CHAPTER ONE
SHADE’S POV
Don’t get me wrong; I was the villain.
And it would do my wife good not to think otherwise.
Her pale face lost all color as the Phoenixian summoners at my back rubbed their dragon scales. Hideous, skeletal dragons erupted from thick clouds of smoke with bone-chilling growls, sweeping back Aeryn’s dark locks in the wind.
Just as how our powers were changed into the vile, sinister versions once the Curse overrode our blood, our phoenixes had also undergone the transformation into the evil alternate of themselves; dragons - which I found to be ironic. I wondered what Nepheus thought about that notion.
Only the pure-blooded Phoenixian summoners who had risen from the ashes were bonded to the beautiful, vibrant phoenixes that made up the second, smaller army beside my own haunting one.
Aeryn’s blue-green eyes widened as she faltered back a step, focused solely on her mother on the opposite side of the obsidian gates.
Standing with her small, white dragon on one side of her and Emperor Nepheus positioned on the other holding a staff in his hand, she whispered, “How are you ali – ”
“What is going on?” Emperor Nepheus bellowed, striking his staff into the ground. A surging gust of wind smacked the Ravos legion, knocking us back a few feet as we regained our footing.
The Stone Force clad in their brown military uniforms were armed with weapons to the teeth, as were the guards holding steadfast at the gates, unwilling to open them – not that I blamed them. I wouldn’t let in an army of tens of thousands of dual-powered, nearly immortal Cursed Phoenixians with essences darker than the black blood poisoning our veins, either.
Caerwyn Glastos stepped forward, vibrant feathers ruffling in the breeze as she looked from her estranged husband to her daughter.
“Stand down, Nepheus,” she commanded, tilting her chin in the air, dirty-blonde bangs sweeping across her forehead as she pursued, “Your reign of enacting fear on the Draconian race and your relentless brainwashing has come to an end. The Phoenixians you wiped out with the Curse you created have risen from the ashes, and we’re back with a vengeance that your Stone Force cannot even hope to survive. The war in the Voltant Isles will wipe out your remaining Elemental Forces, and you’ll be reduced to nothing more than the vile man you truly are.”
Aeryn’s face dropped and her eyes fell to the ground at her feet as she chewed her lip, eyebrows scrunched together.
“This is an act of treason!” The emperor stipulated, all but throwing his arms up in exhasperation.
“Was exterminating the entire Phoenixian race not such an act? Or poisoning the very Draconians under your rule just for being half-Phoenixian?”
“It has always been forbidden for a Draconian to mate with a Phoenixian,” Emperor Nepheus claimed, seething with rage as he approached the gates. He shoved a hand through his dark hair and spittle flew from his lips as he spat, “They all deserved to be exiled.”
Did Nepheus not hear the hypocrisy of his own words? He’d married Caerwyn, a Phoenixian,andhad a child with her, making Aeryn a half-Phoenixian.
“No, Nepheus,” Caerwyn refuted, meeting him at the entrance, “You created that rule when you realized just how much stronger the Phoenixians and their descendants were than you while they possessed two powers to your one. You are the deceitful, power-hungry, devious Draconian that you painted the Ravos Kingdom to be. You convinced the entire Nyrial Empire to abide by the rules you endorsed and believe the lies you construed by terrorizing them with banishment.”
Emperor Nepheus dismissed her and turned to me. “You have broken the terms of the treaty. I granted my daughter’s hand in marriage to bring peace to our nations and you dare to bring your entire kingdom here to threaten my reign.”
King Kristos and Queen Radarys crossed their arms over their chests, remaining stoic as they stood on either side of me.
“Kneel down, Emperor Nepheus,” I demanded, voice plunging several degrees with each word that exited my lips. “You’ve brought newfoundfury to your empire that has not been felt since the Phoenixians were slaughtered by your blood-stained hands. You made an example of those you feared, and now I will do the same with you. You are the sample of what happens when you betray those sworn to protect you.”
The emperor’s mouth flattened to a straight line and a muscle ticked in his jaw as his pure blood boiled in his veins. He withdrew a large silver and blue dragon scale from his black robe and jabbed his staff into the air, shouting, “Guards! Open the gates! Stone Force, advance!”
Thunder boomed in the sky and the ground rumbled, splitting open next to Emperor Nepheus. His enormous, blue-breasted silver dragon erupted from the deep hole with a ferocious roar that sent strings of saliva onto the Draconians and Phoenixians closest to her.
Armaeda towered over the empire’s Force and leveled her fiery golden eyes on my kingdom’s army as the Stone Force retreated out of the way of her swinging tail that ended in a point budding with a glistening black liquid.
