Page 1 of Heavy is the Crown
PART 1
A BRIEF HISTORY
The events in this portion predate the events of Gothic Grove
ONE
A dragon’s first shift is the most volatile. The pain of allowing your two parts to merge is beyond comprehension, but once the two are merged, you will know peace as you never have before.
– Rosewood Family Journal
Shadow (sixteen years old)
They say when you shift the first time, it’s euphoric. The merging of you and your dragon counterpart makes you complete. Maybe it is euphoric for your average shifter. But I’ve known nothing but fear sinceitawoke in my mind. The raw power of it has terrified me from the very moment we first became aware of each other, and as soon as I started feeling the shift coming, I tried to deny it. Tried to pretend I wasn’t changing.
But you can only deny reality for so long . . .
The world slams back into me as my body shifts down, scales dissolving back to skin, wings pulling into my spine with bone-crushing pain, as my massive body pushes back inward, tryingto fit into a space that cannot accommodate it.This is it. This is how I die. Being ripped apart by the shift.But as quickly as those words race through my brain, the pain ceases and my body belongs to me again. Naked and shaking, I blink rapidly as I try to come to terms with what just happened. As if a volcano erupted, pools of lava gather around me, and beyond that lies the smoldering remains of the field.
Now you know our power. Next time, we won’t lose control like this.The voice in my head isn’t my own, and I’m reminded now how I will never be alone again.
Disoriented, I step forward but slip on something warm, and the scent of blood slams into me.
My eyes snag on my worst nightmare. My mother’s body is lying under me, her blood fanning out around us over the charred remains of the field. “No,” I choke out. “No, no, no!” I cry, a sob wrenched from my chest.
This wasn’t us, my dragon roars, but I can see the truth in front of me. The undeniable truth.
Dropping to my knees, I try desperately to push my mother's blood back into her wounds. The ragged claw marks across her chest pulse in time with her fading heartbeat. “Mom, no! Please! Oh, gods, no, no, no.” My tears are blurring my vision, causing the world around me to appear as if through a kaleidoscope.
A cool hand braces my face, the touch so familiar to me. “It’s okay, my love. Please stop. This is okay.” Her voice is soothing. “You must calm down and listen to me, dear one.” I try my best to breathe in her steady voice, but my body is still shaking. Tears are still cascading down my face. “Promise me you won’t let your father know who you are. Promise me, Shadow. He can never see your dragon. He can never know how powerful you are.”
“I promise! Mom, just please stay with me.” The only person in my life who loves me is slipping through my fingers in the middle of what I can now recognize as our backyard. Thesunlight peeking through the haze of smoke left behind from my shift feels like a cruel mockery of the situation when it lands on her face.
“I love you.” Her broken voice turns cold as her hand slips away from my own. Agony rips through my body, shattering my heart and shredding my soul. A scream tears itself from my throat as the last breath leaves her body.
It’s my fault. It’s my fucking fault. I killed her with my shift. I did this. I couldn’t control myself, couldn’t control it.
NO! This wasn’t us. This is not our fault, my dragon roars back. But I’m lost to my own grief.
Worthless. Pathetic. Weak. Murderer.
The words repeat over and over in my mind, until I feel hands pulling me away from the body, and when a fist connects with my jaw, the world blinks out. I wake up in a sterile-looking room. A wooden desk and a small twin bed are the only things in the room. The walls are blinding white, the scent of fresh paint covers something else that I can’t identify. When I turn toward the window, I’m not shocked to find bars on it. It resembles a prison cell. Which is fitting. I killed her. I deserve this.
It’s the first time I shove my dragon deep into a cage, ignoring how he roars and protests and thrashes against me.
It’s the first day I find escape in pain . . .
And the first time I understand how good it feels to atone through my own flesh and blood.
Shadow (twenty years old)
(“bad guy” – Vitamin String Quartet)
I watch as my father parades his new wife around the massive party. Shifters, vampires, and witches have all comeout to see the marriage between Julien Rosewood and Penelope Cadence. The Dragon Lord with his pretty bride. Even Alexi Helvig is here, the Vampire Lord himself. He’s currently drinking champagne that looks suspiciously red. His date is a slender witch who seems to cringe away every time he touches her.
They fashion themselves lords, but they only keep power through fear and through surrounding themselves with lesser beings.I grit my teeth against the voice of my dragon, even if he speaks the truth from deep in his cage.But we are not lesser beings. We would be a true lord.He’s never quieted down, always loud from his cage.
“Shut up,” I mutter out loud, taking a huge gulp of the champagne in my hand. The liquid costs more money than this house is worth, and I’m drinking it like it’s fucking water to keep his voice at bay.
