Page 18 of Trial By Fire

“Cordelia, this changes everything. This will be so much worse than death.” She bounces on her toes with excitement at whatever her psychotic mind has conjured. “I can’t kill you, of course. That was my initial plan. But you see...there are strict rules against one Fae killing another Fae.” She raises her talon-like nails to her lips and taps away as if she’s lost in thought. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t make you wish for it.” Her head tilts to the side as her eyes roam over my body once again. “I’m going to breed you. Again, and again and again.” She straightens her head and smiles. I stare at her with my mouth open in disbelief and disgust.

“You crazy bitch! I am going to kill you!” is all I can say. My insides are churning, I want to sob, scream, and rage. How dare she take advantage of me? Against my will. I will not betray my mates. It would break me. I search for my magic, willing it to come to my aid, but there’s no response. It was almost laughable the situation I’ve found myself in.

“Of course,” she says dispassionately. I’m surprised she didn’t say more until I realized that she disregarded me like I am nothing. She didn’t care if I kicked and screamed, she had the upper hand, and my threats crash against her and crumble into dust. My rage is growing, I can almost feel my Dragon, but she is still out of my reach.

“Take her away. Make sure she’s attended to.” Before I can move away, the guards grab me again, and another wave of lust hits, and I am practically sagging between them as they pull me down the corridor.

“Oh, Cordelia. Welcome to the Realm of Incantatia and my Night Court. We are going to have so much fun with you.” Maurelle cackles like a wicked witch, loud and long as she watches me leave.

This woman is supposed to be a blood relative. I hate her. As soon as the chance presents itself, I am going to kill her.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

ADRIAN

The wind whips around me as I stare out over the trees down below and beyond. From this high up, I can see it all. Arcadia. We are home. The landscape stretches and changes, clear demarcations of the various regions that make up our world. Our dying world. I can see the brown patches of dead earth across the plains ofCresceria,even on the highest peak ofKaeluma,the snowmelt runs down the sides of the large mountains flooding the canyons below.Everything here is broken,I think to myself as my eyes lock on the ocean at the edge of the world. My home. My Dragon wants to break free, to dive into its depths, and return to the safety of the water. I itch to shift and return to my people, the need to make sure Thaddeus didn’t act on his threat is riding me hard.Soon, we will see them soon,I tell myself and my Dragon, who rages just beneath my skin. His agitation feeds the growing burning rage building up inside of me.

None of this matters without her. We might as well tell our people to start migrating to the Earth Realm now or prepare to face the devastation of what’s to come if we don’t return Arcadia its queen. The land decays more and more with each passing day. We’ve only been gone for a short period of time, and it seems to have accelerated. I run my hand over my bald head in frustration. We should be burning Incantatia to the ground. Cordelia is in heat, and her lust is so strong that it has floored us all these past few hours. I came up here to escape. There is nowhere I can run. I can feel her body calling to me like a siren song, and it’s one call I can’t answer, and it is killing me.

“FUCK!” I scream into the sky. My curse echos around me as it bounces off the cliffs. I clench my fists tight, closing my eyes, sending as much comfort through our bond as I can. I want her to know that we are here, even though we are apart. I want her to feel as if she is wrapped in my arms, safe and sound. A female Dragon is at their most vulnerable during a heat cycle. That is why she has multiple mates to take care of her every need. No one should touch her but her mates. It’s the mates’ responsibility to prepare the mating cave, to make the nest suitable for her. We feed and soothe her. It’s not just about sex, although, the sex is nonstop and can go on for days. I am down with that for sure. It’s the ritual of solidifying the bond further that makes it worthwhile. Well, that’s what I’ve heard anyway. What fucked with my head the most? Not knowing. Who knows what the Fae Queen will do to her once she realizes the condition Cordelia is in?

“I heard you curse. You almost caused an avalanche.” Gale’s attempt at making a joke goes flat. His voice is devoid of his normal playfulness as he makes his way toward me. I didn’t even hear him approach. I have failed at keeping my guard up countless times since all this began. So lost in my own thoughts that anyone could sneak up on me. I need to focus, especially now. We took a secret portal that brought us straight to Gale’s front door. One of the advantages of living so high up. No one knows about it. But it won’t be long before Thaddeus finds out we are back. We need to make a plan.

