Page 1 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince
Chapter
One
Misha
My father’s castle was a forbidding place in the best of times, but something about it that night had my blood running cold. The darkness of it all seemed somehow much more sinister than usual. The icy breeze that blew through the hallways, swirling my robe around my ankles, was biting. My footsteps echoed off the stones in a way that jarred me.
He would be able to find me by the sound of my footsteps, I was certain. I shouldn’t have been out of the large tower bedchamber that I shared with my brothers. We omega princes were forbidden to leave our guarded room without our father, King Freslik’s permission. If he found me out of bounds now, who knew what unspeakable things might happen to me?
I’d gone down to our papa’s cloistered garden. I couldn’t remember why, only that I’d needed to feel Papa’s presence around me, needed to feel as though he was there guiding me and that he still loved me. My Papa’s love, even from beyond the grave, was the only thing that sustained me sometimes. I wantedto tell him that I had met my fated mate, the sapphire dragon Azurus, and that I might finally be able to be happy.
Azurus had appeared in my life suddenly and at exactly the moment I needed him. Some of my brothers and I had been banished by our wicked father to a work camp, but once we were there, the leader of that camp had sold us to an unknown man of power. Fortunately for us, it had turned out that the man of power was our long-lost cousin Osric, an alpha with a legitimate claim to our father’s throne.
Cousin Osric had plans to move on the royal castle, overthrow my father, and begin a reign of compassion and healing that would repair all the damage my father had done over the years. I was all in favor of that, but unlike some of my brothers, like Leo or Rumi, or even Obi, I was too terrified to join the fight.
I was not a fighter. I was an omega in every sense of the word. All I wanted was peace, a settled life, and to find my fated mate and raise a family with him. That fated future seemed so close I could touch it, and yet so very far away.
Meeting Azurus and knowing instantly that he was the alpha for me had been a complete surprise. I still didn’t know how I felt about everything having a fated mate meant or about Azurus. I was drawn to him, to be sure, but unlike the feelings some of my brothers, who had found their fated mates in the magical world we were now a part of just as much as we were of our own world, I didn’t instantly go into heat or feel lust or longing for Azurus.
The rules of fated mates said that I should have gone into heat very soon after meeting my mate. I didn’t. Something was wrong with me.
Azurus had comforted me in the terrifying moments of everything that had taken place during Cousin Osric’s first attempt to do battle against my father. I had clung to him and relied on him for protection. I liked him very much and foundhis tall, powerful form and his bright blue eyes gorgeous…but it was as if there were some sort of impenetrable wall blocking me from giving my heart and my body to him.
Perhaps that was the reason I’d left my shared bedchamber to go down to Papa’s garden. Perhaps I’d gone looking for answers as to why I hadn’t gone immediately into heat when I met Azurus. Papa would know what I should do, what was wrong with me. I longed to be happy, to relax and laugh and enjoy life, like my brothers did. I wanted to live. I wanted to be in love.
I just wanted to be normal.
The more I walked through my father’s castle the longer and more frightening the hallways became. The echoing stones seemed to be laughing at me.
No, it was more than that. I could definitely hear laughter, but it did not belong to the stones. It belonged to my father.
“Just you wait until I find you,” his voice reverberated off the walls around me. “You will rue the day you dared to be born into this cruel world.”
I caught my breath and picked up my pace. He was there, somewhere nearby, and he was coming for me. I needed help. I needed my dragon or my brothers.
“Azurus!” I called out, gathering up my robe and running faster through the labyrinthine hallways. “Where are you?”
The only sound that answered me was my father’s menacing laughter.
I ran faster, gathering up more of my robe. It felt like the material kept growing and expanding, weighing me down and making me slower the more I tried to gather it up.
“Azurus!” I called again.
He wasn’t coming. I had failed to respond to my fated mate the way I was supposed to when we’d first met, so he had rejected me. He wouldn’t save me. No one would save me.
“Rumi!” I called out instead, turning a corner and dashing in what I hoped was the right direction to reach our shared bedchamber. “Leo! Tovey!” Most of my brothers had moved to the magical world, but surely some of them would still be in our father’s castle to save me.
I turned another corner and another, but each one was dark and unfamiliar. I didn’t understand how I could become so lost in my own castle, the place I’d lived all my life. The hallways were all new and twisting and so, so cold.
“You will never escape from me,” my father’s voice echoed behind me, growing ever closer. “You can run, you can try to hide in another world, but I will always find you. You will always be at my mercy.”
“No!” I shouted, trying to run faster, though gathering up my robe made me feel as though I were swathed in a massive shroud. “Azurus!” I called out again. “Azurus, help me!”
The walls seemed to close in around me. There were more sets of footsteps echoing than just mine. It was my father, it had to be. Him or some of his guards. If they caught me, terrible things would happen to me. I would be captured and violated, and then my fated mate would never want me.
“Azurus!” I called out again, louder than ever, but it was too late.
I turned another corner and my father was there. His eyes glowed with hellfire as he reached for me, reached for my throat….
