“I’m from the country called Lower World that is in the city of Draconia. What is London? What kind of world am I in right now?” I answered with a question, putting the tea aside and walking around the room. There were pictures of Aly on the mantel. Many were from the past. She looked very young in some of the photographs, and there was a handsome man with her in a few of them. I assumed that he must have been her husband or a boyfriend.
“Draconia, well, that’s a fancy name, but I have never heard of the Lower World country. We are on earth, dear, with a population of around eight million people. Is Draconia on earth?” Aly asked, and I shook my head. I didn’t know if Draconia was on earth. I never really thought about it. Besides, none of this was important anymore. Most parts of the Lower World were inhabited; that’s why Draconia was so overpopulated with wardens.
She smiled at me. “Well, you’re amongst humans now. I have to tell you that people here don’t have any magic. Most of them don’t believe in supernatural creatures or powers. It’s something that happens only in films and TV, so I suggest you not talk about those kinds of things in public.”
“What are films or TV?” I asked, not understanding how people here could live without magic.
Then she pointed at the large black box sitting on the cabinet in the corner of the room. Seconds later, she reached for something that looked like a long black stick that was covered with colourful buttons. This strange thing reminded me of some kind of weapon that the Dark Ones would use to hurt others. I hoped that thing wasn’t alive. Then Aly pressed the red button on the top of it. A screen appeared on the black box and I backed away toward the wall a little scared. There were people inside, talking, sitting on a sofa. They were all so clean and nicely dressed, all speaking in the same odd dialect. I just didn’t understand how they got inside the black box, this was some kind of dark magic.
“Right, I suppose you don’t have this in your world. The thing that I used was a remote control. It switches the TV on and off. Come on, let’s go and check on the injured lad. He must have woken up by now,” Aly suggested, putting her cup of tea on the table and opening the door that led to the narrow corridor. I made a mental note in my head to remember not to touch that thing in the near future. I had to ask her later about the people in the black box.
Her house wasn’t very big but was definitely much larger than my flat in Draconia. The stairs most likely led to other rooms. Aly was dressed in a long black skirt and lilac jumper, and she smelled nice too.
I followed her, wondering if I was ever going to get used to being in this world. Last night when I was leaving to steal the egg, I never thought that I would fail. I’d been caught once before because of my selfish, bastard of an ex-boyfriend, but other than that, I was the best in the city.
However, last night’s job was very different from other jobs that I was normally hired to do. Ever since I found out about the egg, I had become obsessed with it. A few weeks later, I buried Dara, and I promised her that I wouldn’t give up. I found out about the egg when I was trying to hide away from the Dark Ones. A couple walked into the library where I was. When I heard them just outside the door, I panicked and jumped under the desk, hoping that they wouldn’t notice me. The male warden was telling a woman named, Verity, that dragons existed and that they had been laying eggs. That the Dark Ones had been hiding them from wardens for years because they wanted to maintain their control over us.
“Isn’t that obvious, darling? They are controlling every aspect of our life, so they can’t let wardens find out about the eggs. We were born to care for them—to look after the egg until it hatches. They can’t let us discover that the life inside the egg could give us enough magic to keep us going for years. If every warden had an egg to care for, then the existence of the Dark Ones would be completely useless. We wouldn’t need them anymore. Do you think the Dragon Fever just appeared out of thin air? They created it, they engineered it—the Dark Ones. There were too many of us, and they needed to keep the numbers down. The dragon egg is a cure in and of itself. Once a warden gets it, then he or she will thrive on the life that’s inside it.”
I remembered sitting under the desk and hanging on his every word. Deep down, I didn’t want to believe that the Dark Ones would use us like that. In the end, he revealed that he had one last egg, and that he had hidden it in his house up in the attic. I waited until they left, until I was all alone, then slipped out of the house and back out to the streets. I was so pumped with the news that I decided to head straight home to Dara.
That dragon egg was the real cure for Dragon Fever. Unfortunately, I arrived too late. Dara must have passed away while I was desperately trying to find the cure to save her life.
The healer told her that she only had a week, but I kept her alive for twelve straight days. I spent the last of my rent money to make sure that she was only eating organic and the most nutritious food. I didn’t care that I could be evicted. Qesborth took her away from me anyway, and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her.
“How are you feeling, my dear boy? Are you still feeling drowsy and disoriented?” Aly’s voice brought me back to reality again. The room smelled of blood and sweat. The warden’s eyes were half open, and I wondered if he was all right. The curtains in the room were shut, but I could see his eyes were a deep purple like Dara’s. Every warden in Draconia was blessed with eyes a colour of the rainbow. Mine were a golden yellow.
“Feel like I’ve been thrown from the twelfth floor, old lady. Why didn’t you give me magic?” he asked, struggling to lift himself up. “That would have put me back on my feet instantly.” He was staring at me while he was talking to Aly with a mixture of anger and curiosity.
“There is no magic in this world,” I told him, taking a step towards him. “We are in London—on earth. And we are far away from Draconia without any way back.” I thought that it was better if I was up front from the start, so he could deal with our new reality somehow.
4
Hope.
