The Dragon Saga Box Set

by Nicolette Andrews

  Suzume shook her head to rid herself of these melancholy thoughts. "Listen to me, you idiot. I'm not Kazue! So stop with the melodrama."

  He frowned. "What are you talking about? I saw you, I saw you fight back Hisato for me."

  Suzume's hands were balled into fists at her sides. Why is this so difficult to get through his thick head? "That wasn't me, that was Kazue. I'm not her reincarnation, she never really died. She was trying to become immortal so she could be with you, and instead she broke apart her soul and Hisato was born—or made, I suppose."

  He took a step away from her. Confusion wrinkled his features. "She did it. She actually became immortal?" He looked around as if he expected to see Kazue standing there, waiting to throw herself into his arms.

  And that was what hurt the most. Suzume felt as if he had jabbed a knife into her gut. He would never love Suzume, not really. A love like that was eternal. One way or another they would find each other. There was no place for Suzume in his heart. Once Suzume resurrected Kazue, Kaito and Kazue would be together again. And what do I care? He's an arrogant jerk. That same old argument rang hollow now.

  "She's gone—or mostly. I have a fragment of her soul inside me, but the rest of it has been scattered. We have to find the pieces of her soul and resurrect her so she can stop Hisato from becoming a god."

  Kaito swiveled his head back to Suzume as if he had just remembered she was there. "What do you mean before he becomes a god? You cannot become a god without having at least people to worship you. Even then, you would have to be an immortal with incredible power."

  "That's what he's been doing this whole time, collecting power, preparing to become a god. The eight gods were sealed by Kazue; there's no one that can stop him."

  Kaito grinned. "Let me guess, except for you."

  She answered his grin with a raised brow though she would have rather not looked into his eyes right then. She did not want him to realize how she really felt. Her stomach felt like it was tied in knots. "Yeah. I guess it's up to me to stop him."

  "I'm assuming you'll need help, then?"

  She scowled at him. "Why exactly would I need help? Don't you think I can do this on my own?"

  He laughed a barking laugh. "Do you really think you could do something so important by yourself?"

  She placed her hands on her hips. "Maybe I do."

  "Well, you don't have a choice. Whether you want it or not, I'm coming with you."

  She had to fight the smile that was threatening to bloom on her face. "Why? What about your revenge?"

  His smile slipped. "Revenge won't change the past. No matter how much I want to hate her, I can't."

  He may as well have twisted the knife in her gut. "I see."

  "You may not be Kazue, but you're still my bride, Suzume. You were promised to me and I am not done with you yet."

  A blush burned the back of her neck and crept over her cheeks. She knew it was a joke, but it hit a little too close to home in this instance. She crossed her arms and looked away from him, pretending to pout to hide her embarrassment. "I am not your bride. If anything, we are partners."

  She could see his smile from the corner of her eye and it was difficult not to smile right along with him. A part of her had feared that they would be parting ways. She was relieved to realize they were not separating. I can only imagine what danger awaits us. And most likely my life will be threatened, but as crazy as it sounds, I cannot wait for the journey to begin.

  Join my readers group to get an exclusive short story, SORCERER.

  The Sea Stone

  Copyright © 2018 by Nicolette Andrews

  Cover Art By Nadica Boshkiva

  Cover Design by Covers by Combs

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Thank you Kat for helping this book come to life!

  1

  A ball of fire zoomed through the air. When it collided with the torii arch, it burst apart in a shower of sparks. The paint on the arch bubbled and peeled, revealing scorched wood beneath.

  Tsuki looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow as he whistled. "Well, at least you can make a ball of fire. But I think your aim needs some work." He plucked the paper target off the archway just to the left of the smoldering arch. "Do that again, and this time focus on the target."

  Suzume huffed as her shoulders sagged, as if that breath was keeping her upright. "Again? But that took forever!" She couldn't keep the whine from her tone.

