Page 23 of My Dragon Lovers

Then he smiled. His eyes crinkled, and it was hard to think that he was a killer. But then I looked deeper and I saw the crazed, haunted look in his eyes. I saw the thing inside him that had been twisted and broken by the world, this thing that could never be redeemed.

“Kill you? Why would I ever want to do that? You are our Queen,” he said with a crazed look in his eyes that did not set me at ease at all.

“I’m not a queen,” I said.

“Oh but you are Kyra, you are even if you do not know it yourself. It is in your blood. It is your heritage and your legacy, and only now can you begin to take your place in the world, the place your father left for you.”

“I have no interest in any of that. I have no interest in being like him,” I said, my frustration getting the better of me. From his reaction it was clearly the wrong thing to say. He flinched as though he had been struck and the smile faded from his face, turning into an offended scowl.

“I forgive you because it is not your fault. You have not been taught to worship the past,” he forced the words out as though he was trying to convince himself. “The others have poisoned your mind. You are Ilvar’s daughter, and you deserve to be worshiped.”

“I don’t deserve that, and neither does he,” I said bluntly.

“Yes he does!” he shrieked, and even though he was in his human form he spoke with such force that I was surprised fire did not blaze from his mouth. He stormed towards me and I recoiled as he raised his hand, ready to strike me. He stopped at the last moment, his arm shaking as he resisted the urge to unleash his anger upon me. He turned away from me and paced around the rocky plateau, muttering to himself.

“No, no this isn’t right. I can’t strike her. It is not my place. It’s the others who must be punished, yes, the others. They are the ones to blame. Kyra is innocent in all this. She just needs to be shown the way. She needs to understand the truth.”

“Truth? What truth?” I asked, glancing towards the water. It was dark and slick, and I couldn’t see where it ended. I knew it must have led back up to the lake. It was clever of him really, to use this as a hiding place. The dragons would have been searching the skies for him. Despite his actions he clearly hadn’t lost his mind completely. I doubted I could make it back to the surface if I swam that way, though. Without the strength and stamina of a dragon I never would have made it. I was stuck here for the time being.

He flashed his eyes towards me. “The truth that has been hiding from you all your life. The truth that you are Ilvar’s daughter, and it is time for you to finish his quest.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean finish the quest?”

“You need to break the world and lead us back to Drakon. It is your destiny,” he hissed.

I shook my head. “I don’t know who you are, but this isn’t my destiny. I get to choose my own path. I’m not going to be like my father.”

He laughed slowly. It had no humor at all and it was more menacing than anything else. “You are already like him. You have it in your blood. I know that you can make him proud. You can finished what he started. We no longer have to live in the shadows of his failure. I have waited so long for you to reach maturity so that you can be the queen you were always meant to be.”

“I don’t even know you,” I scrunched my face up in disgust, hoping that in some way I could shame him into abandoning this plan. Maybe if I showed enough disdain he would realize that there was utterly no hope of this coming to fruition.

“My name is Marr, and I am the last of Ilvar’s loyal servants,” he said with more than a hint of misplaced pride.

“That’s not true. I’ve already met people who still honor Ilvar’s memory. They live in his thunder and they want to keep his bloodline alive. They have not forgotten him.”

He cursed and swiped his arm through the air, making a vicious expression with his face. “They are all liars and traitors. They have forsaken him.”

“I think Ilvar was the one who did that first. He was going to abandon them when he left for Drakon.

Marr lifted his head and sneered. “Then they have only proven their weakness. Ilvar was right to leave them behind. They were not worthy of honoring him. That is why I have started to punish them.”

“You killed them because of that?”

“Yes. They had years to continue Ilvar’s mission, but they let themselves get distracted. They made peace with the enemy. It sickens me. After all he did, after all he sacrificed… theydisrespect his memory this way. It is blasphemous. Only you and I can make things right. We need to bathe the world in fire, just as Ilvar had planned.”

“You were there, weren’t you, in that last battle.”

“Yes I was,” his eyes flashed. “I was a loyal soldier. I watched so many of us die because the other dragons could not see his enlightened ways. Instead of fighting with us they fought against us. They stopped us from returning home. And I will punish them too. I will make them all regret their mistakes, and with your help I will ensure that Ilvar’s plan finally finds success. Fulfilling your legacy will be the ultimate tribute to your father.”

“But I have no desire to do any of that. I don’t have any ties to Ilvar. I never knew the man, and what I do know of him I hate. He was an arrogant monster who didn’t care about anything other than his own ego. He didn’t want to take the dragons back to Drakon because it was the right thing to do, he just wanted to cement his name in history. He wanted people to massage his ego and make him feel like a god, and that’s exactly what you’re doing now. It’s pitiful,” I spat. If there was no way out of this then I wasn’t going to go quietly. Marr needed to know how ridiculous he sounded. “And I don’t know how you expect me to team up with you when you killed my mother.”

His scowl deepened. It was only his reverence for Ilvar that kept him from tearing me apart. It was ironic really, all my life I had worried that my ancestry would cause people to hate me. Right now it was the only thing keeping me alive.

“She was as bad as all the others. She left him when he needed her the most, but at least she kept you alive. However, she should have taught you about him properly. She filled your head with lies about him and now it is my cause to show you the truth. But there is time enough for that when we fly back to Drakon and leave this world behind. We will be the scions of a new race of dragons, forged in the memory of Ilvar. What couldbe more perfect than his most loyal servant and his daughter being bound together to create a new generation. The fire of our love will never be forgotten. It is time for the future to arrive.”

As he spoke he clasped his hands together, forming a lattice with his fingers. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being forced to be his mate and leaving this world behind. He was utterly, compellingly mad, but there was nothing I could do to shake back or fight him from his cause.

I shook my head and glared at him. “No, no I won’t help you. I won’t do this. I don’t want to be my father’s daughter. I will never help you!”

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