The Dragon King and I

by Adrianne Brooks

  “We won’t.”

  As soon as we’d arrived on the landing the music had ceased, but now it started up again with even greater gusto. I’d never been able to tell the difference between Chopin and Bach, but I could recognize the fluid elegance of my mother’s playing, and something hard and cold began to form in the pit of my stomach.

  I think it was hatred. It left a foul taste in my mouth.

  As the notes drifted through the hall, the vines holding up Rachel began to move. More of them crept along the floor like snakes to wrap around her ankles, and I watched, sickened as they began to dance her across the marble floor like a jewelry box ballerina. Rage took over and I sidestepped Sam long enough to take a single step…only to stop when the vine at her throat tightened further and forced her head back from its exhausted slump. Her wavy hair fell down her back, and her eyes, chocolate brown and thickly lashed, stared unseeingly up at the ceiling.

  She choked, and blood stained her mouth and left little droplets along her cheeks and forehead. She never flinched, never stopped dancing, and her face stayed just as serene and unreal as it had been since we’d first seen her as around and around she twirled, vines like the finest ribbons.

  I whimpered and felt the bite of my own nails when my hands flew to my face in horror.

  The song reached its end, and Rachel curtsied deep, holding position until another song began to play a moment later. Then it started all over again.

  Something in my mind, something that had been shaken loose after my initial visit to the goblin market, started up a terrible ringing. A warning bell. A scream. My skin grew hot, and the palms of my hands, skin still molten silver from dragon fire, began to itch and burn.

  Sam’s hand settled on my shoulder and it was like a bucket of cold water, of reality, bringing me back to myself. I shook my head to clear it of the last of the cobwebs and looked up in time to see him nod his head towards something.

  It was a door. Down the hall, beyond Rachel and her terrible endless dance, a door opened, the light from the music room spilling out into the hallway and forcing the thickest of the vines to cringe back.

  As I watched, a pathway began to form from the doorway to where we both stood at the top of the stairway. Like before, Sam and I both glanced at one another before taking the bait. My heart leapt as we passed Rachel but dropped just as abruptly when the vines encircled her and pulled her up towards the ceiling. They embraced her, holding her flush against the ceiling, coils as thick as any snakes, and thorns feasting greedily. I kept my eyes on her as we passed beneath her and flinched with each droplet of blood that struck my face like warm rain.

  “What’s keeping her alive?” I whispered it, and Sam responded in kind.

  “The same thing that’s killing her.”

  Magic.

  We paused before stepping into the music room, and my hand found Sam’s blindly. I knew without looking that the black in his eyes had taken over because his skin felt hot. Dragon hot. Rather than fear it, it calmed something wild and screaming in me to know that he was ready and willing to commit violence.

  “Hello, love.” My mother’s voice was sugary sweet, and she looked up from the baby grand with a smile. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come. I’ve missed you.”

  * * * *

  She was just as beautiful as she’d always been. Danielle Woodrow was the exact opposite of me in everything, especially where looks were concerned. Dark like my father, I lacked Danielle’s strawberry blonde hair and peaches and cream complexion. She was tall, willowy, and as graceful as a ballet dancer while I was of average height and build. Her eyes were a brilliant sea green, a color that she liked to enhance with the careful application of cosmetics. She’d told me once that she was a bold sort of woman, but that pastels fit much better into her color wheel.

  For as long as I could remember she’d always been this beautiful, deceptively delicate creature, like a butterfly missing her wings. But things were different now. I could no longer look at her with admiration and envy. That was impossible when I could finally see her beauty for what it was.

  A lie.

  Danielle (I could no longer quite bring herself to refer to her as my mother) rose from her perch at the piano and came around to greet us.

  “Come in, come in and sit. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

  Her eyes went to Sam and her smile turned salacious. “Is this the young man you were telling me about? He’s handsome.”

  Despite the situation, Sam responded to the compliment with honest pleasure.

