Assassin's Crown (The Assassin and her Dragon Princes Book Book 3)

by Ivy Clyde

  The dragon nosedived, heading for the cliff. I retreated several steps away.

  The deer carcasses hit the ground with a sickening thud.

  The dragon’s body shimmered before my eyes and next moment, it morphed into Norvin.

  “Norvin!” I cried, rushing towards him. At once, a gasp escaped me as the wounds in my body protested the sudden movement.

  “Easy now,” said Norvin, moving forward to hug me.

  His familiar scent enveloped me as I pressed myself against the pleasant heat of his body. “I’m so glad to see you,” I said in a muffled voice. My face was squashed against his hard chest.

  “I’m glad you’re well enough to move around,” he replied, kissing the top of my head. “You gave me a scare.” Stepping away, he held me by my shoulders. “And fucking good job at cutting off Zane’s dick. I think that’s what I’d like to do to Mekhi too.”

  “Adal told you about that?”

  He chuckled, his purple-hued eyes dancing with mirth. “You were clutching the poor thing in your hand when Adal brought you to us.”

  “What did you guys do with it?”

  Norvin’s eyes widened at the question. “Don’t tell me you wanted us to bury Zane’s dick after the shit he put you through.” When my lips parted in a laugh, he smiled and swept the wild locks of his dyed hair back. Even with that horrendous shade, he still managed to look painfully handsome. “I think his dick is lying somewhere in the woods near the cottage. Your owl might find it and make a meal of it.”

  “Ahh, Tuto! Where is he?” I asked, thinking fondly of my familiar. It had been a while since I saw him. Since I didn’t want anyone noticing the large ghostly-white owl visiting me in the palace of Baledonia, I let him hang around the woods outside Huadu, hunting and doing as he pleased. It was time to be reunited with him again.

  “We left him in Huadu,” said Norvin, stepping close to me again. “The damned owl threw a fit when he found you. I have no idea how he came to us just as Adal left to find a healer. He wanted to peck us to death.”

  I laughed. “He can overreact sometimes.”

  “Overreact?” he scoffed. “He’s wanted to kill me since the time he laid his beady eyes on me.”

  I laughed harder. It hurt to laugh but I felt good. The clouds of terror further dispersed away.

  “What are those for?” I asked, gesturing at the deer carcasses.

  “Dinner,” he said with a shrug. “I am going out to fetch water and some wine now.”

  My gaze went to the mountains in the distance. Only dragons could fly so high and carry something as heavy as three massive full-grown deer.

  “Where will you find wine?” I asked curiously. It was possible to get water from a stream or a freshwater lake in the wilderness but it felt exaggerated when he mentioned wine.

  “There is a winery in the woods down below,” he said. “I already checked it out. This early in the morning no one’s around. I was about to go back there to pick up a barrel for us. I’m too famished right now and might just devour all that venison on my own.”

  Just as he mentioned venison, my stomach grumbled. I was famished too.

  “Do you have a blade I can use?” I asked. “I need to start cleaning one of those. It will be ready to roast by the time you come back.”

  “You’re still in pain, Daria,” said Norvin in a grim tone. “Get Adal to do it. He can do it in seconds in his dragon form. Heck! He just needs to breathe on it and you will have roast venison before you.” He looked down at me as I laughed. “Where is he?”

  “He is resting inside.” My cheeks flamed at once, knowing the reason why he was exhausted. I’d used his body completely.

  “I’m not even going to ask why you’re red as a tomato or why I can smell Adal’s scent all over you,” said Norvin, turning his back on me and walking to the edge of the cliff. “Just make sure you don’t hurt yourself anymore.” He took a few more steps, falling off the ledge.

  A scream tore out of me as I ran towards the edge. Next moment, Norvin’s dragon materialized before me, coiling its glittering length around my body. His form terrified me the least, probably because I’d already seen it before in a miniature state. With his large purple-hued eyes brimming with affection, it just felt like looking at a very large version of my favorite pet, Naya.

  “Go on, then,” I said, admiring his scales up close. “Make sure no one sees you stealing a barrel of wine. That’s not how a dragon should behave.”

