by Tara Starr
She’s going on this shopping spree as if we won’t run out. Well, we’ve run out. The coffers have dried up. We need to wait a few weeks before they replenish again.
Among her expenses involved upgrading the fortress defenses. She’s also bought military grade nets. And the chemicals she had sent to the alchemists were all from the black market, which is sold at an exorbitant premium, I might add.
The ice in my blood boils at the thought of her being so careless. I’ve worked too damn hard to keep everything afloat. I refuse to have her waste all that time and resources on something as avoidable as a battle.
We don’t live in the medieval ages anymore. Gone are the days of dragons flying in the sky and crashing into one another. Clawing at their underbellies. Biting at necks and wings.
I had been doing great with my business dealings, if I do say so myself. I was cutting off the fire dragons’ heads in Vegas. Inch by inch, they were losing their foothold. Then the battle in Vegas happened and now we’re the ones on the run.
If Ivy had stayed long enough to listen, I would have told her about my plans of driving out the fire dragons. I would have pushed them back to their mountains to wallow in their shame. It would have taken them years to bounce back in another city.
By then, I would have fortified our foothold within the entire state of California. That huge swath of land would have been ice clan territory. No one would have been able to challenge us for generations to come. I would have seen to it.
Now, because of Ivy’s kill them first and ask questions later attitude, I’m the one left scrambling in the dirt. So many dragons lost their livelihoods. I had promised them a good life. One where they would never have to worry again.
Yet the decision of one affected so many. Why doesn’t she see that? Why can’t she stop and think for a moment that her actions have consequences?
No matter how deep I am in my thoughts, I still sense the aura of a powerful dragon approaching. I whip my head up and look at the horizon. I have to squint because the dragon is flying with the sun behind it.
It takes me a could more seconds to figure out that it’s Ivy flying toward me. By now, she senses my presence too. Instead of slowing down like I expected her to, she actually speeds up.
In my anger at her impetuousness, I speed up as well. I flap my wings and shoot like a bullet toward her. When we get closer to each other, I flip my claws forward. She does the same.
We collide in a boom. Like a bomb detonating in the sky. Our claws tangle. We snap at each other with powerful jaws.
She slaps me with her wings. I do the same. In our struggle, we spin round and round as we plummet from the sky.
If we don’t break apart soon, we’ll crash. I let go of her claws and push her away. She’s shocked for a moment but regains her composure fast enough.
I tuck my wings to my side and barely misses her teeth piercing my neck as I drop further down. I land in a clearing. I can feel her moving fast behind me.
Before she can close her claws around my wings, I shed my dragon. She misses and lands a few meters away from me. It takes her a few seconds, but she too sheds her dragon and charges me.
“What’s the meaning of you cutting our funding?” she asks, practically spitting at me even from meters away.
“What?” I spread my arms wide. “You think there’s an endless supply of money? Huh? I’m not a bank that you can just make withdrawals from whenever you like.”
She slaps my chest with her open palms, pushing me back. “We need that money to buy supplies for the coming battle ahead.”
“See, that’s all you think about. Fighting and battles. Get your head out of your ass for one second and see that you can’t have the money without the businesses.” I point at her face. “Your stubbornness is getting in the way.”
“And your callousness will cost our people their lives,” she accuses back. “You have truly abandoned us.”
“I haven’t! I’ve been scrambling the entire time to get new businesses back on line.”
Her eyes widen, cold blue fire in them. “I need that money, Logan.”
“Can’t you hear yourself right now?” I laugh, unable to believe how crazy this has gotten. “You say you don’t need the businesses and yet you need the money. You can’t have one without the other, Ivy.”
“Our people will die.”
“That’s not my fault. You’ve overdrawn from the account. There’s nothing left.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have nothing more to give you.”
“You’re lying.”
I bare my teeth. “I’m not. Because of what you did in Las Vegas, the fire dragons have been retaliating on the business front. We had to divest a lot of investments in order to save ourselves.”
She narrows her gaze at me. “What are you saying?”
“I was doing so well in Las Vegas. I was slowly buying out all the businesses of the fire clan in an effort to drive them back to their mountain. I was defeating them. Then here you come in with your stupid kill them all plan.”
“It wasn’t stupid.”
“Yes, it was because you didn’t even win. Now we’re in this situation because of you.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“No, you’re not the one making sense here. You belittle my way of doing things and yet when you need the money you come begging to me. That’s the ugliest double standard if there was one, Ivy. Open your eyes!”
I’m breathing so hard that I doubt I’m actually getting any oxygen in my body. This is the first time I’ve ever really lost it on someone. Ivy stands there in shocked silence.
Fifteen
Ivy
When I was a whelp barely toddling behind my mother, my father took me to see the heart of the Verglas Mountain. My mother thought I was too young to see the inside of our home. But my father knew that if I were to fully understand my place in life, I needed to see what was my birthright.
