by Donna Grant
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PROLOGUE
Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Some years ago …
Sabina huddled beneath the pile of old, worn blankets as she listened to the adults outside her caravan. There was laughter and the pop of the fire interwoven with their conversations. She burrowed deeper as her uncle slid his bow across his violin, stringing together several tunes to warm up. Soon, a soft, lilting melody filled the camp.
She was almost asleep when the door opened. Sabina blinked drowsily as she rose up on her elbows and spotted her grandmother. “Gran?”
The old woman was bent with age and walked with the help of a cane gripped tightly by her gnarled fingers. Her dark eyes landed on Sabina. “It’s not time for sleep yet, my sweet.”
Sabina yawned and scooted over on the narrow bed for her grandmother to sit. “You look upset.”
Her gran sighed as she placed both hands on top of her cane and glanced out the window to the fire where the others were gathered. Sabina hated being closed in, so she always left the curtains open. Plus, she liked to watch the adults while trying to figure out what they whispered about late into the night.
“Sabina, I’m not supposed to have a favorite grandchild, but I do.” Her gran’s head of thick, white hair pulled back in a tight bun swiveled to her. “There are changes coming for you, child.”
Now Sabina was confused. “What changes?”
“Your father’s murder by the villagers was the last straw for your mother. She wants you to grow up having a normal life instead of traveling with us and being persecuted for our ways.”
Sabina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was outraged, fear turning her blood to ice. She didn’t want to leave her family and everything she knew. She sat up, feeling helpless and small and angry at her mother. “I don’t want that.”
Gran put her wrinkled hand on Sabina’s leg, and it calmed her instantly. “Shh, my sweet. It’s going to be fine. Matter of fact, where you’re going is exactly where you need to be. Though I will never get over the pain of you leaving.”
Sabina was well aware that her grandmother had the Sight. People came from all over to have Gran read their palms or even the cards. Sometimes, she even told them things without inspecting their palms.
Gran had known of her before Sabina’s mother even knew she was pregnant. So when Gran said Sabina needed to go somewhere, she was going to do it. Even though she knew in her heart that it meant she might never see her family again.
“All right,” Sabina finally mumbled.
“Good girl.” Her grandmother patted her hand while giving her a warm smile. “I’m going to tell you a story. I need you to listen carefully because it’s important.”
Curious, Sabina shifted to lean against the side of the caravan. “What’s the story about?”
“Magic. And our history. Every generation, the story gets passed down. Your mother should be the one telling you, but she doesn’t believe.”
“Why?”
Gran shrugged. “When you love as deeply as your mother did your da, you’ll understand. Your mom is drowning in grief, but with you leaving soon, I have no choice but to take matters into my own hands.”
Sabina got the impression that she would be leaving very soon. That made her incredibly sad, but she kept that to herself so she could listen to her gran.
“Do you know why we move from town to town?” her grandmother asked.
“Because people don’t like us. They think we steal and cheat.”
“Some of our kind do,” her grandmother said. “Then there are those who don’t like the fact that we’re different. We don’t try to own the land, my sweet. The land is not there to be fought over but to offer us what we need to survive. Regular folk can’t grasp that. We believe in freedom, in following wherever our souls lead. Of course, you know the history of our family.”
Sabina grinned. “We’re one of the most powerful Romani families. Everyone wants to join our tribe or marry one of us because of that fact.”
“Our history goes back even further, my sweet. And that’s what I’m going to tell you about now. It’s a secret, Sabina. You can only share it with your children.”
“Why?”
Gran lowered her gaze, sadness tingeing her features. “This should wait until you’re older and can understand. If only I had the time.”
Sabina frowned at her grandmother’s mumbled words. “I’m old enough.”
“I hope so, child, because everything rests on you,” she said, pinning Sabina with her dark eyes. “This cannot be written down. It is only passed verbally. You cannot forget anything. Do you understand?”
“I do. I won’t forget any of it,” Sabina promised.
Her grandmother pulled in a deep breath. “Long, long ago, we weren’t the only beings on this planet. There were others full of magic and power so great that we mortals couldn’t comprehend it.”
Sabina’s stomach dropped in fear as well as excitement. “Are you saying these people were immortal?”
“Yes, my sweet, I am. And they weren’t people. At least, not really.”
“Then what were they?”
“Dragons.”
She leaned close to her grandmother to see if there was any hint of a smile or anything to let Sabina know that this was all a jest.
“This is serious,” her grandmother stated testily. “I don’t joke about any of this. People will tell you dragons don’t exist, but they do. The most powerful of them are the Dragon Kings.”
“Dragon Kings,” Sabina whispered, a shiver running through her as if somehow connecting her to the beings.
