by J. L. Weil
Issik’s stunning features pinched together. “She’s still pissed. Jase, do something to calm her down.”
My hands shot up in the air. “Oh no. Don’t you dare think about using your tranquility mojo on me.”
“What are you doing in here? Did something happen while we were gone?” Jase asked, but I could tell by the darkening of his eyes, he wanted to ease my aggravation.
Yes. You left me here. That’s what happened. And I think I missed you. But that wasn’t what I said. “You told me one of you would be near, and then you all just disappeared. How am I supposed to trust anything you say?”
“We didn’t want to disturb you—not after the day you’d had at the temple, and the attack from the wraith. We thought it best that you stay here and rest. Jase was supposed to—” Kieran realized what he was about to admit and quickly stopped himself.
I swung my glare of outrage to Jase. He was supposed to have tranquilized me. “You didn’t,” I accused him.
His brows drew together. “Does it matter? It clearly didn’t work.”
That wasn’t the point. I frowned and sunk back into the couch. I tried to calm myself down before I did something drastic, but I couldn’t erase what Harlow had said to me. “Do you guys get off screwing with me?” I mumbled to myself—an increasingly annoying habit.
“You make it far too easy, Cupcake.” Jase flashed his wicked dimples to defuse my anger. “There is no need to be upset.”
Says the guy who has an innate calmness. “Am I supposed to just sit here and pretend you can’t tell what I’m feeling?” I asked. “You guys can’t mess with my emotions like that.”
Zade grimaced. “It was only our intention to keep you safe.”
No longer able to hold onto my anger, I fumbled with the yellow dress covering my legs. “Did you find anything out about the curse?”
“She’s worried now,” Issik announced. No one answered my question.
I rolled my eyes. “You guys don’t need to announce my every emotion. I know how I’m feeling.”
Kieran didn’t miss a beat. “But we want to know.”
It was bad enough one of them would always feel what I was feeling. Now they had to share that information as well. We were going to nip that in the bud right away. “Some things are personal—emotions being one of them.”
“Have you not learned to trust us yet? Have we not kept you safe?” Kieran questioned me. I wasn’t sure what that had to do with my feelings, but I assumed they thought I didn’t believe in them enough to protect more than just my body.
Did I though?
Zade shifted his stance against the wall. “Besides, we like knowing what you’re feeling. It’s the first real thing that has happened on this island in a hundred years.”
“Glad I can be of service,” I grumbled. So much for trying to get them to see my side of things. Ugh. Damn headstrong dragons.
Jase sat on the table in front of the couch and crossed his arms. “My staff told me that you barely left your room.”
“You’re spying on me?” I had been stewing and contemplating my options of escape, but they didn’t need to know that.
A smile spread over Jase’s lips, and it made me leery. “Let us make it up to you.”
My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. “And just how do you plan to do that?”
“Since the Veil is now your home…”
I moaned a little too loudly, interrupting him. Four sets of eyes stared at me, and I shifted under their scrutiny, waiting for Jase to finish. Way to make a spectacle, Olivia. This is your home now. Better get used to it.
Zade took pity on me. “We thought you might like a tour, a chance to see the other regions.”
My aggravation was forgotten as I sat a little straighter. “I would love that,” I said, jumping at the opportunity to get out of the castle for a few hours.
“Good. You’re not scared of heights, are you?” Kieran caught my gaze and winked.
What was he suggesting? “Depends if anything is trying to kill me.”
Kieran swung his feet to the ground from his lounging position, a mischievous grin on his lips, and offered me a hand. “Let’s go for a ride.”
“I’ll do it,” the other three volunteered at once, causing Kieran to scowl.
Here we go again. This might not be a good idea, but I was too tired to care. I just wanted to get out of the keep, and I’d been dying to see the rest of the Veil Isles, even with the ever-present dangers.