My mother dressed me in my warmest clothes and told me to be brave. I didn’t know what exactly was happening, so I didn’t think to be scared. She placed thick gloves on my hands and wrapped a fur cloak around my shoulders. She gave me a kiss on each cheek, smiled, and surrendered me to my father’s care.
I would never admit this to anyone, especially now that I’m a general in the ice clan army, but I was a total daddy’s girl. I trusted my father implicitly. He could do no wrong in my eyes. If there was ever a perfect image of what a dragon should be, it’s my father.
I remember him holding my hand as he led me down a long dark tunnel lit by torches. His long fingers engulfed my tiny fist. I never felt safer that with my father.
Not once did I ask him where we were going nor question him. I didn’t even ask if we were close or how far we were going. I was merely content to be walking with him. He slowed his steps to match mine, but he never carried me.
Then a pulse reverberated in the air. I could feel it like a humming in my skin. My breath came out as white plumes of smoke. My lips trembled form the cold.
As an ice dragon, the cold shouldn’t bother me much. I lived within the icy lands of Verglas after all. Yet, what we were approaching was a different kind of cold. The kind that reached past your skin and grabbed hold of your bones.
A white blue light came from a distance. I looked up at my father, but his face remained calm. I didn’t see any reason to be concerned.
When we reached the end of the tunnel, a giant pillar of ice stood before us. It stretched from the ceiling of the mountain all the way to its base. Inside it pulsed an unearthly light.
The path leading up to it narrows to a point. My father stopped a few feet away from the pillar. The power called to me, woke my slumbering dragon inside.
“This is the heart of the mountain, Ivy,” he said in a deep, reverent voice.
Unable to stand still, I let go of my father’s hand. He didn’t try to stop me when I approached the pillar. I touched the clear ice with my glov
ed hand.
It felt wrong. In the back of my hand, I knew I should remove my glove and touch it with my palm, skin to ice. But just as I was about to do that, my father stopped me.
I will never forget that day. It’s what pushed me to protect my people and keep Verglas safe. No one outside of the ice clan deserves access to the heart of the mountain and all that ancient power.
So, the fact that Logan tells me that he can’t give me the money to fund the army in this time of great upheaval makes me want to punch him in the face. When I saw his dragon flying toward me, I damn near wanted to smack him out of the sky. He was being utterly selfish by withholding the money from us.
“You have to find a way to give us the money,” I say, raising my voice. I will never beg. “The fire dragons are closing in. They will attack any day now. We need the supplies to survive what they have in store of us.”
“What part of there isn’t any money left don’t you understand?” he screams back at me.
I’ve never seen him this angry before. Logan is the type of guy who would rather wait and see what happens before he speaks. Which made him a reliable comrade since he would never say anything that isn’t true.
“Surely there has to be a little more. We can’t be broke. Not right now.”
“You clearly haven’t been listening to me this entire time.”
I shake my head. “You can’t restrict us from the funds we need, Logan. Many dragons will die of you do.”
“Don’t pin the possible deaths of those dragons on me.” He points at his chest. “I’m not the one sending them to war.”
“I’m not sending them anywhere. The fire dragons brought the fight to us.”
“Only because you attacked them first.”
“Are we always going to circle back to that? If I didn’t make a move, they would have moved against us anyway. At least now we’re prepared.” I pause. “Well, not as prepared as I would have wanted. I need that money, Logan.”
“There’s almost none left, Ivy. I have nothing to give you.”
“But you said ‘almost.’” I take a step forward. “That means there’s still some left. I need it. I need it all.”
“I’m not giving you another cent.”
“Stop being so stubborn.” Then I narrow my gaze at him. “I think you’re lying. I think there’s still a lot of money hidden somewhere that you’re not telling me about just to sabotage my campaign. You really are a traitor to your people.”
“Ivy, listen to me, I’ve been in charge of the money for a long time. I know how much there is. I’m fighting the same battle that you are preparing for.”
“You’re fighting nothing.”
“No!” He explodes. “I’ve been making my own maneuvers. Creating my own defensive strategies against the fire dragons.”
“Not like the defensive line that I’ve put together. We’re fighting an actual war here. I can’t just sit idle and let those bastards take everything from us.”
“If you trust me enough with what I’m doing, they won’t be able to take anything from us ever again.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t let my people die just to see if what you’re doing will work. We cannot lose Verglas.”
“Who said anything about losing Verglas? Moving forward doesn’t mean turning our backs on our way of life, Ivy.”
“How would you know that?” I accuse him. “You haven’t been back to Star Peak in years. Do you even still feel your dragon in you.”
“I may not call upon my dragon on a daily basis, but his heart still beats strongly within me. I’ve never turned my back on my people.”
“Then help us!” I scream in exasperation.
“I am helping you!”
“Not in the way that we need you. The fire dragons might have settled down for now, but that can only mean that they are gearing up for a bigger fight. We have to be prepared for any attack.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do here at my end. If only you’ll take a minute to see it my way.”
