“Taryn!” she shouts.
My chest pounds with fear as I glance through the hole in the side of the castle. Fire pours into the corridor, engulfing everything as I run away from the flames. My feet pound the stone floor until the terrible scene is far behind me.
I glance over my shoulder, worry for Anna crossing my mind before I turn and run for Mira’s bedroom. Maybe she’s in there.
“Princess!” a knight yells as I run pass him. “You need to take shelter!”
“I have to find Mira!”
“Get to the bloody basement, child,” Edin growls before another tremor rocks the castle. My eyes go wide, and I shake my head, speeding toward the corridor I need.
As I pass another adjoining hall, a head full golden blonde hair steps out of the dark and into my path.
“Anna?” I ask, throwing my hand over my chest as if it’ll keep my heart from galloping away. “You frightened me. How did you—”
“Taryn,” she murmurs. “Come with me. He’s going to raze this castle to the ground.”
“He? The dragon?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know that?” I ask, taking a step back. Pieces of the ceiling start to fall behind Anna as she steps forward, following me. She doesn’t even bother pretending to be concerned about the ceiling collapsing above us. The night sky looms over head and I search the sky for the dragon.
A strange sound from Anna draws my eyes back to her and I gasp in horror as golden scales erupt from her skin. Her body shimmers and stretches and before a golden dragon rears her neck back, shooting smoke from her nostrils.
“We tried to play nice with you, imbecilic humans,” she snaps. “You never listen.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Niressa
Treasure Sickness.
I snort and roll my eyes as I pull a long blouse over my head. My eyes fall on the tights waiting on the bed, but I forego them. There’s no one here to see me, anyway.
Treasure Sickness.
I can’t have it if I’m not attached to her. I’m convinced if I put the Vanir Princess out of my mind, I’ll be able to move past this. Because there’s nothing else I can do.
I broke down and flew to Vanir to see her. I even—stupidly—let her make love to me, and Gods was it amazing. But none of that changed the facts of the situation we are in: Taryn is a princess and I’m a dragon. She can’t be with me. Not publicly.
And I can’t be her secret. That’s not something I would ever be okay with. I’m not some thing to be ashamed of. I deserve better. And she deserves better than the ridicule and potential rebellion she would face if her people found out about me . . . some things just aren’t meant to be, it would seem.
I shake my head, padding through the tunnels. A soft growl somewhere nearby catches my ear and I cut my eyes in the direction it came from. A she wolf lays against the wall with several pups clawing for their chance at a teet. I quiet the growl in my throat and move on—the wolves present me no danger. As I walk back into my main cavern, I grab the crown from my most prized treasure pile and sigh, turning it over and over in my hands.
“You have caused me very much trouble,” I murmur to the beautiful trinket. As my fingers brush over the beautiful gems along the side, and finally over the teal rose in the center, I blow out a sigh. The day I found this crown, the day I found the Vanir Queen lying dead on the road, my life changed. I didn’t know it then. I didn’t know that one day, a silly trinket meant to bring me some semblance of peace and normalcy would bring the very woman who would upset all of that into my mountain. How could I have known?
I have to get her out of my head. “It was never like this with Anaka,” I sigh, setting the crown down gently. I never felt pulled toward her like this. I never had Treasure Sickness when she betrayed me. I was beyond angry, I was unhinged, but I never lost myself the way I am now. I can feel my thoughts slipping toward my Tiny Treasure with everything I do.
Her presence permeated my entire nest. I can still smell her. She smells like rose water and the entire cavern is full of that scent. I blow flames down onto the ground, running my hand through them as I contemplate how to clear the scent from the area.
Something flashes in the night sky outside the ledge and my head snaps in that direction. I wait for it to happen again, wondering if it was lightning—but I don’t smell a storm. As I walk to the ledge, another burst of light illuminates the sky in the distance.
Flames.
As I focus on that spot in the distance, a steady stream of light pours from the sky down toward the ground.
Toward Vanir.
Vanir is under attack.
My heart pounds in my chest, my dragon from ripping from my body as I dive from the ledge. When my wings finish forming, I rise up into the air, hovering above my mountain to see. Usually, even my dragon sight can’t see the Vanir Castle from here, but the flames clinging to the stones light it up as clearly as the sun itself.
Vanir is under attack by dragons.
I beat my wings, speeding toward the castle. My Treasure is in danger. All the thoughts and reasons to stay away fade away as I soar through the sky toward Vanir, my fire building in my chest.
My Treasure is in danger.
I don’t know what I expected to find when I reached the castle, but it wasn’t Aeronel screeching his displeasure as he spews flames down on a group of knights. I hover as quietly as possible on the outskirts of the city, looking for Anaka.
They’re always together. I don’t know why Aeronel has suddenly decided to attack Vanir, and I don’t care. He will not destroy my Treasure’s home or put her in danger. I can’t allow it.
But I also know there are two of them and Aeronel is much larger than me. I have to attack quickly and in a way that ensures success. These humans are no match for the golden dragons, despite their best aimed arrows.
Aeronel spews another large batch of flames, directly onto the castle this time and I speed forward while he roars, hoping the sound in his own ears will mask my approach. When I slam into his back, my tail immediately wraps around his throat, my claws digging into his back and left wing. My own wings beat harder, trying to account for both our weight as the humans below us scatter.
“Niressa,” he hisses, his head whipping around to gnash at my legs.
“Leave these people be, Aeronel,” I snarl as my mouth closes on his right wing.
The golden dragon roars, flexing his wings and shaking until I lose my grip. I slip back and shoot higher into the air, out of range of his razor-sharp tail. Aeronel snarls behind me but I keep flying, avoiding the blasts of white-hot flames he sends into the sky after me.
“Your betrayal will not be forgiven a second time, Niressa,” he snaps as he draws closer. My heart thunders in my ears as I pause, hovering while he barrels toward me.
My eyes narrow on the murderer himself and I bare my teeth, speeding toward him.
Aeronel’s eyes go wide but he doesn’t relent.
We slam into one another, an angry clash of scales and teeth. As my claws scrabble for his weak spot, his teeth sink into my neck. “Murderer!” I roar, fire falling from my snout as I snap at his wings. I’ll tear this male limb from limb. He’s already taken so much from me.