  "With practice, it will come easier," Akira said using her brother's face, not bothering to shift into view. Since the siblings shared a body, they often took turns on who was visible. Whose face you saw correlated to what they were doing usually. Akira handled Suzume's spiritual training, Tsuki her combat training.

  "How much practice exactly?" She put her hands on her hips. Just imagining another week or more of staring at her hands, willing flames to appear, made her want to throw herself on the ground and have a proper tantrum. When they first started her training, she thought mastering her powers would be easy, a couple days tops. It had been over a week and today was the first time she had managed to create a fireball. Making fire is easy, leave me alone with Kaito for five minutes. Focusing it and harnessing it to attack, that was the not so easy part.

  "If you want we can practice with the staff instead." Tsuki grinned with a mischievous glint in his eye. She rubbed the bruise on her shoulder, one of a growing collection given to her by Tsuki during their sparring sessions. He wants me to admit I'm tired, but I won't give him the satisfaction.

  Suzume glared at him while her arms twitched with the memory of exertion. Even propping them on her hips took a monumental effort. This body wasn't meant for this sort of abuse. It was accustomed to sitting around on cushions and writing poetry about nature while being admired from a far. Up until just recently, she had never even dressed herself. Now she was learning how to defend herself with a weapon, and how to stop fire from shooting out all over her body.

  "Look who's here," Tsuki nodded his head in their newcomer's direction.

  There was no point in turning to look, she knew by the sparks dancing along her arms who was joining them. As if keeping up the pretense in front of the conjoined siblings wasn't bad enough, Kaito the dragon, her greatest tormentor, strode into the courtyard. He inserted himself between Tsuki and Suzume, that infernal smirk upon his face.

  "Training hard?" Kaito asked as his gazed skimmed over her to the rising tendrils of smoke coming off the burned torii arch, the only evidence of hours of practice. A weeks worth of practice, really.

  "Yes, now leave, you're distracting," Suzume snapped at him at the same moment her arms gave up and fell like limp noodles at her side.

  The hope was the dragon would leave her to gracefully weasel out of any more training today. She was not born lucky however.

  "Suzume and I were just about to spar, care to watch?" Tsuki said to Kaito with a sly smile in her direction.

  Suzume cursed him internally as she shot him a look that said 'you'll pay for this.'

  He only grinned back at her with a look that said, 'you should admit when your beat.'

  Two could play this game. "Tsuki was going to let me practice an emergency maneuver." Suzume fluttered her eyelashes in Tsuki's direction, while making a kicking motion in the direction of Tsuki's crotch. He reflexively covered his genitals with both hands

  Akira's husky laughter spilled out of her brother's lips.

  "Don't know why you insisted I teach her that," Tsuki mumbled.

  Suzume laughed as Tsuki turned his lower body away from her. With narrowed eyes Kaito regarded the pair of them, a hint of ice in his stare. A touch of chill grasped at the back of her neck, eliciting sparks in reaction to his sp
iritual energy. Whenever Kaito got mad, Suzume was the first to feel it.

  "I hope you're behaving." Kaito eyed Tsuki up and down. "I would hate to have to take over Suzume's training. It would really be a bother."

  "You wouldn't teach me, you'd just throw me at the nearest yokai and expect me to figure it out," Suzume said.

  "That method has worked in the past." Kaito smirked at her.

  "If by 'worked' you mean it almost got me killed."

  "Well, if you think Tsuki's method is more effective, prove it." Kaito gestured towards Tsuki before plopping down on the ground at the foot of a nearby torii arch. He leaned back and slung his arm over a bended knee. A casual observer would think he was disinterested as his gaze was not focused on her but skimming over the surrounding courtyard, but Suzume knew better. Nothing Kaito did was without motive.

  Well there was no getting out of it now.

  Tsuki's grin reached from ear to ear. Kaito might take the most pleasure from her discomfort but Tsuki was a close second. In a lot of ways he reminded her of one of her younger brothers, the ones who liked to leave creepy crawly things in her bed.

