by Jade Allen
It was another four days before she was able to find time alone in her father's office again. Sara was meeting Greyson's mother for lunch, which meant that the women would be engrossed in last-minute plans and preparations that would likely carry them well into the afternoon. There were only three days left until the wedding, and the thought of the minutes slipping away made Aurora even more desperate to find out what was in that folder.
Locking the door behind her, Aurora pulled the folder from the drawer, settled into her father's chair, and opened the grey cover against the desk. The first several pages featured drawings of various dragons. Some were massive like her dragon, others smaller and more delicate looking. Many were shades of orange, red, and blue. Only one was the slick, gleaming black of her beautiful creature.
Finally she came to a page with words and began to read. Her heart started to shake in her chest as she tried to take in what the words said. They were written in brief, stark sentences that sounded like the code she sometimes overheard her father muttering into his phone in the few seconds she would wait before knocking on his office door when her mother sent her to get him for dinner. The strange wording, abbreviations, and occasional symbols made it so that Aurora didn't understand most of what she read. By the time she got through a few pages of text, however, she was fully aware that her father was not who she thought he was, and that his career was far more complex than he ever let on.
Aurora turned another page and found another drawing. This one, however, was not of a dragon. She was looking at the naked back of a man and a large, intricate tattoo that stretched across his shoulder blades and down to his hips. Many people may have just seen an abstract pattern or only a vague impression of a design. She, however, knew those lines, the curve at the top and the tips at the bottom. She had run her hands along them and lain between them. That tattoo was of folded wings.
That night Aurora gave herself into her dream and in what seemed like a blink she left her bed and was back on the moss-covered boulder at the edge of the lake. Her feet swirled through the water like they had in her first dream and within moments she felt it growing warmer. The roughness of the water told her the dragon was coming and she swept her eyes across the lake to see the first glimpses of him swimming toward her.
He drew closer until he was directly beneath her, running his back against her feet. She giggled and pulled her feet up out of the water, hoping it would tempt him back. He took the lure and swam back. The water stilled and his head came up out of it to rest in her lap. Aurora stroked it tenderly, watching his eyes close in response to her touch. Nervousness swept through her as she prepared to speak to him for the first time.
"I know what you are," she said, not raising her voice above a whisper for fear of breaking the peaceful, comfortable calm between them.
His eyes opened and stared at her for a moment before he lifted his head from her lap and sank beneath the surface of the water. Her heart clenched painfully as she watched his dark form seem to sink further and further away from her until she could no longer see it in the moonlight. She was beginning to stand, ready to walk back down the path toward wherever it would lead her, when she felt something against her ankle.
The touch was not like the dragon's back against her and the difference in sensation stilled her. Aurora felt the same touch on her other ankle and watched as hands came out of the water, sliding up her legs. Following the hands were golden, muscled arms. The hands reached her knees and gently pushed them apart. Finally the water broke and a head, powerful shoulders, and a chiseled chest rose up between her opened knees.
Aurora's mouth opened, but no sound came out. The eyes that stared back at her from a stunningly beautiful face had the color of her dragon's. Water streamed from dark hair that hung to his shoulders and across full, soft-looking lips. She couldn't resist touching him. Her fingers slid through his thick hair and then traced along the curve of his cheek. He tilted his face slightly to tuck it against her hand and she felt his hands sliding further up her legs until they held her hips.
"Hello," he said softly.
Aurora laughed quietly, tears starting to burn in the corners of her eyes.
"Hi," she replied.
He tightened his hold on her hips and slid her closer to him. Their breath mingled between them and for a moment neither moved. Aurora lifted her other hand to his face so that she cupped it in both palms. He leaned toward her and their lips touched. His mouth lingered so that it pressed against hers only gently, then lifted away. Aurora nudged her nose against his and he captured her mouth again, encouraging it to open beneath his.
Aurora complied with the insistence of his kiss, parting her lips and welcoming his tongue against hers. She was so lost in the taste of him that she barely noticed his hands come to hers and take them from his face. He wrapped her arms around his neck, then returned his grip to her hips. She felt him lift her off of the boulder and bring her against his body so that her legs wrapped around his waist. The water rose up around them and their kiss deepened.
There was no hurry as they kissed. Instead, he explored her mouth with his tongue and ran his hands from her hips along her thighs and back as he let his lips play languidly against hers. Aurora stroked her hands down his neck, then over his shoulders so they ran across his back. She could feel the slight difference in texture on his skin where she imagined the back ink of the wing tattoo was embedded.
Finally she pulled her mouth from his and looked into his eyes.
"What's your name?" she asked softly.
"Arach."
She could already feel the pull of the dream ending around her and she clung tighter to him, wanting just another moment of being in his arms.
"I'm Aurora."
"I know," he said and touched another gentle kiss to her lips.
"You know?" she asked, confused.
