Dragon Shifter Dominion 1: Passion of the Summer Dragon

by KC Kingmaker

  Then she broke into another strange cackle. “I jest. You are different because the sword actually belongs to you, foolish boy.”

  “Well, at least you have that part right,” Coalt muttered, scratching the back of his head.

  “You say you’ve been waiting for us,” I said. “What does that mean? Just who are you, Elowen?”

  “Let’s just say I’m an old friend. And there isn’t enough time to explain.”

  I started to say, “Why isn’t there enough time—”

  Coalt huffed noisily and interrupted. “Are you going to send us on some idiotic quest to retrieve the sword? Because we’ve been on enough of those already. What do I have to do to finally feel the worn leather handle of my father’s blade in my hand again?”

  “Nothing, boy. It’s yours. I won’t keep it from you any longer.”

  Coalt was clearly befuddled. He furrowed his brow. “Really? That’s . . . unexpected.”

  With that, Elowen reached behind her with both hands, underneath her mossy throne. She came up holding a bulging white satchel that clearly had a weapon of some kind inside it.

  When she handed it to Coalt, he tentatively reached out to take the bag. “There’s something familiar about you.”

  She chuckled. “And there should be. I was acquainted with your father, Dante. It’s how I came in possession of the sword, in fact.”

  “What?!” Coalt cried out, eyes bulging.

  She flapped her withered hand at us, almost bashfully. “Yes, yes, it’s a whole story, and I’m afraid you don’t have any time.”

  Her eyes suddenly focused on me.

  Isn’t that right, Leviathan Sunfall?

  I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. I stumbled back and almost tripped over a large root.

  She had spoken to me in my mind. I was sure of it.

  “L-Levia?!” Coalt stammered. He rushed over to grab my arm so I didn’t fall. “Are you all right? What’s going on?”

  “These are the ones,” remember? Elowen said in my brain, her voice wispy and ethereal as it floated through.

  “What does it mean?” I gasped. “‘These are the ones?’”

  “Nothing good, I’m afraid,” the fae muttered, shaking her head. She stood up on wobbly legs. She wasn’t as tall as other fae and was rather stooped, but her old age looked strangely artificial, like she was younger than she seemed.

  Oakwreath said “These are the ones,” as if expecting us. But could it have been a warning?

  Behind us, through the tunnel of the tree’s hollow, loud sounds bounced off the bark—

  Voices? I couldn’t tell.

  Elowen pointed over our shoulders. “They’re here. I am sorry for it, even though I had nothing to do with it. Just know that, please—I do not wish to make enemies of you two.”

  “By Merlog’s beard, what are you talking about, Elowen?” I hissed.

  The rustling sounds were getting louder, as if people had burrowed into the tree, coming for us.

  “Well, I knew your father as well, my dear,” she said with a wide but sad smile. “And I’d never want to do anything to anger his spirit.”

  Red curtains fell over my eyes and I debated pouncing on the old bitch and wringing her skinny neck. “My—what?! My father was a bastard and a violent drunk, woman. You know nothing of—”

  The sounds were overbearing now, boring into my head like the tree we were inside was about to be sawed down.

  “No, no, silly girl,” Elowen said easily. “Not him. Your real—”

  “Levia!” Coalt wailed, grabbing my arm. “We have to go before it’s too late. We have what we came for!”

  I snapped to him, eyes still wide with confusion and anger. What? Maybe I don’t have what I came for!

  Who is this woman and what does she mean my—

  “Come on out, you little weasels!” a booming voice echoed through the interior of the tree. “You’ve been buried in your little hole long enough, I’d say!”

  Coalt opened the bag and his eyes twinkled with relief. It seemed we did have what we’d come for after all.

  “I’ll shift,” he announced. “We’ll fly out.”

  I gripped his shoulder then jutted my chin to Elowen. “No, you can’t, Coalt. This is her home. You’ll destroy it.”

  He bared his teeth. “Fine. Then what do we do—charge out fighting?”