  I could hear him chuckling in my mind as his body uncoiled and flew further away from me. He sailed away in graceful curves through the air, quickly disappearing around a bend of the mountain.

  As Norvin predicted, it was quite an easy job for a dragon’s razor-sharp claws to skin and gut a deer. Adal woke up soon after Norvin left to fetch the wine he promised. When he saw the deer carcasses, he had the same idea as me. We had to immediately clean it and roast it or we’d starve.

  His golden-scale dragon did the job in a matter of minutes. He even took it away from the cliff to gut the meat so that our temporary residence would stay clean. When he returned, there were two freshly gutted and cleaned deer bodies.

  “What happened to the other one?” I asked as Adal morphed back to his human self.

  “My dragon ate it.”

  “The whole thing?”

  Adal smiled at me, taking away my breath. Even though it looked like he’d endured a rough night, he still managed to look beautiful. “It was about the same as a meat bun to it. Dragons have a voracious appetite.”

  “I’m glad he got a snack,” I said, moving to the pile of wood in the corner. “Where did you get so much wood?”

  “We have Norvin to thank for that,” said Adal. “His dragon uprooted an entire tree and brought it up here. He snapped off the branches and trunk himself.”

  I chuckled. “Norvin is being quite practical with his new powers.”

  Adal sniggered, moving past me to pick up some logs. He motioned for me to step aside as he started piling them together.

  Soon, we had massive mounds of venison roasting near the flames from the fire.

  Norvin arrived within the hour with a massive barrel of wine. Its intoxicating scent wafted in the wind, making me realize how thirsty I was. We broke into the cask, each taking turns to drink out of the wooden bowl Norvin had stolen from the winery.

  The wine hit us strongly as we drank despite our empty stomachs.

  “I don’t think I can wait anymore,” said Norvin in a slurred voice. Slapping Adal on the back, he gestured at the roasting meat mounted on thick sticks. “Use your fire. It’ll be faster.”

  To my surprise, Adal hiccupped loudly and stood on tottering feet. His pale skin was a beautiful shade of crimson now. Stumbling forward, he placed his hands on the sizzling meat. Closing his eyes, he let his hands glow white-hot. Smoke arose from the spot he touched. He slid his hands all over the legs of the carcass, making the meat sizzle and smoke.

  “That’s it!” cried Norvin drunkenly, cheering Adal.

  I watched them both with a drunken fascination. My head swam. It could either be exhaustion or the wine but in my intoxicated haze I didn’t care about either. My stomach growled, demanding the sizzling meat in front of me.

  “That’s enough,” shouted Norvin, stumbling forward to stand beside Adal. “Don’t burn it completely.” Extending a hand, he tore off a chunk of the smoking meat. It was perfectly cooked with a burnished gold skin and blushing pink flesh.

  My mouth salivated as Norvin consumed it, the juices running down his fingers. His gaze met mine as he chewed with a satisfied expression on his face.

  “You want some too, Daria?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  Breaking an entire leg off, he brought it to me. I giggled at the sight but broke into it, stuffing bits of meat in my hungry mouth. It was delicious. Over the next hour, we gorged on it, leaving the other deer carcass to roast slowly.

  As my stomach filled up, some of the intoxic
ation from the wine lessened. The late afternoon sunshine was quickly fading away now.

  “Shouldn’t Cane be back by now?” I asked as I lay on the ground sandwiched between Adal and Norvin.

  “He has a lot of things to buy,” said Adal. “He even needs to pawn the jewelry I gave him first.”

  I sat up, unable to relax without having Cain beside me as well.

  “What do you think will happen to him?” said Norvin from beside me. “Do you think anyone can lay their filthy paws on a true dragon?”

  The thought brought me relief. Of course, my princes were dragons now. Apart from Emperor Ivan, they were the most powerful men in the four kingdoms. However, I still felt uneasy about them showing their true forms before others. They’d just turned. There had to be a ton of knowledge left for them to gather before they could hone their skills to face Ivan.

  “How close are we to the capital?” I asked.

  “Still quite some miles between here and Fuvaros,” said Adal.

