A Dragon's Tale Read online

  “Is she all right?”

  “Aye. I found her just in time.”

  Vaughn made a sound. “You actually went through a Fae doorway. What was it like?”

  “It was nothing.”

  Vaughn said no more. As Con headed toward the back of Dreagan Mountain, other Kings joined them on their flight. Thankfully, no one spoke to him. He wasn’t in the mood to talk. He just wanted to be alone.

  He was the first to land and return to human form, but he didn’t wait for the others. No one called out to him as he walked away. He entered the manor and made his way up the stairs to his chamber, where he quietly closed the door behind him. Only then, only when he was utterly alone and staring at the bed that he had shared with Rhi, did he let his grief take him fully.

  Con dropped to his knees and covered his face with his hands. He silently raged at the hand of destiny he had been dealt. He couldn’t bring himself to climb into the bed, so he lay on the floor and simply stared up at the ceiling.

  He watched the light from the window move across the wall as the hours passed. And still, he didn’t move. He could hear the Kings below, moving about and talking, but he didn’t try to listen in on their conversations. Days passed as he lay in the same position. He lost track of time as he sank deeper and deeper into his memories.

  “Con.”

  He jerked, looking around. No one was there, but he could’ve sworn that a woman had said his name. He sat up with a sigh and brought his knees up to rest his elbows on them as he ran his hands wearily down his face.

  It was dark outside. Had it been one day? Two? Twenty? He pushed himself to his feet and looked around. He needed to say so much to Rhi. If he didn’t get it out of his head, he might very well go insane. He could talk to any of the Kings about it, but they didn’t need to know why he had severed ties with Rhi. They would never understand. And they didn’t need to understand.

  Nor did he want their pity.

  Con saw the two new journals he had bought from a local tanner. One was his normal brown leather, but he had bought a red one on a whim. He’d intended to give it to Rhi. It seemed it would serve another purpose now.

  He strode to the journal and grabbed the red one before sitting at the table near the hearth. He used magic to procure pen and ink. Then he untied the journal and opened it. He stared at the blank page for several heartbeats. Con lifted the pen and dipped it into the ink as he released a breath and let the words flow.

  Page after page, he wrote. He filled some with detailed memories, others with jokes he didn’t want to forget. Some were his thoughts, his heartache…his love. He sketched many pictures of Rhi. The first was when they’d met on the mountaintop. He drew her asleep and naked on the bed. He captured her bathing. He sketched her looking into the distance.

  He perfectly rendered her face as they gazed into each other’s eyes and said their vows.

  If he had a memory of her, he put it on paper, one way or another. The more he got out of his head, the more took its place. He ran out of ink three times. He paused only when the memories became too much, and emotion choked him.

  When he closed the journal, he’d filled every page. And yet, he knew it wasn’t enough. He and Rhi had gotten into a routine where he shared his days with her. If she wasn’t here physically now, the next best thing was the journals. At least he could pretend that she was still with him in some form. He was well aware that it was a delusion, an illusion he’d crafted. But it was what he needed to get through the day.

  Con set the pen down and tied the journal. He would keep this secret to himself. Just like his pain. He had to hide all of it—not for him but for the Kings. Every bit of his focus would go to them and Dreagan.

  They might have lost their dragons and had to conceal their true natures, but they could find their way in this world.

  Con rose from the table and looked outside. A new day was dawning. The Kings were already going about their duties on the estate. It was time he returned to his, as well. He wasn’t sure how he would get through the coming years.

  “I can no’ think of it like that. I have to focus on today, on getting through this day. If I manage that, then I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that. One day at a time. It’s the only way I can be what my brethren expect me to be.”

  Just before he left his chamber, he looked to the west, toward Rhi.

  “Be strong, my love. We’ll be together again one day.”

  Death - aka Erith

  Crossing boundaries…

  She wasn’t supposed to get attached. And yet, that’s precisely what she had done.

  Constantine had needed a friend. Though it was debatable who had needed one more—him, or her.

  Erith sighed as she stared out from the top of her white tower, taking in the beautiful landscape below. When she had put herself in Con’s path on three separate occasions, she had recognized the loneliness and determination that she, herself, possessed. Long before Erith had formed her body, she’d existed in the universe as nothing more than energy.

  Loneliness had brought her to the first planet eons ago. After that, she’d visited realm after realm, soaking up the languages, cultures, and anything else she could find. She saw violence and ugliness that left her sick to her stomach. But she also witnessed such kindness that she wept.

  She found herself most at home in the Fae Realm, however. She formed a body for herself similar to the Fae’s and then spent centuries moving about in their world, invisible. While she wanted companionship, she also feared it. She wasn’t like them. She wasn’t like anyone. How could she fit in?

  Centuries of watching the Light and Dark Fae clash had left her with a thirst for war. That’s when she became the Mistress of War. That’s when she set about destroying any realm she didn’t like. She hated that time, but it had shaped her into who she was now. It had molded her, urged her to form the Reapers, and become Death.

  Erith didn’t know why she took it upon herself to judge the Fae. Perhaps because they acted like petulant, spoiled children who needed to be put in their places more often than not. Whatever the reason, she made sure to keep the delicate balance between good and evil, light and dark, at all times.

