by K Loraine
In truth, it does sting. But royal matches are seldom made with true mates. We marry into royal lines to strengthen them.
"Then why toy with Aurora’s heart? Why make her think you want her?"
Mal smiles. "Oh, I do want her. I also don't want you to have her. She will be mine, until the curse has to take her. I can't stop it, and neither can you. You're a fool if you think it's even possible."
He strides out of the room, glancing over his shoulder with a smirk on his lips. “Shall I tell her the real secret we’re keeping from her?”
Balling my hands into fists, I snarl, “Outside. Now. We settle this in the clouds, away from prying eyes.”
Unbuttoning his shirt, he says, “Finally.”
10
Aurora
I can't believe what I'm seeing. From Mal's secret hideout, above the castle, two massive creatures war in the sky. Barely covered by the clouds above, their wingspans are enormous. Like nothing I've ever seen. Even from this distance, I can tell they aren't birds. The shrieks of their cries hurt my ears. Then there's a rumble, a growl, and I remember exactly where I heard that before. With Mal. When we were on our horses, surveying the lands, and I thought it was a thunderstorm. Now I wonder if he knew all along that there was a monster, no, monsters, in Ashea.
My heart races at the thought of what these two could do to us. Of the danger that they’re putting everyone in the castle in.
Running down the stairs, I race as quickly as I can to Phillip's study where I hammer on the door hoping he'll answer. I may be angry with him, with both of them, but he’s the only one I can think to go to.
The door opens without me even turning the handle, and all I find is an empty space. I run for the phone, hoping to get in touch with Gerry, to see if he knows where the prince is. But something stops me. Something on Phillip’s desk calls to me. A piece of parchment hidden under piles of folders, but it sticks out far enough I see my name.
Pulling the parchment free, I hold it up and see the two dragon tattoos each of my men wear over their hearts. The sight sends a ripple of awareness through me. And then I follow the line the of names, each a member of my family. These were the women, the women my father used to link us all to this curse that he's so insistent exists. All the way down to me. My name is circled in red with a question mark next to it and the words, “will it end here?”
Dread curls in my stomach. "Oh, Phillip." It’s worse than I thought.
The roar is louder now, closer. I grab a silver letter opener in the shape of a dagger from the desk and rush out, ready to face these creatures even though I know I don't stand a chance. There's no one around. The house is silent. And I won't wake anyone and bring them into danger if I don't have to. Bursting through the front door, I run until I'm in the center of the courtyard and look at the sky, which is now lighting up with sickly green and fiery red. What is this? Then I see it. I see them. Dragons. Real fucking dragons, hurtling through the sky, chasing one another. They collide with an earth-shattering boom, and in a ball of fire they fall into the forest beyond. I run toward them, stupid, but desperate to get a closer look.
The trees whip at my face as I rush through the untried paths, but I can smell the singed leaves, the burning wood, and I know I'm close.
When I reach the crater they've made, all I see is smoke. They have to be dead. Nothing could survive that. But the smoke begins to clear, and what I find makes my blood run cold. Phillip and Mal, both lying about six feet apart, naked, covered in scratches and dirt. But it's the sheen of scales that are slowly disappearing that has me fighting for consciousness. Phillip's gold scales disappear first and Mal’s black slowly sink away.
"What the fuck?" I whisper.
I close in on them, carefully making my way to the bottom of the crater. I need to know that they're alive. Phillip coughs, sitting up and running a hand through his hair. Then Mal gives a low groan and rolls to his side before sitting up as well. Neither one of them have seen me yet.
Gripping the letter opener tightly, I clear my throat, and both of them turn shocked eyes to me. "You better explain what the fuck just happened. Because as far as I could tell, you two were dragons. That's not possible."
Phillip gets his feet. His nudity should be distracting, but right now, all I can think of are the creatures I saw in the sky. He holds out his hand, but I run backward. "Don't touch me."
"Aurora, please." His voice is rough, more gravelly than normal. Is he still part beast?
Mal stands, green gaze assessing mine. The same green fire I saw in the sky. "There are things in this world humans cannot begin to understand. So, they write it as fiction. There's always truth to every story. Don't tell me you've never seen Game of Thrones. Dragons, humans, white walkers. Where do you think those stories came from?"
I hold up my hand and continue backing away until I lose my footing and fall. My only defense tumbles from my fingers and out of my reach, and panic clutches at my chest. "No. This can't be real."
Phillip holds out a hand for me. "It's real. It's who we are, who we've always been. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." He drops to one knee. "Please know, I didn't want you to find out this way."
A hysterical laugh bubbles in my chest. Escaping before I can stop it. "How did you want me to find out? On our wedding day? After the birth of our first child? Oh, sorry, honey. This little one breathes fire."
He smirks, and I want to slap the smile off his face. "You thought about our wedding? About our children?"
"I think you missed the point. It doesn't matter now. You aren't human. We probably couldn't have children."
"Do you really think we can't breed with humans? Dragons are rare. We need humans to keep our bloodline going." Mal approaches, and I attempt to scoot farther back from him.
