Rivals (Dragon Reign Book 1)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “I think it’s time you and I have a real honest chat, Prince Forrest,” I said, crouching down before him. “What do you say and remember, it’s treason to disobey your Princess.”

  His eyes narrowed in rage, but that was just fine with me. The time had come for me to learn all about my history and I was going to start with learning how Forrest and his kin betrayed mine to their deaths.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Shards.

  Shards Excerpt

  Kate wants answers. She wants to know about the family she’s never known. She and Craig are convinced they have to return to the cursed lands to find the answers.

  She finds herself with more questions that she thought she’d have as she’s torn between half-demon Craig and son of the dragon shifter clan Forrest.

  Craig’s got feelings for Kate, but he also has secrets of his own. He didn’t count on her seeing his secrets in the flesh.

  Forrest’s torn between his own feelings for Kate and his allegiance to the clan.

  Kate—she’s just torn.

  Chapter 1

  Kate

  “If you two can’t stop growling at each other for five seconds, I’m finding duct-tape.”

  Two sets of annoyed eyes turned to stare at me, but I raised my brow and waited to see what they would do.

  My head throbbed, my body was sore, and I was anxious as hell.

  I rolled my shoulders again, feeling the beast moving freely within me now. On some level it was cool, knowing a dragon lived within me.

  And on the other hand, it freaked me out. How was I supposed to function with this thing inside me all the time? Each time my anger flared, I sensed it wanting to break through and take control, but if I destroyed Mama Lucy’s house, pretty sure she’d kick my ass for it.

  Harry, the big shaggy dog, was still hanging around and sat on his haunches close by, resting his head comfortingly on my leg. I’d been absently scratching his ears for the past few hours. It helped keep me calm, somewhat.

  “If one of us was being cooperative, there’d be no need for growling,” Craig murmured.

  A deep rumble came from Forrest’s chest, and we both eyed him. It cut off suddenly, and he lifted his hands. The manacles and chains holding him captive rattled, echoing his disdain. “Are these necessary? I am a prince and you, Kate, are in no danger from me.”

  “Ah, but you see that means Craig is, and right now, I’m on his side.”

  “You should not be.”

  “So, you’re saying I should blindly follow a guy I just met—”

  “Dragon,” he corrected.

  I ground my teeth, digging my nails into my thigh. “Dragon I just met, one who by the way has already said any bearing my name are traitors and deserve to die, and what? Go back with you to meet your daddy who by all rights will be pissed by the fact that one, I’m a Darrah, and two that I’ve chained his son up.” I shook my head, my hair wild around my face as I tried to restrain it in a braid, mostly to keep my hands from reaching out and strangling Forrest. “No thanks, I’ll pass.”

  Harry harrumphed as if in agreement and trotted away to stare out the front window.

  Forrest’s hands fell to his lap as he looked on, torn between annoyance and defeat. “I blame you.”

  Craig pointed at himself with a mocking surprised look on his face. “Me? And why do you blame me? You’re the one that said plain as day what you do to Darrahs.”

  “I would, of course, plead her case to my father. She didn’t know who she was.”

  “Plead her case? Wow, aren’t you a hero,” Craig snapped, and scooted closer to me, protectively almost.

  During our time in the Burnt World, I had to say I found reasons to find both of them attractive, but I told myself my emotions ran high in the heat of the moment. Feeling anything besides aggravation at both of them should’ve been impossible in that moment.

  But when Craig stepped closer again, as if ready to bodily put himself between me and Forrest, a little thrill shot through me and my dragon practically purred in delight.

  “Alright, can we please get back to figuring out who my family is, or was?” I checked the door to the living room, but Mama Lucy hadn’t come back yet. She’d taken the kids to a neighbor’s until we decided our next move.

  “I don’t know what you want from me.” Forrest rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. “I have told you everything I was told. I can’t make myself remember something I don’t know.”

  “There has to be more.” I tossed my braid over my shoulder and held my head, willing the throbbing to stop at least for a few minutes so I could think. “How long ago was the last sighting of my family?”

  Forrest shrugged. “Fifty years give or take.”

  “Fifty years?” That couldn’t be my dad then. He wasn’t that old when he died.

  “Yes, but dragons and demons, all… non-humans, we live longer,” he pointed out.

  I lifted my head at his words and frowned between the two of them. “So, you two are old?”

  Craig barked a growling laugh. “No, I’m twenty, soon to be twenty-one which I hear can be quite exciting in the human world.”

  “Yeah, means you can drink.”

  Craig’s brows drew together giving him a brooding, cute look that made me want to reach out and smooth them back out. “You can’t drink yet? That’s awful.”

  “Not legally. What about you?” I asked Forrest, giving his foot a kick with mine when he didn’t seem inclined to answer.

  “Same.”

  “And that means my dad could’ve been that last dragon then, right?”

  “It’s possible. Do you have a picture of him?” Craig asked, but I was already shaking my head.

  “Everything we owned was in the house the night it was destroyed.” I couldn’t help it, I glared at Forrest.

