Page 26 of Court of Dragons and Ashes

KING GRAYSON OF THE EARTH COURT

My heart hurts to see my mother’s silver boat float across the grey mists, into death’s waiting hands. There’s a smell here, one I only associate with the last moments before people die. It’s sweet, like honey that’s crystallised, but laced with a bitter touch of death. The Mists are spread far and wide around the mountains of the Earth Court, but they do not belong to my land or to anyone but death. To claim them would be claiming death itself. The Mists of the Dead are empty, but I sense something lurking in there, something that no one living should see.

My sister is softly informing Ellelin what this place is, how our funerals are different from how they do them on Earth. We don’t bury or burn our dead very often in the courts. Most choose to be brought here to be sent away into the Mist with the mighty dragon gods. “This is the Death Mist, Elle. We send our dead in boats across so our souls can rest with the gods. The dragon gods, not the invaders to our world. Every court, mortal or dragon, sends their dead here, and it is an honour.”

“It’s beautiful,” Ellelin whispers, her soft tone weaving around my heart like a bandage. Again, I wonder how she is so brave and how I will ever deserve her. She fixes my soul withevery whispered word, with every single moment she spends in my company. Ellelin doesn’t see me as a scarred monster undeserving of her, and maybe with time, I might convince my own mind not to see myself that way.

My sister stands proudly at my side, and it’s good to have her here, beside me, as we say goodbye in our own way. I look down at her, the very image of my mother, and she smiles up at me for a second, her eyes glazed with tears. I want to comfort her, but I’m not sure any words I could say would help. It’s hard to mourn someone you don’t know, but she was our mother. She was queen of the Earth Court.

I look behind me at the hundreds of my people in black and green, mourning with us. For a time, she was good at being a queen, but that isn’t how she will be remembered. She’s with my father now, her mind free of the madness, but I will never be free of her scars.

Ellelin is on my other side, and she looks up at me, her scent wrapping around me like a vice. Even at a funeral, my cock grows hard just looking at her. Now that I’ve been inside her, she is more addictive to me than I ever thought possible. I don’t know what we’ve been doing with our spare time, but we definitely should be having more sex. I love her, this shadow princess of mine, and there isn’t a place in any world I wouldn’t be at her side.

I’m not alone in that sentiment, and fuck, I want Emrys here to help fix things. Lysander and Arden are here, both of them on opposite sides, far away from us, like even standing close to each other is an insult. They are kings of powerful courts, but more importantly, they are Ellelin’s destined mates. The distance between them hurts her, and I will find a way to fix it.

I spot how Ellelin’s gaze flickers between them, like a mouse caught in a trap between two giant foxes. I kiss the top of herhead, breathing in her scent. “I’ll catch up with you soon, my love.”

Even her confused frown is cute. “Okay.”

“Oh, I can show you my private rooms, and then we—” I drown out my sister’s ramblings as I walk away, knowing she will be safe with the new guards I have around, who are watching them constantly for any threat. The lands have been searched for any threats, anyone showing signs of Aphrodite’s or Ares’s magic hold, but so far, only two have been found and killed.

Arden is heading her way, and I’m sure he will steal her from my sister soon enough. I look once more at the boat floating away, barely an outline now. The funeral is over the second she cannot be seen anymore, and there are no words to be spoken, even for a queen. We don’t speak to the dead, nor do we say words to let them go in public. Those words can be spoken in private before the boat is set off, with only their spirit to hear and whisper to you. Time is nothing as I watch the boat, the Mist carrying it so perfectly. It’s so quiet…until a voice whispers into my ear. At first, I don’t believe it’s real, I will never know if it is…but it’s my mother’s. “I’m sorry, my son. I always loved you, my beautiful prince. I will see you in the Mists and hug you once again. I love you, I love you…I love you.” I blink and look to my side, but there is nothing but Mist there.

Needing a distraction, I walk to Lysander’s side, who doesn’t look impressed with anything. He never has, mind you, but something is broken now. I can’t leave my brother like this, not without attempting to help. “Are you wondering if your father’s in there, cursing you for not killing Arden yet?”

“You’ve heard,” he says coldly, like I’m a stranger to him. If a good bunch of my nobles weren’t staring at us, I’d punch the fucker in the arm. I keep my voice low. “You’re a moron and deserve to be hung off the side of my mountains by your wings.” Lysander tenses. “But you’re my friend, my brother in choice,and I’m not walking away from you because you fucked up. We’re going to fix it.”

“This isn’t fixable,” he snarls at me, drawing attention. “Who says I even want to fix it? Who says I still don’t want revenge for my father?”