  I nodded, glad to know there was still between distance us and Ivan. Just as I was about to lie down, a great rush of wind blew over us. Adal and Norvin sat up beside me, looking towards the sky.

  Cain’s silver-scaled dragon was hovering right over us. Among the three dragons I’d seen so far, his was the most fearsome. I still shuddered internally at the sight of those terrible sword-long teeth visible inside his maw.

  We backed away towards the entrance of the cave so that Cain could land without accidentally hitting us with one of his body parts. His form shimmered against the darkening sky and in the blink of an eye, he stood before us, carrying a mountain of packages in his arms.

  “Where have you been?” I asked, rushing forward to meet him. My wounds flared up again but I ignored the pain, reaching out to him with open arms. His baggage slipped from his hands as he embraced me in a warm hug. I breathed in deeply, eager to smell his familiar scent but suddenly my nose was full of a reeking stench. “Eww!” I gasped, pushing him away.

  Cain chuckled. “I’m sorry about the stink.”

  Norvin came closer and instantly put his hand over his nose. “What is that smell? Did you shit on yourself?” he grumbled.

  “I borrowed the clothes from someone,” said Cain, looking around us all. His glance fell on the cooling roast meat. “You have arranged quite a feast while I was gone.”

  I moved away to fill the bowl with wine while Adal and Norvin sat with him outside the cave’s entrance. They watched him tear off the meat and eat it hungrily like he’d been starving. A pang of guilt sliced through me. While I ate and drank, Cain had been busy buying supplies for us all. He looked worse with dark stubble covering his strong jaw. Even his hair was a mass of dusty tangles.

  “Drink this too,” I said, placing the bowl of wine before him.

  “Is this wine?” he asked incredulously, taking a swig.

  “Norvin stole it from a winery nearby,” said Adal with a smile on his luscious lips.

  Cain chuckled, drinking the wine thirstily. He wiped his mouth, his head falling back in sheer content. “I’m proud of you, men,” he said in a deep voice. “Thank you for this monumental feast.”

  Adal and Norvin tilted their head forward.

  All three princes wore plain, worn-out clothes but their elegance didn’t diminish one bit. Cain was stinking of stale sweat and vomit, but he still managed to look regal even as he tore chunks of meat off a whole roasted deer.

  “There’s something you should all know,” said Cain, his gaze sweeping over us all.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “There are ‘wanted’ posters for us all. They added Adal’s today in the market square. I reckon they have our painted likenesses in every town of the four kingdoms.”

  “How much is the emperor offering?” asked Norvin.

  “Five thousand gold pieces for each of us and ten thousand for Daria.”

  “Wow,” gasped Norvin, glancing at me. “Why her?”

  Adal looked anxious. “Do you think they figured out we transformed through her?”

  Cain nodded. “It’s a strong possibility. Helena certainly believes we’ve been using her between us.” His grim gaze met mine momentarily. “It’s either that or they think we’ll submit if they get their hands on Daria.”

  “They should know it would be impossible with me by her side,” said Adal in a determined voice. “No one other than Ivan can come to hurt her.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s that simple. There’s so much you don’t know about your own strengths and weaknesses. If you weren’t pushed to it, you wouldn’t even know that you could fly. We still need to be careful and stay hidden until we are stronger.”

  “She’s right about that,” agreed Cain with a nod.

  Norvin yawned widely and got to his feet. “There will be time for all that another day,” he said, smothering another yawn. “Tonight I just wish to sleep.” Moving close to me, he suddenly picked me up in his arms.

  I gasped, throwing my arms around his neck to avoid toppling backward.

  “You’re keeping me warm tonight,” he said, pecking my cheek. Warmth pooled in my cheeks immediately as he carried me inside the cave.

  8

  For the night, I lay against the cavern hall with Norvin holding me from the back. Exhausted already, I fell asleep without hearing Cain or Adal coming in to rest. Next morning, I found myself surrounded by them all.

