Page 3 of Dragonrider Academy: Episode 8

Resting my head in my hands, I sighed. “You guys! That’s so romantic.” I nudged Killian. “This one wants to take me to the Malice Realm to search for the next Lost Queen. Definitely not my idea of a romantic date.”

While I was teasing, I was honestly nervous about it.

My last visit to the Malice Realm hadn’t gone very well and I was not on the best of terms with the Malice King. I couldn’t say I was looking forward to sneaking into his creepy realm again to snoop around for something I wasn’t even sure was there.

Jasmine sobered up when I mentioned the Malice Realm. She put her fork down and frowned. “I thought that’s where Eclipse came from? Why would you go back there?”

“Who’s Eclipse?” Vern asked before I could respond.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you listen to anything I say? Vivi’s mother’s dragon is the second Lost Queen.”

James hummed with interest. “The second Lost Queen? Which one was the first?”

Lily chuckled. “You guys seriously don’t pay attention.” She glanced at the window. We were in the graduates’ cafeteria, so we were a few floors up. This area included platforms that lent access to the skies. Our dragons were fully-grown, so they were enjoying their meals on the long stretch of stone where dwarven magic sent out a consistent supply of raw meat on a leathery conveyer belt. Solstice, particularly, seemed to enjoy her meal as she tossed a slab of meat into the air before snapping her jaws around it as it fell.

Such a show off.

I liked it here, though. The setup was a convenient mixture of technology and magic. On the ground floor I’d only been exposed to a buffet table for the students, but after graduation I’d been shown what else the Dean had been working on, thanks to her alliance with the dwarves.

Some of those benefits seemed to come from Lily and her reign over her fiery, mountainous realm called Vyorin.

Something I was curious to ask more about, but the topic seemed to be securely placed on me.

“Solstice woke up first,” Killian said as he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in close to his chest. I sighed into his embrace, feeling completely at home. “Rather, my girl brought her back from the dead.”

That wasn’t the entire truth, but I didn’t correct him. It was far too difficult to explain that Solstice had held onto me and refused to move onto the afterlife. I’d simply guided her spirit back to where it belonged.

I didn’t actually know Solstice’s history. When she spoke to me, it wasn’t in words, but in emotions and thoughts that formed blurry pictures in my mind. So I wasn’t sure how to ask in a way that she could respond.

I watched her as the sunlight caught on her golden scales. The way that she moved displayed every hard-earned muscle and each shimmering scale cleaned from her recent preening.

Mesmerized by her growing beauty, I wondered for the first time where it was that she had actually come from.

Maybe if I knew her story, it would help me find the other Lost Queens, too.

Starting with the other egg that I had been dreaming about the past few nights in a realm as black as night.

Shaking off those dark dreams, I focused on Solstice as she devoured her food.

The other dragons seemed to appreciate the primal display. Topaz, especially, seemed entirely enamored as he watched his mate behave like a savage animal. He cocked his massive head and made a lizard-like sort of grin. Smoke drifted from his nostrils as he licked the air—a sign that he was happy.

To dragons, a good appetite was apparently very attractive.

“I remember,” Jasmine said, interjecting with a tone of disapproval. She took up her fork and stabbed it in my direction. “And it nearly cost you your life.” She frowned. “Don’t go doing anything stupid again—like going back to the Malice Realm? I ask again. Why would you go back there? You already retrieved Eclipse from the Malice King.”

I didn’t really want to talk about this. My dreams were fuzzy at best, and terrifying at worst.

Eclipse had been easier for me to sense. Solstice behaved as a sort of conduit, allowing me to hear the other cries of the Lost Queens asking for help.

This one, though, wasn’t asking for help.

It was demanding blood.

And something was giving this Lost Queen exactly what she wanted.

Those dreams definitely took place in the Malice Realm. My latest vision had included the iconic Onyx Castle where I’d found Eclipse’s egg in the first place.

This egg was somewhere else, though. I imagined the Malice Realm could be a large place, so I wasn’t looking forward to digging around in a land without sunlight.

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