Page 1 of Storm In The Sky

Chapter One

Winter was trapped in a castle.

He supposed that sounded almost like a fairytale. He’d be the princess, since he couldn’t leave, but at the same time, he was a dragon, so it was a weird fairytale.

But that wasn’t his problem. No, his problem was that he wastrapped in a castle.

Samuel rolled his eyes. “You’re being dramatic.”

Winter turned to glare at him. How could he be lounging on the couch, acting as if nothing was wrong? It was probably because if he wanted, he could leave. Winter, on the other hand, wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m not being dramatic. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this.”

Samuel leaned forward. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and his feet were bare. Winter looked at him with fondness, but at the same time, he wanted to strangle him. He wasn’t taking this seriously enough. Didn’t he understand that this would change everything? Did hewanteverything to change? Because that was what it sounded like, and Winter didn’t like it.

Samuel grabbed the remote control and paused the TV series he was watching.

Winter was relieved—he didn’t mind the series, but right now he could only deal with his own disastrous life. The characters in the series would have to wait.

The problem was that now that Samuel wasn’t focused on the TV, he turned his attention to Winter. He narrowed his eyes and looked at him as if he were thinking about throwing him out the window, which was a distinct possibility.

Winter took a step away from the window, just in case.

“If you don’t want to be here, then leave,” Samuel said.

“I can’t.”

“You can,” Samuel snapped. “You’re just too chicken shit to do anything about it.” He pushed his blond hair away from his face.

Winter swallowed. He wasn’t supposed to be in love with Samuel. Samuel was his best friend, almost like a brother.

Thinking of that reminded Winter of Keylon. He scowled.

Samuel looked taken aback. “What? What did I do now?”

“You didn’t do anything. You heard the mages. They need me to stay and fight this Carlyle guy.”

“They can’t force you to do it if you don’t want to. They can’t force you to do anything, so if you want to go home, go home. Of course, you’d leave the mages with one less dragon, and you’d probably break Keylon’s heart, but I’m sure they can recover. Besides, I’m staying. I want to help them fight Carlyle because they’ll need all the help they can get.”

Winter crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“Then I guess we’re both staying.”

Winter resisted the urge to stomp his foot. He wasn’t a child. In fact, he was a dragon shifter who was decades older than he looked. He couldn’t afford to act like a child, especially when he was in enemy territory.

Samuel sighed. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from. You have no memories of these guys, and you can’t remember a thing about Keylon, so it has to be weird to know that you’re his shield. No one’s forcing you to stay. You can go, and I’m sure both Keylon and Jarvis will let you leave. You know what will happen if you do, though.”

“I won’t have to worry about being anyone’s shield?”

“Carlyle will come after you.”

“Why would he do that? Why would he care?” Winter was desperate to convince himself that he could leave this mess without any consequences, but it wasn’t working. He hated itwhen Samuel was the voice of reason. He hated it when he couldn’t ignore that what Samuel was saying was true.

“You were one of the people who trapped him. I’d be pissed at you, too, if I were him.”

“Then maybe he shouldn’t have become a bloodthirsty bastard,” Winter grumbled.

He turned to the window again. At least the view was beautiful. Both his and Samuel’s bedrooms looked onto a lake and a forest. It was early September, and the weather was still gorgeous enough to make Winter want to throw himself into the water. Maybe he’d do that later.

“You know that kind of person,” Samuel said gently. “They think they’re always right and that the world should bow to them. We have a few of those in the clan.”

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