by G. Bailey
“What does that mean?” I ask and he looks away breaking that contact between us.
“Just that your eyes are bright,” he says, but I have a feeling he is lying to me, not that I can prove it.
“Okay so what are the five selected?” I ask, changing the subject onto what we should be doing.
“So you know each major town, all five of them in Dragca, have councils. In each council, there are four members and they vote for one of them to become the selected. The selected has the final say, more power and speaks directly to the king with any issues,” he explains.
“That makes sense,” I nod.
“Here it explains that the council have open meetings every Friday, where anyone with an issue can come and speak,” he pauses for a second “I went to one once,” he tells me.
“What did you go for?” I ask.
“I went to get justice for my adoptive parents, against Elias,” he tells me, his anger looks like it is almost vibrating through him until I move closer and rest my hand over his. He doesn’t move, but he doesn’t move his hand away from mine. I know I shouldn’t comfort him, he is a dragon guard, yet here I am. I never said I was smart.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I say and he leans back, putting the book down on the floor with his free hand.
“I might as well tell you before Elias tells you the twisted version,” he says and I stay quiet. I don’t think Elias would bother making up any excuses, he seems like the type to own the deaths he has caused. The dragon guard do kill, and I’m sure Thorne has killed to get to where he is now.
“My adoptive parents, my father to be exact, helped his brother to kill someone very important but he was made to do it,” he shakes his head.
“Who?” I ask, wondering how his uncle killed and why his father would be killed for helping.
“It doesn’t matter, what matters is that he shouldn’t have been made to help and Elias was ordered to find him, and kill him for it. My mother killed herself because of the loss of her mate two days after his death,”
“I’m so sorry,” I say and he looks over at me.
“So am I, I wanted to save them but I couldn’t. I hated feeling weak.”
“I felt that way when I saw my mother dead, when I saw Jace dead. I’m never there to help them, always late,” I whisper and he nods.
“How old were you?” I ask.
“It was two years ago he was killed. I was training and didn’t know they had been found. They had been on the run for years,” he explains.
“Can you help me with something else?” I ask him after a lot of silence has passed between us.
“Sure,” he smiles sadly.
“I have this plant and I wondered if you could take me to the library, so I could find some books on it?” I ask.
“Yeah, let’s go now, I’m not in the mood for studying,” he says, jumping up and holding a hand out for me. He pulls me up before walking to the door and opening it for me. We walk down the quiet corridors, only passing a few students the whole time. The library is right at the end of the longest corridor in the castle, and it has big dark wooden doors.
“This is the library, I can wait outside for you if you want,” he offers and I nod, walking a little away from him before stopping and walking back. I gently wrap my arms around his frozen body, hugging him and walking away before I look back at his reaction.
Chapter 12
Isola
“What are you reading?” Elias says, jumping onto the sofa next to me in the library and ruining my perfect silence. The library is even better than Thorne said it was, and I will have to remember to thank him later for bringing me here. It’s the perfect mix between human technology and the ancient magic of Dragca. They even have chargers in here for kindles, and modern books that the librarian told me they import from Earth every month. I swear I’m never leaving this place.
“Nothing,” I quickly try to shut the book, but he easily takes it off me. I cover my face with my hands as he starts reading it out loud.
“His hands slide down my body, as his mouth devours my own. I can’t help the moan that escapes my lips when Enzo-” Elias begins reading louder. I jump over to his side of the sofa, slapping my hand over his mouth and he laughs. I pull my book away, sliding it on the side as Elias keeps laughing.
“You really are a naughty princess, aren’t you?” he asks me with a smirk. I roll my eyes at him before getting up and walking away. I hear him follow me as I walk down the isles full of books, both modern and old mixed together in their respective categories. I get to the charging table, and picking up my kindle, see that it's fully charged. I unplug it, practically giddy at the thought of logging myself in and finishing my book.
I take one more look at the massive library, the rows of bookshelves, the big windows, and pause to appreciate the old-fashioned, cosy feel to the place. I love it, it reminds me of the library from Beauty and the Beast. I keep walking when I hear Elias behind me, hoping to get back to my room before he comments on anything he just read.
“I’m only winding you up; it's cool that you read. Though, I had you down as a classic kind of girl, not the girly porn type,” he says as he jumps out from behind a bookshelf and blocks my way out of the library. I find every word out his stupidly attractive mouth down right insulting to females. We should be allowed to read whatever we like, without being told it’s porn.
“It’s not girly porn,” I stop walking and face him, as he laughs at me.
“Yes, it is. Books like that are written to get bored girls all hot and bothered,” he says, stepping closer to me. I swallow when his rich, smoky, rich smell hits me, and my dragon basically purrs in my mind.
“Don’t even think about it,” I tell her, watching as Elias tilts his head to the side.
“Mine,” she replies simply. It’s not a demand exactly, but it sounds like she has made her mind up on something she is keeping. She never said that about Jace, well, honestly, she only tolerated him and I never really knew why. Yet this damaged, kind of crazy and dangerous dragon, she wants to keep? You have got to be kidding me.
