by A Lonergan
In fact, my blood was starting to boil watching the exchange. I crossed my arms across my chest and narrowed my eyes at him. His blue-black hair was straight and long down his back, and a gold circlet was perched on his forehead. I guessed that meant he was royalty.
His eyes flicked from me, back to Armia. “Armia,” He began. I watched as her shoulders relaxed, and she leaned toward him. "My father wants her."
She barked out a laugh as the elves started to close in around us and our measly few.
"Your father can't have her." She turned slightly so I could see her stick her tongue out at him. "Queen Armia, make sure you don't forget it. My brother will hate your tongue if he hears how familiar we have become."
The Prince rolled his eyes dramatically before he removed his hand from the sword at his side. "I am not afraid of your brother, Armia." The corner of his mouth quipped up in amusement. "But that is not what I'm here about, stop with the games, already. She is to come with me under Royal Decree."
When Armia turned toward me, I knew something was wrong. Her face was bright red, and she wouldn't look me in the eye. She wrung her hands in front of her before she started twisting a ring on her thumb.
"Freya," I didn't hear anything else she said. My heart thundered in my chest and drowned out all the noise around me. My body felt like it was being stung by a million wasps. Static lit up in my fingers. Everything went white as something scratched against my back.
Then everything came crashing back to me. I gasped as the sounds assaulted me. I blinked my eyes and tried to focus. Every single guard was turned toward me and had their various weapons were drawn, ready for attack.
The Prince had Armia shoved behind him, and she was staring at me in horror. I didn't understand what was happening until a hot breeze hit my back. I let out a shaky breath and turned around slowly. The first thing I noticed was the orb from my backpack that looked like a dragon egg was broken in half. Whatever had come out of it was leaving a massive shadow over me. I swallowed hard and let my gaze travel up.
There right above me was a bright red dragon. If it hadn't had its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth, I would have been pretty afraid. But he looked just like a puppy dog staring at me like that. When the guards started to make their way back toward me, the ferocious beast let out a breath of fire, transforming into a hulking monster. They immediately backed off. Armia peeked her head out from behind the Prince's back, her eyes were half as big as her face.
The dragon tucked his wings in and made his way to my side while I overheard Armia muttering, “This isn't possible. Dragons are extinct. My Father killed the last one himself.”
The creature snorted like he understood what she was saying. He rolled his serpent eyes. The yellow glowed maliciously in the setting sun's rays.
The Prince cleared his throat, regaining his composure. I turned back to him, feeling more confident than I had before. "My father has ordered your presence in our Kingdom."
I pressed my lips together in irritation. "What if I say no?"
He sputtered. "No?" Then laughed.
I didn't think he was amusing either. My new friend must have agreed with me because I felt his warm snout press into my back. My backpack was in tatters around my feet. I kicked the material away from my feet before I dug my heels into the dirt, ready for a fight to ensue. I felt the dragon crouch low beside me, smoke rising up next to my face.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sterling
I sat on the edge of my seat. It had been days since I had visited with Sariah. She had let me go willingly, but I knew it wasn't the last time I would hear from her. Especially after what was happening in The Mirror Realm right now. Ayre sat beside me, just as enthralled as I was. We hadn't moved. A dragon, a freakin' dragon. I leaned forward in my chair, anxiety twisting in my gut. I raked my fingers through my hair, glancing at Ayre out of the corner of my eyes. She had on a baggy sweatshirt that she hadn't changed out of in 3 days. She hadn't left my side or the mirror's since the damn dragon had burst from Freya's backpack.
Ayre had to spit her drink all over the room, shocked senseless. All she had been able to mutter was, “This can't be happening! We have to go see Madam Shriek. Immediately.”
Madam shriek was the woman that owned the shop with Voodoo tokens and magis. We had stayed glued in the same spot as we were binge-watching something on Netflix. There was nothing we could change now.
We had watched entranced as the elves continued to push and Freya's fiery personality came to a peak. The dragon had nudged her again and then bowed low, perched ready for Freya to mount him. She thought on it for a second, assessing the situation before she jumped on his back. The beast pumped his wings twice and was gone in seconds. Freya's hair blending in with the dragon's scales. Fear lit up in her eyes before pure joy took over. She lifted her arms hesitantly before she tossed her head back and let out a holler. Then her hands flew up carelessly, and she laughed. When she opened her eyes, there was a weight lifted from her shoulders. Her hair whipped around her face as she looked out over The Mirror Realm.
Something had changed inside of me When I had watched her. It hadn't taken her long to make it back to the castle. The fairy was waiting for her when Freya's beast landed on the top. The Fairy had freaked out screaming about where they were going to house the monster. Freya had shrugged her shoulders before the dragon began to shrink, its gold eyes twinkled mischievously as it shrunk to the size of Freya's palm. He flew up and landed on Freya's shoulder, smirking in a dragon way. The little fairy rolled her eyes on.
The only thing that snapped me out of my thoughts of the past few days was the sound of Cal's voice over the mirror. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"I can't believe you have a dragon." Cal laughed nervously. "What happened?"
She shrugged casually like it was no big deal. He had missed all the action and the bonding she had gone through in a short amount of time. "Where have you been?"
