by Zelda Knight
“Gods be damned, Zihao!” Ryuu struggled and attempted to get up, but the ground held him firm.
“Stop this!” Elder Gou shouted.
Zihao heard the elder, but didn’t hear him. His vision had rimmed scarlet, and his beast threatened to take over. Blood roared fast through him, causing the familiar pinprick of an approaching shift to wash through him. Heat prickled across his back. No one sucker punched him and got away with it.
“Let your flames fly now, spew your birthright, Ryuu.” Zihao smiled down at him. When Zihao spoke, he heard the growling of his dragon threaded with his human voice.
Ryuu’s face darkened.
“You are no warrior, firebreather.” Zihao’s beast relaxed. “Yet you continue to engage me.” His beast didn’t normally rise at this, for combat had been his training.
Reared a guardian, he’d been trained to protect his charge—even from firebreathers. Part of the hate the others held for dilongs resided in this knowledge—the dilongs could control the earth and as such, were powerful. No place on the planet was free from earth, except maybe the air, but dilongs had ways of preventing flight.
“Zihao!” Elder Gou swung out his arm, and at once Zihao flew back against the wall, pinned by an invisible force several feet above the ground. “I said enough!”
Zihao’s sight returned to human, and as the scarlet receded, he could now see several of the council members huddled near the exit, away from the commotion. They whispered furiously behind their cloaks, exchanging their fears one to another. Zihao looked at the elder, but could not move any part of his body except his eyes. Elder Gou kept his hand extended toward Zihao, and with his other hand, he made a short fist and then a wave. The earth siphoned off Ryuu. Freed, he got slowly to his feet. Dirt covered his council robes, his hair and face. He didn’t bother to shake any of it off. Smoke wisps escaped from his clenched teeth as if he’d held a cigarette in his mouth.
Ryuu stalked to Zihao and got into his face, inches from his nose. “This is not over.”
wake.
* * *
With that he marched out of the council room, a stream of smoke wafting in his Elder Gou sighed. “You are all dismissed.”
As if a cage had been opened, the other council members fled, nearly running to be free of the inner chamber. Alone, Zihao wondered what his fate would be. He’d struck and nearly killed a council member. He’d disobeyed the elder. Surely a whipping awaited him. It didn’t matter. His honor had to be protected. Ryuu had it coming for the sucker punch.
Elder Gou walked up to him and dropped his hand. Once he had released him, Zihao crumbled to the ground and slowly stood up. He bowed to the elder.
“My apologies, your great.” A low, throbbing ache crawled into his face, on the left side where Ryuu had punched him. His back joined in the aching due to the slamming against the wall the elder had given him. Great. Just wonderful. Now he wouldn’t be a hundred percent to defend Sonya if necessary. Damn his temper.
“Zihao, you are a great warrior. Yet your temper needs greater discipline.” Elder Gou touched his shoulder, signaling that Zihao could stand.
“Yes, you’re great.” Chee said dryly.
“You were selected to protect my niece, an honor and duty I take very seriously. Now, I need you to do so more than ever,” Elder Gou explained. “There is another clan out there who seeks our demise. The danger is not just for Draco, but for us all. Your father’s murder, the attack on Sonya, Draco’s framing, and several other…incidents, all stem from a single clan, a dragon clan. These incidents were all designed to look like isolated occurrences, but they are not.”
“Why? Why would someone want to attack Sonya or kill my father?” Questions he’d asked himself thousands of times.
“She is the only non-mated female in the Gou tribe. She is the seventh of seven. To be sure, I do not know why they seek her or why they chose to frame Draco rather than kill him or why they did choose to slay your father.” Elder Gou watched him closely. “I do know that your love for Sonya must not endanger this keep. With the Gathering of dragons here, we must be diligent. Conspiring with sirens? Whichever clan it is, they’re desperate.”
Zihao met the elder’s eyes and saw true fear rimming them. “Desperate people have nothing to lose.”
Elder Gou patted his shoulder. “That makes them dangerous, very dangerous indeed.”
