Page 51 of Dragon's Code

There’s a lot of movement as the women part from their men, almost like it’s painful for them to not be as close as possible to their mate. Is that usually how mates act?

The women form a circle. I still have a good view of Penelope. She’s chanting and as each woman takes each other’s hands and closes the circle around her. There’s a flicker of power as Michelle closes the loop. I look up at the ceiling and then back to the circle.

At first, there’s not a lot going on. Penelope keeps chanting and the women have their eyes closed.

The power flickers out altogether but then there’s a glow coming from the center of the circle. It’s like a blacklight glow, almost purple in hue. It gets brighter and brighter until there’s a woman standing there, not unlike Princess Leia’s hologram from R2D2.

The woman is built like an Amazon, tall, muscular, and has dark black hair, her eyes look like obsidian too.

“Who calls me from the grave?” Her voice is disjointed and sounds far and close all at the same time.

“Fellow obsidians,” Penelope says.

She looks at the circle of women around her. “What do you need?”

“What happened to the Obsidian Clan? Why are they all extinct now?” Penelope asks.

The queen looks around again. “They were betrayed. But it wasn’t just them. The Elders then didn’t like the power they possessed. A bunch of female dragons ruling their own clan. The Larimars were banished before the betrayal happened, aside from the male mates of the obsidians, the Larimar were the only ones who had their backs. The Elders at that time set up the Obsidians and killed them all. Most of their mates died almost immediately from the grief. A few gave into the craze and went on a destructive spree and they were executed shortly there after.”

“Why would they fear their power?”

“Because they didn’t think it was fair that humans were given such ancient magic. It was destroying the bloodlines. The king who teamed up with an evil vampire, Grey. They both wanted to see humans become slaves and food instead of ruling the world. This was after the humans went on a big dragon slaying mission and there were a lot of dragons that were killed. Humans ultimately lost and decided to leave them alone. Not long after that, the dragons went underground and then humans soon forgot about them.” The queen’s story flows between everyone in the room.

“Your Elders hold the same values. They don’t want to lose their power and they don’t want the bloodlines muddied with human blood. As if our origins were so pure.”

“Thank you, your highness,” Penelope says.

“I’ve talked to the former Garnet oracle. She said that Grey used her to help create a potion to make sure that female dragons weren’t going to be born. It took a few generations, but it happened. Grey thinks he can kill off the dragons by keeping them from mating, but the joke’s on him, we were always met to mix with the humans. Not only humans, but with fae, other shifters, and even vampires.”

That creates some noise around the room.

The queen floats around the circle, meeting all the women’s gazes. Then her gaze looks beyond Jerrick’s mate to me. “You’re standing on a precipice,” she says to me.

I glance around unsure of why she’s talking to me. “What does that mean?”

“The oracle has told me there would be one human and she’ll have the key to their success or the key to their demise,” the queen explains.

“Why me? What have I done?”

She gives me a sad smile. “You haven’t done it yet, but you will. No one will be able to stop you.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not going to put up with this riddle, seeing the future bullshit. That’s how guys end up bedding their own moms and being blamed for the fall of Troy. What the hell are you talking about?”

“The oracle can’t see it clearly enough. That’s all she knows right now.”

“Tell her to look again,” I snap.

Kash’s hand lands on my hip. “Shh, easy, killer. She doesn’t know. Don’t worry about it.”

“This is utter bullshit,” I mutter to him. “I don’t have a key to anything.”

Kash squeezes my hip. “Ease up. Just listen for now.”

“Is this another fate thing? I don’t understand. How does any of this apply to me? I’ve only known about any of this for twenty-four hours.” I haven’t had this much attention since I was the survivor of being a kidnapped child. Now I’m staring at a ghost who is talking to an oracle and saying that I’m the key to possibly everyone’s doom.

Tears well in my eyes. I’m overwhelmed. Too much has happened too fast and I don’t know how to feel or what to do. I turn around and face Kashton.

He cups my face. His thumb caresses my cheek. His dark green eyes with gold and amber flecks draw me in even more until there’s nothing but me and him. The connection that hums between us, that’s always buzzed and sizzled whenever we’re together. When we were kids it was different, lighter and free of the burden of adulthood. Free of the land mines of life. After my kidnapping, things changed between us, but it always felt like we were stronger, closer, and like it was us against the world, even when we went months without seeing each other. I don’t know if fate brought us together, or we just stumbled into each other at the right time. Frankly, I don’t care. All that matters is that we found each other.

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