  We didn’t even know what we were dealing with. But Coalt had his precious sword and I was running on anger and confusion, so what the fuck?

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, then gave him a savage smile and tipped my head to fiercely kiss him.

  “I’d wager there’s too many of them, children,” Elowen said behind us.

  “Quiet, hag!” Coalt growled. “You’ve led us into this mess!”

  My heart sank for Elowen, whose face seemed to crumble. Coalt didn’t see it, but I did. It was like Coalt’s kneejerk response had personally pained Elowen to hear, because she cared for us. Whoever she was.

  “We’ll be back,” I told her in the softest voice I could muster. “You can count on that.”

  Her pained expression faded into a roguish smile. “Oh, I’ve no doubt about that, young lady.”

  I took Coalt’s free hand and squeezed hard. We shared a look and nodded to each other.

  Without another word, we sped down the tunnel to face our enemy on the other side.

  26

  Levia

  I erupted from the dark tree-hole in a whirl of steel. Right when my feet hit the forest floor, I sprang to the left at the nearest enemy.

  Coalt had passed me one of his swords during our run through the tunnel, and I swung it overhead with my right hand, while my trusty dagger arced at a lower angle with my left.

  My blades met with a sparking iron clang against a man’s sword, and though he was much bigger than me, my surprise attack pushed him back on his heels.

  Through the thick tree limbs around us, I quickly scanned the area. Though I couldn’t see how many baddies we had to deal with, I could tell we were heavily outnumbered.

  But this wasn’t a conventional battleground, so I hoped to be able to maneuver through the trees and pick my battles accordingly.

  Out the corner of my eye, I saw Coalt’s dragonrune sword burst to life with brilliant orange flames roiling along the blade as he exited the tunnel and cut to the right toward his nearest attacker.

  Then my foe was on me, swinging heavy-handed attacks at my face.

  I bobbed and weaved, backpedaling and gritting my teeth. He was strong and fast—a combination I didn’t like.

  But I was faster and unorthodox. I stayed low, my knees bent severely and my head barely up to his waist.

  He went all in on a beheading strike and I rolled under his blade, slicing my dagger across his shin as I somersaulted and popped up behind him.

  The man grunted in pain and pressed me, then there was another guy coming at me from the side.

  Recoiling, I leaped behind a tree trunk and slithered around the trees, smacking aside vines and branches as I heard the two give chase.

  I popped right up in front of a third enemy.

  He swung at me and I parried his sword away.

  These men wore ragtag gear of heavy leather and chainshirts, but they weren’t like the Unscaled from the warehouse—they were much more disciplined and scary.

  I didn’t even recognize the guy toward the far side of the field, in the back, calling the shots. But Coalt was gunning for him, even as he became surrounded by mercenaries, which made me believe he knew this fucker.

  My throat tightened when the soldier in front of me stabbed in quick strikes to keep me on my heels. The two others had to be close behind, but this guy was too quick to avoid and I suspected I’d be encircled soon—

  Yup. There they were, keeping me boxed in.

  Heart pumping, sweat rolling down the back of my neck, I yelled like a banshee and churned my legs to change my position from defender to atta
cker.

  My sword and dagger moved in a flurry as I pressed.

  Something nicked my calf but I shrugged aside the intense burning that followed, clamping my jaw and staring into the brown eyes of my enemy.

  The guys behind me had cut off my means of escape—my best bet at any chance of coming out of this alive. I wasn’t a trained soldier who could hold her ground for days like the man I was fighting.

  My arms burned from the constant gesticulations they made. I could feel blood dripping down my calf through my leathers. My muscles ached and I didn’t know how much longer I could keep up this onslaught.

  I hadn’t even connected once!

  “Give it up, woman!” a man behind me called out. “We have you surrounded like a fenced mare!”

  His words made me hesitate, which gave my attacker all the time he needed to shift to a more conventional defensive stance where he wasn’t backing up into branches.

  I roundhoused in a circle with my sword out to keep the men at bay.

