Dragon Blue: A Lie That's True (The Dragonlords of Xandakar, Book1)

by Macy Babineaux

  “That’s the One Tree,” he said. “I have only seen it twice, but it is something to behold. They say it is the oldest living thing in Xandakar. Magda and most of the other owl-mages live inside it.”

  “And this?” she asked, nodding at the separate land mass further to the west.

  “The Emerald Isle,” Corban said. “I’ve never been there, but they say it is a beautiful place, clear blue water, white sands, and deep green jungles.”

  “And there are dragons there too?”

  “The Tanglevine clan.”

  “Are you friends with them?”

  Corban laughed at that. “None of the clans of Xandakar are friendly with one another. The owls have worked long and hard to forge a fragile peace. For centuries, one or more clans have nearly always been at war. Our marriage was supposed to form an alliance between the red and blue dragons.”

  “Sorry I blew that to hell,” she said.

  He put his hand out, touching her cheek. “Don’t ever be sorry for that,” he said.

  She put her hand over his, then turned the palm up and kissed it. Corban didn’t feel cold. Nevertheless, when she did that a chill ran up his spine.

  Then she giggled, as if thinking of something funny. “Thanks for the geography lesson,” she said. “But you seem to have left out an important landmark.”

  “Oh?” he said, raising his eyebrows. Xandakar was a massive place, with many places and many wonders. He hadn’t even mentioned the borders between the dragon lands, or The Ribbon of Madness. But Miranda couldn’t know about such things.

  “Sure,” she said. “There’s this cave you forgot about.” She took his hand and pulled it toward her legs. “It’s dark and damp, but warm.”

  She moved his hand between her legs. His fingers touched the soft, wet curls there. He was already stiffening again.

  “It’s recently discovered,” she said. “But something tells me it could use a much more thorough exploring. Is my king up for another round?”

  He looked into her dark, hungry eyes, then down at her supple body, framed by the crushed snow. His cock was already as hard as it had been before.

  Corban climbed on top of her and plunged himself into her once again.

  25: Miranda

  She lay back in the fresh snow, the man she loved on top of her, his hard, powerful body pressed flush against hers. His cock, as hard as iced stone but thankfully not as cold, filled her. His hands clasped her wrists, pulling them up above her head, her arms swiping the snow as he did so.

  Miranda almost giggled at the thought of making snow angels while fucking, but she didn’t want to spoil the mood. He might think she was laughing at him. So she stifled the silly thought, feeling herself smile wide instead.

  Did you ever wonder if your life wasn’t meant for something else?

  Siccora had asked her that in Benny’s run-down diner. She remembered cynically thinking that of course she did. Didn’t everybody? She hadn’t taken the question seriously. But now she could look back on it and marvel.

  The night before, she’d been screwing some guy she barely knew. She hadn’t even known his name. Sex had been like a greasy burger or a video game, a quick bit of sensory entertainment, nothing more. Fun, but not fulfilling. That was how she had always viewed it.

  But a lot had happened since then. She’d met Siccora, found the necklace, and been hurled halfway across the universe. Then she’d gotten married, fought a dragon, and found out she was a dragon herself. That wasn’t even counting all the shit with the big, bad albino from some entirely different dimension.

  And out of all the craziness that had happened to her, the most amazing thing of all was Corban. She actually felt something now that she didn’t think she’d ever feel, something she had never seen up close, something she only thought existed in books.

  She had fallen completely and absolutely in love.

  Miranda arched her back, letting him take her, her arms pinned over her head. The first time he had made love to her had been incredible. She didn’t think it could get any better. She was wrong. He was taking his time, claiming her body as he’d already claimed her heart.

  She felt his steely chest push against her breasts, rubbing hard against her erect nipples. He looked into her eyes as he thrust inside her. His icy blue eyes, so cool and distant when she’d first met him, were now full of emotion. They spoke of love and longing, all for her.

  “Corban?”

  “Yes?” he whispered, slowing just a touch.

  “I love you.”

  He smiled, bending down to kiss her deeply, picking back up the pace. Then he moved his lips to her ear. “You are my queen,” he whispered. “My beautiful red dragon. And I love you as well.”

  She closed her eyes and felt the heat and joy bloom up inside her like a great fiery flower unfurling for the first time. She felt him inside her, releasing himself. She felt him on top of her, surrounding her as the world erupted in pleasure and flame.

  As the white hot ball of light inside her began to wane, settling down to just a wonderful feeling of relaxed happiness, Corban sat up.

  “Miranda,” he said, surprise in his voice.

  Her eyes fluttered open to see his wide eyes looking down at her neck.

  “What?” she asked, reaching up to the necklace. “What is it?”

  She didn’t understand what was happening, even though she could feel it.

  The necklace was melting, the gold links liquefying beneath her fingertips, her skin absorbing them. She slid her fingers to the stone. It remained solid, but was also receding into the hollow at the base of her throat. As her fingers rested on it, the stone disappeared inside her neck.

