in college, living on my own. I think I’m smart enough to make my own decisions.”

  “It’s okay,” Mom steps in, her face soft and her hands up. “Why don’t Dr. Saunders and I step outside to discuss the details of discharging you as soon as is safely possible, okay, Hazel?”

  I let out a frustrated breath but nod because I know I’m overreacting a little here. She and the rest of the medical staff leave the room. I shut my eyes tight, embarrassed at my outburst, and then I turn to my friends in the corner.

  “What are you looking at?” I question. They’re staring at me like I’ve grown a second head or something. Okay, maybe the painkillers are wearing off because I’m starting to get annoyed with them, too. I’m grumpy to the max but who can blame me? The skin on my stomach feels like it’s been set on fire, and I’m ready to be alone to sulk in peace and quiet.

  “When did you say your birthday was?” Dean asks.

  “December sixteenth,” I reply. Great, I didn’t want anyone to know.

  “And you’re seventeen right now?” Khali’s eyes are round saucers and her mouth is shaped in a cute little “O”.

  I frown. Okay, this is getting weird. “Yes. Why the sudden interest?”

  Khali steps forward, wringing her hands. “I’m seventeen and my birthday is the sixteenth of December,” she says. “We were born on the same day.”

  I shrug. “So, we’re birthday buddies. That’s cool but it’s a coincidence that happens all the time.”

  She turns to Dean. “An Occultist said he put a spell on me when I was a baby. He mentioned my eighteenth birthday. And I feel this strange magical connection to Hazel, it’s hard to explain, but it’s undeniable. When she was hurt, I knew I had to save her. And when you ran away from the police, I couldn’t leave her. Physically couldn’t move. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

  They stare at each other for a long beat before turning back to me. The dancing fire has returned to Dean’s coal eyes, and Khali’s are just as magical, sparkling with her thoughts. But no, she’s reading way too much into this. Our birthdays matching has to be a coincidence. I’m obviously not a dragon shifter. I’m human. And I’m not like them, I’m not special except for this annoying “seeing spirits” business, but that’s nothing to do with them and tons of humans claim to have that ability.

  “Hazel is a psychic medium,” Dean says slowly. “Could it be something more than that? Could she be part of the spell, too?”

  “It’s possible,” Khali replies, her voice growing soft and her eyes watering with something I can’t quite place. Fear? Love? She approaches me again and sits on the edge of the bed, this time taking my free hand into hers. When she does, I yelp. The connection between us grew from a spark to an electrical current. It’s a charge that I’ve never felt before. Is this magic? And maybe it is the result of a spell, but it’s undeniable. I don’t know what to do with this news.

  She swallows hard. “You can see the spirit realm?”

  I nod.

  She considers this, her ethereal eyes pinning me down with her turning mind. “Hazel, I think you might be more than just a medium. I think you might have elemental magic.”

  Dean is frozen behind her, looking down at me like he’s never seen me before. Elemental magic? I’m not sure what that is but it doesn’t sound real. It sounds like it’s made from a storybook. Then again, my whole life these last few months has been like that. Like I said before, it’s like I’m turning into the heroine of some cheesy teen novel!

  “Dean’s elemental is fire,” she says. “I’m all four—fire, water, earth, and air.” She lets out a breath and smiles gently. “And you, my friend, are spirit. You possess the rarest element of all. One so rare, it hasn’t been seen for over a century.”

  I burst out laughing. “No, sorry,” I say, “that’s ridiculous. It can’t be true.”

  “You saw the spirit dragon,” she says, “and the reaper, both creatures from the supernatural realm. I don’t think you’d have been able to do that if you were a regular human medium.”

  That shuts me up. I look to Dean. “You think this is real? You think I have some kind of spirit elemental? Something from your realm?”

  He stands tall, all brooding eyes and hands shoved into his jeans pockets, but he nods.

  Khali continues, “I think you and I are linked somehow. There’s something else the Occultist said.” She talks of this “Occultist” person like I should have a clue about him, but I do know one thing, whatever he is or it is, it can’t be good. “He told me that when I turned eighteen, I’d be coming to him, begging for his help.” Our eyes are locked and dread settles in deep. “I think we’re connected, as part of a spell.” Her voice catches. “And I’m not sure what it means, but I think we’re both in deep trouble because of it. Have you noticed anything strange happening to you in the last few months?”