  I was the first to wake up. Making sure not to disturb my mates, I slowly stood up and padded out of our cavernous home. A low breeze blew by as I stepped outside. Breathing in deeply, I looked out at the mountains surrounding me. By birthright, they belonged to me. The sea of pine down below, they belonged to me too. And the people living nearby, they were mine to protect.

  For a moment, the full consequence of coming face to face with my past overwhelmed me. My memories were no longer suppressed. Neither were my powers as a dragonborn. Last night, I dreamed of walking in the corridors of the palace where I was born and brought up. Each corner felt familiar. Each smiling, doting face was familiar. Kora’s face stood out the most. I felt anxious not knowing how she and Lady Jifa were faring after we fled the palace. All I could do was hope they were safe.

  I wanted to go home. My real home in the palace of Fuvaros.

  “You should have woken us up,” said a familiar voice from behind me.

  Turning around, I smiled at Cain.

  Moving closer, he wrapped his arms around me, drawing me against him. Looking into his silvery-gray eyes, I caught the anxiety swirling there. It had already been more than a month since he’d left his palace and was being chased throughout the four kingdoms.

  A heavy sigh escaped me, thinking how my circumstances were similar to my three princes. We’d all been driven out of our homes by Ivan and his sons.

  “What’s bothering you, Dari?” he asked, gently moving a thick strand away from my face.

  “Everything,” I said, laying my head on his chest.

  He embraced me tighter like he was trying to hold me together without breaking me.

  “We’ll return your kingdom to you. You will be avenged.”

  I raised my head to look at him. He was always so strong and calm, the voice of reason. Being with him always made me feel safe. In his eyes, I could see the promise he’d just made.

  “There’s so much I need to do,” I said. “Assassinating Ivan isn’t the only task anymore.”

  “No,” said Cain, looking into my eyes. “You need to rebuild your kingdom and care for your people.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “What?”

  “How do you care about every person?” I asked, suddenly overwhelmed by the idea of being responsible for the fates of so many people.

  Cain smiled and brought me back into a hug. “You’ve already been doing that, Dari. You are just and will never allow any injustice to take place before you. Just keep doing that and you’ll be a great queen.”

 
“Queen…” The word sent a jolt through me.

  A soft chuckle rumbled through Cain’s chest. “You’ll be our queen,” he said. “I can already imagine the heated debates the nobles of the four kingdoms will get into over it.”

  “You’ll help me, won’t you?” I asked, looking up at him.

  He nodded. “Of course.” Leaning down, he softly captured my lips between his. The touch of his lips seared my skin as his tongue swept over mine in a slow, languid kiss. I moaned into his mouth, pressing my body against his. A familiar sweet ache throbbed between my thighs. I wanted Cain so much at that moment.

  Cain suddenly broke off the kiss. His silver-gray eyes blazed with intensity as he panted. “I need you to myself, Dari,” he whispered in a strained voice. “Let us get to a proper town with a proper bed. I fear I might break you if I take you among these rocks and stones.”

  I smiled through the torturous sensations running up and down my body. My bruises throbbed even more painfully than yesterday. It was the only reason I didn’t push Cain to the ground and take the same advantage as I’d done with Adal. Heat bloomed in my cheeks as my core pulsed with need.

  “I wondered where you’d gone.” Norvin’s voice sounded right next to me as he hugged me from the back, effectively sandwiching me between him and Cain. I shivered from the gathering heat coursing through my body.

  Cain was the first to step away. “Have you seen the things I bought yesterday?” he asked, walking back to the cave’s entrance. “There’s a special gift for you too, Dari.”

  “A gift?” Curiosity drove me to step out of Norvin’s hold and follow after Cain.

  “Hey! Get back, Daria!” he shouted after me but I chuckled, following Cain inside the cave.

  “Norvin said you’d left behind all your weapons,” said Cain, rummaging among the bags he’d hauled in a corner. “It isn’t much but should be helpful until you can find the needles and darts you usually use.” Straightening up, he faced me. A small dirk with a carved ivory handle lay in his palm.

  Norvin picked it up before I could. He unsheathed the knife and held it closely to his eyes. The glint of steel told me it was sharp enough for serious injury. Snatching it from him, I felt the weight of the blade. It was light enough.