We’re standing toe to toe now, breathing hard. I’ve never seen Logan this livid. His eyes are a glorious shade of green. His lips are parted and there’s passion in his expression.
I feel his body heat radiating into mine. He reminds me of the ice pillar that my father showed me. The heart of our mountain. Oozing with power.
All I want is to touch it with my bare hands. Will his skin burn me if I do?
I catch him looking from my eyes to my lips. Then in a quick move, he cups the back of my neck with his large hand and brings me closer. His lips crush against mine.
At first, I feel like pushing him away. But the kiss is just too glorious to turn away from. My hands move from his chest to the sides of his face.
I push my body against his until we’re flush together. My soft curves against the hard plains of his. I feel every inch of him and yet it doesn’t seem to be enough. I need so much more.
His tongue slips into my mouth and I take him in, running my tongue with his. We play. We dance. We revel in the sensations that come from the most primal of meetings.
He breathes into me as I breath into him. Our breaths mingle in a splendid exchange. How could it be that his body could be so hard yet his lips could be so soft, yielding against mine. Taking and giving all at once.
Sixteen
Logan
As fledglings, we all admired Ivy. She was easily the most beautiful dragon walking around in the Floe Fortress. All the boys of Star Peak, if not the entire Verglas Mountain, fell head over heels for her.
Her long black hair was the envy of all the females. There was even a time when all of them seemed to be sporting straight hair past their waist as that was how Ivy preferred to wear hers. Then when she switched to wearing braids because she’d begun her training, all the females her age began wearing their hair in braids too.
My favorite feature of hers as always been her eyes. They were the kind of blue the reminded me of a particularly clear sky. And when she was annoyed, they became sharp as daggers and as light as snow.
I figured out early on that most of Ivy’s expressions came from her eyes. She may wear a tough exterior, but all you really needed to do was look into her eyes to find out what she was really feeling. Of course, she’d gotten good at controlling her emotions as she rose in the ranks until she finally became the youngest general in the ice clan’s army. She became harder to read then.
But, growing up, I remember all the males trying to vie for her attention. There would always be competitions of strength and death-defying feats just to impress her. Most of the time, Ivy would join in on the stunts. She was never afraid of being a dare devil with the guys.
That’s what made her extra popular since most of the females were content to be prim and proper. She’d be the first to get her dress dirty jumping off the cliff and transforming as she went. Tough to do, but magnificent to witness.
I was always content to hang around in the back, watching the other fools fall all over themselves just to get a smile from her. All I had to do was bide my time. I knew I’d get her attention eventually.
If I’m being truly honest with myself, I think one of the reasons why I joined the strike force was to be able to spend more time with her. When she asked for a volunteer, I always raised my hand. I never missed an opportunity to spar with her. To the point where no one bothered volunteering because they always knew I’d be the one to take one for the team.
Having Ivy flip me around wasn’t a hardship at all. It meant she had her hands on me and whatever body part she used to demonstrate defensive or attack fighting moves. I accepted each and every blow she dealt.
Flying with her must have been my favorite of all because to watch Ivy in dragon form is like watching a waterfall. It’s a magnificent sight. When the sun would hit her scales, she practically glowed like Star Peak.
She was as accomplished in the air as she was on the ground. She took training as a dragon so seriously that no one could out
maneuver her when she was in the air. I think that’s the reason why she rose to general so quickly. Her talent was unparalleled.
I was supposed to tell Ivy the way I felt the night Max died. It was a routine scouting mission. I thought, once we got home, I’d take her aside and confess. I wasn’t even afraid of facing rejection since I knew that I had to at least try and tell her how I felt.
Then the shit hit the fan and I set aside my childhood feelings in exchange for grief. I left Verglas for LA soon afterward. We lost touch and I focused on the growing the business side of things.
Little did I know that when I saw her again, we’d be where we are now. Had I known that the only way to get her to stop yelling at me was to kiss her, I would have done it during our first argument about this foolish war business. At first, I expected her to knee me in the groin. What I’m doing is certainly an invasion of her personal space.
But when she slipped her hands up my neck to cup my face, I knew I had her in my grasp. She kisses me back with the same abandon. I’ve always had fantasies of kissing the great general. Never had I thought that these fantasies would actually come true.
I wrap my arms around her, unwilling to let her go. I want to keep her where she is for as long as she’ll let me. And from the aggressive way she’s kissing me back? I don’t think we’ll be stopping any time soon.
Even through her fighting leathers I could feel the heat of her skin. She smells of lavender and heather. Her lips are the softest pillows for mine. Yet they go from yielding to unyielding in the span of seconds.
I can tell that Ivy knows what she wants when she’s being kissed. She tilts her head to the side of her own volition so that I can have better access to her tongue. Her passion seeps into mine when she moans into my mouth.
Not content to keep my arms around her, I move my hand along the side of her body until I’m able to cup her breast. She pushes against my touch as I squeeze her hard to make sure that she feels me through her leather breastplate. She straddles my thigh and begins to grind herself against me.