Page 7 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Brisa scowls at me. “You can’t be serious.”
Glorana adjusts her spectacles. “I do believe he is.”
“And what about Aurelia?”Velda weaves to me, carefully imparting the words directly to my thoughts.“She should be with you when you take up the Corona Ignis, Bene. She is yourTherya’kai. It is her destiny to share the burden of the Corona alongside you.”
“That destiny was stolen from us thirty years ago,”I weave back, fighting to keep the pain that knifes through my heart from showing on my face.“Do you think I don’t wantNa’theryawith me when I become king? Of course, I want her here. I want her with me always.”
But what I want doesn’t matter. The curse still hangs over both our heads. The danger to Aurelia is too great. I dare not be near her, not now that we are both grown.
Especially not once I don the Corona Ignis and set my uncle’s vile curse in motion.
“And besides,”I snarl across the mental link,“I would need to possess the power of the Corona first to be strong enough to open the Door. It would be impossible to bring Aurelia here before then.”
Carefully, Velda suggests,“My sisters and I could attempt to open the Door in your place—”
“Naei. There is no point.”My mind has been made for weeks now. This is the way it must be.“The moment I don the Corona Ignis, I intend to use its power to destroy the Door.”
Velda’s soft gray eyes bore into the side of my face.
I stare straight ahead, refusing to meet her gaze. “Lord Justice, prepare our troops. Tonight, if it is the Great Weaver’s will, we will declare war on the Shadow Lands.”
The older dragon leans forward, his excitement crackling through the air between us. “And tomorrow, Your Highness?”
“Tomorrow,” I echo as my gaze lowers to the map—to the Door, to the rolling countryside of the human kingdom of Briarhold beyond. To the walls of the sprawling capital city of Spindleton that now house the last living Jewel.Na’therya.
The woman I can never see again.
“Tomorrow, we fly,” I rasp, ignoring the growing ache gnawing at my heart.
As a boy, I wasn’t strong enough to break the curse. Even as a mere man, I’m not strong enough to save Aurelia from a life spent exiled from her homeland, never knowing what shetrulyis. What she was born to be.
But as aking?
I will finally have the strength to do what needs to be done before the madness consumes me—the strength to defeat myuncle once and for all. The strength to save Drakara from his growing darkness.
And the strength to tear asunder the Door between worlds, to ensure I cannot fulfill my uncle’s curse.
To ensure I can never kill the woman I love.
Chapter 3
Aurelia
Now
The ink dries slowly on the parchment, each word a finality I’m not sure I’m ready to face.
My final letter to Bene.
A lump rises in my throat, but I desperately swallow it down.Not now, I plead with myself, blinking away the tears I promised I wouldn’t shed.
Mama is right. This must be done.
But still… after seventeen years of letters—of a friendship beyond any other I’ve ever known—I can’t believe I’m about to say goodbye.
Outside my window, our usually quiet street is alive with preparations for the king’s ball. The royal banners of King Friedemar, son of Aldemar, snap in the early summer breeze in a ripple of blue and gold, as if in mimicry of the delicate threads of magic shimmering through the heavens.
Gold for Spirit. Blue for Water.