The dragons bickered among themselves while I sat by watching the madness. If a fight broke out in this little room, we’d be in trouble. There was only one way to solve this problem—drawing straws. I glanced around the room, looking for something to use, as I was pretty sure the Veil didn’t have plastic straws. On an end table sat a bowl of colored stones, I pulled out four, and placed them in a hat I found on the coatrack.
“Quiet!” I yelled and waited for the room to calm down. I turned to Jase. “Close your eyes and choose a stone. The one who picks this stone wins.” I held up a flat turquoise rock before sticking it in the hat with the others. He arched his brows. “Unless you don’t want to…”
His eyes snapped shut before I finished, and he snatched one of the stones out of the hat, immediately looking at which one he had chosen, a pearly smooth gem. The disappointment in his violet eyes tugged at my heart.
Zade pushed off the wall and waited for me to hold up the hat before he too shut his eyes and chose a stone. The rock crumbled to bits of dust when he beheld it, his anger destroying the small pebble. I gave him a half smile and touched his arm. It bothered me when they were upset, especially on my behalf.
Kieran toyed with the hoop on his lip, giving me a lopsided grin. “I’m liking my odds.” It was a fifty-fifty chance. Not wasting any time, the poison dragon selected one. He grinned like a total shithead, the silver in his lip glinting off the firelight. The turquoise stone proudly held between his fingers. “Come on, blondie. I’m going to take you on the ride of your lifetime.”
Zade scowled.
Issik stood to his full height, eyeballing Kieran with his usual disdain.
Kieran’s warm hand enveloped mine as he pulled me out of Jase’s office, through the main hall, and into the garden. Once we were outside, he began to strip.
“A little warning would be nice before you go commando on me,” I muttered under my breath as I turned around, giving him my back.
“You’ve already seen us naked,” he pointed out.
I had. Multiple times actually, and I was positive I would continue to see them in all their naked glory. Lack of modesty probably came with being a shifter, but for me, it was going to take a lot of time to get used to it.
Kieran stood behind me and leaned over my shoulder, his breath in my ear. “You can turn around now.”
“Are you naked?”
“If I said no, would you believe me?”
“No.”
He chuckled, tickling the back of my neck.
I pursed my lips, keeping my back straight. “Are you going to shift, or just tease me all night?”
“Impatient, are you?” His voice washed over me with a different inflection, indicating he had started the process that turned him into a poison-breathing beast with scales.
Yes, I was impatient. I was dying for some fresh air and the chance to ride a dragon again. Who would say no? And this time, there would be no wraith to ruin the experience, or so I hoped. I waited a few more minutes before I turned around, and caught the tail end of Kieran’s shift.
He was a magnificent dragon. They all were. Kieran’s form wasn’t as bulky as the others’, but he was still large and powerful. Dark green scales papered over his body, growing lighter in color at the tips. He dropped his head in a bow, his emerald eyes glittering with humor.
Eagerly, I climbed onto Kieran’s back, and ascended it without any struggle. He leaped off the terrace, and entered a dive toward the water. My stomach lurched as my breath caught. It w
as a thousand times better than any roller coaster at Great America. At the last second, before smacking into the murky sea, he used his wings to pull us up, letting his feet skim over the surface and creating a trail of waves in our wake.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I squeezed my legs together. Holy shit storm. I’m riding on the back of a dragon. Never in a million years would I have thought this would be my life. We climbed higher, leaving the castle in the distance. A balmy breeze blew over my face, whipping my hair. His scales felt sleek and smooth under my hands.
“Better hang on.” His voice instructed in my head.
I hadn’t thought much about it the first time I’d been with Issik when he saved me—how he had the ability to communicate while in dragon form. I’d been far too overwhelmed and scared to wonder how it worked, but now I was curious.
“How are you able to talk to me?” My body was more relaxed, and I seemed to move with him as he glided and flapped his wings, alternating between the two.
Kieran’s angular head tilted slightly to the side. “I can project my thoughts into your mind.”