  "Since you're tired, I'll take it easy on you," Tsuki said.

  "I'm not tired, I could go for hours more." The lies just kept pouring out of her. Would you stop already?

  Tsuki covered his mouth with his hand to disguise his smile. "I won't hold back then."

  Suzume turned her head away from the others as she silently berated herself for not keeping her mouth shut. A single deep breath helped her regain her composure. But getting into position was harder than she anticipated. Just the mere effort of holding the staff up left her muscles trembling in protest.

  Chin cupped in his hand, Tsuki looked her up and down. "Your arms are drooping, bring them up and closer to your chest."

  With some difficulty, she did as Tsuki had instructed. But that made her muscles cramp. Pain rippled up her arms as her muscles clenched and spasmed. Suzume had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out. Shaking his head, Tsuki went behind Suzume. From there, he bent her elbows into the angle of his choosing. When she'd first started training with Tsuki being this close to him made her uncomfortable, but she was growing accustomed to it by now. Besides he was one of the few people who didn't bring out the fire in her.

  His arms enveloped her, hands moving down her arms, his breath fanned against her skin as he said, "Do you see the dragon's scowl? He's so transparent."

  Suzume refused to look in Kaito's direction, mostly because she feared if she stopped focusing on keeping her arms outright they'd betray her, but also because she could feel his displeasure. Her lungs burned from the pressure of his spiritual energy unfurled by his temper. Whenever he was angry the temperature dropped. If Tsuki kept this up she'd have icicles dangling from her nose. Many of her training sessions had been interrupted by the dragon under some pretense or another. But the end result was always him inserting himself between the two of them. Tsuki lingered a moment longer, his hands gliding to her hips pivoting her into the right stance.

  "Can we get on with it," Suzume ground out.

  Tsuki made one final adjustment to Suzume's legs, his hands sliding down to turn her foot. On stupid impulse, she chanced a glance in the dragon's direction. Kaito looked ready to burst from his skin. Tsuki had taken twice as long as normal to correct her positioning and she wasn't sure when the practice actually began she'd be able to perform. Tsuki took his place opposite her, his own staff in hand.

  Even knowing what was coming she couldn't make her muscles obey. Her entire body felt as if she was trapped in mud, her legs and arms were glued in place. She could do nothing but watch helpless as Tsuki swung at her. The staff came towards her in slow motion. After an over-long delay, she thrust forward to block, and their staffs met with a clack. The force of his blow knocked her off balance and sent her skidding backwards. Tsuki gave her a second to recover before rushing towards her again. Her parry was too low, missing him and his staff entirely, and sent her forward and into Tsuki. He caught her, blocking her fall with his staff, their weapons slammed together and the impact jarred her arms forcing them to seize. Her muscles clenched and she couldn't prepare herself in time for the next swing, which sent her stumbling backwards. Suzume lost her balance, or her legs gave out, and she fell to the ground.

  She landed on her rear and cursed aloud this time.

  Tsuki wasn't even out of breath when he offered her a hand up, "Ready to admit you're tired?"

  This was her chance to give up. All she had to do was admit she was tired, she was only human after all.

  "If you can't keep up, maybe it's time to quit," Kaito said to her, but there was no mockery in his tone, which only made her angrier.

  Kaito held out his hand to help her to her feet, but she knocked it aside, instead using her staff for leverage to hoist herself up. On her feet again she swayed for a moment as the world spun for a brief second.

  Ignoring Kaito she said to Tsuki, "Let's go again."

  "You can barely stand, let alone fight. You've done enough," Kaito said, this time irritation crept into his tone as he grabbed her bicep. Where his hand circled around her arms sparks erupted, clashing against the ice which encased his hand.

  She shrugged off his grip, and a flurry of sparks danced between them as she turned her back on him. "I think I know my limits better than you," she spat. Then to Tsuki she said, "Let's go."

