“Does it matter?” Why do they both seem so uncomfortable?
“That was a long time ago…”
“Mom, you both saw the way Sabrina acted when she came to dinner that night. Had I not been there who knows how far she might’ve gone. You also heard the story of how she forbid my wife to enter the throne room. Even if Natalia is ignorant of the facts, Sabrina has lived here her whole life, she knows that it was an offense worthy of death.”
“I won’t blame you entirely. For too long I let her errant behavior slide because it was of no importance to me, but now that my wife is here I will not allow her even one toe over the line. You can choose not to tell me, it would just mean me having to pay a visit to the hall of records, which might start tongues wagging…”
“It’s not that we don’t want to tell you it’s just… that was such a dark time.” I didn’t answer but waited for her to go on. “Back then your uncle was betrothed to the fairy princess Hyacinth, she’s your wife’s ancestor.”
“It would’ve been the first such marriage. Others had come together over the years, but none had ever been mated as they were. It would also have meant everlasting peace between the kingdoms. Though things were not as strained as they are now, there were always border skirmishes and little uprisings here and there.”
“But out of nowhere there was a great outcry, those who never said much of anything before, who wouldn’t dare go against the monarch were suddenly up in arms. Her parents were among the ringleaders. It’s still not known how it got started, but it was eventually traced back to beldam.”
“As you know, the hag race is the only true enemy of our people. No one knows where the animosity between our two clans begun, but it’s been this way since the beginning of time. They’re partly responsible for spreading the rumors among the humans that paint us as blood sucking monsters, something that was laughable in the beginning before anyone realized the impact it would have on subsequent generations.”
“Anyhow, her parents got caught up in the melee along with so many others. By rights, she should’ve been killed but she was just little more than a babe at the time and I pleaded with the monarch to spare her life.” Mom started to tear up and dad took over the storytelling.
“It was only after all had been said and done that we learned that they’d all been under the influence of the hags. It’s still not known how they even came together, but her parents were the first ones to succumb to the spell.”
“No one knows the entirety of what happened, how the mating became what it did, but it’s widely believed that the two were part of the same whole. The hags had somehow interfered with the mating. Your grandfather did try to keep everything contained, but word got out somehow and the fae demanded the heads of all involved, including your uncle’s.”
“But as you know, your uncle was never implicated and has lived out his life in misery. And though we destroyed all the others that had been found to have taken part in the unrest, it was still not enough to appease, and so we have the situation you see today.”
“So the hags were behind whatever went wrong.” They both nodded in agreement. Their words only solidified what I had come to believe but I’d needed verification before my next move. I’m more convinced now than ever that Sabrina has been following in the footsteps of her parents, that it was she who was now colluding with beldam. But to what end?
Did she too expect me to kill my mate during the mating? And now that that’s behind us, what more can they be after? From what I saw the other night it doesn’t look like Sabrina has any plans on giving up anytime soon.
I was about to say my goodbyes when I felt the change in the atmosphere, a dark presence that did not belong. I was already running when I heard my son’s voice calling to me in a panic and my dragon took flight in anger when I saw through his eyes the peril his mother was in.
NATALIA
What kind of freak show is this? I’d been all set to play with idiot girl again when all hell broke loose. At first I thought it was Lucien spying again, but it didn’t feel like his aura. It took me a second to realize it was the kid who’d locked me off in some kind of force field that nothing could get through.
I wasn’t really afraid, just annoyed that she’d got the drop on me, but that was before the hag showed up; nasty things beldam. I couldn’t hear what was being said, could only see the nitwit being tossed about before the screams started, at least it looked like she was screaming.
Then she was bowing to the ground and the hag screeched bloody murder before turning to run away. But before she could take a step there appeared in the sky, a fire breathing dragon. ‘Is that you?’ No way that thing lives inside me he’s huge.
But then my feet were planted firmly on the ground once again and though the shield was still in place, the light that had been surrounding me dimmed. Then I saw what I had the day he was conceived, a small ball of light that flew gently into my stomach. There was a soft buzzing sound that lasted just a few seconds before everything settled down again.
I was too distracted by the chaos and mayhem going on outside the shield to take him to task for putting himself in danger. The dragon had wrapped his tail around the hag and thrown her clear across the way, where she scrambled to her feet and tried to make a run for it.
This time he blew a ball of fire in her path stopping her in her tracks. Meanwhile, my would be tormentor was cowering on the ground with her hands over her head. I watched mesmerized as Lucien in dragon form went nuts.
Men appeared from everywhere, soldiers, what looked like a hundred of them…for two women! Once the hag was in magical chains and Sabrina had been restrained Lucien literally changed halfway out of the sky and landed behind the shield in his manly form.
“Are you okay? Where are you hurt? What did I tell you about going about on your own?” He pushed me away from him one minute and pulled me back into his arms the next, all the while ranting like a lunatic. Took me a while to realize that he was scared.
“I’m okay, nothing happened.” I patted his shoulder and tried to calm him down. Once he was sure that I was okay he waved his hand and the shield disappeared and once again I could hear what was going on around me.
“Take them away!” He ordered his mini army before wrapping his arms around me and the next thing I knew we were back in our bedroom in the palace. “Well that was fun…. Or not.”
I took a step back from the look he gave me and I swear I came within a hair’s breadth of telling his son to put that shield back up. “Do you know how close you were to losing your life? You were ten feet away from…” His body shook as if rocked by some unseen force.
“I didn’t go there intentionally, that airheaded halfwit tricked me into going there.”
“And how did she do that? Did she enter these rooms and forcibly remove you?”
“Well, no, but…” He paced the room back and forth in an agitated state.
“I am calm… I know she can’t be punished. You don’t have to make excuses for her she….”
“Who’re you talking to?” Had he really lost it?
“Your son, he’s pleading your case. Did you really get drawn away by the smell of fruit trees?” Damn, this kid is a snitch. Hey you in there? How do I get you on my side? You have to tell him everything?