“I’ve never felt so helpless. I know that my life was easy compared to yours and Torin’s. I wanted for nothing. I didn’t lose anyone I loved. I didn’t see my mother suffer and force to cower under Thaddeus’s laws.” He sighs. I know that he came up here to talk, so I don’t comment on how right he is. He is my brother, we are all on equal footing, but we hold Gale’s upbringing against him with our sly remarks. I know it’s not fair, but sometimes I resented his carefree smile. “It puts me at a disadvantage, you know.” He tilts his head to look at me, and I lift my brow in question for him to continue. “Look at how I reacted to Dravyn. My ability to deal with change is nonexistent. It makes me the weakest link. My Dragon wants blood. We need her. I can feel her fear, her lust, and her rage. I just want to step up and take charge and make this all go away.” I turn to face him and see his eyes are wide with panic. It’s so out of character for him that it has me closing the space between us. I grab his face between my hands and squeeze hard.

“She will come back to us. Yes, you are a spoiled brat, but someone’s got to be. We are all growing and changing, Gale. None of us chose the path our lives were placed upon. You need to pull it together. Do it for her.” I try to smile for him, but it’s half-hearted. “We are all lost without her, and it is driving us all crazy that the only one who can do anything about it is the new guy,” I think I said that out loud more for me, not him, yet Gale nods in agreement. I step back, and he takes a visible breath to center himself.

“What if Dravyn is too late? What if someone takes advantage of Cordelia? She is so vulnerable, so susceptible to her urges whether she wants to give in or not. It is driving me crazy,” Gale says softly like he didn’t really want to give voice to our deepest fear.

“Then we love her. She is our queen. Whatever happens, we love her.” It makes me sick to my stomach to even think about what he just asked, so I push it down. We need a mission of our own, something to keep our minds off our current situation. I pat him on the back and turn to climb back down to his home. I stop when I spot Torin walking toward us.

“We need a plan,” I yell to him as he closes the distance between us. Our resident worrier looks worse for wear and hadn’t said much since we left Celestia.

“I have a plan,” he says as he passes me, forcing me to follow.

I stop when I am shoulder to shoulder with him. “Care to share?” I ask as I catch Gale looking my way, sending me a questioning look. Torin is usually hard to read, his jaw clenched, hands shoved in his pockets, and his back straight. Whatever he’s about to say, I feel determination flow off him in waves, making it easy for me to read him.

“We prepare Arcadia for our mates' arrival. We go down to Saphir, go into the palace, and we secure her crown. This is what we are going to do.” I almost laugh, but the scowl on his face tells me he is serious.

“That’s damn near impossible, Torin. How do you expect us to just walk in and demand Thaddeus hand it all back?” I ask him. It’s not like we hadn’t thought of that before. But we didn’t have Cordelia then either.

“It’s not impossible if we snatch it all back from him. Thaddeus has no real power. He’s magicless. We are stronger. Together all of us can rain down fire and destruction on him and his Barons. In the name of the true ruler of Arcadia. In the name of our queen. We will prepare her house for her.” Gale bounces on his toes, I can tell he is excited with Torin’s inspired speech, but I am hesitant.

“We take the fight to him. Male and female Dragons will unite and fight as one like they used to in the days of our parents.” I can feel his will wash over every word. He makes me believe that we can do this. I know that we can, we have the numbers, but memories of my mother and sister hold me back. I can’t lose any more people in my life. If it doesn’t work out and people die for rebelling, their blood will be on our hands.

“I know where your head is at, Adrian. What would you do for her? If we can’t be in Incantatia, then what can we do for her right now?” I roll my shoulders back and let my hesitation fall away from me.

“I would do anything for her. I would die for her.” I would fight to my last breath if that meant she could walk back into Arcadia with her head held high.

“Well, no one wants you to die.” Gale laughs. “I’m all for making those bastards pay for all the pain they’ve caused.”

“We’ve been preparing for war for a long time,” Torin says to us both as he stares out over Arcadia. “Now we have a just cause.”

“What about Cordelia? If she’s still in heat and we are in the middle of an uprising? We won’t be able to help ourselves. We will want to be with her,” I say to him. What would Dravyn be bringing her back to if she’s back before we achieve our goal?

“Then we prepare the mating cave, and we make a contingency plan just in case. But we have to do this. Every day we wait, the land around us dies, and that is exactly what Maurelle wants. Thaddeus is her pawn. There will be nothing left to save if we continue to hide away up here.” Torin stops talking and turns to leave but I stop him.

“This won’t be easy. We will lose people.” I can’t help that my thoughts always return to my family, but it needs to be said, to make sure we are all prepared for what it will cost our people.

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