Throne of Ash

by Lena Lee

  “It just threw us!” Actually, I just threw them, but it was no time to correct such minor details. He picked up his sword. “It took you!” I heard Edrie behind me take back to the sky as Alex and Wyatt approached her again with their swords. She seemed to be focused on them now instead of Rex.

  “I’ll just wait here while you control your men.” She flapped her wings to stay just out of swords length in the air. I didn’t know dragons has a sense of humor.

  “Edrie is my dragon guide. Put your stupid swords away before you poke someone’s eye out.”

  I decided to keep the information about me having great power to myself for now. This whole trip they had been suffocating me and I had reached my limit, especially with the knowledge that my father was not far away and I had a spell on me. Oh, and that my mother was maybe trying to get rid of me. “We need to go find my father. He is trapped here by a spell.”

  “Dragons haven’t been seen since… the first of our world.” Wyatt sheathed his sword and slowly approached Edrie, who had just landed. “Amazing… can I pet her?”

  “Dragons were abused for power, we have hidden ourselves in this land. You may pet me Wyatt of Zephyr, although I am not sure I want Pretty Boy or Anger Issues to pet me.” Edrie answered in all of our heads. I am not sure how I knew she was connecting to all of us at once but it felt different, not a secure connection. “Just hop on my back and we’ll get going.”

  Alex was the first to comply, eagerly climbing onto Edrie’s back. He seemed to ignore the fact that Edrie had called him a pretty boy. He had a joyous expression on his face, like he was a child gifted with a sought-after toy. Wyatt climbed on next. I was about to say something about seating arrangements, when Rex grabbed my arm and practically dragged me to the dragon. He slid behind me and put his hands firmly on my waist.

  “I think I should be at the front, she is my dragon.” Edrie puffed out smoke and shook her head at that. We squeezed into a spot right in the center of her back. I tried to move as far forward as possible as not to create any awkward moments. We had already had enough of those to last a lifetime.

  Edrie started flapping her wings and slowly lifted into the air. I swear I heard a squeal of joy coming from up front as she launched forward and took to the sky.

  Chapter 10

  We flew for quite a while into the unknown parts of Toska, what the brothers had referred to as “the deadlands”. Rex was pretty quiet during the ride, although after a while, I felt his body relax behind me. I could tell he really wanted to talk but the wind from flying on a dragon wasn’t allowing him to do so. Instead he settled his hands on my hips, which had my imagination taking an interesting twist. The tension between us since he revealed he had a soul bond with me had increased exponentially.

  Ahead a faint line of green caught my eye, snapping me out of my thoughts of Rex’s hands on my hips. As we approached the expanse of green hills, mountains, and patches of trees, my nerves started to jump around inside of me.

  “It’s beautiful.” I knew Edrie could hear me over the wind she was creating. I was very close to meeting my father and figuring out what had happened to rip our family apart.

  “This is home. It is surrounded on all sides by the deadlands. This sanctuary was formed many millennia ago.” She began her descent towards a small patch of open land before landing softly and coming to a stop.

  “Follow me.” The trees on the other side of the clearing formed a pathway big enough for a large dragon to pass through. Edrie took off towards it, Alex and Wyatt following close by. I was surprised with Alex, he seemed to keep a tight lid on any emotions, but he seemed giddy about the dragon.

  Rex hung back, causing me to turn and glare at him. “What now?”

  “Why are you so angry? I have done nothing to you except protect you.” I was about to meet my father and he wanted to talk about my feelings or lack of feelings towards him. Great.

  I looked over my shoulder at our party starting on the path through the trees. “We will be down this path. You should solve this problem first so you can focus on freeing yourself and your father.” Damn dragon.

  “You keep shoving this concept of a soul bond or whatever down my damn throat. I am not the relationship type anyway, it only makes you weak.” I crossed my arms over my chest. He was sure to take that well. “Besides, I just met you, and back home I was… involved.” Maybe that would help keep him at a distance.

  “You surely have to feel something towards me…” He took a step towards me, but stopped when I held out my hand.

  “Even if I did, now is not the time. How many days since you found me on Earth? My best friend might be in some kind of coma, my mother doesn’t seem to care I have been found and is apparently sending hit men after me, and my father is trapped here by magic. I have no clue what the hell is going on.” My voice cracked as I let out all my current worries.

  Honestly, it had only been a matter of time before I snapped. I could deal with a lot, but it was gang up on Mira week or something.

  Rex was quiet for several moments before stepping towards me again. “I’m sorry.”

  I looked down and kicked a rock on the ground. “It might have been better had you just not gone to Earth. Kyra and I were perfectly content.”

  “Don’t say that, your home is here on Scintilla.” He put a finger under my chin and tilted my head up to the look at him. “Don’t ever feel like you need to look down.” Damn him.

  Before I could stop him, or shit even myself, he leaned in and gently touched the corner of my lips with his. After a moment of almost drowning in the softness of his lips, I pulled back and searched his face. Why kiss me if I had expressed no feelings? He was only torturing himself. I guess “now is not the time” went in one ear and out the other.

