by G. Bailey
“Nothing for you to worry about, and I told you before, you can’t leave the castle. You’re the king and until you are mated, with an heir on the way, it’s too dangerous for you,” she says, sighing.
“I’m not mating anytime soon. I’ve told you this,” I say, trying to hide my annoyance that she won’t tell me what she is doing.
“When the seers are back on our side, or Melody tells us who your future mate is, we will find her,” she says, like it’s no concern for her. Melody pretends to help her all the time, but I doubt she is helping her much.
“The seers still won’t come here?” I ask.
“No, but they will change their minds very soon,” she smiles as we get to my room.
“What are you going to do? You can’t just kill everyone that doesn’t side with you, mother,” I warn her, and dark lines crawl down her cheeks for just a second before she shakes her head.
“I won’t kill them,” she says sweetly and walks away. I open the doors to my room, walking across it and straight to the balcony. I have to take deep breaths to calm my dragon down as I look over the mountains as the suns shine above them. I look over at the crown on the side. It's a worthless trinket, considering I have no idea what is going on outside of this castle.
A king with no power, is no king at all.
Chapter 5
Isola
Isola,” a voice whispers, the voice both hauntingly familiar and heartbreaking. My mind knows who it is, without me even having to look.
“Hello?” I ask, blinking my eyes open. All I see is smoke all around me. There is a fire in the background, and I quickly turn around, looking for the voice. Part of me doesn’t want to find the man who spoke, but a deeper part of me still yearns for him.
“Here,” the voice says from behind me and I spin, seeing a shadow of a man in the smoke.
“I can’t see you,” I say, and he chuckles.
“You don’t want to, you hate me,” he says sadly, but then still steps forward into the clearing. Thorne stands still as I get a good look at him. His ice blue eyes lock with mine, matching the stolen white crown on his head. I can’t get used to the blonde hair, as I’m so used to seeing it brown. It has been kept short and suits his face more this way. He has a new outfit, still black leather and similar to his guard uniform, but this one is much nicer. He has a long cloak draped around him, with blue and red dragons stitched down the sides.
“Of course I hate you, you killed my father! The very crown you wear you stole from his dead body! You betrayed me! Get out of my head, and fuck off, you bastard!” I shout at him, stepping back when he steps closer. I’m literally shaking with anger, wishing this dream was real so I could kill him.
“I can’t escape you anymore than you can escape me, but hate me all you want,” he whispers, and I barely even hear him as I go over the million different ways I could kill him. I think stabbing him through the heart like he did my father would be the best way. When he only stares at me, not saying anything, I have to reply.
“What the hell does that mean, Thorne?” I snap, and he strides quickly towards me. I back away until I can feel the heat from the fire burning my back. He grabs my face with his hands, pulling me strides quickly towards me. I hit him, struggling to get away, and even try to call my ice, but it doesn’t work.
“Fight me, hate me, but you can’t shut me out, Issy, and when you know why, you won’t want to,” he tells me and leans down, brushing his lips across my forehead. He lets go, allowing me to fall into the smoke.
“I hate you, don’t come to me again. I have my dragon guards now,” I shout, falling still but not fighting, the smoke takes me away from him, and that’s what I want more than anything.
“I sent them to you, protected them for you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't hate me, Issy," is the last thing I hear him say before everything feels like it is burnt away until only emptiness is left.
I sit straight up in bed as my alarm blares, covered in sweat and my heart pounding. Feeling my hand burning, look at my tree mark and find it glowing red, before it gradually fades back to its normal green colour. When my heart stops pounding in my ear and I calm down, I realise the dream couldn’t be real. It’s just a bad dream, Thorne wasn’t really there. I turn my alarm off, seeing the display saying its six in the morning, and I lean across the bed, switching my lamp on. Thorne can’t contact me, it’s impossible for him to do that across worlds, and I doubt he is on Earth. He might be a fire and ice dragon, but the only way to get into someone’s dreams is to be seer and have a blood connection as far as I know. Thorne and I don’t have any connection, so clearly, I’m just losing my mind. My laptop sits open beside me, I must have fallen asleep looking at it last night. Closing it, I look around my room again. I can't help the feeling that someone has taken a part of me, not just everything related to my previous life here. It's not just the photos of me and Jace that are missing, though that's a huge part of it. Anything related to Dragca is gone, all of the books, and it makes me wish I had read them now. Even my phone is different, it's not the one I had before, and that means the last image I have of Jace is just gone.
