The Dragon King

by Heather Killough-Walden

  “You have a choice to make, Katrielle,” Anharidan told her. He paced around her kneeling form, and she kept her eyes downturned. She’d learned her lesson with men like this. Anharidan was the Great White, the king of the dragons, and no one dared defy him.

  There might have been a thread of rebellion within Kat, one that had grown stronger in the ten years since she’d lost her sister, one that had learned she had powers and could fight back. But she knew she was no match for him. Especially not now.

  She was with child.

  The presence inside her was still brand new, merely a week old, no more. But it was precious to her. More precious than anything. And she would not jeopardize it.

  “You can claim the child is mine and wed me at sunrise.” He stopped in front of her, and she looked up. He was so beautiful, tall, broad shouldered, handsome, and wrapped in the iridescent white scales of his draconic armor. His white hair fell in careless layers to his shoulders, and his eyes were the lightest silver, a nearly glowing white. But at the moment, his pupils drowned them in inky black as they expanded upon the object of his desire.

  He gracefully lowered to one knee before her and dared to cup her cheek. Katrielle closed her eyes, willing herself to not pull away, to keep the revulsion she felt from showing on her face. But he wasn’t fooled. He could see into her mind.

  And when he roughly grasped her chin, her eyes flew open and he leaned in. “Or I can kill the child the moment it is born,” he hissed, showing her his fangs. “Before you have a chance to hold her in your arms.” He released her and stood again. “Your choice.”

  Kat touched her stomach, still flat and taut, and asked softly, “Why me?”

  “Because,” he said coldly. “You’re different.” His gaze narrowed on her. “I cannot pretend to know what you are, Katrielle, but you are far from human. You are even more special than any female dragon in my realm.” He took a deep breath, having regained his composure, and then continued to pace around the large, ornate tent that was one of the many he possessed and used as king. “You belong with me.”

  He stopped and held out his hand in an offer to help her stand. She looked down at it. It was a strong hand.

  “Will you be a good father to her?” She looked back up into his eyes.

  Anharidan gazed steadily down at her for some moments. Then his chin lifted, just a little. “Of course,” he told her. His tone had softened in measures. “Make certain her heritage does not show in any physical manner, and she will never know she is not my daughter.” He shook his head. “The realms will treat her with the respect she deserves, and she will never want for anything. Nor will you, Katrielle.”

  Kat swallowed back her pain, trying to drown her feelings for the girl’s real father. But it was impossible. They were too strong. So when she placed her hand in Anharidan’s, his fingers closed tight over hers, and he roughly pulled her off the floor and up against his chest, holding her there with one strong arm around her waist. “Make it convincing when you spurn Bantariax,” he told her in no uncertain terms. “Make him believe, Katrielle. Make him believe you never loved him… or she will die.”

  Chapter Fort-three

  Evangeline skidded to a kneeling halt beside her mother’s body when two Kings lifted a chunk of wall from the ground and tossed it to the side, revealing Lilith’s fallen form. The woman Eva had once known as Katrielle was covered in blood from head to toe, but most of it pooled beneath her neck, where she seemed to have bled it from her nose or coughed it up.

  She was so very pale, nearly blue, but in that pallor of death, Eva felt a glimmer yet of life. She took her mother’s face in her hands, closed her eyes again, and dove into her creator’s mind with all her might.

  She was standing on a cliff. She recognized the cliff. It was the one she remembered wanting to dive off of when she was a child. The one she wanted to learn to fly from.

  She turned slowly in place, taking in her surroundings. The village was there. The tents. The caves… it was all whole, unburned, not yet razed to the ground by murder and the chaos that came with Legendary death.

  A sound drew Eva’s attention, and she turned, her gaze skirting the edges of the village until she realized the voices were coming from over the cliff’s edge. She hesitated. The cliff had always frightened her. She hadn’t yet learned to use her wings.