  “Why thank you, Ms. Woodrow.”

  Despite the lightness of his words, I noticed that none of the dragon that had begun to leak over into his human form receded in any way. Good to know he wasn’t falling for my mother’s charm. Usually she could have a man forgetting his own name with just a well-timed smile and a few kind words.

  It’s how she’d managed to walk down the aisle so often.

  Danielle’s brows rose and she settled gracefully down onto the settee. Crossing her long legs just so, she spread the flared skirt of her white sundress on either side of her, and her hands settled lightly on the crown of her knee.

  “Ms. Woodrow.” She said all musing. “I haven’t been called ‘Ms. Woodrow’ in ages. Tell me, how did you happen to come by that name?”

  Sam plopped down onto the couch directly adjacent from Danielle and smiled, elbows resting on his own knees as he leaned in towards her.

  “Mutual acquaintance.”

  Danielle’s eyes darted to me briefly and there was fire there. Then she turned back to Sam and smiled. The perfect hostess. “Seraphim?”

  My bag jumped, and eyes widening in alarm I took a seat by Sam to hide the sudden movement. “How do you know Seraphim?” I tried to sound casual but if the long suffering way my mother looked at me was any indication, I must have failed horribly at it. She fluffed up the ends of her skirt and grimaced.

  “She and I are old friends.”

  My eyes narrowed. “How old?”

  “Old enough.”

  “Were you the one that asked her to curse me?”

  She paled. “Of course not. I asked her to bless you.”

  “Bless?” I thought of the men outside of the apartment, of my tutor flipping through the air, of a dead man clutching an umbrella, and a crazed Piper ripping through my dress. “Blessed.” I looked over at Sam and found him already watching me. “Did you hear? I’m blessed.”

  His smile was quiet. “I knew that already.”

  My throat worked but Danielle sighed in exasperation. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Alexandria. When Seraphim came to me to ask what gift I desired for you, I kept the fact that I was a Widow to myself. I knew that you being a half-blood would affect how the spell turned out but it was a risk I was willing to take.” She indicated Sam with a nod of her head and her entire body radiated smugness. “Obviously the gamble paid off.”

  My teeth were aching and I had to make a deliberate effort to relax my clenched jaw. The muscle above my eye began to twitch though, a visible flaw in my façade of outward calm.

  “And Rachel?”

  Her face closed down.

  “What about her?”

  “You know damn well—” I realized I’d lunged forward in my seat and forced myself to still. To calm. “What is she doing here?”

  Danielle huffed, “She’s a guest of mine.”

  My laugh was incredulous. “Is this how you treat guests now?”

  I knew questioning her hospitality would get her hackles up and she sighed and turned away, as if too tired to suffer the sight of me. “Fine. She’s not a guest. What of it?”

  “Why. Is. She. Here?”

  “Because she’s an oath breaker.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  “She gave me her word. She broke it. That makes her an oath breaker and no daughter of mine will associate with an oath breaker.”

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Alex—” />
  I waved Sam away and, eyes still trained on her, I came to my feet. “I’ve always accused you of being bat shit crazy, but I don’t think it’s ever really hit home until now. Do you even think about the things you do? The things that come out of your mouth? Or do you simply let the smoke from the hotwired circuits in your brain cloud all rational thought?”

  “That’s enough.” Danielle came to her feet and her expression was murderous. “I will not have you speak to me that way.” She took a step towards me and I stumbled as the floor beneath my feet began to tremble. As I watched, the faint, black, tracery, of vines began to swim beneath her skin, pulsing in time with her heart and decorating her face and arms like a living tattoo. My brain connected the pieces before I did and I began to get an inkling of where the vines in the hall had come from and that thought led me to another, darker one that had me staring at her in growing horror.

  “Her blood. What are you doing with her blood?”