“Dammit,” I swear, wiping the tears away, and knowing I can’t be weak like this. I have three of the most stubborn men I’ve ever met to convince that they are dragons. God, they are going to think I’m insane.
“Need to fly soon,” my dragon whispers into my mind as I slide out of bed.
“I know, I will find a way to sneak away tonight,” I explain, and I feel her comfort at my words before I take over again. I don’t need anyone seeing my eyes turning silver right now, that will freak them out. I grab my running clothes, after washing up in the bathroom, and then plait my hair without looking at my reflection for too long. I look just like my father, and I keep imagining him, how disappointed he must be in me. What would he say if he was alive? How would he save Dragca? I leave my room, looking at the other five doors down the corridor. I know Jules moved into the room opposite me, leaving the three rooms and the shared bathroom at the end of the corridor for the guys. Her and my room have a bathroom to themselves, which I guess the guys don’t mind sharing. It stings that she is sleeping in Jace’s room now, and I know if I went in there, it wouldn’t be anything like it used to be. His books wouldn’t be littered around, and his guitar wouldn’t be leaning against the messy bed. This house feels like it’s haunting me more than the messed-up dream of Thorne. Even his name annoys me, I hate him so much. I shake my head, moving away from my door and walk down the corridor. Instead of dwelling on the past, or things I can't change, I decide to focus on my plans for the day.
“Good morning!” I say, walking into the kitchen and yawning slightly. Korbin is sat on a stool, and his head lifts up, locking those green eyes with mine. I knew he would be up early. I miss the smiles he used to give me, and even almost miss our runs and his threats to throw fireballs at my ass if I didn't speed up. He doesn’t say anything as he gets up, he just walks over to me and reaches his hand out to get something out of my hair. He pulls back, showing me a little feather.
“It must be the feather duvet I sleep on,” I say, and he smirks, brushing the feather down my cheek slowly and almost seductively, making me shiver all over.
“Maybe you should show it to me,” his husky voice suggests, sending goosebumps up and down my body. Korbin has never spoken to me like this, and part of me doesn’t want him to stop. I trace my eyes over his tight pyjama shirt, and snug shorts that show off his muscular thighs. Who knew thighs could be attractive?
“My duvet?” I ask confused, and he shakes his head, stepping closer to me. We are only a breath apart when he whispers.
“Your bed, doll.” My mouth parts in shock and he steps back, leaving me a little shaky. He picks his phone up off the side and acts like nothing just happened.
“I-I don’t think that’s-” I start to say, stumbling over my words and acting like a timid little girl that’s never spoken to a guy before. Damn it,
get it together Isola.
“We could always start off with a date,” he suggests, his deep and husky voice making me just want to listen to him talk forever. I don’t reply to his flirting. I can’t let my hormones control me, not right now, anyway. I need him to be my friend again, we can’t risk anything else. It’s too dangerous. The fact they don’t know about their dragons doesn’t mean a thing, they would lose their dragons permanently by falling for me. Or me for them. I don’t really know specifics on how the curse works, but I’m not going to test it. Not only would they hate me forever, but I'd hate myself.
“Do you run? I like to run every morning,” I say, lying my ass off. I spent most of the night reading about how to jog someone’s memory. One of the most successful recommendations is to get them back into their routine. That means running, oh god, running.
“I usually run in the evenings, but a pretty little doll like you shouldn’t be running on your own,” he says, walking past me and towards the stairs, “get us some water while I get changed.”