  She wanted to forget her time as Mistress of War and pretend as if it’d never happened. Though she feared that despite the lengths she had gone to to conceal the truth, someone would discover her secret. But that was a worry she couldn’t linger on at the moment.

  While she had formed the Reapers to have a family of sorts, she still found herself lonely. She had no counterpart, no one to share the trials and tribulations of her days with. She kept herself apart from the Reapers, even maintaining her own realm that no one knew about.

  But the one thing she couldn’t stop from doing was exploring other worlds. It was how she found Earth—and the Dragon Kings. She would never forget the first time she’d stood in absolute wonder, marveling at the view of the magnificent dragons in the sky. All colors, sizes, and all so beautiful she couldn’t find words.

  Just like with the Fae, she walked among the dragons, invisible, watching them as they went about their daily lives. That’s how she realized that each color of dragon had a King. It took her a while after watching several groups to learn how a dragon became a King. Knowing that the magic of the realm chose each one took it out of the dragons’ hands entirely.

  While each clan had its own Dragon King, there was one above even those—the King of Dragon Kings.

  That was the first day she had seen Constantine with his golden scales, so easily discernable in the sky. When he soared among the clouds, every dragon either turned their head to him from the ground or joined him in the sky. The respect and admiration she saw was astounding.

  Erith knew then that she had found someone who might understand her position. However, she was hesitant to approach him since they were dragons. Instead, she was content to return to Earth through the years. During one of her absences, the humans arri
ved. She wasn’t surprised that Con and his Kings had given them sanctuary. And when she discovered that the Kings could shift into human form, Erith realized she might be able to bridge the gap between her and Con and form a friendship.

  Before she could take action, disaster struck, and the dragons and humans went to war. Erith watched it all in horror, tears coursing down her face. The bloodshed on each side was disheartening and reminded her of a past she desperately wanted to forget. Then Con sent the dragons away to save them. She almost reached out to him then, but after Ulrik’s banishment and the dragons’ departure, she left him alone to grieve.

  But always she returned to check on him. It broke her heart when he walked alone over the vast estate of Dreagan. He visited each King in their mountain as they slept. Sometimes, a few woke and spent a couple of years with him, but for the most part, he was utterly and entirely alone.

  She understood better than anyone how that could affect someone. While she didn’t talk to him or show herself, Erith spent a great deal of time with Con. They walked the estate in silence, and at the end of the day, she would sit in his office as he wrote in his journals.

  It was enough for her, at least for the moment. But as the years progressed, and more Kings woke, she hoped that Con would figure out a way to live among the humans. During one of her visits, she finally decided to appear to him. She gave him a false name—Heather. The little time she spent with him helped her when she needed it the most. And she liked to think that she had aided him, as well.

  During her time as Heather was when she had given him the dragon head cufflinks.

  She went to see him twice more over the centuries, always giving him a different name and leaving gifts like the pocket watch and the Montblanc pen. During those short visits, they’d developed a deep friendship. She got to see Con clear his head and forge a new path for the Kings, and though Dreagan prospered, the loneliness within the King of Kings continued to grow.

  Until he met Rhi.

  Erith’s heart had warmed when she learned that two amazing beings like Con and Rhi had found love. They were destined to be together.

  Then it all began to unravel.

  Erith had debated whether or not to step in and say something to Con or Rhi, but she had kept her existence a secret from Rhi—as she did all Fae. And she worried that speaking to Con might make the situation worse. In the end, Erith only watched, heartsick over what two of her favorite people were going through.

  She felt for Con because he was sacrificing his happiness—and Rhi’s —for the Dragon Kings. Few would be strong enough to make such a choice. She knew she wouldn’t be able to.

  And Rhi…. All Fae on the planet felt the pure, unadulterated pain the Light experienced—though they had no idea what it was they suffered or why. The emotion was potent enough that it even cut through Erith, causing her to stagger with the burden of it.

  She was torn on what to do. She wanted to help both Con and Rhi, but what right did she have to interfere at all? No doubt, neither of them would take kindly to learning that she had spied on them for years. Then, there would be questions. Ones she had no intention of answering—ever.

  “But I can’t do…nothing,” she said aloud.

  Con had made a decision, and while he knew his reasons, they would be difficult to bear through the years. Rhi, on the other hand, had been blindsided. She was grasping for anything that might give her answers as to what had happened and finding nothing. She was the one who might end up doing something reckless.

  “Her future is too important for that.”

  Erith concentrated on Rhi and found her at a doorway, leading to the Fae Realm. Erith appeared at the portal just as Rhi passed through. Rhi was so distraught that she wouldn’t have known anyone was behind her even if she could see Erith.

  Erith had seen many kinds of misery and anguish, but she was unprepared to watch as Rhi fell deeper and deeper into despair with no hope of pulling herself out. Erith even tried to speak to her. However, Rhi never heard her.

  The Light Fae stumbled around on the deserted realm for hours. Every so often, it appeared as if Rhi realized where she was, but she sank back into her memories not long after. Her feet kept moving, taking her on some unknown path as she blankly stared ahead.