  His eyes narrowed, but he learned from my last outburst and didn’t try to deny it was other dragons who attacked us.

  “His name was Maddock,” I whispered. “Maddock Darrah.”

  Forrest’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he suddenly seemed very interested in the floorboards.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Huh? I didn’t say anything.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Craig pushed off the couch and towered over him. “You know that name, I can see it in your eyes.”

  He sniffed in answer and refused to look up.

  Craig took a threatening step forward, but I caught his hand. “No, if he wants to be an ass then let him. We don’t have time for this.” I expected Craig to ignore me and grab Forrest by the throat and give him a good shake, but after a moment he resumed his seat. “If Forrest won’t confirm it then I need your help.”

  “You saved my life. Pretty sure I owe you.”

  “You need her,” Forrest snarled, his rage boiling over as smoke trailed from his nose. “That’s the only reason you’re still here.”

  “I’m still here,” Craig seethed between clenched teeth, “because I’m working to stop that plague from spreading. The one you said didn’t believe existed until it attacked you and nearly killed us all. Kate here is the key to stopping it so yes, I need her.”

  My head gave another fierce throb as the weight of his words struck me like I was fighting that plagued beast again, and I cringed. “All that matters now is stopping that thing from taking over another world and to do that we have to work together.” I rubbed at my wrist, needing to find another bracelet soon so I could have something to fiddle with again. “And if anyone gets to have a freakout, pissed off moment, it’s me!”

  I jumped up and paced around the living room, rubbing my temples in a frantic attempt to get the pain to leave me alone.

  Harry gave me a sympathetic whine, but remained at the window. I’d asked Mama Lucy about him before she left with the kids, but she hadn’t figured out whose dog he was yet. Or if he was a dog at all. She’d mumbled something about a familiar then left it that. I didn’t care really. I liked Ha
rry and Harry was a pretty good watch dog. He’d keep Mama Lucy safe.

  “What did your dad look like?” Craig asked.

  I shut my eyes tight as my feet paused. “He was tall, really tall and broad at the shoulders, but he was graceful for a man.” Memories floated through my mind, more of what I’d forgotten. How he helped me learn to use a sword. “He was the one that taught me how to use a sword. His hair was black like mine, but his eyes… his eyes were amber.”

  Craig cursed quietly under his breath. “I did see him.”

  “What, when?” I asked desperately praying it was recent and he was alive.

  “Years ago, at the games. I’m sorry. I was maybe seven? Snuck out so I could watch the fighting and there was a Darrah dragon there.”

  He said he was twenty and I was going to be eighteen soon. “Four years before he was killed,” I whispered. “And that was the last time he was seen?”

  “As far as I recall,” Craig told me. “He just disappeared.”

  Forrest adjusted his position, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

  “Tell me what you know,” I pleaded. “Please, Forrest, this is my family we’re talking about. I deserve to know the truth.”

  Forrest chewed his bottom lip so hard, I thought he would bleed. “You’re going to hate me more than you already do.”

  “I don’t hate you,” I corrected. “I don’t exactly trust you not to act rashly.”

  The beast within me lifted her head and growled quietly, but Forrest opened his mouth, and the words sounded forced out of his throat. “I was there, at the games Craig was and I saw the same fighter. We all did.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Everyone assumed the Darrahs were gone, those that weren’t wiped out fled and we did not hunt them down. As long as they gave us no trouble… but then a dragon fighter showed up to the games, and the moment he started fighting, everyone knew exactly what he was. Who he was.”

  “Why would he do that?” I asked softly. “Why show his face?”

  “No one knew. Afterwards…” He licked his lips and looked like he wasn’t ready to keep going, but he wasn’t going to stop, not now.

  “Tell me,” I demanded, voice thick with emotion. I sensed what was coming, but I had to hear it.

  “I overheard my father ordering our men to track Maddock Darrah down and bring him in. After what you told me, it’s safe to assume your father was not going to come willingly.”

  My gut twisted and I felt sick as I hurried to back away. Growling sounded in the room, and I realized it was me. My vision blurred and the beast was ready to break free and scorch this murderous traitor until he was nothing, but bone.

  The rational side of my mind reminded me my fire wouldn’t burn him, but the dragon in me said it was still worth a try.

  Craig called my name, but he seemed so far away.

  I shook my head, but the growling intensified. I wanted to be free, I wanted to soar over the clouds.

  I wanted to burn the town to the ground so they could feel my pain.

  The doors slid open to the living room, the banging drawing my attention.

  Mama Lucy was there, and she rushed towards me. Her lips moved, but I heard nothing she said. Her fingertips touched my forehead, and I was floating in blissful darkness, the dragon curling back up in a tight ball, watchful, but at peace.

  For now.

  Chapter 2

  Craig

  I laid Kate on the couch for Mama Lucy. I tucked a loose strand of her braid behind her ear as she relaxed in sleep.

  “What did you do?”

  I straightened to see Lucy scowling at me and Forrest. “Don’t look at me.”

  Forrest rolled his eyes and huffed. “I merely told her the truth, which is what she asked for. This is not my fault.”