“I’ve never seen an ice dragon’s eyes before,” he says into the silence, only the sound of pages turning and the librarian falling asleep at the desk can be heard in the room.
“They’re normal for me, but I couldn’t remember fire dragon eyes, not until I saw them here,” I comment.
“What do you remember from when you lived here?” he asks me, leaning back on the bookshelf.
“Why do you want to know?” I ask him in return, and he only smirks.
“I heard that before the queen was killed, there was peace in Dragca. I was too young when she died to remember that time, and I lived out in a poor village. I’m curious what the royals and the rich called peace,” he states. I don't know that I really remember much to tell him.
“I remember big parties, long dresses, and beautiful dragons. I remember how my mother would travel to villages, and give the people food,” I say, thinking of how I remember my mother looking. She always had her long, white blonde hair up in a bun, with two plaits on the sides and little curls that escaped. She always wore white or blue, never any other colours, and she smelled like sweets. I miss her so much. Honestly, I miss more of the dead than I love any of the living.
“You used to go with your mother,” he tells me.
“Once, I went once with my mother, but she hid me. No one knew I went, how did you?" I ask, curious about how he could ever know that.
“Don’t you remember? You gave me and Dagan food and your gold rings,” he says, making a flashback pop into my mind.
“Don’t go far,” my mother warns me, her hands full and unable to grab on to me. She holds two baskets of food, and several guards with her also carry as much food as possible. I slip out two rolls of bread from the carriage and smile at her.
“I promise,” I say cheekily, almost tripping on the deep mud on the ground that sticks to my white dres
s. I walk around the fountain, stopping when I see two boys my age sitting on the edge. One of them is drinking the water, and the other is staring at the ground, his black hair hiding his face.
“Hello,” I say as I walk up to them, and they both turn to look at me. They are brothers, and are kind of cute, even as their dragons take over, making their eyes go black. I watch as they look at the bread in my hands.
“Here,” I offer the bread to them, and they both shake their heads.
“Well, I'm just going to leave this here then," I say, placing it on the side of the fountain and stepping back. I look down at the three gold rings on my fingers and back to the skinny boys that won’t even look me in the eye. They are starving, and I’m wearing gold that my father gave me that could help them. I slide the rings off, putting them in the middle of the bread. One of the boys watches me the whole time, whereas the one with long, messy black hair doesn’t look my way.
“Isola! Where are you?” I hear my mother shout, sounding worried.
“Goodbye,” I say to them, but they don’t reply as I turn around and run back to the carriage.
“You were the boy with the messy black hair,” I say in shock. I hadn’t thought I would ever see those boys again. I was so proud I had helped them, proud that I was like my mother and could do something beneficial for others. We made up stories in that carriage of how when I was queen I could sneak out and feed the villages, even make some changes so they aren’t so hungry all the time.
“Dagan remembers you, just as I do, but he is too proud to thank you for saving our lives. Our mother had been killed by one of her clients, and the whorehouse had kicked us out that morning,” he admits, the strain on his face suggesting it’s hard for him to do so. I can see why Dagan would never bring it up, it must be a bad memory. I could only imagine how strong they both had to be to survive a life like that.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, feeling a lot of respect for him.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, princess. Your rings got us a room to rent in a house, where an old dragon guard found us and told us we had dragon guard blood. He trained us, and the rest is history,” he says, looking down at the ground, much like he did when he was a child. Over the years, I had thought about those boys. I'd felt a connection to them that I've never really understood. I kind of get why my dragon likes Elias now, she must remember him and think he is someone important to her. At least that’s what I’m going to convince myself, and not that my dragon thinks he is the perfect mate for us.
“My mother was killed two weeks after that,” I say quietly and hold my kindle closer to me as he looks back up. Our mothers were killed close to each other, our lives forever changed, and in so many different ways.
“What do you have on that?” he asks me, changing the subject. I hand him my kindle after logging in, watching as he unlocks it. I can’t even believe this place has Wi-Fi, but apparently it only works in here for some reason.
“All girly porn, the topless guys on the covers tell me that. This one even has three topless guys on it,” he chuckles. “Interesting, what is reverse harem?” he asks me, giving me a look that would make most girls want to grab their kindles and run.
“I’m not embarrassed about what I read, so stop looking like that. It’s one girl with three or more men,” I say, and he chuckles.
“Sounds like a lot of fun,” he winks but then ruins it with his next words, “though I doubt someone like you could handle more than one guy.”
“Just when I was starting to think you weren't a complete asshole,” I say, snatching the kindle back.
“I don’t get why you read this stuff when real men are much better,” he says.
“Maybe I read them because no men could ever compare to the men in these kind of books,” I taunt. I know my book boyfriends are all fictional fantasies, but still, it's true.
“Maybe you just have never found the right kind of man, princess,” he says, stepping closer and making me rest my back against the bookshelves.
“I did,” I whisper, and he tilts his head to the side.