  She sat up, feeling her neck with both hands. The necklace was gone. No, that wasn’t right. It was still there, only inside her now.

  “What just happened?” she asked.

  “I do not know,” he said.

  “It’s inside me,” she said. “Part of me.”

  “Are you all right?”

  That was a good question. Just when she thought things had settled to normal, whatever normal was around here, something like this happened. But yeah, she thought she was all right. Better than all right. The Emberstone had felt good around her neck, like a protective shield, a thing she could draw upon for help.

  The stone didn’t feel like that anymore. Now it was a part of her. No, it was her. And she was it. That sounded a little crazy, but that was the only way she could describe it to herself that made any sense.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I’m good. Actually, I’m great.” And it was true. She felt the power of the stone coursing through her veins.

  Just who the hell am I? she thought. And who was my father?

  She figured she would have time enough to try to figure that out in the days ahead. Maybe Wygard or one of the other owls would know something.

  She didn’t know where she came from, but for the first time in her life she knew who she was: Miranda Everfrost, queen of the Icelands, broodmother of the blue dragons.

  Corban stood and reached out his hand. She took it, letting him help her to her feet.

  He smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then hand-in-hand they ran to the edge of the landing and jumped off the side of the mountain together.

  As they fell, the cold wind rushed up, washing over her. She felt his hand grow, the fingers curl into claws. She willed her own transformation, sprouting scales and wings faster than she had ever done so before.

  They beat their wings in unison, the mountain wind carrying them aloft. Then they turned together, spreading their wings, and headed for home.

  Epilogue

  “Do you think she has any suspicion of who she really is?” The woman reclined on a bed of black satin pillows, her naked white body like a serving of milk in a dish. Her hair was black, shiny straight bangs hanging down to her eyes. Her lips were painted black, along with her fingernails and toenails.

  Marko Wildfire stood over her, looking down
at her pale, body, her pert pink nipples. He strained painfully against his red-gold armor. His hunger for her was almost unnatural.

  “She knows nothing,” he said.

  The torchlight in the chamber was dim, but her skin was so white it almost seemed to glow from within.

  “Are you certain?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes what?”

  “Yes, Nevra.”

  She smiled, stretching among the pillows like a cat. “Do you want to fuck me?”

  Marko had never wanted anything more. Nevra Nightshadow was the princess of the black dragons, the daughter of Sorian. The Wildfires didn’t get along with any of the clans, but the Nightshadows were their vilest enemy of all. More blood had been shed between red and black than between any other clans.

  “If my father knew I were here,” Marko said, “he would have me killed. He would kill us both.”

  “Good thing he’s a fool,” Nevra said. “Now answer my question or you can fly back home with a lonely, aching groin.”

  “You know I do,” he said.

  “Then say it.” Nevra reveled in toying with him. He would never have tolerated such behavior for any other woman, but from her he lapped it from her palm like sweet honey.

  “I want to fuck you,” he said.

  “Perhaps in a little while,” she said. “Are you sure you weren’t followed?”

  He felt his heart thump in his chest. She drove him mad, and he loved every second of it. “No,” he said. Of course he wasn’t followed. The sky was clear this morning when he had set out. He told the guards he wanted some time alone, to hunt. That much was true. But he did not hunger for deer or goat, not today.

  They met in the ancient abandoned temple of the demon Vish’Kazir. Nevra was the one who had found this place. She had never told him how. It was where they met, where they laid their plans. Though truth be told, the plans were mostly hers.

  “No one followed me,” he said. The temple lay at the far reaches of the Scorched Mountains, the towering, jagged peaks that separated the lands of the Wildfires and Nightshadows. He had flown across the desert on a clear day. Anyone behind him would have been easy to see.

  Nevra reached up to her own small breast and pinched the pink nipple. “You look a little green in the gills, Marko,” she said. “Not having cold feet, are you?”

  “The plan failed,” he said. “They killed the Netherstriders and escaped their world.”

  “Oh, Marko,” she said, sighing. “You’re only focusing on a tiny piece of the picture. Nicola Nullvoid was only a pawn. He didn’t do all that we hoped he would, but he did enough.”

  “Orric Everfrost,” Marko said.

  “Yes, you led him to the father,” she said. “And he disposed of him, as we wanted.”

  “But his son—”

  “His son is alive,” she said. “And he is with her. But he is in love. And love is a disease, a weakness that blinds the sighted and turns the wise into fools. The game has just begun, my dear Marko. The pieces are moving, and right now all is in our favor. Mostly because everyone else doesn’t even yet know they are under attack.”

  He didn't know about all of that, but she was right about one thing. Love was a disease, one that infected him utterly and completely. He ached for her and she knew it. Perhaps he was just another one of her pawns. If so, he didn’t care. As long as he was near her, as long as she let him inside her, nothing else mattered.

  “What is our next move?” he asked.

  “Your next move is to peel off that skin, take out your hot red poker, and do your best to please me.”