Chapter One
A week later
Summer arrived with its usual dry candor for the month of May. Outside the keep, flowers bloomed and brought forth new nourishment and life to the fields surrounding the lake and lined the pathways up to the keep’s entrance. Yet, from her room buried in the depths of the mountain, Sonya Gou gazed down at the flourishing world outside. Her room didn’t face the lake, but outward to the rear of the keep, where in the distance, snow-capped peaks reached for the sky and forest greens bled together in a sea of trees.
“I hate this silly waste of time,” Sonya said in a long-suffering whine. The bitterness of her words left an acidic taste on her tongue. Pressing her full lips together, she avoided saying more. Instead, she closed her arms over her bosom and watched the sun shine brightly over all. Her sentinel’s closeness taunted her hormones with precision. Not far enough from his scent, the soft fall of his black silk hair and the graceful animalistic way he moved. The rest of the cavern, which consumed the top floors of the highest part of the keep, belonged to her clan. Unlike others of her kind, her clan eagerly stood out among the humans. In Chicago, her family had practically become celebrities. The annual Gathering brought them back to their traditional keep here in Alaska. Alliances were formed, clans united via marriage, and celebrations of culture were engaged. Normally, Sonya found it fun, but that had been a long time ago. When she reached mating age, she left Chicago with dread—all the way back to Alaska.
Standing beside her cavern’s gaping entrance, Zihao remained alert. She sighed. Zihao was always on alert.
“It is not a waste of time, Son. The Gathering unites most powerful members and reconnects us to our families.” Zihao’s voice glided across the stuffy air with grace, seduction, and fire.
Sonya turned away from the harsh truth of his words, knowing them to be true but resenting them anyway. The annual reunion gathered multiple clans to form and reinforce alliances, to find mates, to reconnect to family, and to discuss politics. The location varied each year, and this time the Xiongxin clan hosted the massive event. Thousands of dragon shifters would descend on the keep for three whole—gods be damned—days.
“You’re of age this year.”
“Don’t remind me.” She glanced at him from the corners of her eyes to see his reaction. Like usual, he didn’t have one.
Instead he said, “Mating is not a death sentence.” “That remains to be seen.”
“Don’t worry.” “I’m not worried.”
Oh, liar, liar. She battled back the pinprick of tears in her eyes. Zihao read her like an open book. She hated the idea of mating to someone she did not love. Her inner dragon rose at the thought of being pinned to some arrogant shifter, but what could she do? Her clan’s power and prestige made her a trophy for others looking to move up the political ranks of the dragon shifter world. Her father made good use of this knowledge and accepted many gifts from other clans whose sons hoped to be mated to her.
Inside her dragon rumbled angrily, and she blew out a slow sigh to settle her
down.
At the root of her heartbreak lay Zihao. Her pride in her clan stood only to be
challenged by her love for him. Her clan would not allow her to mate him. As an earthen dragon, a dilong, Zihao could only control the earth and when his kind shifted, they tended to resemble garden snakes more than dragons. To quote her father, Zihao’s clan lacked the grace of flight, the fierceness of firebreathing, or the elegance of seadragons. If earthen dragons ranked lower on the list of dragon abilities, Zihao’s family held up the rear, because of the some older family lore,
Sonya didn’t care anything about.
“It’s an old-fashioned idea, using women as pawns in a modern-day chess set. We live in a new millennium. I’m an independent woman. We’re long removed from the keep and live in the human world. In this country, women have rights, freedoms…” Sonya turned to look at Zihao. Would her words reach his heart? Damn it. She couldn’t keep her voice from trembling with unshed tears. Sighing, she caught her rant before it grew a tail and wrapped itself around her throat. Even the walls had ears and mouths in the keep. They spoke to her parents about everything that occurred.
And her uncle, Elder Gou.