  “Eh, seems like it might be a little bit your fault.” I held up two fingers an inch or so apart for emphasis. “I mean it was your family that killed her family, and then your father that sent the orders that killed her parents.”

  Lucy’s scowl deepened as she crossed her arms. “You’re lucky those chains are all you’re bound in.” She walked around the room and peered out the window, Harry obediently following at her heels.

  Guess he found his new home and it wasn’t with me.

  Mama Lucy whirled around. “Do you know why your father went after him?”

  Forrest shook his head. “I only overheard the orders, but never the reason. I found it strange Maddock would’ve shown his face at all honestly. It had been years since the fallout.”

  Kate stirred on the couch, and all three of us held our breath. Her eyes blinked open, and she glanced around. “How did I get on the couch?” She sat up slowly and rubbed her forehead, swinging her legs over the side.

  “You have to learn to control your emotions,” Forrest informed her.

  I laughed in disbelief. “Do you have a death wish?” I asked.

  Kate mumbled for him to shut the hell up at the same time.

  “All I did was tell her the truth.”

  “Yeah well, maybe no more talking about my family right now.” She held her stomach and looked ready to be sick, but after a few deep breaths seemed fine. “What else do you know about this plague thing?”

  “Only the bit I could learn before I was booted out of Boshen,” I admitted.

  “Well, let’s start with that,” she insisted, and propped herself up on the couch better to listen. “You said this Burnt World was taken over by it?”

  “Or created for the plague to be sent there. There’s very little information on it anywhere, and interesting fact,” I added as I plopped down in an armchair, “that world didn’t exist until a thousand years ago. Before then, no Burnt World was recorded, and the only mention of it was during the trails of the Darrahs who tried to kill the royal family.”

  “What did they say?”

  I leaned back in my chair and let my gaze linger on Kate’s. “They claimed after the breach was broken, they had no way to stop the plague, so they sent it to another world, one they created. It was meant to hold the darkness forever, but clearly, something went wrong. I’m guessing if the shield was taken from them, then whatever power they did use to seal it is failing, has been for some time.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Makes sense since their lands are said to be cursed. It was probably the plague that drove them to madness. What caused them to fight the dragons they spent so many centuries trying to protect.”

  “Does not matter what drove them,” Forrest grunted darkly. “They tried to murder my family in their sleep.”

  “I know, but I don’t think they did it on their own volition. I think the plague was controlling them.”

  Kate’s face paled, and she swallowed hard. “What is this plague thing?” she asked, diverting the subject.

  “No one really knows for sure. It appeared one day, out of a crack in the world, or so the story goes. It swarmed forth, devouring everything in its path. No one knew what drove it, or where it came from, but there was only one way to seal it away.”

  “The shield of the Vindicar,” Kate breathed. “My dad, when I saw him, he told me we were betrayed. The shield was stolen and destroyed.”

  My mind raced with possibilities, recalling every detail I could remember on the plague and the Darrah’s involvement with it. “It’s why they had to send it through a portal. They didn’t have their weapon to trap it again.”

  Kate reached into her pocket and pulled out the shard. “But this time I will.”

  The shard caught the sunlight sending a prism of red and orange light against the floor and ceiling.

  “If we want answers, we need to go back there,” I told her earnestly. “We need to return to the Darrah lands and see if there’s anything left behind for us.”

  “I need to know where I come from,” Kate agreed, but Lucy was already shaking her head. “Mama Lucy, you can’t expect me to stay out of this. Not after everything’s that happened.”

  “That’s exactly why you sh
ouldn’t go, not there.”

  “I have to,” Kate argued gently. “If I’m the last of this line, of the only dragons able to stop this plague from spreading, I can’t sit back and do nothing. Craig said it’s already spread to Boshen. What happens if it gets further? If it gets here?” She tucked the glass away and took Mama Lucy’s hands. “What about the kids?”

  She squeezed Kate’s hands. “There’s nothing I can say to stop you, is there?”

  “I wish there was,” she admitted with a bitter laugh. “This is not exactly how I thought my life would go, you know? Figuring out who my family really is. I was hoping for something boring.”

  Patting Kate’s cheek, Lucy said, “I knew from the day I first met you, you were special. Saw it in your eyes, that promise of a great destiny.”

  “A Darrah.” Kate shook her head, and her glance drifted to mine for a brief moment.

  A rush of heat stirred in my chest and I rubbed it, unsure of what I felt, but then Kate looked away as Lucy pulled her to her feet.

  “If you’re going, then you will need supplies. Come with me to the greenhouse. Craig, you two can get cleaned up in the bathroom upstairs,” Lucy told us. “And don’t you dare take those manacles off him,” she warned.

  I smirked. “Didn’t plan on it.”

  Kate and Lucy walked through the house, Harry following behind, and I heard the back door open and close.

  Forrest was already on his feet when I turned around, and I gave a mock bow and a flourish of my hand, letting him walk ahead of me to the stairs.

  “The second we step foot in dragon territory, my father will know.” His steps were heavy on the stairs, and the chain rattled. “He will come for me.”