“Wow. That’s amazing.” And so was the Veil. Kieran took us over the lush forest that backed up to Jase’s kingdom, and a flock of birds fluttered from the treetops, swirling around us. Deep in the center of the woods was the temple of their fathers, and where I’d been attacked. I shuddered at the memory, not keen to relive those moments.
“Look to the east. You will see Viperus Keep.”
“That’s your home?” I asked.
“It is. You will love it.” Evident pride sounded in my head through his voice. He cherished his home.
The setting sun was at our backs, casting rays of pinks and oranges over the lower half of the sky. In the distance, just over a cluster of evergreens, rose a triangular tower—Viperus Keep. As we flew closer, the outline of a mossy castle came into view. Vines clung to the sides of the washed-out bricks, dangling below arched windows and off balconies.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered in awe. Vegetation of all shapes and sizes surrounded the entire estate, from tall to short and fat to sparse.
“I will take you there soon, but for now, it isn’t safe.”
“Because of the wraiths?” I asked.
“They are only part of the danger.”
Beyond the forest of Viperus, to the northwest, was unmistakably Issik’s region. At first, it was just the change in climate that tipped me off. Whereas Jase’s and Kieran’s realms both had pleasant temperatures that reminded me of spring and fall, Issik’s was a blast of icy cold air. The closer we flew to Iculon, the more arctic the air became, making it almost difficult to breathe.
My teeth chattered as I huddled deeper against Kieran’s long body, using his heat to stay warm and insulated. “Is it always this cold here?” I asked, shivering. It brought back those not so pleasant memories of living on the streets of Chicago.
“Always. Do you feel how the air is thinner and harder to inhale? That’s what it is like for Issik in our regions. His body needs the cold, just as Zade’s thrives in the heat.”
“Is it common for all dragons to have abilities like the four of you?” I inquired.
He chuckled. “There is nothing common about us.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know that, but what about prior to the curse?”
“Before Tianna meddled with our lives, the Veil Isles brimmed with dragon shifters all with a kaleidoscope of dragon’s breaths.”
Kieran lifted us over a mountain, and deep in the valley below stood a majestic castle that looked as if it was made entirely out of glass. Frosty windows glowed a soft aqua, casting prisms of light onto the blanket of snow that covered every inch of the land. “It’s like something from a fairytale,” I murmured to myself.
“Don’t let Issik hear you say that. He thinks Iculon is harsh and unruly.”
A fond smirk tugged at the corner of my lips. He would think that. “What is the fifth region of the Veil like?” I remembered them mentioning a fifth dragon who had died while testing the strength of Tianna’s curse.
“It is nothing but a barren wasteland, completely uninhabitable. Nature has taken over.”
“What was his ability?” I asked, curious about the dragon shifter I’d never have the chance to meet.
“Influence.” A sadness I hadn’t meant to cause crept into Kieran’s voice. I immediately sought to erase it. Rubbing my face against him, I pressed my lips to his neck. “I’m sorry,” I said.
Underneath me, his body gave a deep exhale. “He would have loved you.”
“Were the five of you always friends?” I wanted to take away the sudden pain I’d caused this usually lighthearted man.
Kieran’s laugh was vibrant in my head. “No. We grew up hating each other, seeing one another as rivals.”
It both was and wasn’t hard to picture their relationship. At times, they were fiercely loyal, and at others, they fought like brothers. “What about now?”
“I would give my life to protect them.” He projected the thought with intensity.
I believed him.
Without warning, he began to speed through the sky, our surroundings a blur of pale blue and white. All I could do was hold on, and not get swept away by the rushing scene passing us by.
My eyes were unable to focus, so I didn’t see what had him jetting off at first, but I sensed them. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew the other three had joined us in the sky, other than by the quickening of my heart. I strained to peer through the flying strands of my hair and saw Jase and Zade on one side of us. Issik came up on the other.
“They just couldn’t stay away.” If dragons could scowl, Kieran was.