Arach nodded and kissed her again, plunging his tongue into her mouth. She reciprocated hungrily, moaning against his mouth as he slid her down his body and she felt that he wore nothing beneath the water. He pushed her skirt up her thighs so that it gathered her hips. She rocked them against his stomach and he complied with the invitation, slipping a hand beneath the elastic of her panties. His thumb stroked through her sensitive folds and within seconds she felt herself crashing into a dizzying orgasm. Arach's fingers delved into her and she contracted around them in a series of tremors that left her gasping.
The image around her was fading, and she knew the intensity of the experience was waking her. She kissed him a final time before tucking her head against his shoulder so she could breathe in his scent and listen to his heartbeat as she woke.
"Goodnight, Arach," she whispered and the darkness took her.
A moment later Aurora woke in her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. Around her the world had darkened to an even bleaker shade of grey.
****
"Mom, I need to talk to you," Aurora said two days later.
She was again sitting across the patio table from Sara who sipped coffee cautiously from a china cup. Aurora hated that cup. The delicate pink roses that crept along its sides were lovely; but they were flat, lifeless, and artificial. They reminded her too much of what she was becoming for her to find it pretty.
"Yes, soon-to-be Mrs.?" Sara nearly sang.
Aurora cringed.
"Please don't."
"What's wrong, Aurora?" Sara asked, the delight draining from her face.
Aurora looked up at the housekeeper who stood dutifully by with the coffee pot. The grey-haired woman took the cue and settled the pot onto the silver breakfast cart before disappearing into the house.
"Does the word 'Killington' mean anything to you?" she asked as soon as the patio door closed.
Sara looked like Aurora had struck her. Her hand shook as she lowered the cup back to her saucer.
"No," she said, but the tremble in her voice told Aurora she was lying.
"Don't lie to me. I found Dad's file."
; The nervousness on Sara's face turned to anger quickly.
"How dare you go through your father's desk?"
"I saw you going through it after I mentioned my dream the other day. He showed me his secret drawer before he died. You must not have known about it."
Sara was visibly shaking and Aurora would have backed off if she couldn't still feel Arach's lips against her neck from her most recent dream.
"I don't want to ever hear you talking about that again, Aurora. Do you understand me?"
"Don't talk to me like a child. I'm supposed to marry someone I don't love tomorrow because I made a promise to Dad, but I have been dreaming of this dragon every night, and I deserve to know what that means."
Sara stood up so sharply she nearly knocked the table over.
"You don't deserve to know anything. You will marry Greyson and you will be a good wife to him. He will follow in his father's footsteps and you will both make things happen for each other. That is the way it is going to be."
Her mother started to walk toward the patio door and Aurora stood.
"I've fallen in love with him," she said, bracing herself for the reaction.
Sara turned to her, the look in her eyes so intense Aurora took a step back.
"Excuse me?"
"The dragon can become a man. His name is Arach."
"Stop it, now."
"He is just like the ones in Dad's file. It said 'Killington' on it. What does that mean?"
Sara came close to Aurora and grabbed her by her arms.
"Your father died because of what was in that file. It is your duty to marry Greyson as he promised his father. It is the only thing that will keep you safe."
"I don't understand," Aurora said.
Sara's hand tightened painfully around Aurora's wrist.
"And you never will."
Dragging Aurora along behind her, Sara rushed into the house and down the hall to the small library tucked beside her father's office. She pushed her inside and Aurora heard her calling to the housekeeper.
"Angela, watch her. Keep her awake. Do whatever you have to do, but do not let her fall asleep."
"You can't keep me in here until tomorrow," Aurora protested.
Sara looked at her for a long, sickening moment and closed to door. Aurora heard the door lock and she pounded against it, screaming to her mother. Panic rose in her chest. This was more than she had even imagined. Her father had told her that marrying Greyson was about uniting families that had been longtime friends and supporting Greyson's political ambitions while giving her the life that would enable her to pursue her own goals. Now she knew it was so much more than that.
If only she knew what.
Aurora paced around the library frantically for the rest of the day. She could hear her mother moving around the house making last-minute preparations, but no matter how much she screamed, Sara did not come to let her out. More than anything she wanted to sleep, but Angela would not allow her to rest. She didn't understand. Even if there was more to the dragons, she only saw Arach in her dreams. Her wedding was less than a day away and then she would be bound to Greyson by law and loyalty.
"Angela," Aurora finally spoke as she stared through the window at the stars, "Do you know what's going on?"
Angela had been the family's housekeeper Aurora's entire life and she was desperate for some type of reassurance from the woman who was oftentimes more a part of her life than her own mother.
"Please don't ask me, Aurora."
Aurora turned from the window and stared at her.
"You do know. Tell me."
Angela shook her head. She held the tin of crackers Sara kept in the library for her occasional afternoons of reading in her lap and looked down at it rather than at Aurora.
"Your mother would never forgive me."
"This isn't about her, Angela. This is about me. I'm getting married tomorrow. I am literally giving away my life because of a promise to my father. If there is more to it than friendship and politics, don't you think I deserve to know?"