  My mother sent me a grin, genuine and bright, as if she’d just been surprised by a pupil she’d already given up hope on. “Youth is wasted on the young.” Dreamily, she twisted a curl around her forefinger, staring at it in fascination. “They took my power away when they sent me here you know. I just…took it back.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and reclined back against the settee like a queen on her throne. “The beauty was a bonus.”

  Beside me, Sam snarled and I sat abruptly as the strength went out of my legs.

  “I can teach you.”

  I just shook my head, and her face tightened with anger.

  “I’ve only ever wanted what was best for you Alexandria.”

  “I’m not like you.”

  “No. You’re not. You’re the best of me. I can train you to be better if you’ll just-”

  “I didn’t come here so you could try and recruit me over to the dark side.”

  She hesitated, “Then…what did you come for?”

  “I need your help.”

  This pleased her. “Go on.”

  My eyes went to Sam but to my vast irritation he made no move to speak up or otherwise interrupt. “I need a spell. Something to summon a genie.”

  I was prepared to defend my request but Danielle simply lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Ok.”

  Sam chocked, and my jaw dropped. “Seriously? Just like that?”

  Danielle rolled her eyes and sighed, “I’m your mother, Alexandria. Of course I’m willing to help.” She cocked her head to one side and pointed a finger at me. “Just so long as you agree to become my pupil, I’d be happy to teach you any spell you’d like.”

  And that folks, was the punch line.

  I chewed this over. Just because I agreed to do something didn’t mean I actually had to go through with it. Look at our dinner plans for example. I opened my mouth, willing enough to agree if it would get us the spell, but Danielle’s eyes narrowed and she shook a finger at me.

  “Not so fast, love. Let’s not forget what happens to oath breakers in this house.”

  The blood drained from my head so fast that I felt myself sway. I couldn’t believe I’d almost forgotten about Rachel.

  “Scratch the spell. Give her back to me and I’ll learn whatever you want me to.”

  “That’s not how this works.”

  It was a mark of my personal growth that I didn’t even flinch at the sound of Maleficent’s voice. Instead I turned and directed my ire at her without the slightest hesitation.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that this isn’t our story.” It was Sam who answered and this time, I did flinch.

  “This isn’t some fairytale—”

  Sam took my hand in both of his own, “That’s exactly what this is. Everyone is trapped in his or her own fairytale and it’s up to them to make their own happy endings. Rachel made her choices, and you may not like the consequences, but it isn’t your job, or your right, to save her from them.”

  “Sam.” I said, hoping desperately to talk some sense into him. “It’s my fault she’s trapped here. The only reason she couldn’t keep her promise is because I wouldn’t let her.”

  His hands tightened around my own. “Then that guilt is one of your consequences, and saving Rachel isn’t going to make what happened to her just go away.”

  “I’m impressed, Samuel.” Maleficent began, darkly amused as I pulled away from him, my head shaking over and over again, to huddle against the armrest. I was as far away from him as I could be without getting up and leaving the room and still the bite of betrayal echoed against my skin like a physical blow. I couldn’t bear to look at my mother, I could feel her delight clearly enough without having to face it.

  “So it’s agreed then? The spell for your apprenticeship, and I get to keep my little toy?”

  With both Maleficent and Samuel against me, there wasn’t really anything I could do. The best I could hope for at this point is that by becoming my mother’s protégé I’d eventually learn enough to free Rachel myself.

  Assuming she wasn’t dead by then.

  It wasn’t until then that I remembered that Maleficent could hear my thoughts, and panicked, I looked over at her as she leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed beneath her breasts. She met my eyes, and winked.

  My mother cleared her throat, bringing me back to the question at hand and I dragged my eyes away from my Godmother with an almost physical effort.

  I nodded.

  “Excellent.”

  My right side felt hot and from the corner of my eye I saw Sam’s knee begin to bounce.

  “The spell.” I snapped, and my mother nodded impatiently. Maleficent slipped out of the room as Danielle lowered her head and began to mutter to herself, fingers moving in strange sigils through the air.