Her grandmother wrapped her bent fingers around Sabina’s hand. “Our family wasn’t always wanderers. We had land and a large home in an area ruled by a Dragon King. He kept to himself high up on a mountain. Occasionally, he came down to the village.”
“As a dragon?” Sabina asked in shock.
“As a man. You see, Dragon Kings have the ability to change from dragon to human form at will.”
She scooted closer to her grandmother. “What did he look like? What was his name? Where is he now? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? Can I see a Dragon King?”
Her grandmother chuckled softly. “I was just as excited when I first heard all this, too.” Her smile slipped as she returned to her story. “No one knows what he looks like as a dragon.”
“Why?” Sabina demanded.
“He had the power to make sure no one could see him. When he did change, it looked like thousands of bats flying around him in a swarm.”
Sabina shuddered at the thought. “Bats?”
“Whenever he was in his human form, he carried a sword. It was a beautiful work of art. My Sight comes from a long line of those with such abilities. It was one of those ancient ancestors who had a vision of the Dragon King slaughtering our village, and that same vision showed her the way
to stop such carnage.”
“How?” Sabina asked.
“By stealing his sword.”
Sabina frowned as she cocked her head to the side. “I thought you said the Dragon King was powerful.”
“He was, which is why it was so dangerous for our ancestors to attempt to steal his weapon. But they wanted to save lives. So, they put together a plan and climbed the mountain. They waited for days for the Dragon King to leave the cave. When he did, they snuck in and found the sword. There were six of them. They each went in a different direction, but only one had the sword.”
“And the dragon couldn’t find them? I thought he had magic?”
“He was enraged when he returned and found his sword gone. He went to the village and questioned everyone. That’s how he learned of the missing six. He then set out to find them.”
Sabina waited impatiently for the story to continue. “What happened? Did the Dragon King find his sword? I bet he killed the men, didn’t he? Did he eat them? If I was a dragon, I’d eat someone who stole my things.”
Her grandmother stared at her solemnly. “He didn’t find them. The sword was hidden so that our ancestor’s vision would never come to pass. Fearing the Dragon King’s reprisal, the family packed up and left the village. For thousands of years, we’ve wandered the mountains.”
Sabina swallowed and stared at her grandmother. “Is that all?”
“The Dragon Kings are still here.”
“And the dragons?”
“Gone,” she said, briefly looking away. “But that is another story for another time.”
Sabina frowned, her young mind not grasping the answers. “Why did the Kings stay?”
“I don’t know. But that King will be back for his sword. It was foretold by my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. He will never stop looking for what was taken from him.”
“Is that why you’re telling me this story?”
Her grandmother leaned close to her face. “I tell you, Sabina, because we’ve stayed hidden from him all this time. The repercussions of what our ancestors did will be swift and deadly. He can never find us.”
“What if we talk to him and explain that we didn’t do it?”
“If only it were that easy.”
“But what if we did?” Sabina insisted.
Her grandmother straightened and hesitated. “He might try to get you to help him find it. And he probably won’t be alone.”
“That won’t do any good since we don’t know where the sword is.”
“Right.”
There was something in her grandmother’s tone that didn’t ring true. Sabina was about to ask her about it when her grandmother continued.
“If we forget this story, then we might disregard what our ancestor saw. We’re saving lives by keeping the sword from the Dragon King. It has cost us our homes, but it’s worth it.”
“How will I know if I come across a Dragon King?” Sabina asked, her mind racing with possibilities.
Her grandmother smiled. “At one time, there was a drawing of him, but it was lost through the years. That’s the reason the story must be told and not written. Things get forgotten once they’re on paper. If you have to retell something, you’ll remember it. Do you understand?”
Sabina nodded slowly. “There has to be some way to know if we’re talking to a Dragon King.”
“None that I know of.”
Sabina huffed and turned her head away. “I wish I could see a Dragon King.”
“It’s better that you don’t.”
“Why?” she asked, returning her gaze to her grandmother. “He ruled the land, but you didn’t say that he hurt anyone. Did he?”
“Well … no,” Gran finally admitted.
“Then why make him out to be a villain? Even with his sword gone, he didn’t kill our family.”
“Ancestors,” Gran corrected. Her lips flattened. “You have a point, I admit, but—”
Sabina raised her brows. “You said he had magic and was powerful and immortal. He could have wiped out all of you, but he didn’t. He’s not a bad person. He just wants his sword.”
Her grandmother smiled softly. “I never thought of it that way. When my father told me the story, I took his word about everything, never questioning it.”
“Never?” Sabina asked in confusion. “I question everything.”
“I know,” her grandmother said with a loud sigh.