It turned out that the warden’s name was Nicolas, and he didn’t seem to care that we were stuck here, possibly forever. Aly asked him to pull up his T-shirt, so she could check the bandage. I quickly explained everything that she told me earlier on. The room was stuffy, and the smell of blood was making me queasy, even more so than last night. I had an urge to open the window and allow fresh air to circulate, but I gently reminded myself that this wasn’t my home.
“We are in London? You’re screwing with me, beautiful. I never heard of such a place,” he told me with a wink, and heat ignited my cheeks. Considering what happened last night, Nicolas seemed to be in a good mood.
“Oh yes, dear boy, you’re in London, in a country called Great Britain. Your friend here explained that you two are from a different universe, a city called Draconia. I’m sorry, but I don’t really know how you two can get back there. No human in this world can do any real magic that I know of. We are all ordinary, and if you don’t stop moving you’re going to tear all your stitches!” she told him, raising her voice.
I went to grab the sack to make sure that the egg was all right. Luckily, the shell seemed undamaged, but it still wasn’t warm like it had been yesterday. When I touched it, I instantly felt better. It was like its energy was feeding mine, filling me with power that I had never experienced before.
Nicolas was a warden who was born with magic, like everyone from the higher class. I didn’t have to ask him, I could feel his energy saturating the room.
Aly kept on checking his wound and the silence stretched for a long moment. He was lying down with his hands behind his head, staring at me. Aly cleaned his wound, and the entire time he didn’t take his eyes off me. I wasn’t used to people staring at me like that, especially a good-looking warden with cute dimples. The heated chemistry moved between us, and I tried to breathe in, thinking about something other than his muscular chest.
We were going to be stuck together for a little while, so I just had to make
some kind of connection with him. I didn’t want to waste time waiting around. I was willing to find a way back to Draconia on my own, but Aly mentioned that London was huge, and I could get lost.
“Okay, you have a fresh bandage now. I will go and make you kids something to eat, and leave you alone for a chat. Just be nice to each other,” Aly said smiling and then she pulled the curtains, letting some light into the room. I stared at the other houses on the opposite side of the street. All the buildings looked the same. A few people moved past the window, and there were more strange vehicles on the roads too.
“Right, we need to get to the bottom of what is going on here,” Nicolas said, supporting himself with his elbows. “And what the hell is in that sack that you keep squeezing in your hands?”
I looked away, wondering if it was a good idea to say anything about the egg. He wasn’t from the cemetery, but from the highest class. Wardens from around there thought that they were better than everyone else, but I did owe him an explanation.
He was too weak to harm me, so I decided to start from the beginning. Aly took both of us in, and she trusted him, so I needed to trust him too, at least until I figured out how to return home. I smiled at him and then started telling him how in the early hours of the morning back in Draconia, I broke into a wealthy warden’s house to steal the dragon egg.
“Everything went wrong last night. I didn’t even realise how heavy the egg was. I accidentally knocked over a large statue and woke up the whole house. I’ve never made that kind of mistake before. Anyway, I had to run. The owners of the house called the Dark Ones and they chased me through the streets, throwing spells. They nearly caught me—I was trapped in an alley. Then something happened with the egg. It started vibrating in my hands and then a crack appeared in the wall opposite me. It was some kind of entrance to the other world—this non-magical world—so I jumped. It was either that or get caught, which at the time, equaled death,” I explained, rubbing my cheek. Tingles of energy ran down my arm. The egg was getting warmer again. I felt like it enjoyed this story for some reason. “What about you? How did you end up here?”
I kept reminding myself that I was doing fine, considering the circumstances. Maybe my anxiety and panic attacks flared up a little, but I was going to deal with it somehow.
“To be honest with you, my mind is a bit blank. I was trying to get my hands on some illegal cash. I was about to get a few hundred dragon credits in the back alley, when some scum wardens showed up. I suspected that they had been watching me for a while. They stabbed me a few times, and from then on, everything else is kind of blurry. I must have stumbled right into that crack when they pushed me. The crossover to this world must have just appeared there. I remember falling,” he told me, staring down at his wound.
His story sounded unbelievable, but I wasn’t going to pass any judgement right now. This was possible. I knew that the cracks just appeared out of nowhere.
“Right, but I presume that you went to the lower class near Tuckin Street to get the money?” I asked, knowing exactly what he was talking about. There were many gangs in Draconia that operated in wealthy parts of the city. He most likely thought that borrowing illegal credits wasn’t risky at all. I wasn’t much surprised that he got robbed. They could have killed him, so he was lucky to be alive. Banks only loaned money to wardens with sustainable jobs, but most wardens couldn’t afford the high interest.
“Yeah, it was, but that’s beside the point. Didn’t all of the dragons die a long time ago?” he asked, staring at me with his intense purple eyes.
“Well, that’s what I always believed too, but apparently it’s a huge lie. The dragon eggs are real, and they can feed us with magic. The Dark Ones are keeping them hidden because they want us to be dependent on them. I heard that they were the ones that created the Dragon Fever, just so they could keep the numbers of wardens down,” I explained. “Other wardens have no idea what is truly going on. We have to get back to Draconia and start some kind of uprising.”