  But now, in this world she knew was not real, not here – not now – Evangeline made her way to the cliff’s edge, stood at its precipice, and looked down. There was a hole in the side of the cliff that she’d never known was there. It was partially hidden by the rocks, disguised by an optical illusion of sorts.

  Eva jumped off. In the dream-like state, she snapped out of one position only to snap into another, finding herself suddenly standing in the dark but warm space of a natural cavern. It was vast, and the walls were coated with the crystalline forms of precious and semi-precious minerals. They glittered in the light shed by the torches in sconces placed throughout.

  “She’s here, isn’t she? Ban, don’t lie to me.”

  The voice that spoke was instantly recognizable. It was Calidum. But here, in this time, in this memory, it was Korridum, the Great Gray.

  Eva turned toward the voice and faced a dark tunnel that lead off of the main cavern. She followed the sounds into the darkness until a second light source was visible. The closer she drew, the brighter it became, until she was standing outside a doorway, looking into a large, intricately carved room.

  The walls were embossed with bass relief symbols so beautiful and vast, she knew they must be magic. At the center of the room was a bed, also massive and intricately carved. Opposite the door Eva stood in was another doorway, this one closed off with a thick, luxurious tapestry.

  Korridum was there in the room in his darkly human form with his black hair striped with white. But he wasn’t alone. Across from him stood another man of equal height and build.

  Eva’s gaze narrowed thoughtfully upon him. Her memory of him was so terribly vague. But it was there – in flashes. She remembered occasionally catching sight of him in a shadow. She would see him somewhere to her side, turn to look, and he would be gone. He had been a figment of her young imagination, beautiful, bold, dark….

  His hair was as black as her own, and his eyes were stark, blood red. They burned with unhindered passion, absolutely beautiful in his handsome face. He was bare chested, dressed only in leather from the waist down, and he was currently barefoot.

  ‘Father…’ Eva thought in wonder. This was Bantariax, the Great Black.

  “Korr,” Bantariax said, raising his hand. His voice was the deep rumble she had heard in her mind. “Just leave. Please. This is no business of yours.”

  “Ban, you need to listen to me,” Korridum pleaded softly. “Anharidan is on his way. He will expect to find Katrielle at once. She must leave here… or you risk everything.”

  “I will go,” came another familiar voice, but one that Evangeline had not heard in thousands upon thousands of years. The mere sound of it nearly drew a sob from Eva’s chest. She hadn’t even realized she’d missed it that much.

  She turned along with the men as a stunning red-haired woman came into the room through the tapestry. She was fully dressed, which frankly surprised Evangeline given the circumstances. And then she remembered that her mother was a witch, and that by this point in her life, she had learned a thing or two.

  Katrielle met Bantariax’s gaze, and Eva watched Ban’s hands curl into fists. His teeth clenched, his body actually shaking with rage.

  “I should not have come.”

  “Ban, if she is found out, you must –”

  “Tell him I took her against her will?” Ban said, turning on Korridum as his tone went ice-cold. His red eyes flashed, fracturing with crimson lightning.

  Eva’s heart twinged in her chest… she wondered which of the three hearts it was. She watched Katrielle’s eyes cloud with pain as she left the room, and Korridum placed his hand to Ban’s ch
est to keep him from following after. For Eva, seeing her parents torn apart as they had been, knowing her own father had not been allowed in her life because of the Great White… it was so very difficult to process. It hurt.

  She wanted to scream at her father – ‘I’m here! I’m so sorry!’ But just as her frustration reached an untenable state, Bantariax knocked Korridum’s hand to the side. Their eyes locked for a fraction of a knowing second.

  And then Bantariax changed. He stepped back, and his body shifted as inch by inch, his sculpted form was covered in jet black, shimmering scales, all the way down to bad-ass draconic boots. Evangeline recognized the armor at once. She had a set of her own.

  But Korridum stared at the other Legendary, eyes wide. He slowly shook his head, straightening with resolve. “If you do this… then do it right. One of you can’t walk away.”

