Page 9 of Dragon Throne: Part One

“You can speak to them?” my mom asked, a feeling of shock reaching me not just from her but from my father.

“Yeah. I mean. Not really. It’s hard to explain. It’s like their feelings or thoughts transform into words inside my head. I’m not sure how exactly, but I know what they mean. I can also share images with them. Tharion will send me a memory or something else, and I can see it clearly. And I can send mine to them. I just have to envision something, and he will see it and understand it.”

“Your father says,extraordinary!To write it in his—Why would he write it in your journal, Khayden? He knows he can do it, he’s the one doing it!” Watching her exasperated facepalm, I laughed. “Ignore your father.” Except, her gaze returned to him. “He wants to know if they lick you often.”

“All the freaking time. It’s usually like their way of sayinghelloto me or something. But he won’t stop, no matter how many times I tell him NOT TO.”

My answer was passive-aggressively sent to Tharion, whose tongue suddenly shot out again, scaring the shit out of me and making me stagger back several steps. He chuckled, finally turning around, and leaving to stroll with his girlfriend.

Asshole.

“Khayden says it’s a beautiful thing.”

“Yeah, gorgeous,” I huffed, wiping my chest clean, or at least attempting to clean it.

“It actually is, Son. It means they consider you one of them.”

“Oh, shit. Really?”

“Yes.” Mom chuckled too. “They only ever do that with each other. It is a greeting, yes, but it is also a sign of affection.”

Damn, I’d never thought of it that way. They saw me as one of them. The memory of my first night in the Hidden City returned, showing me the moment Vyper led me into their caves and all the Dragons came out to see me. My blood was their blood, and they had in fact welcomed me home.

“Aww. You love me, Tharion!” I yelled after him and he lifted his tail to me. Shaking my head, I turned to my parents. “Mom?”

“Yes?”

“When you mentioned mygods-given power, did you mean my connection to the Dragons?” Genuine intrigue filled me, because it felt like those words carried a much heavier weight.

“No, honey. As the Devenish Prince, you bear the same gift the Sky Gods bestowed upon our family the day they chose us as rulers of the Soulris. The purest magic ever beheld by any man.”

Evie’s voice replaced my mother’s briefly, and the story she had told me when I first arrived echoed in my mind.“His true name is Xavier Devenish, and he wields the same power all the men in his line have carried.”

“Magic.”

“Not just any magic. He comes from a legacy of supreme…”

“Wizards,” I breathed, heart thundering in my chest. “Raithian is a Warlock because he turned evil, but all the men before him were extremely powerful Wizards, which means—”

“That so are you,” Mom finished with pride, dealing the final blow.

“I-I can’t believe this.” The notion seemed illogical, but at the same time it felt so right. Something inside my very core instantly acknowledged it, like I had finally recognized a part of myself that had been hiding, forgotten, my entire life.

“Your father believes that it is the fusion between your Dragon side and Wizard magic which has given you the ability to do all these wonderful things.”

Her hand gestured towards Tharion and Storm.

“It has enhanced what was already special within you, transforming it into something else. Something spectacular. You are more powerful than any Devenish Prince that ever walked this world, Son. And you haven’t even taped into all your power yet. We don’t know what else you are capable of, and that is exactly why you must focus on it now. You need to master your Devenish magic, so that you can use it against Raithian.”

A crushing wave of truth and duty swept over me, and I finally began to comprehend, to appreciate, what it really meant to be a Devenish. Until now, I had only regarded it as a connection to the man in the demon mask. The one who sought to dominate or devastate everyone and everything. Yet, seeing the pride and honor in my mother’s eyes, hearing the virtue in her voice as she spoke of us, I was reminded that our family had ruled for thousands and thousands of years, creating, and upholding an honorable legacy before the Warlock King destroyed it all.

Perhaps that was why he changed his name after he stole the throne, to create his own legacy of pain and suffering.

“Oh, yes. I forgot that part.”

Wrinkling her nose at Dad, my mother faced me—like she hadn’t just unraveled everything I believed in before this moment.

“We never expected you to take away the throne from Evie, Son, or to undermine everything she has accomplished until now. She is theQueen of the People, but you are Caelisium’s heir,King of Dragons. The Dragon Crown can be worn by you, and you alone, Brax.”

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