Cal looked around nervously as if he was going to evade the question altogether. "I had some business to attend to in a neighboring Kingdom ."
She nodded her head slowly, almost suspiciously. "Your sister filled you in?" she asked.
He nodded, then he flicked a dagger into the air before catching it effortlessly, the metal gleaming in the sunlight. He shoved his hands into his pockets before pulling something out. Freya looked surprised and shocked, but I couldn't tell what it was. She held it up in front of herself in wonder.
It was a small dragon carved out of wood, it resembled the one flying around them. She smiled before she pulled it to her chest affectionately., cradling it like a baby.
"Its what I’ve been working on since I first met you." He gave her a shy grin.
How was I supposed to compete with that?
"Wow, he's laying it on thick, isn't he?" Ayre said, scooping up popcorn before she threw it at me. I ignored the little fluff pellets as they rained down around me. I concentrated on the mirror and swallowed hard, it felt like glass was cutting its way down my esophagus.
"This is what you've been working on? What you've been so secretive about?"Freya asked Cal. His smiled beamed and I could have punched his lights out. I narrowed my eyes. Ayre snorted.
Freya pocketed the small figurine before she ran her fingers down the length of her dragon's snout. I still hadn't caught his name, and my curiosity was getting the best of me. I leaned back in my chair and stretched my legs out in front of me.
"How did you know to do a dragon?" I heard Freya ask.
Cal turned away from her, and I couldn't see his face, all I could hear was his reply, "You remind me of one."
Oh, you've got to be kidding me...
When Cal turned around, he was blushing. I barely noticed Freya rolling her eyes at him. She wasn't buying his bull. Atta girl.
I crossed my arms over my chest. Cal picked up on the change in her attitude, thank The Essence.
"So, do you know
what caused this to happen?" Cal motioned his hands at the fire-breathing reptile.
If I were him, I would have been treading carefully. Freya held her hand out, and the massive thing rubbed against her like a feline. "I have no idea. I was going to go to the library and read up on them, but he's not allowed in there. I figured I could wait, at least until we figured out what is going on with the elves."
Cal dared to cringe, and I knew that the neighboring business he had been handling was the elves. "I think your magic awakened him."
She wrinkled her eyebrows. "Everything went white, I felt like my entire body was struck by lightning.”
Cal bit his lip and Arye through a handful of popcorn at the glass. "Sounds like your body panicked and your magic felt life inside of the egg or the potential of life," he said.
She nodded her head and then looked down at her feet. "What did the elves want? Is that where Armia disappeared to? Or is everyone going to continue to lie to me and keep me in the dark?"
Cal cringed and scratched his head. Freya's hair had started to float around her face, her magic reacting with her emotions.
The dumbstruck man pulled his dagger from its sheath and fiddled with it, nervous. I stood up from my chair quickly, causing it to topple backward. I didn't know what I was going to do about it, but I was damned if I was just going to sit there and watch.
Freya didn't seem nervous at all, she flicked her floating hair from her face and turned away from him, uninterested in his nerves.
"Its been a very long time since we have had guests," he cleared his throat. "Peaceful guests from the Earth Realm."
"So, what do they want with me?" Her voice changed, and lightning lit up the sky. The dragon blew fire into the clouds before landing right next to Cal. He looked like he was going to jump out of his skin.
His Adam's apple bobbed before he took a step toward her. He placed his hands on either side of her face, and her hair immediately dropped to her back. I stepped closer to the mirror, dreading what was about to happen.
I could barely register Ayre's voice. I placed my hand on the cold glass. My body alights with my magic, my magi warm against my chest.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Freya
My face flamed as Cal leaned in closer, every ounce of my being acutely aware of his presence.
He whispered against my neck, causing goose bumps to light up my body. I could hardly think of the speech I had prepared and practiced, for hours before. "I won't let them come for you, you must believe me, you aren't just some serving girl to me. You are royalty, everything about you. "
I swallowed against all the words bubbling up in my mouth as he got closer to my lips."Cal... You must understand..." I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue. His eyes following the innocent movement, that appeared sensual.
"Shh," He got closer, and there was only a tiny gap between us. His breath warmed my parted mouth.
"I can't live here," Just as the words left my mouth, his lips replaced them. I pulled away quickly just as a deafening sound assaulted us. I blinked my eyes, and my jaw dropped open. Leaning against the castle wall was the mirror I had traveled through to get here.
But that wasn't what had me stunned, lying face down on the concrete was a man in a very familiar suit. As he picked his body up off of the cobblestones, dread coursed through my body. When he smiled at me, I knew I had to be dreaming. All Sterling Master's was capable of doing was sneering.
It was definitely a dream, or he had hit his head really hard on the ground. His pearly whites were aimed right at me. I blinked again, really trying to focus on what was going on. Then my eyes went back to the mirror. Staring back at me through the glass was Ayre. She had her nose pressed against it, looking like an adorable piggy. Her mouth was shaped in a perfect "O." Her sweatpants only added to her beauty, though I had never seen her dressed like that before. She started yelling, but I couldn't make sense of her words. She ran from the room and in all the time I had spent staring at her, I would have thought Sterling would have looked away from me. He hadn't. His smile was even more prominent.
