Page 91 of Beneath Scales and Shadows
The remaining guards moved forward, weapons raised. Something snapped inside Ignis—control shattered by the sight of metal-gloved hands reaching for his mate.
The fire had been building too long, compressed beneath scales and restraint until it became something beyond flame—pure destruction made flesh. He inhaled deeply, gathering heat from his twin hearts, and exhaled destruction.
Dragon fire engulfed the throne room, a torrent of golden-white fury that turned marble to slag and metal to vapor. The inferno twisted around Sora without touching her, their blood bond protecting her from his flame.
“You threatened my mate.”His roar scorched the air.“You harvested her kind—and mine. No more!”
Through the flames, he watched King Ralph’s arrogance collapse into terror.
“You’re nothing but a beast pretending to rule,” the king spat, defiant even as fire licked at his royal robes. “All you do is hide in that mountain of yours, afraid to take to the sky.”
Ignis didn’t hesitate. He focused his flame, concentrating its destructive potential into a lance of pure heat that struck the king with surgical precision. The human monarch didn’t even have time to scream—his body collapsed into ash upon his throne, crown melting into a misshapen lump of metal.
Queen Marcille shrieked, falling to her knees before the dais, hands raised in supplication. “I was only following tradition—”
Her plea ended in a gurgle as Ignis’s claws closed around her throat, lifting her from the ground with contemptuous ease. He studied her terrified face, searching for any hint of remorse, any flash of understanding.
He found nothing but fear and hatred.
A moment later, her screams were drowned out by his flame until nothing but ash fell from his paw.
Movement at the corner of his vision drew his attention. Princess Jewels darted toward a hidden passage behind the thrones, her royal finery fluttering as she fled. With a single thought, Ignis’s tail whipped across the room, catching her mid-stride and pinning her against a marble column.
Sora rose to her feet, the suppression cuffs falling away as silver light pulsed from her scales. She approached Jewels with measured steps, her movements fluid despite the lingering effects of captivity.
Moonlight spilled through the shattered ceiling, bathing the confrontation in otherworldly radiance. Ignis saw what the princess had become—what treachery had cost her. Icy blue eyes glowed with unnatural luminescence, skin splitting with corrupted energy. Makeshift scales erupted chaotically across her flesh, grotesque imitations of the natural patterns adorning Sora’s skin.
“We discovered the old texts,” Jewels hissed, power fluctuating around her like heat shimmer. “A twice-born omega would bring our kingdom to ruin. But why? Humans had bed with magical creatures for generations, harnessing their abilities.” Her voice cracked, desperation bleeding through rage. “Why shouldn’t we reclaim what we cultivated? What should be ours? Even though you’re an omega, you’re a human, not a dragon, not a beast. You are going against your kind for... them!?”
Ignis felt Sora’s emotional shift through their bond—not just anger but something more complex, a historical understanding that transcended personal grievance. Pride flowed through him as she faced the princess with scholar’s precision rather than emotional reaction.
“The texts don’t speak of domination,” Sora countered, her voice steady. “They speak of balance—what your ancestors destroyed when they betrayed their dragon allies.”
Jewels’s face contorted, hatred burning through corruption. “You,” she spat, drawing a second poisoned blade from her sleeve. “You should have drowned in that lake where I left you.”
The confession slammed into Ignis like a physical blow.
Through their bond, he felt Sora’s memory crystallize—not her human recollection, but the baker’s daughter’s final moments. Ice water filling lungs. A familiar face watching with cold satisfaction as darkness claimed her vision.
It was Princess Jewels who’d killed the baker’s daughter—and summoned the Sora he knew to Artania.
Rage beyond reason consumed him as he turned his full attention to the princess. His wings unfurled with a thunderous crack, blocking falling debris from Sora as more of the ceiling collapsed.
“You tried to kill my mate.”He snarled, each word dripping with murderous intent.“Again!”
“And I should have finished the job a long time ago.” Princess Jewels scoffed, corrupted essence leaking from cracked skin. “It would’ve saved me all this trouble.”
Something cold and brutal calculated behind Ignis’s fury. Execution was too swift, too merciful. Justice demanded symmetry.
A life for a life.
He seized the princess in his claws, ignoring her screams as he launched through the shattered ceiling. His wings caught the morning updrafts, carrying them toward the castle grounds with terrible purpose. Behind him, he sensed Sora following, her newly awakened abilities allowing her to track him.
The frozen lake gleamed at the edge of the castle grounds, ice thinner now in the late winter sun. Ignis landed with precision, his weight cracking the surface into spidae-webbed patterns. The princess struggled in his grasp, pleas turning to shrieks as realization dawned.
“No mercy for those who show none.”He roared, the sound crashing off the mountains, echoing like the land itself demanded the evil be purged. He held her above the fracturing ground, wings outstretched, fury blazing through every scale of him.
Her eyes widened in comprehension a moment before he released her. She plunged through the ice with a strangled scream, dark water swallowing her flailing form. Not content with mere drowning, Ignis scanned the shoreline, spotting a boulder half-embedded in frozen earth. Three wingbeats brought him to it, his hind claws digging beneath the stone to wrench it free.
