by Selena Scott
Felice’s breath sucked in and she reached her hand out for Donovan. She rested her hand on his leg when she found he still had his head in his hands.
“Some of the Prodigos fled. Some fought. But very few remained. Generations of us have been hiding out in these mountains. Minding our own business and trying not to get slaughtered by whichever King in Dalyer’s line reigned.”
“You think I’m a Regium,” Felice guessed. Trying on the concept for size.
Stillwell squinted at her across the table. “You certainly have something… queenly about you.”
“But how could we ever prove it without knowing who my parents are?’
“Regium aren’t born from genetics. It’s not passed down from generation to generation. It’s,” Roma searched for the word. “Random. It’s just something you know when you see.”
She leaned forward and took Felice’s hand. “You’re in grave danger here, dear. Even more than the three of us. If the king finds a Regium out here, he’d destroy the entire mountain range just to make sure you were dead.”
Felice shook her head. After an entire life of being completely unimportant and insignificant, it was a lot of information to take in. “Well, even if you guys have the suspicion that I’m a Regium, we still couldn’t prove it. And neither could the king, even if he walked through that door right now. So Donovan and I could just keep lying low in the mountains and no one will know the difference.”
This was obviously a big deal to the dragon shifters at the table, but Felice honestly didn’t really see the big deal. So, she and Donovan were fated to be together. It’s not like they planned to storm the castle and take back the throne. And they’d planned to live tucked back into the woods anyway, so what did it matter if they had a mystical bond or not?
“We have proof that she’s a Regium,” Donovan’s tired voice came from behind his hands.
“What proof?” Felice exclaimed, throwing her hands up. Her head whirled with all the information.
“She’s pregnant,” Donovan said, his voice low and tired and proud. He turned and looked Felice in the eye. “You’re pregnant with the next ruler of the dragon realm.”
CHAPTER TEN
In retrospect, maybe he should have broken the news to her in private. Donovan stroked her hair as she wheezed, her head between her legs.
“What. Are. You. Talking. About.” She got out one word between each hyperventilation.
“What have her symptoms been?” Roma asked, clutching one of Felice’s hands.
“Vivid dreams. And she’s developed a taste for mirlic root. You sent some along in that jar, remember?”
“Could be coincidence,” Roma said, but the worry in her eyes told Donovan she didn’t believe her own words.
“She can’t sleep in the dark anymore. Says the darkness feels too final,” Donovan said, throwing the most convincing piece of evidence down like it was a sword into a piece of land he was conquering.
Roma sat back with her hands covering her open mouth.
“How does any of that translate into me being pregnant?” Felice asked, her voice calling out from between her legs.
Donovan put a hand on her back, stroking her into calmness.
Stillwell stood and left the room, returning a few moments later with an old and tattered book from one of his shelves.
“Here you go, queeny.” He handed Felice the book as she sat up. “This might clear up some questions.”
Donovan watched as she flipped open the book. “Fairytales?”
“We haven’t had a natural ruler born in over 500 years. Since Romilde. All we have to go on is the legends,” answered Stillwell.
Felice shrugged and Donovan watched as she read through the story of the very first natural ruler. A fairytale he’d grown up with. One he knew by heart. One that started with his Prodigo ancestor meeting and falling in love with the very first Regium. One that explained that as the Regium grew the baby inside of her, she experienced a fear of darkness. And a newfound, innate trust in fire as the baby dragon shifter grew and formed its identity.
Felice got to the last page and the book slipped from her fingers.
“A baby,” she whispered and turned to Donovan, who was there, next to her scooping her up.
“A baby,” he said back to her, burying his face in her hair.
“A ruler,” Stillwell corrected and stood, drawing their eyes to him. “That child in your belly is going to be born with an instinct to lead. And it won’t just be the way you bossed us around with your voice a second ago, queeny.”
Felice’s cheeks colored. But Stillwell went on. “It’ll be in his or her bones. Unstoppable. A natural ruler leads or dies. There’s no way around it. That child will challenge the king.”
Donovan felt ice form in his stomach as the truth of his uncle’s words sunk in. It was suicide. “The king has an army thousands strong. An unstoppable team of protectors and the best bodyguards in history. It would be suicide to challenge.”
Felice tightened beside him and he wished he’d been gentler with his words.
“That won’t matter to that child. As much as it’s a dragon, it’s a ruler.”
“So the child won’t be a dragon, then. Or a ruler.” Felice’s voice was cold and hollow. Shock and despair coloring her tone.
“What?” Donovan felt the wind get knocked out of him.
“If this child,” she covered her belly with her hand. “Is fated to die in the dragon realm, from living life as a dragon, as a ruler. Then this child won’t live in the dragon realm.”
“You mean for us to live in the human realm?” Donovan’s eyes searched Felice’s, panic rising in his chest.
“She’s right,” Roma said, her voice just as chilled. “It’s the only way. If you stay, you’re writing that child a death certificate.”
The rest of the visit was a sober, sad affair. His aunt and uncle tried to brainstorm ways the two of them could stay in the dragon realm, each idea full of more holes than the last. Donovan’s heart was heavy as he hugged them goodbye. And even heavier as he flew back toward his cabin, with Felice clutching the tree they still used for her to ride on.