Yet, I didn’t share Kieran’s annoyance. In fact, I felt complete and bubbled with happiness.
My dragons.
There was no point in denying I wanted them to be mine anymore. They had quickly become a part of my life, and I wasn’t going to let myself waffle on the issue again. “Can you blame them? Would you have stayed behind?” I asked.
He was silent for a moment, his formidable wings beating in the air. “No. We all despise the curse that imprisons us, but we’re proud of our homes and want to show them off.”
Only one region remained, Zade’s, and I could tell he was excited.
Time went quickly as I enjoyed the thrill of flying. We left behind the cold and traded it in for an intense heat that had beads of sweat rolling between my breasts.
The Veil was so much bigger than my mind had drummed up. It was amazing how the land shifted from one climate to the next so seamlessly. White powdery snow gave way to charcoal ash. The earth became cracked and filled with a glowing stream of lava that ran from an active volcano, and a hazy cloud of gray smoke billowed from the opening at the top, trailing off into the air.
Of all the areas, this was the one that was the most foreign to me and frightening. Fire was not my thing, but regardless of my fear, there was no denying its magnificence, like the dragon who lived here.
At the base of the volcano, surrounded by molten magma, was Zade’s home. Made of obsidian, the castle pierced the sky with its sharp angles. There was nothing soft about the Crimson Kingdom.
My legs tightened around Kieran as he took a sharp right, tilting his body sideways. “You drop me and I’ll come back from the dead to haunt you.”
“Promise?” he teased.
I resisted the urge to kick him. He probably wouldn’t have felt it anyway.
As we turned around, the sun was nearly gone and moonlight spread overhead, stars sparkling on the black water of Wakeland as we flew over. Jase’s keep was in sight, and my heart sighed. From the sky, it looked lavish. Square towers rose up all in various heights with bluish-gray shingled peaks. A mystical mist hovered over the sea that bordered the castle on all sides, and an intricate bridge arched from the keep to the woods, connecting the home to land.
I’d become so enthralled by the glittering castle in twilight that I hadn’t seen
that we had company in the sky. It was Kieran who alerted me.
“Griffins,” he hissed.
My head craned behind me, watching the dark figures descend upon my dragons. There were three of them—not as large as the descendants, but bigger than any bird on Earth. I was having a minor seizure. “What do they want?”
“You.”
For the love of witches, could I get a break? “Let me guess. More friends of Tianna?”
Kieran dodged left, dipping his nose straight for Wakeland. “You got it. Stay down, and no matter what happens, don’t let go.”
Bracing myself, I latched my arms like a deranged monkey around Kieran’s neck. Jase, Issik, and Zade flanked us on either side, and behind, forming a barrier around me. I couldn’t believe these creatures really existed. Then again, I was riding a dragon. It shouldn’t have seemed that farfetched, and I needed to learn to accept the outlandish.
One of the griffins managed to get directly above Kieran, and the ugly bastard raked the side of Kieran’s back leg, causing him to stumble in the air.
“Kieran,” I cried, but he quickly regained his composure. He was bleeding—not badly, but the sight had worry pitting in my stomach. “You’re hurt.”
“Don’t stress. It is just a scratch, he reassured me.”
Stress was my middle name.
My eyes scanned the skies, seeking out each of the dragons, and I exhaled when I counted three. They were safe, but we weren’t out of danger yet. The griffins had rallied around Jase, circling him, and before the others had a chance to help, I watched as a nightmare unfolded.
In a uniform attack, the three birdy bastards expanded their spiny wings, and in a sonic scream that pierced my ears, they unleashed a fury of a thousand needles that shot from their feathers like a porcupine. The barbs embedded into the flesh of Jase’s wings.
My heart stopped.
Without the use of his wings, Jase plummeted out of the sky, falling on his back toward the black water beneath us.
“Jase!” I bellowed, my voice echoing over the valley.