Nearly fifty-feet tall, Armaeda was the largest dragon with the most powerful essence in existence. She’d fueled my kingdom’s powers of malevolence until we were strong enough to take on the empire. She opened her mouth, displaying rows of piercing teeth longer than my forearms, and a white cloud took shape at the back of her throat.
“Attack!” Aeryn’s father ordered, spurning the Stone Force to summon their own dragons as Armaeda reared back and took aim.
I raised my arms, dangling my fingers out in front of me as I orchestrated the deceased soldiers in front of me to form a barricade between our forces. I felt nothing as I forced the lifeless bodies to create a makeshift shield. It wasn’t like I was hurting them; they were already dead.
If it weren’t for the fact that I could feel oxygen fill my lungs, I would have felt the same.
Armaeda’s tail careened into the air as the gates groaned apart. As if one of the Nyrial Draconian’s Insignias allowed them to slow time, her tail took aim at her target and thrusted through the air, stabbing the victim straight in the chest.
Emperor Nepheus stared in shock at the sharp tip of his dragon’s tail driving through the gap between his robe, lodged directly above his heart. Black liquid ejected from Armaeda’s tail, filling her summoner with the Curse. She withdrew her tail, leaving behind a large stinger that rivaled the blade of a longsword.
My fingers paused as a collective gasp resounded from both militias. Emperor Nepheus sunk to his knees as he clawed at his chest, trying to heave the stinger out to no avail. A nearby red light captured my attention, and I altered my gaze to find the source as my heart drummed in shock. I’d been certain the assault had been headed for me or my parents.
Aeryn’s ashen face glared at the emperor as he yanked the venom-infused stinger from his body. She pinned her glowing red hand to her side, and she watched him bend over as he struggled to breathe. Slowly, she turned her eyes to mine, meeting them with such valiant ferocity that I felt like I’d been the one struck in the chest.
Aeryn couldn’t just control the minds of half-humans; she could also compel dragons to do her bidding – even ones as powerful as Armaeda.
My wife was the most dangerous weapon in all Traeveria, and from the hardened look on her arresting features, she knew it, too.
Armaeda growled, curling her lips back as she snarled at Aeryn for harming her summoner. Ignoring her, Aeryn snatched the staff from her fallen father and jammed it into a crack in the ground from Armaeda’s summoning.
“This is my empire,” she decreed. “I am in control now. If either nation does not agree to end the war, then I will make your entire homeland wish you had listened to me the first time. And you,” she spat, looking down at her father, “You will be the first to find out what happens when someone evenlooksat me the wrong way.”
With that, she planted a booted foot on his shoulder and kicked him flat on his face. Whirling around, she pointed at me with her palm emanating the red light and stated, “And you, Shade Cross, went behind my back by leading an ambush on my empire despite our marriage contract. For that, you will be punish – ”
Lacking any emotion, I interjected, “No, Aeryn, I will not face any repercussions. We shall rule Traeveria together and bring peace all around. And for us to do so, you must obliterate your bond to your Champion.”
Her pale cheeks flushed with a burning blush as the gates shuddered, fully open. “I willnever– ”
“If Armaeda does not destroy the bond between my wife and her Champion, then I will drain Armaeda’s summoner’s power before the Curse has a chance to,” I vowed, striding to the entrance of the empire.
Armaeda wrapped her tail around Emperor Nepheus, protecting him from my approach with a deep grumble of warning.
I aimed my outstretched hands at his hidden form as smoke wafted from my palms in the shape of a much larger hand. It slithered under her tail and joined the emperor, flowing through his nostrils, in his ears, and filling his gaping mouth.
Armaeda roared, gnashing her teeth at me as I started to withdraw the emperor’s elemental wielding power. Having had enough, she whipped her tail at Aeryn’s back, knocking her off her feet. The iridescent dragon scale slipped from Aeryn’s pocket and skidded between Armaeda’s talons.
Aeryn scrambled to sit upright as Armaeda released the white energy from her mouth, ejecting a blast onto the scale.
“No!” Aeryn yelled, jerking in pain. Sweat dripped down the side of her face as she breathed heavily, clutching her head in her hands. A single tear escaped from her green eye as her jaw clenched, dark eyebrows narrowing.
Climbing to her feet, she grabbed the scale with a black charseared into the space where Zoran’s Insignia used to be, and buried it in the pocket of her cloak. Swiping the lone tear from her cheek, she gritted her teeth and promised, “I hope severing my bond to Zoran was worth it because I know taking your life with my own hand will be.”
“Aery,” her mother tried.
“Very well,” I obliged, a sinister grin spreading across my cynical expression, “I’d like to see you try to bring down the one who commands death.”
“I just Cursed my own father,” Aeryn confessed. “Do not underestimate me, Prince Shade, or it will be the last thing you ever do.”
Then, all hell broke loose.
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