Bane of Dragons (Sera's Curse Book 1)

by Clara Hartley

  Kael glanced at me. “We’re almost there.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I wanted to take you to somewhere pretty, but Rylan asked me to fetch you. His duties were cut short, so we’re going to the nursery earlier.”

  “And you’re joining in with the work?”

  “Only because you’re there.” He smiled at me. The grin almost felt genuine, and there was a dimple at the side of his cheek when he did that, which made my heart flutter. It didn’t smooth over the fact that he was rude and far too uncaring, however.

  “I mean what I said, Kael. I don’t want any part of your games. I have important matters to worry about.”

  “You’re not like other girls, aren’t you?”

  “What makes you think all other girls are the same?”

  “Because most of them throw themselves at me when I show even an inkling of interest. It gets boring after a while.”

  “Then you haven’t been spending time with the right ones.” There were plenty of driven women on the council. My recollection traveled back to Aere Grove, to Bianca. She didn’t have the same goals as me, but she’d always wanted to be a great artist.

  “I beg to differ. You feel too different to me.”

  “If you continue to think so superficially, you’ll surround yourself with shallow people. And I think that’s more boring than anything else.”

  Kael snorted, not agreeing, but not rebutting my argument either. “We’re here,” he said.

  We arrived at a tall glasshouse, its insides filled with a forest of green. We often took expeditions here from the council. It was a fifteen-minute walk, but with Kael’s wings, the time had been shortened significantly.

  He set me down, and I slipped from his hands, losing the warmth of his touch. He was no longer wearing the cheeky nonchalance he liked to cover himself with. His lips had set into a grim line, which struck me as odd.

  “They’re waiting inside,” he said.

  I didn’t think much of his sudden change in demeanor. Perhaps I’d bored him and run out of entertainment for him as a toy. I moved toward the glasshouse’s entrance.

  “Sera,” he said, grabbing my wrist.

  I reacted to his call, spinning around to face him, but I didn’t even have time to do that. I found myself caught in a deep embrace, staring at his chest. His muscles surrounded me, strong and encompassing.

  What was…

  He pushed my chin up and then his lips were locked on mine. He intoxicated me with his scent—free, and almost with a breeze. Like the ocean.

  I was kissing Kael.

  I’d hardly touched anyone my whole life, and now I was kissing the third-eldest prince of Constanria’s royal family.

  I couldn’t breathe steadily. My heart was thumping so hard that my chest hurt, and my legs were giving way.

  He parted from me, without the twinkle in his eyes I expected. Taking his time, he ran a thumb across my lower lip. My neck, all the way to my cheeks, was probably as red as a tomato. I tried to level my gaze at him, but I probably would melt if I stared into his blue eyes any longer.

  “What… What was that?” I asked, finally managing words.

  “I kissed you because I wanted to,” he replied. Some of his playfulness returned. “If you decide to kiss any of my brothers first, at least I’ll know I sneaked one in before them. So I win.”

  It was all still a game to him.

  “I know the bet’s still on. Micah and I promised that you have to be the one to decide.”

  I huffed, wiping my hand across my mouth. I made my way back to the entrance. “The others are waiting.”

  Kael picked up his pace, and we both walked into the greenhouse.

  Ten

  Despite how beautiful most of the palace was, the experimental growing grounds was likely one of the prettiest places in the large compound. It had a life of its own. Nature flourished through it, breathing a glow that the architectural wonders of the palace couldn’t compare to.

  Birds, transported into the place by the landscapers, fluttered and chirped through the greenhouse. Flowers and crops of all sorts scented the place with a floral sweetness that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the walls of the palace. A river ran through the center, playing the music of gushing waters.

  We had to stroll for a couple minutes before I saw Gaius, Rylan, and Micah standing over a sapling, discussing something.

  My gaze met Rylan’s first, and he waved to me.

  Micah was speaking. “Plantia involutis is a common spell for invigorating herbs, and it’s able to boost the nutritional properties of most plants.”

