Page 54 of Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice

Grandchildren? I felt my face heat up. Evander and I weren’t even married yet, though we planned to tie the knot soon.

Evander gave a cough. “Um, well, eventually. But since you’re willing to help with anything we need, then you won’t mind loaning Nessa one of your tiaras. And maybe a jeweled collar? Something impressive.”

His mother stopped in her tracks, her posture going stiff for the first time since we’d arrived. When she turned back toward us, her nostrils were flaring, her eyes more slitted than they had been a moment before. “You wish to borrow something from my hoard?”

Evander’s father strode past us and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Grandchildren, remember? Just think about grandchildren.”

For a moment, she stood there, still staring almost unseeing. Then she blinked, and that slitted look disappeared from her eyes even as the smile returned to her face. “Of course. I said whatever you need, and I meant it. Come along, Evander, Nessa. I have some pieces that will look lovely with your eyes. What color dress were you thinking of wearing? I should have something that will match.”

Evander gently nudged me forward.

I released a breath. Despite my embarrassment over the talk of grandchildren, I found myself relaxing. His parents might be dragons, but they weren’t all that different from my own parents. Better yet, they didn’t seem to care that I was human. They were ready to embrace me as a daughter-in-law. To the point his mother was willing to loan me something from her hoard, an honor that dragons only bestowed to family members.

If only my parents would embrace Evander the same way. But he was the feared dragon. The most I could hope for was that they would eventually lose some of their terror, once the sacrifices were ended.

Chapter Fifteen

Wedding ceremonies are simple affairs in the Fae Realm. Just take a bit of string, tie our hands together, say the right words, and just like that we were bound in marriage according to the Fae Realm. It’s far more romantic than it sounds, especially when done high in the sky with the sunset painting the clouds pink and orange all around us.

The worst part was the waiting. There was, after all, only one day in a Human Realm year that we could pull off ending the sacrifices.

What day was that? I should think that would be obvious.

Down below, the entire village packed into the market square, a line of girls at the base of the stairs. The village elders stood before the doors of the citadel, the head elder about to reach into a ceramic jar to pull out a name.

Perfect timing. Not that we had been flying around in circles for hours over the distant olive groves, waiting for just the right moment.

I gripped the handle on the front of the saddle as Evander roared, then dove toward the ground. I would have been screaming my head off, but I needed to appear regal when we landed.

Down below, there were plenty of screams to make up for my lack. A space cleared before the citadel, just large enough for Evander to land.

He spread his wings and gave another roar, tilting his head to hide me as I fumbled to loosen the safety harness. As soon as I was free and prepared, I patted Evander’s shoulder.

He lowered his head and neck, then extended his leg. I pushed to my feet and strode down his leg as gracefully as I could. Thanks to all the practice the past few weeks, I swept to the ground with only minimal hesitation.

The purple silk of my dress swished around my ankles. Deep purple, even more rich and vibrant in color than the purple the village elders wore. The emerald Evander had given me now sparkled in a ring adorning my finger while a tiara glittering with diamonds and amethysts nestled in my hair. But the showstopper piece of the outfit was the gem-studded collar we’d borrowed from Evander’s mother.

Not that it was at all nerve-wracking to wear a jeweled collar and fancy tiara that she’d probably go all angry dragon on me if I lost. Oh, no. Not at all.

With my feet on the ground, I held my head high as I faced the village elders. A year ago, I’d been a voiceless maiden, powerless to resist. Even if I’d tried to speak up, no one would have listened.

Well, they were listening now. I had a dragon at my back, and I wasn’t afraid to use him.

“I am Nessa, daughter of Thales. A year ago, I was sacrificed to the dragon.” I raised my voice to make sure it carried to the farthest edges of the crowd. “Through many trials and tests, I conquered the dragon and won my place as his bride.”

The crowd went still. Probably too petrified to move. If only I didn’t have to terrify them as much as I was terrifying the village elders. But the important thing now was ending the sacrifices. Healing the village’s hurts would have to come later.

As much as I wanted to search the crowd, looking for my parents, I didn’t dare look away from the village elders or do anything that would reduce my regal air.

Instead, I stared down the head village elder. “The dragon is now mine to command.”

I flicked my fingers, and Evander whipped his tail around, smashing the front pillars of the citadel.

The elders flung their hands over their heads, ducking. A few of them might have even given very high-pitched screams.

Evander straightened, then rammed a shoulder into the roof. A few more punches with his claws, and the whole citadel came crashing down.

To top it all off, he picked up the ceramic jar with the tokens of the maidens, crunched it in his jaws, then spat the remains into the center of the citadel’s rubble. A puff of fire reduced the tokens to nothing but ash.

---