Page 28 of A Story of Mates and Temptation

Magic explodes around me and it’s bright, dangerous and unholy to witness. The box opens with a click the moment I touch it. The two books slam together with a smack that shakes the very ground beneath my feet, and then—I free fall into the magic, knowing nothing and everything all at the same time.

The deities are free.

Chapter Fifteen

King Ziven

Page Fifteen. I will find a way to save her when her father couldn’t. I miss him.

Irip the door open with shadows, knowing this is where she was last because she is my queen, my mate, and there is nowhere in this world she could go that I wouldn’t be able to track. Whatever is left of my soul and existence is hers, and I know she wouldn’t willingly leave my side. The only magic left other than the power of the dragons is these evil books, and they have always been too interested in my mate.

Story was here. I can smell her in the air, but there is no blood in the empty room. The books are gone, but they didn’t hurt her. Giant cracks are split across the walls, and the room darkens with my power, grey shadows bursting out the edges with my fury. They took my bride on your wedding night. They took her from me, and fuck those deities. They aren’t going to exist if they have hurt her.

Daegan rushes in to my side, half-asleep still, but he is wide awake when he sees the books are gone. “She isn’t here, is she?”

The bond between them will irritate me to the end of my existence, but right now, I don’t care. “Story and the books are missing.” I turn. “I have to go after her and?—”

He grabs my arm, and the urge to throw the asshole across the room is tempting me. I can’t think of anything but getting to Story, and he is lucky I’m restraining myself. “If you leave without an army, you will lead our enemies right to her. Don’t. Just give me an hour. We can wake everyone and be ready to fly to war. Don’t damn the people she loves to go after her when we both know your wife is more than capable of dealing with this.” His eyes trace back to the room as he lets go. “Those books and her, they are linked. The deities want her alive.”

I grit my teeth. “I?—”

“You love her, but you trust her. I can sense she’s still alive. Wait,” Daegan reasons. “For your people and mine. I will beg if you need me to, Ziven. We were once friends, and I promise you I will fight to fix this world. Let the Sun and Moon Dynasty fly together one more time.”

When I die, this is all she will have left. A Sun king who she can never trust and a bond that is an echo of what we were once. Now we are so, so much more. I need to be with her, to explain everything, when the magic fades from me and I really die again. I will meet the deity in the sky only when I’ve said goodbye to her. This is all for her. She wouldn’t have just left. I know that. We do everything together and she wouldn’t have put those books together and freed them. It doesn’t make sense. My every instinct, my love for her, wants me to tell him to fuck himself, but Hettie steps into the light of the doorway, alongside Calix.My shoulders drop as she yawns. “I felt like I had to wake up. The dragons are loud.”

Calix frowns, tilting his head in Hettie’s direction. “She ran off, and I chased her here. Where is Story?”

I reach for my dragon, commanding him to get ready. I roughly grab Daegan’s arm. I used to trust this fucker, and even when so much shit happened between us, I found it hard to imagine killing him. I could have done it a million times over for things he has done, the worst involving my sister and Story, but fuck, the bond makes sure I don’t. He is bonded to my mate, and I believe he is her friend. She wore a token from his dynasty on our marriage day, and I’ve seen that bracelet before. It was his mother’s, and to give it to her…fuck, it got to me. “Our dynasties fly as one. Ready them and we use the plan. The war ends this day.”

Daegan knows. He must know. This is the only chance I will ever give him. “The sun is slowly rising—it’s the best time for us to fight. It’ll be at least eight hours before nightfall. If we go now, we’ll still have some daylight before they can ready their Silkvir to fly. We can burn the vampyres.” We begin planning as we walk out, and I tell Calix the plan and command him to leave Hettie with the other children in hiding until we are back. She fights him as he carries her away, but I can’t focus on my niece when Story needs me, when she is out there and I need her more than I can breathe.

“I will send the shadow dragons with you under your command. If you find Story in that city, you save her.” I make sure Daegan understands. I know she isn’t that far, but magic like nothing I’ve ever seen is at play, and I can’t trust she will stay close.

“Sound the alarms. We go to war!” Daegan roars to the town, and bells ring loud. I block out everyone rushing around me as I return to our hut, throwing on my weapons, tightening my armour.

Something feels off. A strange sensation builds within my soul—like a crack, a deep fracture, since I made that deal. I did it for her and I don’t regret it. I don’t think it’s possible to ever regret sacrificing my life for her. Every moment I’ve had up to our marriage—last night—felt like cheating death. Like I was given blessed moments, and I cherished every one of them. How could I not? I know she will be angry when she finds out, but the world will be free. Vampyres will be on the run and hunted unless they bend to us. I want a new world for her, and she can live in it. I promised to keep her safe, and this is the only way I could do that now. I’ve lost too much in my life to expect a happy life at the end of this war. Story, my mate, being in my life, was always a special gift that I never knew I needed to feel alive. Not even death can part us. I hope she knows that. I remember her under me last night, our mating. The word mate I whispered in her ear as I felt her tighten around me. I could be hers for a lifetime, and it still would not be enough time.

“Where is your mate?” my dragon questions when I climb onto him.

“Gone.” I climb higher onto his back until I settle between his thorns and grip the scales in front of me. Riding him reminds me of Brythan and, fuck, I miss him. I already let him down, and I will not let her down too. “And we’re going to find her for one last flight, my dragon. I command you, and you will all fly to war with me.”

My dragon roars, and the ground shakes under us. A roar cry for war. For the world the dragons want too. I’ve seen their young,understood they want peace almost as much as the fae do. A world where neither of us are hunted for just existing.

I don’t command him to take off. Not yet. Not as other riders mount their dragons on every inch of clear ground, but no dragon lands near mine, the scary fucker. It takes an hour, just like Daegan predicted, and my skin is itching to find her as I see Calix mounting his dragon next to me, and I know it hurts him to leave Avaluna behind when she is this vulnerable. The vampyre king dies on this day, and then he can get back to her.

Eyes turn to me, countless riders watching me, and many of them are from the Sun Dynasty. They aren’t looking to their king but me. I know I can’t take off yet. Not without saying something. Many dragons roar, the sound splitting through the air until they all go silent. The silence echoes across the cliffs, and even the other dragons don’t dare move under the shadows moving around them. Our shadows.

I take a deep breath. “A final fight that will mark us as saviours and liberators to the fae, who have never had anyone fight on their side,” I shout, my voice steady. “A fight for those who have been trapped. For those who were imprisoned in the mansion. For all those who have spent a lifetime as a slave. But today—with our dragons—we have a chance. A chance to remake the world that was stolen from us by the vampyres, and we will claw it out of their hands. With fire and death. We will demand our world back and free our people.” I lift my arm. “For the dynasties! For the fae, and for a free fucking world!”

A thunder of roars answers me. I lean down, gripping the reins, and my dragon jumps off the edge of the cliff. He spreads his wings wide and dives straight down through a tunnel. I’m followed by Calix and the riders from the Moon Dynasty. Then come the shadow dragon riders, thirty in total, those I’vemanaged to pair with beasts of their own. They’re not great riders, but they don’t need to be. Not when their dragons breathe pure fire. All they have to do is hold on and guide. We shoot out of the tunnel and into the bright sky. I don’t care about anything but her as I reach for Story.

I feel nothing but a wall of fire between our souls. A fire that burns deep inside me.

She’s west.

I know it.

That’s where the vampyres are. Could the vampyre prince have taken her? No, I snarl to myself.

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