“What mountain did the Dragon King choose? Maybe we can go and see if he’s there.”
“He isn’t,” her grandmother insisted.
“How do you know?”
“Everyone would know if he returned.”
Sabina twisted her lips as she thought of her questions until she found one that hadn’t been answered. “What was his name? You never told me.”
“Vlad, my sweet. His name was Vlad.”
CHAPTER ONE
Dreagan
March
The sun blazed fiercely as it crested the mountains and poured its light into the valley and straight into Roman’s workshop.
He paused and closed his eyes as he soaked up the rays. In his mind, he was flying high in the sky, his wings slicing through clouds as the warmth of the sun wrapped around his body.
Roman allowed himself just a few more minutes of the memory before he opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Then his gaze returned to the two-foot-tall metal dragon he’d made. He ran his hands over the silver scales. It was to be a gift for Ulrik.
Now that the King of Silvers had returned to Dreagan where he belonged, it was time the Dragon Kings got down to business. First up was V. His friend had suffered long enough.
Roman placed the sculpture in a box filled with tissue paper and closed the lid before taking it and striding toward the manor. On his way to the great house, Roman saw V standing outside, his gaze directed eastward.
Roman placed the gift outside of Ulrik and Eilish’s room before he made his way to V. They stood side by side for several quiet moments, each lost in thought.
While every Dragon King had suffered in some way, the betrayal V bore hit Roman hard. None knew why someone had taken V’s sword and hidden it. Sadly, they hadn’t had much time to search for it after the theft because they were at war with the humans and then they sent the dragons away.
After that, each of the Kings found their mountains and slept away centuries. They woke in turns, but Roman knew Constantine, the King of Dragon Kings, had always kept a lookout for any weapon that even came close to matching the description of V’s sword. Many of those were in the armory because Con sent the Dragon Kings to retrieve the weapons—either by buying, bargaining, or stealing—to see if any were V’s.
All the while, V remained asleep in his mountain on Dreagan. The few times V woke, his need to search for his weapon overruled everything else. And the outcome was always disastrous for mortals. Which was why Con made sure that V remained asleep.
Until there was no choice but to wake all the Kings to fight a foe bent on revealing them to the humans.
“You doona have to do this,” V stated without looking at him.
Roman shook his head. “Same old V.”
Piercing blue eyes swung to him. V’s gaze narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you still doona understand. All these thousands of eons, and you still believe that you have to do this on your own.”
“It’s my sword.”
Roman glanced at the ground and tried again. “Aye, old friend. It was your weapon that was taken, but how many times have you gone searching alone?”
A muscle ticked in V’s jaw.
“How many of those times resulted in catastrophic events?”
“I didna set the fire in Rome,” V argued.
Roman held up his hands. “No one said you did.”
“Nor did I cause the Black Plague. Or—”
“None of it happened until after you woke and went looking for your sword,” Roman interr
upted. “I’m no’ blaming you. I’m simply stating facts.”
V stared at him for a long moment. “I lost my sword. I should be the one to find it.”
“I agree, but there’s no harm in having help.”
“You control metal, Roman. It’s Kellan who can find it. If any King can help, it would be Kellan.”
Roman cocked a brow. “I’ll try no’ to be offended.”
V ran a hand down his face. “That wasna my intention.”
“You’ve spent most of our countless centuries asleep. You’ve no’ interacted with the humans. Or anyone, for that matter.”
“So you doona trust me alone?”
“We all want you to find your sword. It’s time. And I’m going to make sure that happens.”
V looked off into the distance once more. “I can no’ remember where I lost it.”
“That doesna matter. It’s probably long gone from there anyway.”
His head jerked to Roman. “You know where I lost it.”
Roman held his gaze for a long moment, hesitating just a heartbeat before nodding. “Aye.”
“Do the others?”
Fuck. This was so not how Roman wanted this conversation to go. V was unpredictable without his sword, and each time he had gone searching for it, horrible things happened to everyone around him.
“Roman,” V growled dangerously.
“After the last time you woke from the dragon sleep, I went looking.”
V’s eyes blazed with fury as he faced him. “You’ve known.”
“I told Con the next time you woke, that I was going to help you. We would’ve left sooner if no’ for the whole Mikkel issue. I know you’re angry, and I’m sorry for that. But let me help.”
“I can no’ remember anything of that day. I had my sword, then I woke and I didna. Only because I refuse to go any longer without it will I accept your help.”
“Good. No’ that you could’ve stopped me from going,” Roman said with a grin. “I’ll let Lily know so she can get the helicopter ready.”
V let out a loud snort. “Nay. We’re going ourselves.”
Roman opened his mouth to argue the danger, but no words came out.