Page 53 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Suddenly, I remember where I have heard these words before. In my mind’s eye, I see them written so plainly within the ancient history tome Bene once gifted me.
In the section on royal lineage and address.
Na’therya. My queen.
Therya’kai.Queen of Flame.
Therya Drakara. Queen of Drakara.
“What?” I have just enough time to whisper before the room spins.
Before the pixie before me blurs.
Before everything goes black.
Chapter 15
Benevolence
Now
Aurelia faints. I sense her body betraying her as if it is my own. Her consciousness winking out. Her legs crumpling. She has been forced to endure too much.
I whirl to face her, snuffing out the Fire roiling forth from my mouth and fingers, ripping open the shield encasing her. Boneless, she tumbles into my arms, her face so wan beneath her glow that my heart clenches in fear.
My eyes snap to Velda. “What did you do?”
My inner dragon roars in protest, clawing to be free, to punish the one who dared harmNa’therya, even as my rational mind reassures me that Velda would never.
Brisa abandons the ice wall she erected around the enemy soldiers and flits in close to snap, “Velda didn’t do anything. You’re the one who frightened her, and you know it, you Fire-weaving ninny!”
I peel back my lips and snarl at my blue-clad auntie.
Velda drifts between us. “Tensions are high, and we are all doing our best,” she murmurs, trying to soothe us both. “But we need to remain united in this if we want to bringTherya’kaihome unharmed.”
“Home?” My arms tighten around Aurelia instinctively, cradling her against my chest as, for one wild moment, I entertain the thought that perhaps Icanbring her home. That perhaps I can formally name herNa’therya.
That perhaps we can fulfill the prophecy her mother first foretold thirty years ago.
Together.
The idea is a siren’s song that calls to the wounded places of my heart as I gaze down at the beautiful Jewel in my arms. As I drink in deep her intoxicating scent. She smells like sunshine and warmed earth. Like roses. Like power.
Raw, delicious power.
Here she lies, the key to saving all Drakara, helpless in my arms. Waiting to be claimed. To be consumed—
“Naei!”I shout. To my fairy godmothers. To my Shade. To the Great Weaver Himself.
Why does my God continue to torture me?
Why did He bother showing me that Aurelia was the key to saving my people—ourpeople—when I cannot be near her for more than a few minutes at most before I start to hunger for all that she is?
Glorana calls out from her place tending to Brisa’s ice wall, holding Friedemar and his soldiers at bay. “Technically speaking, Bene, you have no right to deny Aurelia the chance to return home to Drakara if she wishes to do so. She isTherya’feyin her own right, just as her mother was before her. Queen of the Flora Vale.”
“The Shadow Lands,” I correct with a growl. “The Vale died with the rest of her people thirty years ago. And I have every right. I am the King of all Drakara. She is merely the heir to one small portion.”
Aurelia’s eyelashes flutter. A groan escapes from her throat as she comes back to herself.