“Alright,” I reply, and he runs up the stairs. I walk to the fridge, pulling out two bottles of water. I head for the door, putting the water down to pull on my trainers. I turn when I hear steps on the staircase and see Jules coming down. She has jeans and a long tunic shirt on today, and her hair is down. She looks happy, although slightly shocked.
“Wow…I didn’t expect to see you down here already. Are you feeling okay?” she asks, knowing I don’t like mornings. I usually roll out of bed with half an hour to spare, and still spend most of that time reading, before dragging my ass to the bus stop.
“I decided I need to be healthier. I’m going to run every morning with Korbin,” I explain, and she chuckles.
“I bet seeing than boy in tight workout clothes and dripping with sweat has nothing to do with your need to be healthy and wake up earlier?” she says, making me choke on thin air, again, as she keeps laughing.
“I used to be young once, I’ll have you know. I would have done more than run every morning to get close to a body like that,” she teases, winking at me. She walks into the kitchen as I just stare after her in shock. Thankfully, Korbin comes running down the stairs, distracting me from thoughts of what Jules was like when she was younger. With all these comments lately, I'd bet she was a wild one. I try to not appreciate how amazing Korbin looks in his tight running shorts and loose shirt, but I majorly fail. Holy crap on a cracker, he looks hot. I trail my eyes over him shamelessly, and when I finally look into his eyes, he knows I've been staring/checking him out. Thankfully, he doesn't call me on it. I have no excuse.
“Ready?” he asks gruffly, and I hand him his water as he gets closer.
“Yep,” I respond. I need to use this time alone with him to make him remember, though I'm not sure how.
“Do you know a good route with a path?” he asks when we get outside, the cold morning air making me shiver. It’s freezing out. The sun is just rising in the sky, but I know running will warm us up until the sun is fully out. Our house is in the middle of the woods, with a private driveway that leads down from a secluded road. There aren’t any other houses for miles, and the only vehicle that comes this way is the school bus. The woods have a track I used to walk with Jace sometimes.
“Yeah, see over there,” I point at the post in between the trees to the right, “there’s a path all the way around the land and back,” I explain.
“We should race. If I win, I get a date with you. If I lose,” he pauses, “well, what would you like?”
“Nothing, I’m not taking that bet. We can’t date,” I say.
“Boyfriend? I should have guessed,” he asks, disappointed.
“No boyfriend,” I say, and he grins, his green eyes shining with the reflection of the sunrise.
“Then you best think of something you want to win, not that you really need to worry. You won't win anyway...I want that date," he tells me and takes off running. I run after him, cursing him with his green eyes and sexy voice for distracting me.
“It’s cheating to have a head start!” I shout, and he looks back at me for a second, still keeping up his fast pace.
“I don’t play fair, doll,” he tells me, and I shake my head as I hustle to catch up to him. We run at a normal pace for most of the run. Then, in the last fifteen minutes of our race, he suddenly speeds up, and it's impossible for me to keep up with his pace. I swear under my breath when he quickly disappears from view, and I sprint as fast as I can to the end of the track. When I get there, Korbin is leaning against a tree, drinking water. I stand there gawking as it drips down his chin onto his chest, I can't help myself. In my distracted state, I trip on something and slam onto the ground. Nothing hurts, well my ego does, but I ignore that as I roll onto my back.
“Shit, here,” I hear Korbin says, and he picks me, letting me straighten myself out. He lifts his hand, picking some leaves out of my hair, and then pushing a strand behind my ear. I don’t know what gets into me when he rests his hand on my cheek, but I lean my head/face into it. I close my eyes for a second and just breath in his smoky scent. He might not know he is a dragon, but he still smells like one. He still has that comforting scent. When I open my eyes, Korbin is staring at me with such longing and desire, that I can’t look away. Something is changing between us. I should stop it, that I should run away from it…but I don’t feel like I can.
“There’s something about you, doll, and I want to know what it is,” he whispers.
“There’s nothing,” I answer, wanting to say there’s nothing that I can tell him.