  I burst out laughing, a reaction to the shock and the morphine and the fear.

  “I’ll take that as a yes?”

  I swallow hard and stifle the laughs, nodding. I don’t want to believe her, but believing her feels inevitable just the same. The reaper might be gone for now, unable to terrorize innocent women while he looked for someone with ties to magic, but he was here. And what happen
ed to me is confirmation enough. Khali speaks the truth. There is something wrong with me. I think I’ve always known it, have always hated it. There’s something magical going on with my ability, something reaching far beyond what is normal for a medium, and even if I didn’t choose it, it’s mine to own.

  “My abilities have been stronger than ever, but they’ve also felt out of control, like I’m attracting unwanted spirits,” I say, building as much courage into my voice as possible. I feel like a fraud. “So I guess you and I have two months to break the spell.”

  Her hand squeezes tighter around mine. “Two months to break the spell, save my friends and family, and stop Silas from enslaving me as his wife.”

  I blink, surprised and trying to take it all in. All of this and I have to get through my first semester. What have I gotten myself into this time?

  END OF BOOK ONE

  What’s Next?

  The Dragon Blessed trilogy continues:

  Kingdom of Spirits - Coming Fall/Winter 2019

  Throne of Embers - Coming Spring 2020

  Be sure to go to Nina’s Amazon author page and click “follow” so you can be first to preorder books or find out more about her catalogue.

  Acknowledgments

  Khali and Hazel’s story didn’t come to me like my others have. It wasn’t a dream that sparked an idea or a wayward thought that I grabbed onto and ran with until I had a book. Fact was, I decided I wanted to write about dragons because I had so many readers asking me to write about dragons. The genre has been popular for a long time and I wanted to make the readers happy, so I found a way to write about dragons that felt fun and authentic to me.

  I love dragons but this trilogy certainly wasn’t in the plans when I finished The Color Alchemist series. Actually, I was working on a vampire book when I put that aside to write Crown of Dragons. So when I start by saying that I have to thank my readers, I really, really, mean that. The readers inspired just about everything in the Bleeding Realms world and I’m so glad they did. Bleeding Realms is rapidly growing into something that I’m not only in love with, but something that has the potential for many more books and trilogies featuring different supernatural societies intermixing with humans from our world. I can already tell you that a certain High Fae elf is demanding a trilogy.

  (But, ummm, I still have to finish that vampire book and I can’t wait!)

  There are so many people I need to thank for assisting me with Crown of Dragons. Thank you to my cover designer, Daqri Bernardo, owner of Covers by Combs. The covers are gorgeous works of art and I love them! Kate Foster, you’ve once again taken one of my manuscripts and helped it to shine. I’m so incredibly lucky to have you and your talent on my team and I can’t thank you enough. Thank you to Molly Phipps for some seriously gorgeous interior formatting. As always, you’ve outdone yourself! And to my proofreader team, Kate Anderson, Sarah Mostaghel, Ailene Kubricky, and Travis Walker, you guys are the best for putting up with my mess and I’m so grateful for your hard work! Thanks to my family of author friends, for the wonderful community that you’ve brought me into and for all the incredibly support, inspiration, and love. There are too many of you to name individually but you know who you are. Thank you to my awesome extended family, and to my absolutely amazing husband and children, my biggest fans and my biggest support system, I couldn’t do any of this without you. I love you so much. And finally, thank you to Heavenly Father for taking care of me and my family. Always.

  About the Author

  Nina Walker is a USA Today and Amazon Top 100 Bestselling author. She lives in beautiful Utah with her husband, two children, and three furbabies. Nina writes YA romantic fantasy with metaphysical magic systems, forbidden love interests, and heart-stopping plot twists.

  You can learn more at www.ninawalkerbooks.com or find her on social media at facebook.com/ninawalkerbooks or on Instagram @ninabelievesinmagic to join in on the fun.