There was a long moment of silence and then Angela reached onto the table beside her to pick up a glass of bourbon she had poured from the cut crystal bottles arranged on the table beside what used to be Lee's favorite chair. She drank the contents of the glass in one long swallow and placed the glass back on the table.
"When I was a little girl my grandmother used to tell me stories about dragons. She would read me fairy tales and describe these tremendous creatures with massive wings and huge claws that could breathe fire."
She paused and Aurora lowered herself to the floor beside her.
"Yes?" she asked, encouraging Angela forward.
"I thought they were just stories, until…"
"Until?"
"Until you were born."
"What do you mean? I'm not –"
"No. You aren't, but…" she trailed off and gazed at Aurora with a blend of sadness and fear in her eyes. "I can't tell you anymore. I'm sorry. Please, Aurora. Just marry Greyson. He will give you a good life and you won't ever have to worry about any of this again. Just be a good girl and marry him."
Angela touched her cheek and Aurora felt tears pooling between her skin and Angela's hand. Outside the window the stars had disappeared and the darkness was fading into dawn. It was her wedding day.
****
By the time Aurora made it to the bridal suite at the country club she was weak with exhaustion. She hadn't been able to eat and her body was shaking as she sat at the vanity allowing stylists to do her hair and apply her makeup. The eyes that stared back at her in the mirror were empty.
Her mother scurried around the room delegating tasks and ensuring everything was perfect. More than ever Aurora felt like the roses on the coffee cup; all faded pink, flat petals, and useless thorns. When Sara helped her into her dress and tightened the corseting behind her back, she felt the final bit of hope slip away.
"You look beautiful," her mother whispered as she lowered Aurora's veil over her face, her voice carrying no hint of acknowledging the night before.
Aurora didn't respond, but picked up her bouquet of red roses and let Sara guide her from the suite. They walked outside to the ceremony site in silence. Aurora thought about her father and how she always dreamed that she would hold his arm as she walked toward a groom that made her heart flutter rather than sink. Music rose around her and hundreds of unfamiliar faces turned to her. Each step felt like she was sinking further into the ground beneath her. Finally she made it to the arch of white flowers at the end of the aisle.
Greyson offered a smile, but Aurora couldn't return it. She could hear the officiant talking and the words disappeared around her. They meant nothing anyway. Out of the corner of her eye she could see slim white tapers flickering on a table set up just on the other side of the arch. She turned her gaze to the flames and felt the familiar tears pooling in her eyes. Across from her, Greyson was repeating the vows the officiant read out to him. They were meaningless and impersonal, but she still didn’t want to hear them.
Suddenly Aurora heard whispers rippling through the rows of guests. For a moment she thought she had missed her vows, but then she noticed Greyson was looking into the sky. A low, rhythmic sound finally registered above the whispers. The guests were staring up at the sky, searching for the source of the sound.
"Keep going," Greyson said, turning his attention back to the officiant.
The officiant started reading Aurora's vows, but she held up a hand to stop him.
"Wait," she said.
Dark shapes had appeared over the tree line and were approaching rapidly. She saw one of the bodyguards who was a constant presence at every event she and Greyson ever attended put his hand to his hip. A few of the others followed suit and Aurora looked at her mother in the front row. Sara was looking at the approaching shapes in horror.
A moment later the shapes were close enough that Aurora could see them clearly. She gasped, her heart surging forward so hard she felt
a pain through her chest. The guests saw the same thing that she did, and there was suddenly chaos.
Arach landed at the end of the aisle amid the frantic crush of screaming guests trying to run from the ceremony site. He spread his wings and turned to his face to the sky, roaring as flames shot from his mouth. Two other dragons landed nearby, trapping the guests near the tangle of overturned chairs.
"Aurora!" Sara screamed, launching herself forward.
Aurora stepped away from her mother's reach, but felt Greyson's hand clamp down on her arm.
"Say your vows, Aurora!" he shouted at her over the deafening sounds.
Arach roared again and took a massive step toward her. Aurora looked at him, then back at Greyson. Her father's words resonated through her mind. She opened her mouth, but before words could come out, she looked down at her hands. One gripped her bouquet so tightly the thorns bit into her skin and rivulets of blood were trickling down her palm and onto her wrist.
Pulling her arm away from Greyson, Aurora dropped the flowers, gathered the flowing skirt of her wedding gown in her hands, and ran up the aisle toward Arach. As she approached, he lifted one claw and used it to slash the bloodied dress. She tore it the rest of the way so that the skirt stopped at mid-thigh and kicked off her shoes.
Aurora vaguely heard her mother screaming for her in the background, but she didn’t stop. Grabbing onto Arach's wing, she climbed onto his back and tightened her thighs around him. Arach leapt off of the ground and Aurora watched his wings stretch as he took to the sky. She held on tightly and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back so the wind could pull the pins from her hair and let it tumble around her.