Page 22 of Heavy is the Crown
I snort and shake my head. “Your sister is important to me, and I won’t risk her safety. So, you’ll excuse me if I don’t take your word for it.”
His silver eyes narrow toward me as he cocks his head, the wind dancing strands of that blonde hair around his face. “And who the fuck is my sister to you?”
“My mate.”
Ava
I’m not sure when it first started, but at some point between Drago’s revelation of who we all are to each other and disclosing they are dragons and now, I’ve slipped into a dark hole that I can’t seem to crawl out of. It’s as if I spent so long just trying to survive, now that I feel safe, I’m feeling everything that I kept at bay. The only time I feel somewhat normal is when I’m working. I know Drago worries; he’s constantly fussing over me. Part of me thinks it’s fueled by guilt that Shadow refuses to see me.
Drago and I have spent hours talking since that first night, and he’s shared every secret he has, which is how I find myself in the position that I’m in. My own secret of who I am eating me alive.
My stomach is in knots as I look between the step siblings. Ying and yang. Drago with his light hair and eyes, and Shadow with his dark hair and eyes. The other two thirds of my soul that I can’t seem to have. I have been going back and forth in my head for days on if I should tell them who I am. But as I’ve healed, my anxiety has worsened, the walls closing in around me the longer I’m in the open. Drago thinks I'm scared of the prison, that Alexi will take me back. But it’s not him I’m afraid of.
As crazy as it sounds, I was relatively safe in the prison. No one was going to find me and drag me back home. But here? In the open? My brother or one of his friends could easily scent me out now. It’s a fear I hadn’t known prior to being taken, but one that seems to be poisoning my every moment now.
“You dragged me here, what do you want?” Shadow’s voice cuts like a blade, and I don’t have to look up to know the low growl I heard came from Drago in warning. He’s gotten increasingly more protective of me. I don’t know what he said to get Shadow here, but I won’t lie and say I’m not happy to have him near me.
I close my eyes, taking in a long, deep breath, before I open them and take in both of the men in front of me. “I need you both to know who I am.” Neither say anything, so I take another breath, hoping to steady my racing heart.
“Go on, Ava, it’s okay,” Drago says, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
“I’m not from Gothic Grove. I left my home a while ago.”
“So?” Shadow snaps.
“Jesus,rakkaani,let her speak,” Drago says.
“Don’t fucking call me that,” Shadow snarls back. Pain flashes across Drago’s face.
“I’m from Hell!” I blurt out, desperate to stop the altercation between them. The two turn and zero in on me. The only sound that can be heard is the wind outside.
“Why would that matter?” Shadow asks. “I mean, it’s not unheard of for people to cross over.”
I close my eyes for a second, hyping myself up to drop the biggest part of the story. The part that I fear will have them running from me, given what they are. The long history between dragons and Hell is bloody and brutal. Particularly with the royal families. “I left Hell because my father was, or is, the king. My brother is the prince. Which would make me the princess.”
Silence descends for a moment, laying over us like a thick blanket. Shadow blinks once, twice, before he lets out a laugh and shoves his hands through his hair. Drago, however, stays oddly silent, unexpectedly calm after my revelations.
“So, is this your goodbye?” Shadow asks as he paces back and forth.
“What?” Genuine confusion pings through me.
“You're obviously leaving,” Shadow says, tossing the words at my feet. “Why would a royal stay here? You’re done slumming it with us? Got your fill of fucking around, now you can go home to daddy?”
Drago growls low, “Careful.”
I don’t hide the hurt, the pain physically cutting through my heart. “I left because my father sold me off. I wasn’t going to marry someone I had never met who only wanted to use me as a fucking mare to breed children for him, all to gain more power.” I pause as the emotions I’ve kept bottled up threaten to spill over. “In Hell, the royals are the most powerful. We have the ability to open and close the gates to Gothic Grove, among other things. But it comes at a price. The magic, whilestrong, isn’t indefinite, nor can it be removed from Hell for long. Our priestesses perform a ceremony that replenishes our magic every full moon. Without that, if we use too much, we die. I knew when I left it would be a risk, that I might never be able to use my magic, or die because I used too much. Someone being married into the family could have access to that.”
“Well, that’s fucking ridiculous,” Drago says, stalking off to pour himself something to drink.
I shrug. “It was put in place so no royal would be able to take the power with them and use it against Hell.”
But Shadow continues to look at me, head tilting. “So, the only way to maintain your magic is a ceremony in Hell?”
Nerves rattle my bones as I look at both. This was the part I was dreading, for Shadow’s sake. “Yes and no. Every ceremony the priestesses perform is linked to sexual energy. In a bind, we can feed our magic with sex, but it only provides a small jolt of power. Essentially, enough to keep you alive. But sexual magic with a mate? That would be just as good as if it had been performed by a priestess. If not better.”
“So, that’s why you want to mate,” Shadow growls.
“What?! No!” I yell, rushing toward him, arms outstretched. But he’s moving toward the door too quickly, and Drago wraps his arms around my waist.