“No, you didn’t,” he tells me.
“You don’t know anything,” I say, slamming my hands into his chest. He laughs, grabbing both my hands and pinning them above my head as I struggle against him.
“Let me go, Elias,” I spit out, and he leans down, his head close to my ear.
“You may have loved Jacian, you may have thought he was everything to you, but he wasn’t the man for you,” he tells me, like he thinks he knows everything.
“How the fuck would you know anything?” I ask him, my dragon growl escaping my lips.
“Because you’re still alive, still fighting for every breath, and your heart speeds up whenever I'm close to you. If he was the kind of love you would die for, the kind of love that burns away everything inside of you, you wouldn’t be here now. You would be destroying the world for taking him from you. You wouldn’t be able to think of anything other than revenge and death,” he says.
“How could you possibly know that?” I reply quietly, hating that he could possibly be right.
“I had a woman I wanted to mate with, and I had to watch her die while I could do nothing to stop it. But I knew when she died, that I never really loved her, at least not like I should have. I still wanted to live after she was gone,” he says.
“Then why did you want to mate with her? If you didn’t love her?” I ask breathlessly, still pinned to the bookshelf, with his body pressed against me.
“I thought I did. I listened to my tutor when he told me our bloodlines would have made a powerful dragon guard, that we should be together because of our blood,” he smiles, an almost sad smile. “Like you and Jacian were kept together, made to fall in love, because you were the last of the ice dragons. Not because you chose each other, or even loved each other."
“You may not have loved your mate, but I loved Jace,” I snap.
“You did love him, sure, but you were never in love with him. There is a big difference, princess, and if anything, I hope you never fall in love with anyone. Because of who you are, you will lose them,” he tells me, then lets me go. He walks off down the aisle as I try not to think about his words, though I know I will never be able to forget.
Chapter 13
Isola
“You’re quiet today,” Korbin says as we run, and I don’t immediately respond. Elias pissed me off way too much last night with everything he said, everything he made me think about. I know he was right, and I hate him for it. I did love Jace, but was I in love with him? Did I really even know the meaning? Every memory I have of Jace keeps flashing through my mind, and in not one of them can I really remember loving him. He was just there for me, and I kind of hate that Elias was right. We were pushed into being together. There wasn’t another option. Everything was planned, from our first date at fifteen, to every date after that. We were such close friends, but I don’t remember any moment that really made me think, I love this man. I hate myself for these thoughts, it feels like such a betrayal.
“I’m just tired, I didn’t sleep well,” I finally reply lightly, running faster to try and get the images out of my head that have been running on a loop all night. Thinking of my true feelings of Jace inevitably lead to thoughts of his murder and they have spiralled from there. Jace with the dagger in his heart. His dead eyes staring back at me. How similar he looked to my mother's dead body. They were killed in the same way, and I know I am next on the hit list. Will, I die just as they did?
“Isola, watch out for the hill!” Korbin shouts at me. I’m so lost in my thoughts, I don’t see the edge of the hill until I’m rolling down it. I scream as I hit trees, bouncing off them as I reach my hands out to try and grab onto anything, but it’s pointless. I finally get to the bottom, rolling across the dirt and rocks, coughing as I pull myself up.
“Isola! Isola I’m coming down!” I hear Korbin shout. Looking up, I see him jumping from tree to tree as he makes his way down the hill
. How the hell does he do that? He jumps onto the tree closest to me, and slides down it, avoiding all the branches, and runs over to me.
“You’re hurt, but it should heal,” he says as he grabs my chin to examine my cheek. I lift my hand, feeling the warm blood drip down my face as he shakes his head.
“What is going on in that head of yours that you weren't paying attention to where you were going?” he asks me, still holding my chin and making me look at his green eyes that are practically swirling with anger.
“Why do you care? This is just a job to you lot,” I spit out, jerking my face away from his and walking a few steps away.
“I don't know why I give a damn about a spoilt fucking princess, but for some reason, I do. I don’t see many other people lining up to be your friend,” he says.
“Friend? You seriously want to be friends with someone you call 'a spoilt fucking princess’?” I ask, and he chuckles.
“That’s right doll, I do, and you look like you need a friend, but don’t tell anyone that I’m yours,” he warns, and I just laugh. The one person volunteering to be my friend, and he doesn’t want me to tell anyone.
“Why should I trust you?” I ask him carefully.
“I never said to trust me, just that you can talk to me. I’m a good listener,” he says walking over to me. He takes my hand off my cheek, before quickly pressing it back.
“It’s a deep cut, and my dragon senses that your ribs are broken. We’ll need to stay here for about half an hour to heal,” he tells me. I nod, already knowing that from the pain.
“Let’s find a log or something to sit on then,” I say as I place my other arm around my waist, and he nods. We walk silently through the woods for a little bit until we find a ring of logs. As we get closer, we notice the small, green plant in a pod in the centre of the logs.
“What is that?” I ask, smelling something magical and pure, but not having a clue what it is.