  Sam’s bouncing leg picked up speed and the dragon burns on my palms began to shudder and ache within the confines of my human skin. My right side, the side he sat on, grew so hot that it was hard not to cry out. It felt as if someone were holding an open flame right next to my skin.

  I jumped when my mother’s head suddenly lifted, her eyes glowing white from leftover magic. She motioned me closer and I just about flew from my seat as I hurried to stand before her.

  “Here’s your spell, love.” She held out her hand, palm up and I hesitated before placing my own hand atop hers. As soon as the dragon burns came in contact with her skin knives came to life in my bloodstream, the pain enough to bring me to my knees. My mother shuddered in what looked like pleasure, and placed her free hand on top of mine so that I couldn’t pull away from her touch. I don’t know if it was the spell I felt transferring over, or if the Dragons’ natural aversion to the Widows had affected me somehow. Either way, I gasped in relief when she finally released me.

  I was still sitting there, hand cradled against my chest and rocking, when Danielle decided to do a head count.

  “Where is she?” She asked slowly as she came to her feet. I crab walked away from the gathering storm on her face, grateful when Sam grabbed me from behind by the elbows and pulled me upright.

  “Where is she?” her skin flickered, briefly translucent, and I could see her skull grinning from beneath her flesh. The vines that made up her veins stretched across her face and crawled their way across her eyes.

  “Maleficent!” The witch’s name was a mix between a bark and a snarl and she turned away from the two of us to storm from the room. She made another sound, inarticulate and promising vengeance and I looked at Sam over my shoulder and met his grin with one my own.

  “Come on.” Gripping my hand with his own, he dragged me to the exit, feet moving so fast that I stumbled in my haste to keep up. We turned the corner of the music room just as Maleficent’s magic exploded through the ceiling of the hall in a cresting wave of sparkling purple. I heard my mother’s outraged shrieking and the floor began to crack beneath our feet as more of her poisoned vines crawled from beneath the ground to spiral towards my Godmother. T
eeth flashing from beneath the fall of her hair, Maleficent whirled around and grabbed the head of the vines aiming towards her face. Then she snapped her wrist and the cracked through the air like a whip.

  Her magic traveled along the length of it so that when the tip of the vine struck my mother across the face she flew backwards as if she’d just gotten kicked in the head by a donkey, screaming as she collided back against the still open door of the music room. I took a step towards her but the vines converged on her, lifting her to her feet and wrapping themselves around her waist so that they danced through the air like extra appendages.

  The air grew dark and from down the hall, Maleficent’s eyes began to glow in excitement.

  “We should go.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.” Sam grunted harshly, and I whipped around to see him tossing aside a dead length of vine as thick as the trunk of a tree. He motioned for me to hurry, but I shook my head.

  “I told you I wasn’t leaving without Rachel.”

  From behind me a terrible scream rent the air, and there was a crash. I turned just as Maleficent finished shifting form, taking to the air in one smooth movement. She was heading towards the damage she’d made of the ceiling, the one that had ripped through the two floors above us and left a gaping hole to freedom. She was nothing like Sam, more scales, flesh, and blood, than glowing embers and swirling magic. It was a good thing that she was more like the traditional idea of a dragon, because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to use her super handy back claws to grab a still limp Rachel from her prison above our heads.

  Then they just…flew away.

  The sound of thunder grabbed my attention and, slowly, I turned to look at Danielle. She was vibrating like a tuning fork, and the longer she stood there, shaking in rage, the greater and darker the shadows grew until she stood surrounded in a night of her own making.

  “We should go.” I whispered.

  “Really? I was thinking we’d stay a little longer. Maybe get your mom to make some tea or something.”

  I whipped around but he gripped me around the waist before I could light into him like I really wanted to. Forcing a gasp from me when I realized that he held me up off the ground. I followed his gaze and saw that the shadows on the second floor were growing, reaching. They whispered, soft and hypnotic, hungry little vines slithering before them like antennae.