  Tsuki watched their exchange with a frown across his brow. They squared off once more, and the results were not much different than the first time. But this time when she fell to the ground, Kaito practically flew through the air to help her up. Before he could try to help her however, she climbed onto shaking feet.

  "I think you've done enough," Kaito said. He was really getting angry now.

  Each breath was an uneven wheeze. The combination of Kaito's spiritual pressure and her own fatigue were wearing her down.

  "Again," she rasped.

  Tsuki looked to Kaito, his expression cautious. He had not resumed his position and his staff remained limp at his side.

  "Are you sure?" Tsuki asked her.

  "I... said... lets go!" she said between panting breaths. Suzume's form was sloppy, she couldn't hold the staff up all the way, and sweat rolled into her eyes and blurred her vision.

  The dragon hovered nearby as Tsuki continued to hesitate, and the two of them shared a look. Since Tsuki was wasting time, Suzume took the offensive and rushed towards Tsuki, her body fueled by her own stubborn will.

  Tsuki blocked her half-hearted attacked with ease, knocking her backwards as easily as knocking down a blade of grass. For a moment she thought she was going to collapse until she found her balance once more and rushed towards Tsuki again. Though it was more of a half staggering and fumbled attack. Blinded by pride, and fueled by some reserve of adrenaline, Suzume attacked like a cornered animal. She swung at his head, his shoulder, his abdomen, anywhere she might land a blow was fine. Because her movements were so erratic and uncoordinated, Tsuki had to over-compensate, and accidentally struck her across the cheek with the end of his staff as he attempted to block. Flames erupted from where his blow landed, and she spun backwards as flickers of flame trailed behind her.

  That was the final blow. Her knees buckled beneath her and Suzume crumpled to the ground. Kaito rushed over towards her where she lay on the ground with her eyes closed, feeling like a colossal fool. You idiot, what were you hoping to prove?

  "You idiot," Kaito snarled.

  Suzume's eyes flew open as she prepared a retort. Only she could call herself an that.

  "Don't blame this one me," Tsuki snapped back. "When you're around, she's reckless."

  "And you should stop her before she hurts herself."

  "Are you really going to talk about me like I am not here?" Suzume interjected.

  "You want her to learn, but you don't want her to get hurt. You can't have both." Tsuki crossed his arms over his chest.

  "You sai
d you knew how to teach her," Kaito growled.

  "How can we teach her to harness her powers with you around? Your spiritual energy overwhelms hers," Akira said, coming to her brother's defense.

  "Not to mention you're distracting her," Tsuki added.

  "I am not distracted by him," Suzume shouted, trying to cut through the argument.

  It worked a little too well because the pair of them swiveled to look at her, as if just remembering she was there. Tsuki, who had maintained control of the body he shared with his sister, had a sly smirk on his face as if this had been his plan all along. Kaito's lips were pulled back in a snarl.

  "Then why didn't you stop?" Kaito snapped at her.

  With a huff, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are you even here? Don't you have better things to do?"

  "I can't get to more important things until I can be sure you can defend yourself. You're a liability."

  "I'm never going to learn if you keep distracting me."

  "I thought you said I wasn't distracting you." A slow smirk spread across his face.

  From beside Kaito, Tsuki chuckled. At least someone saw the humor in this. Suzume ignored him. Suzume had moved beyond pride and straight into anger.

  "Fight me," she said. Drawing on some well of stupid pride, she puffed her chest out as she glared at him. This had to be the stupidest idea she'd ever had. Kaito had just watched Tsuki wipe the floor with her.

  The dragon laughed, long and hard, enough where Suzume thought he might run out of air if he didn't stop soon. He wiped a tear from his eye. "You cannot be serious. Why would I do that?"

  "You think you can teach me better than Tsuki, well prove it. But when I win you're forbidden from watching me practice."

  He crossed his arms over his chest. "And if I win, you have to spend a night with me."

  Suzume's stomach flopped. "What sort of request is that?" She stuttered and had to hide a blush that burned across her face.