“Wow, girl. I think you’re getting way ahead of yourself,” Nicolas said. “Let’s just explore this world first. No one is chasing us here, so we don’t need to be in any kind of hurry. I’ve heard about this world before, and about the cracks, but apparently, the Dark Ones were the only ones who knew how to cross to the other side.”
He lifted himself to a sitting position, and I tried not to notice his perfectly shaped chest. He obviously wasn’t interested in spreading the truth, and I couldn’t expect anything else from someone who had spent most of his life living in the upper side of Draconia. He most likely had a job too, so his life was very different from mine.
He just couldn’t see the bigger picture. All the wardens in the Lower World had been used for decades. I suspected that dragons were alive, and the Dark Ones were hiding them, still breeding them somewhere.
“Explore? Are you out of your fucking mind? Didn’t you hear what Aly said? There is no magic in this world—none—and that means that we won’t survive here. I have to find a way back. The whole system in Draconia needs to change. We have been oppressed for too long, and now, we can both finally change something.” I raised my voice, not even knowing why I was getting so worked up about it. I nearly died last night. I never suspected that anything would go wrong. I had been planning to steal the egg for so long, too afraid to get anyone else involved, just in case they wanted it for themselves.
“Go ahead. Go back if you want, but what was so good about life in Draconia?” he asked, sounding angry and resentful. “You told me yourself that you were forced to become a thief in order to survive. I worked twelve hours a day guarding the entrance to the Dimond City, just so I could make several hundred dragon credits a month. I could barely pay rent and feed myself. This sweet old lady took us in and she said herself that she has no idea how to get back. That egg is soaring with magic and it’s very valuable, but I’m not planning to risk my life and start some kind of war with the Dark Ones. It’s crazy. We could never defeat them. I think we should stay here for now, and keep the egg hidden until we figure out what to do next.”
I stared at him, wanting to disagree, but deep down, I knew that he was right. We only had one egg, and we didn’t know how long we had before it hatched.
I dragged my hand through my hair, thinking about a hot shower. I must have looked like a right mess right then. My hair was tangled, and I stank of blood. My clothes were filthy too, and yet Nicolas was staring at me like he wasn’t seeing any of it.
Don’t even go there, Fran. Remember Victor? You were done with men after he left you all alone.
Yep, I had to listen to my inner voice. He was cute and handsome, but that didn’t matter. I had to think about myself, about my future.
“My name is Fran, by the way,” I said, trying to break the tension between us. I wanted to forget about my goal. Nicolas was right. It was too dangerous to return to Draconia straight away even if we knew how. The Dark Ones were after me. The egg wasn’t supposed to exist. The council most likely had no idea that some other warden had it hidden in his home for a long time.
The egg could hatch. I was certain that the creature inside the shell was alive and well. I had never even seen a real dragon before, so I had no idea what to expect. Caring for a baby dragon wasn’t in my range of expertise.
“I must have mumbled my name yesterday. That’s all I can remember,” he told me, and I nodded, remembering the moment when he asked me out. It was funny.
Silence fell between us and I wondered what Dara would have thought of him. She dated often, and she was much more willing to take a risk with men than me. She was ripped away from me, and that’s why I wanted to steal the egg. I didn’t tell anyone else what I was planning. The egg was already mine. I failed Dara. I didn’t find the cure in time, but I wanted to expose the Dark Ones who had been lying to us for so long, using and stealing our magic. The repression needed to stop.
“All right, my beauties, I brought breakfast and fresh coffee. I th
ought we could eat together,” Aly said walking into the room and interrupting our silent exchange. Magical energy soared down my back, and I inhaled deeply, enjoying the feel of it inside me.
Nicolas was partly right when he said that we both had nothing to go back to. I had always been treated like a second-class citizen because I was born with almost no magic. I had to learn how to steal from others, just so I could have food. Maybe life here was going to be different.
Aly placed a large tray filled with coffee and food on the bedside table, next to Nicolas’s bed. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t had a proper meal in hours, so I grabbed a piece of toast.
“We were just talking about you, Alyson. We are extremely grateful that you took us in under your roof,” Nicolas said, then winked at me. “And thank you for sorting me out. I bet I was a right mess when you guys brought me in.”
“Yes, what he said. This must have been a shock to you, seeing us appear through the portal. You have never experienced magic before,” I said, with my mouth full of food. I really needed to stop worrying about the Dark Ones.
Aly smiled widely, and her eyes sparkled with mischief. Her white hair was nicely styled, and she even had makeup on. I had to admit that she looked good for seventy-five.
“You don’t have to thank me. I just couldn’t leave you out there. Everyone around this area tends to keep to themselves. Besides, I have been lonely for so long, it’s nice to finally have company. I dated several gentlemen in the past, but they were all so boring and uninteresting. Now I have a handsome young man under my roof and a girl with a large golden egg. My night couldn’t have been more exciting,” Aly explained, staring at the sack. She was taking this extremely well, and I just didn’t know what else to say. Anyone else would have most likely lost it by now, or worse, but she was so calm about having us in her home.
Hatched (Draconia World Book 1) Page 3