  Another cut sliced across the back of my arm and I cried out, sinking to one knee but continuing to spin with my blade lashing.

  I bared my teeth like a caged animal at the three men.

  “If you don’t surrender, we’ll make sure to hurt you more than we have to,” the front man growled.

  His words renewed my fury and I charged at him.

  He easily slapped aside my attack.

  I fell back, my chest pounding in my throat.

  Something caught my vision as it soared into the sky—

  A dragon! Coalt!

  No . . . two dragons!

  My pulse spiked and my stomach sank.

  I leveled my eyes back to my enemies—

  Just in time to catch the bottom of a boot careening toward my face and—

  27

  Coalt

  “Rafe, you son of a bitch!” I screamed, my sword igniting with radiant flames as I surged from the pit.

  I caught sight of Levia doing her thing to my left, cutting and crossing low to the ground like a ball of fury.

  I wanted to run after her to help but I had my own problems to deal with. When my eyes caught Rafe toward the back of the melee, I knew my best chance of cutting down this insurgence was to chop the head off the snake.

  Rafe was a lesser member of the Summer House. But I knew what he was and I couldn’t underestimate him—

  If I could even fucking get to him!

  Swords fell in all around me, his minions swinging.

  With the renewed vigor and strength of my dragonrune steel, I cut them all aside with a smoky trail surrounding me.

  I severed a man’s hand at the wrist so he would stop swinging. His wound was instantly cauterized as he fell back with a shriek, grabbing the blackened nub of his arm.

  My nostrils flared, taking in the sooty, ashy smell of my own sword. The tempered handle felt good in my palms—it felt right.

  But there were too many of these bastards.

  I kept my legs churning forward, eager to get to Rafe.

  “It’s Captain Rafe now, old friend,” he called with a smirk.

  I wanted to shove my blade right through that smirk and light his fucking head on fire.

  I took wounds on both sides. I was being careless, trying to get to Rafe at the rear. But the adrenaline surging through me cut off the pain and I wouldn’t be stopped.

  If I’d been a different dragon, such as an earth dragon perhaps, I might have given myself a better chance at the onset by surveying the field with a tactical, stern mind.

  Instead, I had charged out of the tree like a bat out of a fire pit and now I was paying the price.

  My overzealous nature would be my downfall.

  And Levia . . . where had she gone?

  My sword arced overhead and crashed down with fiery sparks on an adversary trying to stop my advance.

  I unsheathed my second sword from my hip with a flick of my wrist and gutted the man under my blade, then tore up inside him until he was peeling back and his insides were becoming his outsides.

  Someone else used that time to close behind me.

  I whirled around in a smoke-filled blur and beheaded him with a single strike, his head popping away and thudding to the ground.

  Pain soared through my back.

  I growled and spun, tearing the new enemy’s own blade out of his hands as it stayed stuck in my back.

  He gaped at me, weaponless now, his hands going high in surrender.

  I speared my dragonrune sword through his open mouth and his head burst into flames.

  In seconds I had incapacitated one mercenary by de-handing him, and killed three others.

  But more were swarming in. This wasn’t a tenable position and Rafe seemed farther away than ever, staring me down with his perpetual sneer.

  There was only one thing to do in such a situation, and I now had the means to do it.

  With the fire and blood rushing through me, I roared, scaring back a few of the crowding soldiers.

  My muscles bunched, growing, crackling through my clothes—intense pain and pleasure surged through me as my mundane sword dropped and my dragonrune sword absorbed into my arm and then my entire being, funneling power through me.

  I shifted, neck elongating, wings and tail whipping out, and immediately caught the nearest unfortunate bystander with my snapping jaws. I separated his torso from his legs and then spit him out, my wings struggling to find room with the trees all around me.

  I felt confined, burdened.

  Rafe’s eyes ignited with orange flames and I knew it was on.

  I lunged forward, uprooting trees, forcing back the Unscaled soldiers, and beat my wings against branches, snapping them like twigs.