  “Rhi!” Erith screamed to stop the Light from falling down a ravine into an empty riverbed.

  It jarred the Fae enough to halt her. Then Rhi fell to her knees and slammed her hands on the ground before lifting a tear-stained face to the clouds. Tears coursed down Erith’s face, for she knew all too well how it felt to love someone that you couldn’t have. Rhi rolled onto her side and finally drifted off to sleep.

  Erith could’ve left then, but she didn’t want to. As Rhi’s exhausted body and mind rested, Erith revealed herself as she sat beside the Fae and smoothed the hair back from her face. The moment she touched Rhi, she felt it—life. Erith jerked back her hand in shock. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she let the truth sink in. Rhi was carrying Con’s child. If Rhi had known, she would’ve told Con and wouldn’t have come to the Fae Realm.

  And if Con had known, he never would’ve let Rhi go.

  That left Erith with yet another decision. Did she wake Rhi and tell her? Did she dare to reveal that—and the other secret—she carried? Did she go to Con and share the news? And all of that led her back to the same question again and again—who was she to interfere?

  She might be a goddess, she might have taken on the role of judge and jury to the Fae, but she had never intruded in the Fae’s lives before. She wouldn’t even call the three times she had visited Con meddling.

  Though perhaps it was. He had needed a friend, and so had she. She might have helped to set him on a new course, but he had unknowingly done the same for her. Two beings were hurting, two who belonged together.

  Two beings who deserved happiness and a family.

  “But do I have a right to change Fate?” she whispered into the wind.

  Erith closed her eyes and remained by Rhi’s side. She kept hoping the Fae would wake angry and find Con for an explanation. If they were going to be together now, it was up to Rhi. Con was doing what any good leader would. He was thinking of his brethren, especially after all the suffering the Kings had borne.

  It shouldn’t rest on Rhi’s shoulders to sort through this. But it did. Erith knew Rhi was strong enough to handle it. She just needed to set aside emotion and look at the facts. It was all there for her to see.

  If she would only look.

  Decisions made…

  The instant Erith heard the roar of the storm, she tried to wake Rhi. She said the Light Fae’s name, then hollered it. She even resorted to clapping her hands together, to no avail. Finally, Erith gave Rhi a little shake.

  Rhi’s eyes snapped open. She looked around as the storm descended before she was able to slide down the embankment on the riverbed and grab hold of a root. Erith stood over Rhi, protecting her as best she could until the storm eventually passed.

  During that time, Erith ignored the Reapers’ calls because she couldn’t leave Rhi alone in such a sandstorm. The second the storm let up, she went to her Reapers on Earth. When she found them, she could only stare in shock at the carnage before her.

  “Enough!” Erith bellowed as she stopped Cael and Eoghan from attacking Bran. She took in the other four Reapers who lay dead before her gaze fell on Cael. Fury radiated from him as he glared at Bran. Eoghan wore the same expression.

  Erith then swung her head to Bran and found a smile on his face. Her blood ran like ice at the triumph she saw in his gaze.

  “What have you done?” she demanded.

  Bran’s lip curled in contempt. “You dare to ask that? After what you did?”

  “You gave me no choice.” Erith was doing all she could to retain control of her fury, but it was quickly slipping through her fingers.

  “You killed her,” Bran stated furiously. “You killed the woman I loved.”

  Erith fisted he
r hands to keep them from shaking. “You broke my rule. None of you are to tell another Fae who you are. I warned each of you what would happen if you did.”

  “You didn’t have to kill her! You will pay for what you’ve taken from me. I won’t stop until all the Reapers are dead.”

  In the next heartbeat, Bran produced two orbs of magic and cocked back his arms to toss them at Cael and Eoghan. Erith released a pent-up bellow and flung Bran into a vortex that appeared over his head. The instant he passed through it, the maelstrom closed.

  Death stood there, shaking because she couldn’t believe this had happened. She had known when she took the female’s life that Bran would be inconsolable, but he had known the rules. There were consequences. She had told every Reaper that over and over again. But Bran had chosen to ignore her warnings, leaving Erith no choice in her actions.

  She hadn’t wanted to kill the female. She hadn’t wanted to destroy the love Bran had found. But Reapers couldn’t have love and be who they were.

  “Erith?”

  She closed her eyes at the sound of Cael’s voice. Tears threatened because all she wanted to do was turn and walk into his arms. It was silly, the attraction she had for him. Since the first day she had laid eyes on Cael, her heart had been his. She knew better than anyone what it was to be so close to someone you loved and be unable to tell them.

  Erith drew in a breath and forced open her eyes. “He’s gone to another realm. Bran will never cause the Reapers harm again.”

  She lowered her gaze to where the four Reapers lay dead and fought against the emotion choking her. Had she come when her Reapers first called her, she might have been able to prevent the bloodshed. But her loyalties had been divided between the Reapers and Con and Rhi. Look what that had gotten her.

  In unison, the four began to disintegrate and turn to ash. Erith waited until there was nothing left of the Reapers before she faced the remaining two. Cael was the last to join the group. He and Eoghan were natural leaders, but Eoghan was dealing with his own demons and not in the right state of mind to take over.