“Nothing is definitely not a word I’d use to describe you, you are everything but it,” he claims forcefully, sliding his hand from my cheek to my jaw, his thumb lightly skimming across my lips.
“You’re a shameless flirt,” I say, smiling a little tensely. Pulling away, I wipe the dirt off myself and lean down to pick up my water bottle.
“Not usually, but with you, yes,” he replies, watching me carefully as I try to shake off what just happened. What happened to making him remember? This run accomplished nothing.
“We should shower before school,” I say, walking towards the house, and he swiftly catches up.
“I’m going to guess that wasn’t an invite to shower together,” he drawls.
“Nope,” I giggle.
“I can wait. Our date is Saturday, at seven,” he says, running ahead of me and into the house before I can even say no. Damn cocky dragon.
Chapter 6
Isola
Want a ride?” Elias’ sexy voice drifts over to me, making me jump as I walk out the house. I turn, seeing him sitting on a massive motorbike, and I have to make my eyes pull away from his leather covered body. Holy crap, he looks hot. I only know its Elias from his voice, as I can’t see his face under his helmet, but I know he can see me ogling him.
"You have a motorbike... of course you do," I mutter, pulling my coat tighter around me as I glance up at the dark skies. Dagan and Korbin walk past, going down the drive to the bus stop, looking between me and Elias.
“It’s going to rain, you should take the ride,” Korbin suggests. Dagan doesn’t say a word, only staring at me intensely, like he is trying to figure out a puzzle.
"Make your choice, princess," Elias says. I shake my head, knowing I must be mad, and I walk over to Elias. He offers me a spare helmet, and I slide it on before getting onto the back of the bike. It’s a little awkward to get on, being that I’ve never ridden one before, but I do manage. Just not very gracefully.
"You will need to hang on," his voice coming loudly through the helmet, and I realise they must have some kind of walky talky built in them. I’m sure there’s a technical word for it, but it just reminds me of the walky talkies we use to have as kids. I tentatively wrap my hands around his waist, trying not to feel the flat, hard muscles that are under my grip. He grabs my arms, making me slide forward on the seat until my body is wrapped around his and he pulls my hands tighter around him. Elias
starts the bike, and I close my eyes as it purrs to life underneath me. We begin to move, flying down the driveway by the sound and feel of it. It’s scary at the start, but once I relax, it's pretty enjoyable. I’m used to flying or moving fast, it’s what dragons do but at much higher heights. I’m still not looking though; my eyes are staying shut.
“Are you going to open your eyes?” Elias asks me after we round a corner.
“Nope,” I reply back, and I hear him laugh through the helmet. It’s oddly relaxing to hear his laugh, hear him so relaxed and happy.
“It’s not that bad, you might like it if you try,” he says, and I gently open one eye and then the next. We are driving through town; the shops and people seem like blurs and it’s incredible.
“It’s so weird, but in a good way,” I say and he laughs, not replying to me. It’s another ten minutes until we are pulling up to the school car park and he stops his bike right near the front of the school. I get off, ignoring the stares from everyone as I pull my helmet off and hand it to Elias. He puts both of them in the space under the seat, and then unzips his riding gear. As he pulls it off, his shirt rides up so I get a glance of his tattoos and the v shape that disappears into his jeans. He puts the outfit in the bike, and grabs his leather jacket, putting it on before slipping his keys into his pocket.
“Are you going to show me around then?” Elias asks after I spend way too long gaping at him. Shit.
“Yeah, sure, so where are you guys from?” I ask, and we start walking up the steps to the front doors. I need to know where they have been for the last two years and why Thorne said he brought them here. I can’t accept that he did, that he helped me in any kind of way.
“A little bit of everywhere, our parents like to travel, but we are stuck here for a while,” he explains, and I wonder who Melody made him think his parents are. I doubt they were travelling anywhere, either. Thorne’s words keep rolling around in my mind. He claimed he kept them safe, so they must have been near him. Maybe they were kept in the castle or something.