  Rafe shifted into his red dragon and took to the sky in a powerful billow of leaves and dust.

  I followed, streaming through the dark canopies and into the purple night.

  Our huge draconic bodies swirled together and then separated.

  A spear of fire erupted from my throat but only caught air as Rafe circled around me. He was a smaller dragon and I knew he couldn’t hold his transformation as long as I could—not when I had my dragonrune sword flowing inside me, empowering me.

  But Leviathan . . . I needed to make sure she was all right. I needed to make quick work of this bastard.

  Rafe gusted wind at me with his wings.

  I floated above him, snapping my jagged fangs at his neck, but missed.

  He dashed low in the sky, under me.

  I spun, whipping my tail around and catching him in the side.

  He squealed and then hurtled toward the trees below—

  Why is he plummeting so fast?

  I knew I couldn’t have dealt him a deathblow that quickly.

  Then I saw, and the dragon spirit inside me sputtered with choking flames, like a bonfire suddenly met with a deluge of rainwater.

  With my fire turning tepid inside me, I streaked through the sky after Rafe and barreled through the canopies, wings kept tight around me—

  Men had Levia surrounded.

  Not only that, but she was unconscious.

  Rafe shifted into his bipedal form and stood over her. He snatched a blade out of a subordinate’s hand, spinning just as I landed with an earthshaking thump, my talons digging into the forest floor.

  Smoke billowed from my nostrils. I could taste the sulfur in my mouth, ready to be unleashed on all these fuckers and burn them to ashes.

  Make them charcoal. Show them my name.

  But Rafe pushed the blade against Levia’s neck. Her head lolled forward and he yanked it back with a tug of her silver hair.

  My heart sank. I couldn’t loose fiery death upon them without scorching her, too.

  I shrank into my man form and heaved, clenching my hands into fists as my unlit dragonrune sword appeared in my right hand.

  “You absolute coward,” I growled at Rafe. “Let her go and fight me like a dragon.”

  “Now why the fu
ck would I do that?” he answered, “when I have your precious woman with a blade across her throat?”

  “She’s not my precious woman,” I lied.

  He barked a laugh. “You’re a terrible liar, Coalt. Always were.”

  “Is that why you joined Ashlyn? Because you wouldn’t feel like such a piece of shit being in bed with a likeminded trickster?”

  His jaw ticked, and for an instant I thought he’d drag the blade across Levia’s neck.

  Immense agony surged through me and I knew I had to be careful—my sparked tongue could be the end of everything I held dear.

  “I joined your sister because I don’t want to see the Summer House destroyed, Coalt. Because she is the future. Not you. It’s simple: We either join Empress Orphea or we crumble.”

  I took a step forward, spitting through gritted teeth. “What would my father think of you, traitor?”

  “Dante is dead. The old ways are just as dead.” I flinched, and his sneer curved into a cruel smirk. “You seem to be the only one who hasn’t figured that out yet.”

  “What is it you want with us? How did Ashlyn find me?”

  “Oh, this has nothing to do with Ashlyn, actually,” he said, straightening his back. “At least not directly. I was hired by a different hand. This Unscaled peasant means nothing to me, but I know she means the world to you.”

  “So you’re bounty hunters?”

  “Been following you for days. You tend to leave a trail of shit wherever you go, you know.”

  I sighed. Quietness wasn’t in my nature—he had a point there.

  “Now then,” he said, “drop the dragonrune sword and step to me slowly if you don’t want this silver-haired menace to get hurt.”

  I desperately wanted to lash out. But I couldn’t. My feet were frozen to the ground as my mind spun and I tried to think of an out.

  With Leviathan’s life in danger, I couldn’t take any chances. There was no out.

  My glinting blade clunked onto the grass and the sound made me sick. After just finally retrieving my family heirloom . . . to lose it so quickly.

  Using every ounce of energy I could muster, I forced my feet forward, toward Rafe. “Remove your blade from her throat, bastard.”