  “I know,” said Ban. And then he bared his teeth, flashing fangs. “He will never touch my mate or our daughter again.”

  There was a terrible blast of wind, a flash of dark light, and Eva was knocked backward, once more snapping out of existence to snap back in somewhere new.

  Chapter Forty-four

  This time, she was back up on the cliffs and off to one side, ducking down instinctively as an absolutely enormous black dragon swooped low over the village and angled masterfully in the air toward the approaching Great White.

  Eva had never before seen either of these Legendary dragons in their true forms. She was bewitched – stunned immobile. But at her side, there was movement. Eva turned to see Katrielle, neck craned, expression worried.

  “Please, Ban,” she whispered. “Don’t do this.”

  Eva recognized her mother’s mistake before Katrielle even did. Even whispers, dragons could hear. But she wouldn’t know that as well as Eva did.

  The red-headed beauty blinked and inhaled sharply when the Great White, Anharidan, disappeared from the sky in dragon form – to reappear in front of Katrielle in his white draconic armor.

  He gazed down at Kat with hard, unfeeling eyes. “What did you say, my love?”

  Kat took a careful step back, the color draining from her face.

  “She was begging me not to kill you, Anharidan,” said the man behind the Great White. The three of them looked to find Bantariax had shifted as well, and again wore his black scale armor. His eyes, however, were replete with the lightning that had flashed in his cave, and his fangs had only lengthened against his lip. “I suppose she loves you after all. And that’s something I just can’t abide.”

  Eva stared in wonder as her father protected both her and her mother with the lie – and then attacked. The two men collided with a roar, followed by a sound like thunder, and the aftershock knocked Eva off her feet once more, even in this memory.

  Evangeline hit the ground somewhere feet or yards away, and rolled. All the while, chaos erupted around her, brought to life by the fierce and stark sounds of men becoming dragons and locking in mortal battle.

  Eva rolled onto her back and looked up. Above her, outlined against the red-orange of the twilight morning, two enormous sets of bat-like wings blocked the light like cosmic umbrellas. The image burned into Evangeline’s mind, unbelievable and staggering. It was a scene from a fantasy novelist’s most revered dream, but it was real. It had been real. The stupefying monsters up above, larger than life and older than legend, crashed into one another, tooth and claw, angled wing and terrifying bellow. Dragon breath magic curled around them in mystifying swirls of white and black, crackling and deadly.

  Eventually, the magic became so thick, it blotted out both forms, and all Eva could do was listen. The cries of fury continued, wrathful bellows blotting out reason – until at last, one final cry pierced the heavens, and Eva knew it was the sound of death.

  She waited, breathless. And then the clouds were suddenly parting, and a white comet was descending toward her with impossible speed. Eva jumped up, scrambling to get out of the way. But just before it would have hit the ground, the form flashed bright white, and Eva covered her eyes.

  When she lowered her arm, a familiar scene appeared before her. A storm was forming, swirling overhead. Lightning was beginning to strike the earth, lighting up trees. And a young girl with long white hair emerged, sleepy and confused, from the only home she’d ever known.

  The girl blinked up at the strange weather, then caught sight of the fallen figure in white on the cliff’s ledge – and she ran.

  Evangeline moved numbly, following the girl’s path with heavy legs until she, too, stood on the cliff’s ledge, and looked down at the scene she knew so well, but this time from a new perspective.

  A sob wracked from the tiny chest of the child with wrong-colored hair and lavender eyes. “Why?” she asked the mighty dragon standing over her.

  But Korridum stood there in his human form, swathed in the darkness of the storm, and said nothing. And now Eva understood why.

  Anharidan had always been a good father to Evangeline. He had cared for her as if she’d been his own. When he died, she was too young… just too young to understand the intricacies of romantic love and betrayal. She would never have believed that Bantariax was actually her father. She would never have been able to comprehend that her mother was a prisoner to the man who held her on his lap, told her stories, and doted on her with any toy she desired.