With a weary glance at Zihao, she realized the irony of the situation. Assigned to be her protector, he hailed from the origin country, China, like most of the dragon shifters’ rulers and the royal court, to which her family had once belonged. Zihao’s flawless English hid his guardian rank. Most earth dragons never spoke at all—only guarded what they’d been ordered to protect or spent decades digging out mountains and hills to create keeps for dragons of a higher caste.
“It may be traditional, but it is our way. It keeps you safe.” “You have kept me safe.”
Hearing the sharpness of her tone, Zihao’s face hardened. Narrow eyes, flat nose, thin but kissable lips—he resembled most of Longwei tribe. His dark, burning eyes flashed, his own dragon rising at the bitterness in her tone, no doubt, but he quickly calmed. Falling into silence, he crossed his arms over his muscular chest and faded back into the cavern’s shadows.
“I’m sorry. I’m just annoyed. It’s a double standard.”
“Shush, Sonya.” Zihao’s voice rumbled in warning just loud enough for her to
hear.
“No, hear me out.” Sonya left the window’s light and ventured farther into the
room. Candles lapped at the quiet. “No one finds it odd that you are here alone with me, a single, 28-year-old woman—in my bedroom. I’m of mating age and you’re a dragon too.”
She stopped directly in front of him. Her chin came to the top of his well-defined adnominal muscles, and shorter than him. Taking a deep breath, Sonya looked up and like always her heart whirled in joy.
Hands on her hips. “See my point?”
“I am your dilong. You are the Gou’s treasure. I am blood sworn to protect you.”
She touched his face, cupping his cheek in her open palm. His new growth scratched her hand.
“Does that mean you wouldn’t lay down with me in that bed?” She inclined her head to her king-size bed draped in sea foam-green linens. It had become her only saving grace in the sparsely furnished space, the one piece of furniture no dragon’s nest went without—a mating bed.
Zihao became more still. Only a year older, he’d been charged with her protection since she’d turned 16. Her older dilong had died during yet another assassination attempt on her life. He’d been Zihao’s father. After the violent loss of his father, he’d been made her protector, her earthen wall, her mountain.
“To do so, Son, would be death,” he croaked. “Zihao…” She tiptoed and tried to kiss him.
He gently held her shoulders and moved her back a few steps before returning to his original position. “We cannot be as we once were.”
“Why?” She bit her lip to stem the sob of regret in her throat.
“Because we are not what we once were. I am your dilong. Nothing more.”
Tears gathered but she did not let them fall. Anger burned them away within seconds. They had been young, but they had been in love. She loved him still. Her parents forbid it, but they loved anyway. When Zihao’s father died, her parents had taken pleasure in making Zihao her bodyguard. They wanted it to be a lifetime of torment and torture—to be so close to what he could not have—all because she and Zihao had defied their orders. Her parents believed themselves to be protecting her, but in fact they had only succeeded in making her resent them more.
A few seconds later, the sharp rush of waters at the cavern’s entrance interrupted her unhappy thoughts.
“Sonya,” came her mother’s powerful call. Saturated with magic, Beline Gou spoke life, plants, and emotions into existence. An old dragon, she had given birth to six male dragons, Sonya being her last and her only female. A dragon of her age wielded magical power taught by time and longevity. Long-locked hair, gray with wisdom, face weathered by the seas of both this world and the nether one, Beline floated across the room to the window. Her coral gowns brushed the carpeted floor. Bare feet peeked from beneath the fabric.
“Mom.” Sonya flopped down on her bed. Zihao remained solid like a statue. Seen but not seen. He could’ve been a piece of the room’s décor—a dresser, a chair, a Zihao.
“Malcom Chee’s father, Marvin, invited us to his nest for dinner. We will visit at six.”
“Malcom Chee’s father, Marvin, invited us to his nest for dinner. We will visit at
Sonya shot up. She towered over her mother at 5’3”, but it did little to empower her.
Sonya tried anyway. “No, I have a prior engagement.”
“This is not open for debate.”
She heard the warning in her mother’s voice, but she didn’t give a damn.