  “Whether or not our bond ever forms, you will always hold a place in my heart.” He needed to stop saying things like that if I was going to maintain any kind of distance from him. He stepped away then and looked down the path. “We should follow.” I sighed and followed as he walked ahead of me.

  My heart quickened as we neared the end of the path through the trees. My mother had been a big disappointment and I wondered how I would fair with my father.

  As we entered the clearing on the other end of the path, five heads that had been deep in discussion swiveled towards us. The first thing that caught my attention was the much-larger-than-Edrie dragon that was a beautiful deep purple color. Her wise eyes took me in and gave me a nod. Edrie’s mother was one badass looking dragon.

  My eyes next went to the tall man dressed in a simple black robe, no shoes. He looked much older than I had envisioned, with gray strands of hair peppered throughout his dark hair. As we approached, he moved toward me with the intensity I had hoped my mother would have shown.

  “Isabella, I have dreamed of this day.” We stopped before each other, Rex breaking away from me and going to stand with the two dragons and his brothers. “It has tormented me all of these years wondering what fate you met.”

  I didn’t know what to say so I simply stared at him. His eyes sparkled with a vibrancy that was hard to ignore. Crinkles formed at the edges of his eyes as he smiled down at me with the brightest teeth I had ever seen. Did they have special toothpaste here?

  He continued, seeming to sense that I had no words. “One minute I had just laid you down to sleep and the next I was here. Wyatt and Alex tell me you were taken to Earth and left with humans.” He searched my eyes, waiting for my confirmation. I nodded. “Let us sit over by the lake, it is calming there.”

  We walked for several minutes in the clearing, the others trailing a distance behind, before we reached a calm lake surrounded on the other sides by trees. We sat under the first tree, not saying a word. This was a much different experience than the one I had in Ardor. Sebastian didn’t doubt for a second that I was his daughter.

  “Wyatt and Alex tell me that you went to Ardor.” He finally spoke, breaking the awkwardness that was starting to grow
between us. I was glad he was a talker, I was still finding it hard to find my words. What do you say to the man you never knew existed?

  “Yes.” I turned towards him. “She rejected me.” I fiddled with the layers in my dress, rubbing them between my fingers. “It’s more than a little suspicious that we were then attacked right after leaving. Would she have…” I trailed off not willing to let the words come out of my mouth.

  The idea that my own mother would try to have me captured or even killed was a foreign concept to me. I looked out over the lake watching the small ripples on the surface. The light reflected over them, causing them to sparkle like strands of tinsel.

  “She always skated the line of morality. Sometimes she made important decisions solely on the fact that the stars were aligned a certain way. I found it quite quirky, which is why I fell in love with her. She was always influenced by those who are gifted by the spirits. She came to me the day after your birth telling me of some vision her visionary had.”

  “Like Wyatt?” I looked over at Wyatt who seemed to be chatting with Edrie’s mother quite animatedly. The dragon had just tilted her head to the sky and let out what was the dragon equivalent of a belly laugh. The ground shook slightly.

  “Every visionary is gifted differently. Instead of showing people how their present was shaped by their pasts like Wyatt, he showed the future as it was set to play out. Your mother saw a vision of you on her throne at a young age. I asked her if she had a timeline on her vision or what events led to it, but she was convinced you would commit matricide. She said you were a curse and her punishment. She was certain of it… The next thing I knew, I awoke here.”

  I nodded. It was peaceful here, which calmed the emotions that were swirling inside of me at the moment. My own mother had me kidnapped and now was trying to have me captured again. I didn’t know if that hurt more or that she thought I was a curse.

  “I have no desire to be anything other than Mira. I did not grow up with much, so why would I want to be a queen of a land I know nothing about?” I shook my head and kept my focus on the lake. I was really tempted to go jump in it. There were probably piranhas or some other flesh-eating fish living in it, which would feel better than how I felt right now.

  “Edrie was telling me you have your powers spelled by the same sorcerer who trapped me here. You must find the sorcerer to break the spell so we both can be free.”

  “Are there a lot of sorcerers? Can’t it be any sorcerer?” I turned to finally look at him. He had been staring intensely at me for a while.

  “The only way to break a spell is by the original caster or if he or she dies. I can tell you it is a sorcerer from Apricity, I can feel the coldness in the spell. Sorcerers usually mark their work in some way. Apricity is known for its snow and ice.” I nodded and stood, turning towards the clearing where the others were gathered.

  “What is your dragons name?” I asked as he stood and walked next to me back to the others.

  “Resa.” I jumped a bit when the voice came into my head. “There has not been a day where your father hasn’t thought of you.” I approached her then and placed a hand on her snout, dragons seemed to like that.

  “How do both my father and I have a dragon guide? Is that some kind of special power?” Clearly it had to be something.

  “I am not exactly your father’s guide. You wield the power to command and communicate with animals. It has been millennia since any have possessed the affinity for it. I could smell your scent on your father when he was left here. I felt it only right to protect him.” My eyes went wide. “I believe the affinity disappeared when we came to the sanctuary, those that wielded it losing their powers after far too long using us and other animals to do their dirty work. You must not make the same mistakes.”

  “I promise I won’t. Is that why the wolf in the woods bowed to me and the rest stayed away?” I decided to speak through the mental talk since Resa was only speaking to my father, me, and Edrie.

