Page 32 of A Book of Royals and Deities

A sob echoes in my throat as I throw my arms around his shoulders and hold him tight. “Thank you.”

He hugs me back once, just for a moment, before pushing me away. It’s time to go. I pick up the box that he had waiting for me all along, the one we entrusted him to keep safe. I know I won’t be able to get him out of here, and Catherine is sobbing as she hugs him. I let them talk quietly, and whatever he says leaves her shocked.

“I’ll pray to the deities for you. For the library,” I whisper. I pause to look back. “Did you finish that book, the one on the Twilight Dynasty?”

“Yes, and it’s yours, Story. Read it when you can. It’s in the box.” My eyes widen. “I opened it, yes, but I’ve been lost to the magic of books for a long time. I’m not as weak as I seem. I am the king of the Dawn Dynasty, Story Dehana, and we royals can even challenge the deities for power.”

I hope he is right. Ziven needs all the luck of the deities to survive tonight. I know I can’t live without him because he is mine. I belong to him too, and I should have completed the mate bond when I had the chance. I don’t know what I was waiting for, what final step I needed to be able to fully trust him, but I do.

I leave Mazzis to run out with Catherine, and the side door is finally clear enough for us to get outside of the mansion. The door might have been empty, but outside is not. It’s madness, with crowds of fae running in every direction like no one has a clue where to go. Horses are loose, running amuck, and dragons are swooping across the skies, casting dark shadows along the earth, even in the middle of the day.

Catherine takes my hand and we link our fingers before we dive straight into the crowd and painstakingly make a path towards the river. On the way, I hand her the box with the book and I know without a doubt, she will protect it if I can’t. I hope Ziven is right about Hettie and she stayed there or Ruelle took her to the dragons. In this chaos, I’m not sure how I’d find her. It feels like forever before we clear out of the crowd and see the river sparkling in the distance, with only a few shadows of people around it. We run the final part, and thankfully she’s there. I spot her blonde head as she stands with Ruelle by a tree, looking up at the sky. Her eyes drop and she breaks away from Ruelle to crash into my open arms.

“What’s happening?” she blurts out. “Where is my uncle? I’m scared. Why are the dragons?—”

“You’re safe.” I hold her shaky body to mine.

Ruelle gets to us, her stick clicking on the ground. “Tell me everything.”

Catherine does as I kneel and try to calm Hettie down, to no avail. Catherine looks at me. “Walk with them and I’ll go ahead to the dragons. Meet you there.”

I nod and she is fast, disappearing down the path towards the dragons, while I lean down and pat my shoulder. “Climb on.”

She shakily nods and jumps onto my back for a piggyback. Ruelle and I begin down the path, and she tells me, “I’ll go and ride at his side. He will not die while I’m there.” I almost forgot she is a rider. She touches my arm. “I’m assuming he sent you here to look after Hettie.”

“Yes, she…” I pause, lost for words to explain what Hettie is to me. “She’s the future. I love her, and Ziven didn’t need to ask. I would have always come for her.”

“I know.” She pats my arm. “Hettie refused to leave the river until you came. Almost like she knew.”

It takes us longer than I’d like to get to the entrance to the dragons’ home, but I don’t regret carrying Hettie. She is shaking like a leaf, and I know she would have just frozen up. I would have done the same at her age, faced with war.

Catherine is waiting by the entrance, and she nods at me. “They’re coming up.”

Ruelle leans on her walking stick. “Sun Dynasty doesn’t suit you. Change sides when this is over. You belong with us, girl. You’re protecting the future of the Moon Dynasty right now, and I’ll find you if you fail.”

Catherine once would have paled and ran, or she might have cried. She doesn’t now. Becoming a dragon rider has changed her for the better. “Hettie is the heir to the Sun Dynasty too. By staying here, I’m protecting them both. I don’t want to be pulled between them like…” She stops. Like me, she means. “I belong to the Sun, even if my best friend is destined for the Moon.”

I hear Maeve in the distance, her roar and heavy stomps as she comes out. Her red scales seem to move like living flames in the sunlight as she looks up, arching her neck to the sky. Catherineand Ruelle leave to find their dragons inside. Hettie falls down my back, and she looks tiny as Maeve comes up to us. So tiny in the face of a dragon. “I haven’t been on a dragon before, and I’m scared.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you. We’re family, Hettie.” I stroke her back. “You said you wanted to be a dragon rider when you’re older. Here’s some practice.”

That seems to calm her a little, but I doubt anything could truly make her feel safe at this point. I look up into Maeve’s purple eyes. “Are you okay with Hettie riding, Maeve? I need to keep her safe.”

“Henrietta is a child of the dragons” is her answer, and I swear it’s sarcastic, like I’m meant to know that fact.

I frown at her as she crouches down. Dust flies in a huff around my legs. “What does that mean?”

“Maybe it’s not the time for us to discuss the child.” I roll my eyes at her cryptic answer, damn well knowing she will ignore me when I bring it up in the future. I still can’t figure out what is different about Henrietta, how she managed to even be born when no one else was. I push Hettie up so she can start climbing the scales, and climb after her, looking up at the skies that are slowly filling with dragons but none of the beasts. I don’t want to see one because that means they got past Daegan or Ziven.

It means we are losing, and a deep part of my soul knows I don’t want either of them dead.

Chapter Eighteen

Page Eighteen—This is all his plan. The Twilight will rule.

The Dawn is dead and gone.

The mansion is falling apart, and Storm isn’t at my side. I hate running in the other direction from her, even if it’s what she wanted. If Storm had told me to leave with her, to abandon the fucking foolish Sun king, I would have without another thought. I don’t care what happens to the world as long as I have her. I never claimed to be a hero; fuck, I don’t want to be one. I want to be whatever she needs of me. I slow down as I get to the dungeons, which are shaking, and my guards have left to get their dragons. I never ordered them to stay if the war began, not to protect a vampyre, no matter who he is to my mate.

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