I shake my head and try to wrap my brain around all I've seen. "This, this changes everything. What else is real? Vampires? Witches? Fairies?"
Mal nods and grips me by my elbow, not waiting for permission. I fall forward and land against his naked body, my hand pressed to his chest, feeling the heart booming under his skin. "I'm still the same man I was when we were together. Phillip is also. We're both the same men who want you to be ours."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Yes, all those things are real. You've been living with them your entire life without even knowing. We dined with a vampire only the other night. Shared a roof with a witch coven, spent the evening dancing with fairies. Our worlds aren't so thickly veiled that you don't interact daily with one creature or another."
I look up at him, my gaze transfixed on his, falling into his spell. "And I suppose you're going to tell me that curses are real as well? Your brother’s already said the same."
He closes his eyes, his whole body appearing defeated. "Why would we lie to you? Why would your father lie to you? Perhaps you're the one who's blind to the truth."
I tear myself from his grasp, finally getting back control of my feet. "Don't come near me, either of you." They don't follow as I run, and I wonder if their fight exhausted them. If being dragons makes them weaker when they return to their human form. I run as far and fast as I can, back to the castle, back to where I can gather my things, my friends, and return to some form of sanity. Maybe I'll wake up and this will have all been a bad dream. My dreams with both of them have been so real, maybe this is the same thing.
I reach the castle and enter, my heart racing, lungs burning. Running up the stairs, I head for the room where my friends are saying, but as soon as I get inside their bedroom, I find them all asleep, each in their own bed, and I can't wake them. Their sleep is so deep, I have to check and make sure they're breathing. Shaking each of them, calling their names, even going as far as to slap them, I try, but in vain. None of them wake.
I run back to my room and begin the task of collecting what things I brought. But a pulsing in the air has me frozen in my tracks. It's calling to me. It's pulling me. And I can't stop myself from leaving my bedro
om and walking down the hall. At the end, there's a door. The same door I couldn't open before, the one Mal stopped me at. A green glow shines from the cracks, a mist trailing out from underneath. It opens as I approach, almost a siren song calling to me. There's no stopping my movements, even though my brain is shouting for me to stay back. I practically glide through the open doorway and up the long spiral staircase covered in the eerie green mist.
It seems like I walk a mile, but I'm not winded. And when I reach the top, I find Mal's secret hideout, again. But that can't be, not here. This isn't where the doorway is. The green light grows and begins to take shape. Into an old spinning wheel, where the green light lands and settles atop the sharp point of the spindle. Fear races through me, and I try to stop myself, but my limbs move without my permission, and in one long movement my finger pricks the point of the spindle and I fall into a deep sleep.
Phillip
We were reckless. Fighting like children in the sky. And look at how we were repaid for our actions. Aurora wants nothing to do with me, nothing to do with Mal, and she ran from us. Anger burns in my chest. My dragon, though recently released, threatens to rise again.
"We have to stop her. She can't leave."
Mal nods and the two of us begin running naked as the days we were born back to the castle. From where we stop as we breach the forest line, we see it the moment it happens. An explosion of green light from the top of the castle and the mist that follows curling over the spires and down the walls until it reaches the ground. "The curse." The words are just a whisper, but I know he hears them.
"Fuck."
I can save her. I have to save her. It's true love, I feel it in my bones. Running I make my way to the door and, as soon as I break through, I know there's something wrong. It's not just her. The entire house is cursed; the occupants are all asleep. It's begun to take down everything I hold dear. It will take me precious time to wrap a robe around my naked form, but every moment I’m not with her is a moment too long.
“Where is she?” I ask, turning toward Mal.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it.”
My stomach turns to stone. “What do you mean?”
“The curse. I couldn’t get back in time to stop it from happening.”
“What did you do?”
“What I was supposed to do. I was destined to bring this about.”
I wrap my hand around his throat and shove him against the wall. “Tell me everything.”
He nods, and I loosen my hold. “I’ll have to show you. Let’s get dressed first. She’s not going anywhere.”
After dressing, I follow him to the hall where she’d first asked us to share a bed. At the end of the passage I see a door. A door that shouldn’t be there. “Magic,” I whisper.
“Yes. She’s there. I’ve been luring her there since the first day.”
“So you planned all this? You knew you’d be the instrument of our destruction.”
“I didn’t think I’d fall for her. I thought I’d get vengeance for my father’s death. Instead I see the truth of it all. His line set the curse. They are the villains.”
I can’t stop the words before they leave my lips. “You are the villain of this story, Malachi. If she dies, it is on your head.”
Tearing open the door, I rush up the stairs and fall to my knees the moment I reach her. “Aurora, please wake, my love. I’m here.” I scoop her into my arms and carry her past Mal, who is standing in the corner, eyes downcast, fists clenched tightly.
She’s limp in my hold, barely breathing, lips a pale pink rather than the rose color I’ve fantasized about. And her skin—cold to the touch. Not dead, but not fully in the land of the living either.
Kicking open the door to my chambers, I carry her to my bed, taking care to lay her in the center. She looks like a beautiful doll, her features calm and peaceful. I brush a tendril of hair away from her face and let my thumb linger on her lips.