  “Which is useless,” Gaius said, “because the spell requires too much energy to use. What’s the point of wasting an entire mammal just to make a corn cob slightly juicier?”

  “Some people might hate crickets, while really liking the taste of apples.”

  “I’d take crickets.”

  “And apples for me.”

  I listened as they went through the intricacies of soul magic. The subject was completely foreign to me, since I hadn’t dabbled in the art before.

  Micah took out some beads—soul beads, used to store already-harvested souls—from a pouch. “So, if we try and combine plantia involutis with arcio involus, we might be able to make the plant itself grow more quickly.” He summoned a blue, wispy light from the beads, and gestured to the sapling. “Plantia arcio?” The magic fizzled out into nothing. He’d failed, but it was still interesting, and I got excited over working with the art of magic as well.

  “We could try something else,” Rylan said. “What other spells do you have in your arsenal, the both of you?”

  Micah gave a long list of words that meant nothing to me, and Gaius seemed to be trying to rival his brother. They were equally impressive. How did they manage to fit so many spells in their head? Micah had to have over a thousand spells memorized, and knew their exact functions. Gaius didn’t have the capacity to know so many, given that Micah was a savant, but his capabilities didn’t fall that far behind either.

  Kael hadn’t joined with their experimentation. He was sitting in the background, on one of the wicker chairs, and juggling one of his daggers. It looked like the weapon might impale him at any minute. I turned my attention back to the other three princes.

  And then one of the spells worked. “Paraci invontolis,” Micah said, and instead of fizzling into nothing, the plant sucked in the magic. It grew, abruptly, and a flower sprouted from it.

  My eyes widened. “That’s amazing,” I said, my mouth gaping open.

  The three of them turned to me, as if shocked by my presence.

  I’d slunk away into the background while they were discussing the art, not wanting to interrupt them. Why had Rylan invited me here again?

  “Do you want to give it a try?” Rylan asked.

  “What?” I replied. “Uh…”

  “Here,” he said, passing me a small satchel of soul beads. The items were said to be rare. I likely held an entire mansion’s worth in my hands. “Try to sense the souls in them. We’re here to test your propensity for magic, or at least that’s one of the reasons. Summon them, and use Gaius’s spell, paraci involtolis. You can use it at the same time as Gaius. He’ll show you.”

  “I don’t even know why I should,” Gaius said, not hiding the venom from his tone. He did as his brother requested, taking some of the beads from me. There were another few saplings of grinche grass surrounding the one they had been successful with. “Here, try and keep up.”

  I scowled at him. Why couldn’t Micah be the one to show me instead? He called toward the souls in the beads, and they left the small, marble-like object. He waited impatiently for me to do the same.

  I didn’t want him to look down on me, so I made haste to do as requested. I called to the power, not sure whether I had any affinity with it at all. I’d heard how powerful the spells could be related to a person’s own soul, and whether it could sync with the magic. Some peopl
e had no talent for the art, and required an army’s worth of souls to summon the simplest of spells, which made their usage of souls practically useless.

  I, however, wasn’t that sort of person. The magic came easily to me. It drifted out of the bead and into my fingers without me having to struggle. I grinned. It was working.

  “Paraci invo—”

  Before I could finish my spell, I heard a growl coming from Gaius. I looked up and saw that his eyes had flickered into dragon slits. And then it came to me. Some part of my soul which I always knew existed—the foreign entity—flashed brightly.

  What in Aereala’s name?

  He was looking at me as if I were nothing more than prey. Hungry. Intense.

  I shuffled back, confused by my emotions and the sudden change in Gaius.

  He lunged.

  Rylan reacted immediately, hugging an arm around his brother and defending me, pulling his brother away. Micah was on Gaius in an instant, holding him back by his shoulders, and Kael ran up to us, summoning his wings so he could get to us faster. The sounds of Gaius’s thrashing and growling sent a thrill through me.