“I’m not a child. Isn’t it enough I’m sacrificing my life, my freedom for you, to
mate with someone I don’t love? You’re not taking away my evening plans.” Sonya huffed and rolled her eyes. Not this time. They’d done enough.
“Sonya…” Zihao warned.
“Silence!” her mother thundered at him.
With the twirl of her finger, she put her gaze back on Sonya. “Your life? Let me tell you about your life. It isn’t worth much too modern man. Another Chicago socialite is just as worthless as paper. You are a Gou—a great daughter of the Elder of Xiongxin, an Azure dragon!”
Sonya rose from the bed to stop her mom’s lecture before she really got going. “Your ideals matter more than my own? For my life? It doesn’t matter that you don’t value my plans, my desires, or my happiness. So why should yours be so damn important to me?”
Whack.
The burning sensation started at once. It flamed across Sonya’s cheek and spread across her face and down her neck, the pain flashing through her. Crumbling to her knees, Sonya knew her mother’s power could be a lot worse. It hurt like all the wallop of the sea had come to bear down on her, but she clenched her teeth to keep from screaming. As an ancient seadragon, her mother could control the oceans and the waves at will.
“How dare you speak in that manner?” Beline Gou seethed.
Sonya couldn’t answer from the anguish pinning her to the earthen floor. “I asked you a question!” her mother roared again.
Out of the corner of Sonya’s eyes, she saw her mother’s hand move. Bracing for the next wave of punishment, Sonya closed her eyes and vowed to be free of this lunacy as soon as she could.
It never came.
When she opened her eyes, she found Zihao standing in front of her, his back to her. A wall of earth stood between Sonya and her mother, raised, no doubt, by him. Her mother could control the sea and oceans, but land belonged to the dilongs.
“What are you doing? Get out of the way, dilong!” Her mother said dilong as if she meant to injure him with it.
“Protecting Sonya as is my blood-sworn duty.” Zihao’s voice held no hint of sarcasm or insult, only purpose.
Looking around him, Sonya spied her mother. The woman appeared to be coming back to her senses. Using your powers against your offspring didn’t seem right, but Sonya knew her opinion on the subject held bias.
“Yes, you are correct. If I harm her further, Malcolm may be displeased and then the entire thing’s off.” Nodding, her mother floated backward, toward the entrance. “You may have tonight, Sonya, but only tonight. Do not tempt me, daughter. You may get the freedom you so eagerly seek.”
With that, she vanished; a crashing of waves echoed as she exited.
The dirt wall shot down and returned to the flooring, as if it
hadn’t been disturbed. She felt Zihao’s rough hands on her arm as he helped her to her feet.
Zihao shook his head as he dusted off her dress. “You had to push it.”
Sonya swallowed the remnants of pain. The burning sensation had gone now that its source had left too. How could she make him understand that she loved him and no other dragon would ever do? Ever? Her dragon only glowed and warmed for him—at the sound of his voice, at the thud of his steps, at the glance from his eyes and the sound of her name on his tongue.
She didn’t say any of those things, but instead gave the answer that would invoke the least amount of emotional anguish. “I had to stand my ground.”
“So you did.”
Sonya nodded. “No matter how many breaths I take, I still feel like I’m drowning
here.”
“I would never let that happen,” Zihao vowed.
Chapter Two
That evening
“The night is on fire,” Zihao said as they exited the keep. “Too hot to be out.” “Too hot to be in,” Sonya countered. With her long, dark hair hidden by a scarf,
she should’ve been hot too. Zihao didn’t know why she scampered off through downtown Anchorage dressed in jeans and a blouse and cowboy boots in her attempt to blend into her surroundings. Her parents would kill her if they knew she’d left the keep for this. It seemed they had walked for miles, but she finally came to stop outside of a place called Jay’s.
“Jazz club!”
“Wait!” He’d barely uttered the word before Sonya disappeared into the darkened entrance. He followed closely, worried about her safety among humans. Most people acted kind, but human nature wouldn’t be denied. The last thing he needed was Sonya injured because of something petty and pointless.