His brain was still churning a mile a minute, trying to think of a way they could remain in the dragon realm when something caught his eye high above him in the sky. He landed deftly in the clearing where his cabin was nestled into the mountain.
“Get inside, true.” He didn’t wait to hear her response as he leapt back into the air, his green dragon form streaking upward like a reverse dive bomb. He’d seen something among the clouds. He was sure of it. He’d seen something red.
When he’d gotten some good altitude, Donovan started really scanning the skies. The clouds were deceptive, long and skinny stratus clouds that had more depth than they seemed to. They were good for hiding in. Any dragon knew that. But red was an unusual color to be seen in the sky and easy to spot.
And spot it he did, whipping over his left flank, claws extended, wicked grimace on his face. The King. King Dalyer was here.
Donovan barrel rolled through the air with the force of the blow that the King managed to land on his flank. But as they were airborne it made very little impact other than to throw him off course.
In one hand, Donovan couldn’t believe that he was in an air battle with the King of the dragon realm. And in the other, Donovan was glad for the opportunity to work out some of the rage and frustration he’d pent up in the last hour.
He watched as King Dalyer’s blood red dragon form flew a wide circle around him before flipping over backwards to attack. This time Donovan was ready for the attack and he used his momentum to swing his monumental tail around, knock the King down a few hundred feet.
But Donovan instantly saw his mistake when he realized how much closer that made the King to the ground. To Felice.
She was still standing out in the clearing, shading her eyes against the sun, trying to watch the two dragons battle in the sky.
Donovan’s h
eart turned to ice in his chest as he executed a perfect nosedive back toward earth. The King had landed already while Donovan was still 100 feet up in the air. Something built in Donovan’s chest. Something he’d felt kindle inside his heart the first second he ever saw Felice. Something deep and burning.
Donovan landed with an earth shattering boom between Felice and the King. Dalyer took a step back. And grimaced at the two of them.
“I know what you think you’ve created inside that mongrel creature,” he spat at Donovan. “But you’re incapable of creating anything powerful enough to displace me.”
“Then why are you so scared?” Donovan snapped back at him, readying his body for brutal ground combat.
Dalyer gnashed his teeth and whipped his tail around Donovan, attempting to flay Felice where she stood.
“True, you’re about to see the proof that we’re true mates,” Donovan said to Felice. And watched as understanding dawned on the King’s face. As he turned and tried to run.
But Donovan was faster. And his rage was stronger and the thing that kicked so forcefully into life when he met Felice was angry. And wanted to fight.
Donovan’s dragon jaw dropped open, seeming almost to unhinge, as he drew a breath. And let it out in one, great fireball. The trees in the clearing singed, the air raised temperature, the dew on the grass evaporated.
King Dalyer yowled as the flames washed over his back, turning his red even redder. He gave a great flap of his singed wings, knowing he’d been beaten, and took off into the air.
Donovan was tempted to fly after him, knew that if he didn’t finish it, Dalyer would be back with an army. But he couldn’t leave Felice. Not alone and pregnant in a hostile land.
So he watched Dalyer fly away. Until the red of his scales was swallowed up in the blue sky.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Donovan watched Felice bounce their baby boy on her hip and flip through the pages of a recipe book with her free hand. They’d been out of the dragon realm for over a year now. Felice was already pregnant with their second baby.
He came up behind her and slipped Idris out of her arms, tossing the smiling boy in the air. He slid his hand over the curve of her rounding belly and nestled his face into the crook of her neck.
She slammed the recipe book closed. “I don’t want to cook tonight,” she said. “Won’t you just barbecue us something with your true mate fire?”
He laughed at the puppy dog eyes she used on him. “You know I can only use that if you’re in danger.”
“I’m in danger of being seriously annoyed,” she murmured to herself and gave Idris a smacking kiss on the cheek before she walked out the door of their cabin to gather some things from their garden.
Donovan had built their cabin straight away after they’d escaped through the sky portal to the human realm. They’d left the day of the battle with King Dalyer. Only pausing to say goodbye to Aunt Roma and Uncle Stillwell.
As far as any of them could tell, Dalyer didn’t know about the sky portal. So they figured they were safe in that regard.
Idris hadn’t begun to shift to his dragon form yet. They weren’t sure what they were going to do when he did. But they both agreed it would be easiest to raise him as human. To attempt to ignore his dragon side. At least until he was older and could choose for himself what kind of life he wanted to live.
Donovan hugged his son’s warm little body and went to look out the window. He watched as Felice picked her way through the garden, smelling some plants, propping up others. He was grateful for the life he’d chosen.
He was grateful for the fire the two of them created together.
EPILOGUE
17 years later
Idris sat on the cliff, his legs dangling over the edge, and watched a hawk dive for its prey. His breath caught as the bird hit top speed, snagging the smaller bird right out of the air.
It was such a strange feeling rising inside of him. It almost felt like jealousy. He pushed the hair out of his eyes and headed back home, his mother would be worried if he was out for much longer.
Such a silly thing to be jealous of a bird. To be jealous of something he could never have.
Humans couldn’t fly. He knew that the same way he knew the sky was blue and steak tasted good. But his dreams… In his dreams he was deadly. Sleek and white. Dipping through the clouds like moonlight.
In his dreams he was a warrior beast. Battling in the sky for power. For freedom.
THE END
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