  Not then. Korr had been right.

  There on that infamous, blood-stained cliff, Korridum the Great Gray had made an ultimate sacrifice for Bantariax and for the woman Ban so devoutly loved. He shouldered the blame for Anharidan’s death… without saying a single word.

  “Can you ever forgive me?”

  Eva blinked and spun. The world around her changed, just like that. Now she was in a mostly dark room, circular and quiet, somehow peaceful. Her mother stood at the center of the room, wreathed in light from an unseen source. She was in the form Eva remembered best, with red hair and blue, blue eyes and timeless, confounding beauty.

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” said Eva. She understood that now. Her mother had done nothing wrong, and certainly nothing more than Eva was guilty of herself.

  She’d fallen in love.

  Katrielle smiled a small smile and blinked back tears. Her fingers twined nervously and she looked down. “Eva… I think this is my last death. That’s why I was able to show you all I did.” She looked back up. “You need to leave. You need to stop trying to heal me. It’s draining you… and it won’t work.”

  Evangeline frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m dying, Eva,” she said frankly. “It seems we can kill one another after all. Or at least… Amunet can kill me.” She stepped out of the center of the circular room and approached her daughter. “You’ve been healing me all this time, little one. You refuse to give up.” She laughed softly, shaking her head. “You’ve even erected a shield over us to keep the others from trying to stop you.”

  Eva blinked, confused. “That’s not….” She shook her head. She didn’t remember any of that. She wasn’t aware of the outside world at all, in fact.

  But Katrielle smiled again and gently, warmly, cupped her daughter’s cheek. “Eva, I want you to make me a promise. Your father is alive. He is somewhere out there.” She closed her eyes. “I can feel him drawing closer. He’s fighting so hard.” She opened her eyes again and settled them on Eva. “You must find him, Eva. And… let him come to know his daughter.” She dropped her hand slowly. “And tell him that I will always love him.”

  Eva stared at her mother in flabbergasted silence. And then something she’d said echoed in the recesses of her mind.

  Tell him I will always love him.

  It seems we can kill one another after all. Or at least… Amunet can kill me.

  Amunet can kill me.

  Eva’s eyes widened. Amunet was the embodiment of hatred. What did hatred kill?

  “Love,” she said aloud, in a voice filled with wonder. “You’re love.”

  It all m
ade sense now. Katrielle and the sacrifice she’d made to protect her daughter. Lalura Chantelle and her crotchety, human form that took in abandoned children, taught magic to lost souls, and fought the forces of evil, arthritis be damned. And even Lilith McLaren… betraying her own sister to protect the mortals of the planet, people she didn’t even know.

  Only love could do that.

  Katrielle the Nomad said nothing. But her small, sad smile was back, and her blue, blue eyes began to glow. She was dying.

  No, thought Eva. I won’t let you. “And now I know how to save you.”

  Evangeline was half dragon, half dark and magnificent Legendary, all power and fury. But her other half was her mother’s. Her other half, every last inch of it, was composed of love. So Eva closed her eyes and concentrated.

  All this time, she had been trying to heal her mother. But she’d been doing it wrong. She’d been using healing magic, every ounce she could muster. Now she pulled that magic back and took a slow, deep breath. And then she sent her mother what she actually needed.

  Hatred was the death of love.

  “I love you, mata,” she said softly. “I always have. And I always will.”

  But love trumped hate every time.

  Chapter Forty-five

  “I honestly don’t know when,” said Katrielle with a shrug. “It can take a Nomad lifetimes to reincarnate, and it can take a single afternoon. The three of them might already be reborn and celebrating an Addams Family reunion. Or they might not come back until long after we’re all dead.”

  Roman sat back in his chair and touched his lips thoughtfully. His wristwatch glinted in the café’s overhead lights. They were becoming regulars here. Of course, the waitress most likely believed he’d simply come with a different woman this time. Maybe he was philandering.