Adelaide's Fate (Her Fate Series Book 1)

by G. Bailey

  “Father…” I plead quietly, knowing he won’t reply to me. My father is sat on his throne, a sword through his stomach, and a wide mouthed expression on his face. His blood drips down onto the gold floors of the throne room, and snow falls from the broken ceiling onto his face. There’s no ice in here, no sign he even tried to fight before he was killed. He must have never saw this coming; he trusted whoever killed him.

  “No,” is all I can think to say as I fall to my knees, bending my head and looking down at the ground instead of the body of my father. I couldn’t stop this, even after he warned me and risked everything. I hear footsteps in front of me as I watch my tears drip onto the ground, but I don’t look up. I know who it is. I know from the way they smell, my dragon whispers to me their name, but I can’t even think it.

  “Why?” I ask, even as everything clicks into place. I should have known; I should have never had trusted him.

  “Because the curse has to end. Because he was no good for Dragca. Our city needs a true heir, me. I’m the heir of fire and ice, the one the prophecy speaks of, and it’s finally time I took what is mine,” he says and every word seems to cut straight through my heart. I trusted him.

  “The curse hasn’t ended, I’m still here,” I whisper to the dragon in front of me, but I know he could hear my words, as if I had just spoke them into his ear.

  “Not for long, not even for a moment longer actually. Your dragon guard will only thank me when you are gone. I didn’t want to do this to you, not in the end, but you are too powerful. You are of no use to me anymore, not unless you’re gone,” he says. I look down at the ground as his words run around my head, and I don’t know what to do. I feel lost, powerless and broken in every way possible. There’s a piece of the door in front of me that catches my attention, a part with the royal crest on it. The dragon in a circle, a proud, strong dragon. My father’s words come back to me, and I know they are all I need to say.

  “There’s a reason ice dragons hold the throne and have for centuries. There is a reason the royal name Dragice is feared,” I say and stand up slowly, wiping my tears away.

  “We don’t give up and we bow to no one. I’m Isola Dragice, and you will pay for what you have done,” I tell him as finally meet his now cruel eyes, before calling my dragon and feeling her take over.

  -

  “Isola!” I hear shouted from the stairs, but I keep my headphones on as I stare at my laptop, and pretend I didn’t hear her shout my name for the tenth time. The music blasts around my head as I try to focus on the history paper that is due in tomorrow.

  “Isola, will you take those things out and listen to me?” Jules shouts at me again, and I pop one of my headphones out as I look up at her. She stands at the end of my bed, her hands on her hips and her glasses branched on the end of her nose. Her long grey hair is up in a tight bun, and she has an old styled dress that looks like flowers threw up on. Jules is my house sitter, or babysitter as I like to call her. I don't think I need a baby sitter at seventeen, not when I'm eighteen in two days anyway, and can look after myself.

  "Both headphones out, I want them both out while you listen to me," she says. I knew this was coming. I pull the headphones out and pause the music on my phone.

  "I did try to clean up after the party, I swear," I say and she raises her eyebrows.

  "How many teenagers did you have in here? Ten? A hundred?" she says and I shrug my shoulders as I sit up on the bed and cross my legs.

  "I don't know, it’s all a little fuzzy," I reply honestly. My head is still pounding; it was probably the wine, or maybe the tequila shots. Who knows? I look up again as she shakes her head at me, speaking a sentence in Spanish that she knows I can't understand, but I doubt it’s nice. I don’t think I want to hear what she has to say about the party I threw last night anyway. I look around my simple room, seeing the dressing table, the wardrobe, the bed I’m sitting on. There isn’t much in here that is personal, no photos or anything that means anything to me.

  "Miss Jules, looking as beautiful as always," Jace says, in an overly sweet tone as he walks into my bedroom. He walks straight over to Jules and kisses her cheek, making her giggle. Jace is that typical hot guy, with his white blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Even my sixty year old house sitter can't be mad at him for long, he can charm just about anyone.

  "Don’t start with that pouty cute face," she tuts at him and he widens his arms, pretending to be shocked.

  "What face? I always look like this," he says and she laughs, any anger she had disappearing.

  "I’m going to clean up this state of a house and you should leave, you're going to be late for school. I don't want to have to tell your father that as well, when I tell him about the party," she says, pointing a finger at me, and I have to hold in the urge to laugh. She emails my father all the time about everything I do, but he never responds. He just pays her to keep the house running, and to make sure I don't get into too much trouble. If he hasn’t had the time to talk to me in the last ten years, I doubt he’s going to have the time to email a human he hired. Jules walks out of the room and Jace leans against the wall, tucking his hands into his pockets. I run my eyes over his tight jeans, his white shirt that has ridden up a little to show his toned stomach and finally to his handsome face that is smirking at me. He knows exactly what he does to me.

  "You look too sexy when you do that," I comment and he grins.

  "Isn't that the point? Now come and give your boyfriend a kiss," he teases, and I fake a sigh before getting up and walking over to him. I lean up, brushing my lips against his cold ones and he smiles, kissing me back just as gently.

  "We should go, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mountains this weekend and try some flying?" he asks. I blank my expression before walking away from him and towards the mirror hanging on the wall near the door. I smooth my wavy, shoulder length blonde hair down and it just bounces back up, ignoring me. My blue eyes stare back at me, bright and crystal clear. Jace says it’s like looking into a mirror when he looks into my eyes, they are so clear. I check out my jeans and tank top, and grab my leather coat from where it hangs on the back of the door before answering Jace.

  "I’ve got a lot of homework to do-" I say and he shakes his head as he cuts me off.

  "-Issy, when was the last time you let her out? It’s been, what, months?" he asks and I turn away, walking out my bedroom door and hearing him sigh behind me.

  "Issy, we can't avoid this forever. Not when we have to go back in two weeks," he reminds me and I stop, leaning my head back against the plain white walls of the corridor.

  "I know we have to go back. We have to train to rule a race we know nothing about, just because of who our parents are. Don’t you ever want to run away, hide in the human world we have been left in all these years?" I ask, feeling a grumble of anger from my dragon inside my mind. I quickly slam down the barrier between me and my dragon in my head, stopping her from contacting me, no matter how much it hurts me to do so. I can’t let her control me.

  “Issy, we were left here so we would be safe. We are the last ice dragons, and our parents had no choice. Plus… being a dragon around humans is a nightmare, you know that,” he says, stepping closer to me.

  “I don’t want to rule; I don’t want anything to do with Dragca,” I say, looking away.

  "I guess it’s lucky we have each other, ruling on our own would have been a disaster," he says, stepping in front of me so I can’t move and gently kissing my forehead.

  "I know. I just don't want to go back, to see my father and everything that has to come with it," I say, and he steps back to tilt my head up to look at him.

  "You're the heir to the throne of the dragons. You’re the princess of Dragca. Your life was never meant to be lived here, with the humans," he says and I move away from him, not replying because I know he sees it differently than I do. He is the ice prince, and his parents call him every week. I haven't spoken to any of my family in ten years and I have never st
epped back into Dragca since then. It’s the only thing we disagree on, our future.

  "Issy, let’s just have a good day and then maybe I could get you that peanut bacon sandwich you love from the deli?" he suggests, running to catch up with me on the stairs.

  "Now you're talking," I grin at him as he hooks an arm around my waist, and leans down to whisper in my ear,

  “And maybe later, I could do that thing with my tongue that you–“ he gets cut off when Jules opens the door in front of us, clearing her throat and ushering us out as we laugh.