  They lugged Gaius away, until he was calm enough to not resist. The hunger seeped away from him, and he breathed sharply, panting from the sudden change. Then Rylan accompanied him, walking with Gaius, allowing Gaius to keep his distance from me.

  I let out a breath. I hadn’t realized I had stopped breathing through the whole ordeal.

  “What happened?” Kael asked me, sounding worried for once.

  “He… We used soul magic at the same time, then I… There was this foreign emotion that took over.” It was lustful, and I didn’t want to describe it to the others. “And then Gaius seemed to lose control.”

  “Sit down,” Micah said.

  Kael dragged a chair over and let me rest my bum on it. I was still fixated on Gaius. He was arguing with Rylan about something.

  “I’ve had enough of her!” Gaius yelled, before storming off.

  Rylan wore a tired look as he padded back over to us. “Forgive him.”

  “He doesn’t make it easy,” I replied.

  “He’s a tough nut to crack, but once you get on his good side, he’s loyal to a fault. Maybe that’s why…”

  “Why he got his heart broken by that commoner girl so badly.”

  Rylan narrowed his eyes. “Who told you?”

  I looked at Micah, who was frowning. I decided to keep it to myself. “It’s not important. So, what did Gaius say happened?”

  Rylan sighed and dragged his hand through his long hair. “He mentioned that his dragon took over, and that he lost control over himself. And he was pointing his fingers at you, calling you…”

  “I can take it,” I said.

  “A witch.”

  I snorted. “He’s the one who’s the best at magic.”

  “Amongst other things.”

  “That reaction is strange,” Kael pointed out. “It almost sounds like…”

  “Sounds like a mate bond,” Rylan said.

  Mates had disappeared thousands of years ago, along with the Dragon Mother’s death. Dragon men used to have strong emotions whenever their eyes set upon their human mates, and female dragons had never existed. But once the Dragon Mother died, female dragons began popping up everywhere, and the mate bond ceased to exist. Dragons could bond with whoever they wanted these days, human or beast.

  Kael nonchalantly tossed one of his daggers into the air, catching it without blinking. How was he so dexterous with his weapons? I was convinced a mishap was going to happen. “So Sera is Gaius’s mate?”

  I balked at that suggestion. “Me? With him?”

  “I wouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Micah said, studying me as if I were his next project.

  “Do you think we’d get the same reaction with Sera?” Kael asked.

  “I don’t think she’s in any mood to try that out,” Rylan said. “We should, anyway. Eventually. Once we come up with a way to be safe about it.”

  Kael sheathed his dagger and smiled. “I don’t mind giving it a shot.”

  I stood up from the wicker chair. “That just leaves you, then. Can we get back to soul magic? We’ll try not to use it at the same time. I want to learn more.” Maybe if I made a breakthrough with it, I’d be able to secure my position on the council.

  “We should do that,” Rylan said. “Once again, forgive Gaius. His temper is as hot as the high summers.”

  I was about to make a retort when the comment struck an idea in me. I walked over to the saplings. “High summers… heat. What if we made the plants more resistant to that?”

  Rylan folded his arms. “Micah’s spell would do just fine.”

  I shook my head. It didn’t feel like it’d be enough. It made the plants grow faster, yes, but ironically, it still seemed too… slow. Like it wouldn’t be efficient.

  What were the limits of soul magic? I needed to read up more on that. “How expensive was that spell?” Soul magic was also limited by the souls we could harvest. The larger the being, or more capable of thought, the more value those souls had. An ancient tribe had invented the beads to store the harvested souls, so people didn’t have to lug around their sacrifices—often insects or small mammals—all the time.

  Rylan knitted his brows. “Two soul beads went dud, so perhaps a jar of insects worth.”

  I pointed to the flower. “A jar of insects, and we don’t even have a fruit yet. And you’re strong magic users. Not everyone is going to have your affinity with the art. This isn’t feasible.”

  “What do you suggest, then?” Micah asked.

  Kael yawned.