“A kiss,” I murmur. “You’re my mate. My true, fated mate. My kiss should break the curse, shouldn’t it?”
Leaning down, I press my lips to hers, desperate for some reaction, some spark to bring her back. Nothing happens. She doesn’t move. And realization punches me in the gut. “I’m not her true love,” I murmur. But who is? His name flashes in my mind. Malachi. The very bastard who cursed her is her true love? What kind of sick joke is this?
Rising, I stride toward the hall, needing to find him. If he can break this curse, I will welcome him to do so. “Malachi! Where are you? Come face the woman you damned.”
But he’s gone. From the window in the hall, I see his black wings as he flies away from his misdeeds. A coward. A true villain. I’ll do everything I can to find a way to break this curse. I have to. I tear the enchanted amulet from my body and throw it to the stone floor, shattering the glass bead in the center and sending up a cloud of emerald dust. Nothing else happens. Despair floods me as I realize I’m not going to save her. I failed.
Returning to her side, I lie next to her on the bed, my fingers linking with hers. A green mist curls into the room, the heady scent of lavender and moss filling my nose. Exhaustion covers me like a blanket, heavy and thick. And before I can stop it, before I fully realize what’s happening, the amulet is sending me to sleep. Before long, the sleeping curse takes me under as well.
11
Aurora
I open my eyes with the feel of Phillip’s lips on mine. But he’s not here. My dreams are usually less dark than this. I know it’s a dream because there’s a forest in my bedroom. Heavy green fog covers the floor, and when I sit up it feels like I’m moving through rushing water. I have to get out of bed. I have to move. If I don’t, I know I’ll be trapped here forever.
Forcing my way off the mattress, I lift my leaden feet and settle them into the mist. It’s cold. Icy even. And as I work my way through the spindly trees, I wonder what I’m going to find in the dark.
I wander farther, stopping every few steps to rest against a tree. It’s the most exhausting trek of my life, and I have no idea where I’m going, but I can’t stop. My chest tightens as a green glow fills the air around me and my finger pulses where I pricked it on the spinning wheel. The curse. I’m cursed. It was all real.
“You’re awake.” The voice in the mist pulls my focus from the horizon. It’s familiar, dark, sensual, and has a rough edge that makes my body react. “Aurora. How are you awake?”
“Mal?” I whisper.
A shadowy figure approaches me, breaking through the fog. “I thought I’d find you trapped in your slumber.”
My heart aches. He did this to me. “It’s your fault.”
His eyes glow in the darkness and bore into me. I should be afraid of him. He cursed me. He’s evil. He betrayed me. But he’s so beautiful, like a tempting demon striding through the gates of Hell to claim me.
“It’s my fault.”
“Did you plan it from the beginning?”
He nods.
“Then why are you here?”
“You’re not supposed to be awake.”
“I’m not.”
“Not even in here.”
I shrug. “I guess you suck at cursing people.”
“I didn’t curse you.”
“Then why did you say it was your fault?”
“I made sure you found the instrument of your curse.”
“Why?” I have to work to control the sadness in my voice. “Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t think I was going to fall for you. It was my destiny. To do this. To bring on the curse.”
He closes the distance between us, his presence like a magnet, pulling me in. “I should hate you,” I whisper.
“But you don’t.”
“I don’t.”
“You know Phillip loves you.”
I nod. “I feel the same.”
“And I’m here to do whatever it takes to reunite you two.”
There’s pain in his voice, etched across his face, radia
ting from him. I can’t stop myself from asking, “Why does this hurt so badly if I’m supposed to be with him?”
“I twisted your heart on purpose, to make you question your connection to him. There was a time, briefly, when I thought you were destined to be mine. I was wrong. I was selfish and blind to the truth. I’m not the dashing prince riding in to save the fair maiden. I’m the wicked king. The dragon who stole the princess.”
“Mal—”
“No. I’m going to make amends. I’m going to stop this curse once and for all. You deserve love and happiness. Most of all, you deserve freedom.”
He reaches out and grabs me by my nape, roughly tugging me against him. His expression is desperate and filled with longing. “I’ll take your place. Send you back to him.”
“What will happen to you?” My voice shakes with unshed tears.
“I’ll sleep.”
“You…”
“Hush, Aurora. Let me do this. It’s the only thing remaining for me to do. Let me love you this way.”
“Love me?”
He offers me a sad smile. “The fact that you don’t know proves I’m not your mate. But yes, I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment you breezed into the castle like you owned the place. My dragon wants to lay claim to you, but if you don’t feel the same pull, it can’t be true. I’m willing to step back and free you.”
I want to tell him I feel the same way, but I just admitted to loving Phillip. “Mal, please let me—”
He shakes his head before pressing a bruising kiss to my lips. “I love you,” he murmurs against my lips before fire races through me and my vision goes white.
I’m warm and cozy as my eyes open to the sun beaming in through the window and Phillip next to me on the bed. I roll on my side and trail my fingers through his hair before leaning close and brushing my lips over his. Happiness blooms in my chest as I watch him come back to consciousness at my touch.
“Aurora?” Phillip asks.