  “Yes. You must have somehow communicated to them that they should stay away. I am surprised you were able to get the message to them give your current state.”

  “What’s the plan now? Is there a way to get out of here so we can track down this sorcerer?” The sky was slowly getting darker and sleeping in a bed for the night was probably out of the question.

  “We will leave tomorrow at daybreak with Edrie. She is going to get us close to the border of Toska and Apricity. Hopefully we won’t encounter any issues, but we think a safe bet is for you to stay invisible while we travel. Sienna has ears and eyes in all the lands and we now have quite a bit of evidence that she wants you gone.” Rex spoke very matter-of-factly, with an air of being the one in charge.

  “We have food and will make some comfortable sleeping accommodations for you. I have created quite a place here for myself thanks to the magical abilities of the dragons.” Sebastian got onto Resa’s back. “Wyatt and Alex can ride with me.” Great. Even my newly discovered father was trying to push me and Rex together.

  Alex practically skipped over to the larger and stronger purple dragon and climbed up. Wyatt and I gave each other a comical look. We would never let him forget this.

  Chapter 11

  We left early the next morning, Edrie taking us all to the edge of Toska before leaving us with our sights set on Apricity. Toska was one of the largest lands in Scintilla, sharing borders with both Ardor and Apricity.

  I wasn’t looking forward to meeting the sorcerer who had ripped my life away from me. When I asked Rex what they planned to do to get the sorcerer to fix what he had broken, he just grumbled a nondescript reply. I decided not to worry about it until we found him.

  As we approached the edge of Toska and Apricity, I went invisible, looking forward to not being seen since I most likely looked like I had rolled around in the dirt repeatedly. We all did, although the brothers looked even more attractive with their feathers a bit ruffled. Luckily there had been mention about briefly stopping at an ally’s house to clean up and change. My feet were killing me, I hoped new shoes were also in the cards.

  It took us a good chunk of the morning to make it to the habitable part of Apricity and a large home near the border. The people there asked no questions as we entered, not even when Rex asked for women’s clothing and shoes.

  When I asked about why they needed allies when everything seemed to be peaceful, I was told it was purely a precaution just in case. There were also allies of the others in Zephyr, but no one knew who they were or how many.

  Seemed shady to me. I wondered if Felix had allies in Blight. If so, those people had a shit deal. I couldn’t imagine living in luxury and then the government telling me to live in a hell hole as a “precaution.”

  It was decided we would visit the King of Apricity to speed up the process of finding the sorcerer. We quickly freshened up and were back on the road in less than an hour.

  “So our plan here is to just ask him if he knows of a powerful sorcerer from his lands that is capable of kidnapping an infant and the King of Ardor?” I thought the plan was ridiculous. I might have less than half the years on the youngest brother, but even I had more sense than to be so forthcoming with sensitive information.

  “Precisely. King Milo and Rian are good friends, as were our fathers.” Alex seemed almost pleasant to be around now. Meeting dragons had changed him.

  “I wish I always had my dragon here… maybe the stick could be permanently removed.” Alex shot a glare in my general direction.

  “He is a changed man. I really was surprised when he didn’t jump up and down and clap when we were about to leave on your drag-” Wyatt stopped short and grabbed onto my arm in a vice grip. I was more shocked that he had known exactly where I had been to grab my arm. He’s lucky he didn’t accidently grab a boob.

  “What are you-” He was deathly white, staring off into the distance. I looked in that direction but saw nothing. He fell to his knees, still clutching my arm as if his life depended on it. Before ano
ther word could escape my mouth, his eyes seemed to explode with light which wrapped around us in an orb. He pulled me down next to him.

  The energy was similar in feel to when he had shown me my infancy back on Earth. I tried to move away from him or remove his hand but was unsuccessful. “Shut your eyes,” he managed between gritted teeth. A brief moment of fear clenched in my belly before I complied.

  A man stood before my mother, he was on his knees, fear showing in his eyes.

  “I will not release your family until you do as I ask. Your refusal to do as I say a second time will not stand.” Her voice was firm and lacked emotion.

  “But she is your child! Is it possible the vision was wrong?” His eyes were pleading. “She is the miracle you had always hoped for.”

  “His visions are never wrong. Don’t you see? This is your fault and you are to fix it! Kill her, or you and your family will die at sunrise.” She flicked her hand at him and he flew across the room, the vision flickering to black before a night sky and stone exterior came into view.

  That same man stood outside my hovel on Earth, with a bundle in his arms. He looked down at me, wrapped safely inside. A few tears fell down his cheeks and landed on me as he leaned down and gently placed me on the doorstep, tucking a piece of paper into the folds of the blanket. I started crying then, the man gone in a blink.

  He was pacing in a dark room, another hovel. Guilt, fear, and intense sadness radiated from his hunched shoulders. He placed something on the table and began chanting words in another language.

  A red light burst from his chest and formed a beam of light between him and the object. His face was wrenched in agony and red tinted tears streamed down his cheeks. He was shaking violently with the outpouring of energy but continued to chant the words with a determination so strong my own tears couldn’t be contained.