Page 11 of Court of Dragons and Ashes

He rubs his face against my arm. “Fine, I will not be jealous. Much.” I look up to see so many hundreds of dragons filling the sky, a few hovering near the castle. “I’m glad that the people of the Water Court got the message from your king not to attack us as we flew in. We passed many of the Water Court dragons in the skies, and I wouldn’t have liked to hurt them to get here.”

“You brought all of the Shadow Court with you?” I ask. “There are so many more than I thought.”

“They knew their princess was here, fighting, and there is nowhere else we would be. We have our young and eggs with us. We must find safety,” Terrin explains to me.

“Go to the Spirit Court island and take it back,” I suggest. I wish I could go with him, see my true home once more. I was there for months, clueless that it was my home, the place I was born. Every inch of me longs to be back in the magic castle, to feel the energy of the shadows of the Spirit Court like I did as a child. I just can’t return, not yet, but soon. I promise myself soon.

“Leaving you is not something I wish?—”

“Terrin, I need you to take back my court and keep my people safe. There’s nothing you can do for me here, and I’m not putting you in danger,” I firmly state. I run my hand over his scales. “Please. I doubt Ares left the Spirit Court lands without some of his stolen army to watch the castle. I owe you so much for saving me from…”

Terrin growls low, sending shivers down my spine. “We shall not speak of that monster. He does not deserve to have his name even whispered in our realm.”

I clear my throat. “Now that I have my shadow magic back, I wonder if I can do something for you.”

“What did you have in mind?” he asks, curious.

“Stay still.” I step back, close my eyes, and pull my shadows around him, wrapping tight around every inch of his dragon form and sensing the magic bind that’s there around him. It’s hard to visualise it, and the magic is incredibly powerful, and I can sense my father all around it. I think he died to make this magic. It feels like chains wrapped around him, and I break them with a lash of my shadows. When I open my eyes, it’s not my dragon in front of me anymore. It’s a man…a beautiful man. He looks to be a few years older than me, smooth dark skin, a slight dark brown beard that matches his hair, which is long, past his shoulders and silky smooth. His eyes are the exact same as his dragon form, green stars in a dark sky, and he’s completely naked. He’s gorgeous, but completely and utterly naked. I look up from his body, and he chuckles low, the sound making my skin pebble. I pull off my cloak and drop it between us as I keep my eyes high up. The dragon kings are stunning, the most stunning males I have ever met, and Terrin is right up there with them.

I don’t know what they made these dragons with, but fuck, it’s dangerous to womankind.

“You can open your eyes now,” a dark, deep voice seductively suggests. His voice is darker, different, and I really like it. “I’ve waited so long to see you as my true self.”

He takes a shaky step forward, and I rush over, catching him. “I’d make aLittle Mermaidreference to getting legs for the first time, but you’d have no idea what I’m talking about.” I sigh, reaching up and touching his hair. “I’m not sure how long I can hold the magic back. Whatever my father did, it’s so powerful. I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

Terrin wraps his arms around my waist, and he cups my face with one large hand. There is a ring on his thumb and a symbol I miss seeing. The Spirit Court shadow, with a dragon within theshadow flame. “Mate, if we only have a few seconds, I must taste you.”

Terrin kisses me with all the intensity of a burning flame. I gasp at the first taste of him on my lips, a burning attraction coming to life through my chest. He is my mate. It’s a different feeling than Lysander and I have, but so similar, like shadows and light. He might not be good at walking after so many years as a dragon, but kissing? Yup, he has that one down. I lean into him as he breaks away from me, sucking in a deep breath. “Sometimes I imagine the gods never came to our world, and we met in the Spirit Court as teenagers. That we knew from the beginning that we were mates and spent time getting to know each other without war looming over us and magic keeping us apart. I imagine our mating ceremony in front of the courts, of our night in the spirit of darkness underneath the castle where we would be as one for the first time. It is unfair. We never got any of that.”

I run my hand down his arm. “And where do Lysander, Arden, Grayson, and Emrys fit into this?”

He laughs and I could listen to him laugh all night. “We would fight to the death for you, and I’d win, of course.”

Shaking my head, I laugh at his joke, even if we all do need to talk about this. Somehow, I’ve ended up in serious relationships with five men, and I don’t know how that continues after the war, when the gods are gone and it’s just us. Terrin is right in one way. We’d just have the Spirit Court to ourselves, as he is from there. The others have their own courts, and would I be enough for them if I had to go between all of the courts?

“My power is waning,” I whisper, pushing my insecure thoughts to the back of my mind. Terrin tucks my hair behind my ear. I sense familiar eyes on us, and I look up to see Lysander on the balcony.

Even with the distance, I feel his burning jealousy and anger like it’s my own emotions. “Who the fuck is that?”

“Protect our woman until I am back,” Terrin speaks into my mind, but somehow, it’s sent to Lysander, too. A shared connection. When I was being attacked by the commander, I thought they spoke through my mind, all of them. How is that possible?

Terrin steps back, dropping my cloak, and I get a glimpse of all of him once again before my spell breaks, his dragon shifting back in a cloud of shadow. “I will wait for you in the Spirit Court, as you wish, and so will your people. Goodbye, my mate. The Spirit Court lands will dampen our bond and speaking to you. However, if you are in danger, I will know still.”

He jumps up and flies back into the air, joining the others. With a roar that could shake the very stars, the dragons change direction and head off to our court. “Be safe, Terrin.”

I make a dragon out of shadow and fly back up to the balcony, landing in a pit of shadows in front of a very jealous-looking Lysander. He links our fingers. “I don’t trust him or like him having you. I don’t give a fuck if he is your mate.”

“Lysander, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Can we all talk?—”

“Let’s focus on saving the others first, and then we can talk about how you’re mine,” he coldly answers, leading me back to the bed. Lysander pulls me onto the bed, wrapping his arms tightly around me like I might just disappear into the shadows.

CHAPTER 6

HOPE

The temple of the mighty dragon gods is filled with bodies and mourners. Marble coffins, rows and rows of them, line the temple’s stone floor, and the cries of their families echo around like a prayer. Candlelight brightens the dark room, but it does nothing to chase away the grief that is thick in the air. I think they are lucky, the dead and alive in here…they loved someone enough to grieve. People like me…we don’t have that. The funerals for the Water Court will go on for weeks, but for now, the bodies are being kept cold by magic. There’s a place in Ayiolyn, the Death Mist, where the dead are taken, but for now the priests of the mighty dragon gods, the Twilight themselves, will watch over these lost souls.

I stand in the entrance hall, watching as a family mourns over a coffin, praying for more time that they will not be given. I won’t know what it’s like to mourn someone like that. The bitter sting of it is hard to swallow at times. I look up at the statues of the gods, sweeping dragons that fill the ceiling, watching over the dead. There are so many forms the dragon gods take. In each court, it is a little different, but this one was always my favourite. Simple dragons, no different to the hundreds of thousands of people around us. The mighty dragon gods have never doneanything for me. I’m not sure I even believe in the old stories of them, but the stories stay with me.

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