Weird.
Cal had his daggers out, and guards were starting to mill around us. Their silver armor clanking with each step.
They pulled their swords out and pointed them at Sterling. His eyes twinkled with mischief. Of course, this would amuse him.
I knew that I was the only one that was going to stop this madness, but I didn't know if I wanted to. I figured this was good payback for the way he had treated me. His gorgeous smile wasn't going to make me falter. I tilted my chin up, ever slightly, giving him a motion that I was unaffected by his charms. His smile fell from his face. The guards approached him, ready to rip him up, but they hit an invisible wall and crumpled to the ground. Their armor sounding like nails on a chalkboard as it rubbed together.
Sterling pulled himself up, slowly, not taking his eyes from mine. I could briefly make out the sound of Cal shouting my name, but I ignored it. I didn't need anyone's saving or protection. I could do it on my own.
The only thing that jerked me from my thoughts was Cal grabbing my elbow. His grip was rough and too tight, I went to pull my arm back, but he was relentless. I glared at him, and my magic started to surge forward. My magi were scorching against my wrist.
"What are you doing?" Cal whispered in my ear.
"What are you doing?" At the sound of my voice, he released me. Sterling had his eyes narrowed at Cal, and I could see a storm brewing in them.
"We are in danger.” Cal pointed to the jerk across from us. All amusement wiped clean from Sterling's face.
"I hate macho men for this very reason. No one thought to even ask the woman." I tasked and shook my head."How typical."
"Wait, you know this man?" Cal threw a dagger in the direction of Sterling, but it slowly melted mid-air and dripped onto the bodies of the fallen guards.
"Well, of course, I'm the only one not running around like a chicken with my head cut off," I said, dramatically.
Cal shook his head and made a confused face, "What's a chicken?"
"How do you not know what a chicken is?" Sterling asked.
"Excuse me that I'm not up to date on the Earth Realm lingo."Cal bared his teeth at Sterling.
There was so much testosterone in the air, I couldn't breathe. Then Cal spoke up, and I could have died. "We were in the middle of something before we were so rudely interrupted." He smirked at Sterling like it was some kind of competition.
"Dude, nothing was going on, and you suck at reading body language. If a woman wants you, she'll be fluid in your arms, not stiff as a board. Sterling scoffed, and I was about to agree with him until something didn't make sense.
"How would you know what my body language was?" I narrowed my eyes at Sterling. He looked startled before he pulled himself together and gave me a cold stare. I wasn't buying it.
"I didn't have to see it before I came through. Anyone could notice your tension from a mile away." It was his turn to narrow his eyes.
Cal watched our exchanges with a scowl on his face. "You didn't want me to kiss you?"
Oh, boy.
"Cal," I started. His expression just got worse. Great. "Maybe we should have this discussion in private.”
He spread his hands full. "Might as well have it in front of our guest. He already knows more than what he's letting on."
I cleared my throat. "It's not that I didn't want to kiss you." I paused and rubbed my eyes. How had l managed to get myself in this situation? "I'm homesick."
At my admittance, Sterling looked more than satisfied. He crossed his arms over his chest, and my eyes followed the movement.
Cal pulled his top lip in between his teeth. "How long have you been thinking of going home?"
I let out a shaky breath, all of a sudden nervous. "Since the night before my dragon hatched."
"When my sister outed me for being woman crazed?" he asked.
I couldn't keep the giggle in that escaped my lips. "Yes and
no. It was in that moment that I realized I didn't belong here either and that to solve my problems, I would have to fall them instead of taking the easy way out."
My eyes briefly left Cal's to land on Sterling's. He had a solemn expression on his face, and when he noticed me watching him, the corners of his mouth quirked up, almost in acceptance.
Cal nodded his head and began to speak, but I interrupted him."You deserve a Princess and someone that knows this Kingdom. Someone that knows this realm."
He chewed on his lip a minute more, before he looked at the mirror Sterling had come through. "It wouldn't be so bad to have an ally in the Earth Realm."
"Spoken like a true leader." Sterling spat.
That must have been the moment Sterling had enough of Cal. "Did you even have feelings for her?" I didn't know what the deal was and I definitely didn't understand the animosity.
Cal didn't answer, so Sterling, in his anger, flew across the small space separating them. Cal flicked his wrist and Sterling went soaring through the air, he landed hard on his back. Rainbow colored dust clouded around him. I had a small worry he had fallen on a fairy's home, but I knew they had a protected village so these things wouldn't happen by accident.
Sterling glared and dusted his suit off. The multi-colored dust started to float around him before it turned into a twister. Judging by Cal's terrified expression, they didn’t have natural disasters here like they did in the Earth Realm.
I rolled my eyes, if this continued, it would go on all day. "Alright, children," I called.
Cal lowered his hands, and his lip went up in a sneer. I ignored him and continued, "I think its time I go home."
"I'll prepare my sister and Wyna." His voice lost its familiarity and was all business.
I nodded before he turned away. But then he pivoted back and grabbed my hand quickly. "Can I trust you will be safe with the Earth Dweller?"