  I racked my brain. Making a single plant heat-resistant would be just as inefficient. And then it came to me, like a spark. “What if we change not just one plant, but every other plant that came after it?” When they didn’t interrupt me, instead giving me bemused looks, I continued, “We change the make-up of the seeds themselves, so that the entire species of crops would share the same characteristics.”

  “That’s…” Micah shook his head. “I’d never heard of a spell like that.”

  “It’s ambitious,” Rylan said.

  “To fight nature? We have to be,” I said.

  Kael had already slipped away from our conversation, and was lounging on one of the chairs.

  “Do you think we could do this?” I asked Micah.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “It might not be impossible, but then again, it could be. It’s not as simple as it sounds. In a way, it’s changing nature itself, playing god. The Dragon Mother created new creatures only with an intense amount of black magic, which we do not have the option of using. We’d be trying to do what she did with much less. Granted, we aren’t trying to make dragons…”

  “We’ll never know until we try.”

  There weren’t many spell books available at our disposal. The first queen had ordered many of them burned and destroyed, save for the ones on herbology and the healing arts.

  We had a long road ahead of us, and I couldn’t wait to travel it.

  Sometimes, when a particular problem interested me so much that I’d forget to eat, my body would try and remind me of my hunger by giving me a huge stomach ache.

  Why did the princes’ quarters have to be so large? I had to meander through far too many corridors to get to the kitchens. By the time I got there, I felt like I could eat an entire herd of cattle, plus some.

  And then I stumbled upon Gaius. He wasn’t carrying his axe, but he was dressed the same as he normally did, with his sour expression that said, The world owes me everything.

  He was being himself, reprimanding one of the royal cooks.

  “What do you mean you’re out of ingors?”

  “The last shipment’s late, Your Highness,” the poor cook said, fidgeting and looking ghostly pale.

  “But we’ve never run out of any kind of meat.”

  “The high summers messed up some of the logistics… The systems aren’t running
as well as they used to be.”

  Gaius scowled. “Stupid commoners, always lazing about.”

  Watching Gaius being a mean prick made me almost lose my appetite—almost, because my stomach was so hungry that it fought on.

  I rolled my eyes, exhaled a heavy breath, and strolled to the commotion. “Don’t you have incas?” I asked the cook. “It tastes pretty much the same, and they’re often reared in the mishram plains, which weren’t affected by the high summers.”

  The cook brightened. “We have plenty of those, my lady. I’ll fetch some right away.” He looked at Gaius for affirmation.

  Gaius scrunched his nose up.

  The cook took my intrusion as a way out, regardless. “And what would you like, my lady?”

  “Lots of mushrooms, and potatoes, with some inca belly on the side, please. Cooked medium well. I don’t really like the whole raw-food thing.” I’d hated mushrooms and potatoes when I was back in Aere Grove, but these days, they provided a sense of nostalgia.

  He bowed. “Immediately.”

  I turned my attention to Gaius.

  “Must you always butt into everything?” he asked me.

  “The poor man didn’t have any ingor meat. What did you expect him to do? Magic it out of nowhere? I don’t even think you could do that.”

  “If he’d made sure to keep inventory in the first place—”

  “That’s not his job. He’s a cook.”

  “We eat our meat raw! Why is he even in the palace?”

  “He seasons them. And someone has to prepare the side dishes.”

  “I can see you’re trying to protect your own kind.”

  “I’m not. I’m just trying to save the lad from you. Do you have any friends, Gaius? Other than your brothers?”

  “Plenty.”

  “Friends you can trust? Who aren’t just cuddling up to you for favors, just because you’re a prince?”

  “Yeah,” he said, but there was doubt in his eyes.

  “You don’t.”

  The cook returned, with a fresh plate of inca meat and my dish. I eagerly received my food from him, and didn’t hesitate to pop potatoes into my mouth. Buttery, with just the right hint of herbs. I moaned and threw my head back. Even the potatoes the princes ate were in a league of their own.