  Marko nearly hurt himself pulling his armor-suit off. He was neither as tall nor broad-shouldered as his father, but his body was still impressive. His muscles rippled as he stripped, the torchlight dancing off the bronze skin covering his well-defined chest and stomach. His cock sprang out as he pulled his armor below his waste.

  “There it is,” Nevra purred.

  He was already as hard as he thought he could be, but when she looked at his body and talked about him that way he felt himself stiffen even more.

  Once he was completely naked, he took a step toward her.

  “No, no,” she said, stopping him. She sat up.

  “But I thought—”

  “You thought you would just pounce on me and do what you wanted?” she asked. “Where’s the fun in that?” She extended her black-nailed finger and touched it to the tip of his cock. She flicked downward, so that it wobbled in the air like a toy. She laughed.

  “Please,” he said.

  “Oh, if you’re trying to beg, you can do much better than that.”

  “Oh, please, Nevra,” he said, getting down on his knees. “I want you. I need you.”

  She sat back and looked up at him with her pitch black eyes, the ever-present smile on her lips. “I know all that already,” she said. “What are you willing to do for me.”

  Then he said the word she wanted to hear. “Anything.”

  “Anything?” she teased. “Truly?”

  “Truly.”

  She reclined again, spreading her legs wide. She had no hair down below, just soft violet folds glistening with wetness. “I want you to remember that promise in the days to come,” she said. “Now you may fuck me.”

  Marko sank down on top of her, running his hands across her creamy white skin. He put his lips on her neck, tasting her. As a child his nanny had once taken him to the bazaar just outside the city walls. There she had purchase him a shiny black piece of candy. She told him it was made from something called anise. He had spit it out in the sand, finding the taste strange and unpleasant. But every time he put his mouth on Nevra, it reminded him of that black candy, and he now found the taste irresistible.

  He slid his hands around the small of her back, then down between the satin pillows and the curves of her ass. He moved his hips so that the tip of his cock just touched her lovely folds.

  “Hold,” she said, just as he was about to plunge himself into her.

  Marko’s heart thumped in his chest. He knew she loved to tease, but he felt as if he were now being tortured.

  She reached over to a nearby table and opened the lid of a tiny jade and gold box. She took a pinch of some black powder between her fingers and brought it to her nose, sniffing deeply. She reached over for another pinch and held it in front of Marko’s face.

  Demon Ash. It was said the dust was made from the souls of the dead. Whenever they met here, Nevra partook often. But Marko wanted no part of it. He shook his head.

  She gave a little shrug and snorted the dust up her other nostril. For just a moment, her eyes turned completely black, whites and all, before returning to normal.

  “Proceed,” she said.

  He slid his cock deep inside, her wet folds taking him in. He did not need any other drug than her. He heard her wicked laugh in his ear as he drew halfway out and pushed in again, thrusting as deep as he could. Then again.

  “Come on,” she said in a mock pouty voice. “You’re the prince of the red dragons. Surely you can fuck me harder than that.”

  He squeezed her ass cheeks roughly and began to thrust himself into her with every ounce of ferocity he had. His body slapped down upon hers, their hips slamming together.

  She arched her back into him, threw her head back, and laughed. “That’s better, my little red dragon.”

  He felt the heat in his throat, threatening to cough up fire, and he stifled it. He continued to pump away, a sheen of sweat now covering his body. She curled her arms around his back, and she enveloped him.

  Her lips moved to his ear and whispered: “Let loose into me.”

  Marko shuddered, plunging deep one more time. He did as she asked, releasing himself into her, though he felt she was taking more than he was giving. He felt as if she were drawing his seed out of him, drinking it with her body. But he reveled in the sensation.

  She let out a low moan, raking her fingers across his back. He felt blood
trickle between his shoulder blades. For a moment, he saw only blackness, a pair of eyes hovering in the darkness. Whether they belonged to Nevra or someone else, he could not say. All he knew was that those eyes belonged to something evil. And hungry.

  He pulled himself out, flopping down beside her on the pillows. He let out a heavy sigh.

  “That was…acceptable,” she said, looking up at the ceiling.

  Marko looked upwards as well. Ancient runes were carved into the black stone, no doubt a language that no one could speak or understand anymore. He wondered what they said, then decided it would probably be better not to know.

  “Will this plan of yours work?” he asked. “Can we truly defeat every dragonlord and take the five realms for ourselves?”

  Nevra laughed. “Of course,” she said. “They are weak and vain. All of them. Even my father. We will turn them against one another and watch them topple in a neat little row. They are like lambs prancing in the field, chewing on the grass in the bright sun, oblivious to the shadow falling over them, the slaughter to come.”

  She sat up, smiled, and winked. “Besides, we have a demon.”

  Author's Note

  Thank you for reading!. If you enjoyed this one, you'll be glad to know I'm already hard at work on the second book in the series.

  Again, here's a link to sign up for my newsletter. Just in case you want to be notified when the next book comes out.

  Take care, dear readers. Hopefully we'll meet again soon.

  Macy Babineaux

  August 20th, 2016