“You don’t.” My tone is certain. Something has changed within Lysander, and I think it’s everything to do with his destined mate, my Ellelin. “Do you know, at one point in the Crown Race, I was ready to destroy every court to keep her to myself? I didn’t want to share her, and I would have fought you.”

He looks at me for the first time, a bit of surprise in his green eyes. “You would have betrayed us all for her?”

I don’t pause and there isn’t a bit of doubt in my voice. “Yes.” I glance behind me, seeing Arden shifting into his dragon and making my people scatter like the wind at the sight of the huge fire dragon. Ellelin’s laugh reaches me as she climbs onto his back. “Things changed in the camp when I knew that she needed more than me. That she is a princess from a fallen kingdom who will need her. She has enemies after her that would kill her in a heartbeat. I can’t protect her on my own, and maybe it was never meant to be that way. Do you believe in fate, in destiny?”

He scoffs. “Of course, but they fuck me over.”

I bite back from saying he causes most of the problems himself and not even fate can change this stubborn fucker’s mind. “I believe the mighty gods guide us and forgive us. We have mortal souls, capable of making grave mistakes in the name of love. We all fucked up with Ellelin, and yet she is still giving us a chance to right it, while fighting for us.”

I glance at the priests who lie near the edges of the Mists, their chants filling the air. Their temples are at the sides of the Mists, almost hidden within them. There are temples in every single court, protected by the mighty dragons, but these are the biggest, grander than others. My court speaks of stories of thesetemples, how they existed before dragons ever flew the skies. “Come with me a second, friend.”

I’m well aware that if the water king doesn’t want to come with me, he won’t, and I won’t force him. I have no interest in fighting him today, not in front of the dead. Lysander stays at my side to my surprise, following me around the Mist into one of the massive temples. Gold-leaved trees sway, even with no breeze, as we walk down the pathway to the temple. The trees are complemented by completely solid gold pillars that hold a massive statue of a dragon above the entrance, its wings stretched into the surrounding Mists.

Candles line everywhere, the flames green, except for a small pathway leading up to an altar in front of our four mighty dragon gods. Their bodies are those of a mortal, two male and two female, but from their shoulders up, they are dragons. Their heads are dragons, as told in our ancient scrolls. Giant wings spread out of their backs, tipping up to make triangle shapes behind them, and at the tips where they meet, a diamond the size of my palm shines bright. The four mighty dragon gods are impressive to look at, to pray to. No one knows where they really came from or even who started this religion, but I’m hoping in this place, we might finally talk of some truths.

“Talk to me, Lysander.” When he doesn’t say a word, I pick up a match from the altar and light a candle. I would pray for Ellelin, for Emrys and our safety, but I don’t think even these gods have the power to help us now. “In this place, anything you say to me, it will be between us. I’ve told you a truth of mine. Now tell me a truth of yours.”

He is quiet for so long, and then he speaks. His voice is thick with an emotion I know all too well. Shame. “I regret what I did to Ellelin and Arden. A part of me regrets it with all of my soul, and another part still hates him because he got it so easy.”

Confused, I face him. “What did he get easy?”

“His parents died as heroes, as good people, as people who loved him. Yes, his family was gone, but he didn’t have to live through the misery like I did.” He leans on a pillar. “My father was brutal and cruel to most people, but not to me. He loved me, and as a child, I saw only that. I wanted him to love me so much that I never got mad, never got upset, never called him out for the tests. He fucked up, but I still loved him. Maybe I’m an idiot for saying that?—”

I cut him off. “You’re not an idiot for loving someone that hurts you. I’ve just stood at my mother’s funeral, covered in scars from her. My body and soul are scarred from her own madness, the things that led her to it, and I still love her. I will always love my mother. I understand you, and I understand living in grief cannot be easy. My father…when I came back, he was a shadow. Grief swallowed him, spat him out the other side as something that was no longer a dragon king but a wrath on this world.”

Lysander’s eyes are full of that wrath now. “My mother was like that for years. I looked after my brother, shielded him from it, let him still have light and love and happiness and never allowed myself any of that. I had to be king from an early age, had to deal with the nobles, the royalty, all of it.Strong,cold, andemptywere words I embodied. I had my cousins, older than me, breathing down my neck, trying to take my crown and kill me. I had my mother, who was broken. The love of her life was gone. Her mate, as she claimed.

“She’s better now…some days. Other days, she is not. Even now, she shuts herself in her room, barely speaking to anybody. Arden, he had support around him. His people love and adore him. They never thought to betray him, not for a second.” He lifts his hands. “Half my court betrayed me the minute that Ares walked in.” Lysander laughs humourlessly. “Do you know whatthat feels like? The people I’ve sacrificed everything for turned their backs on me in a split second and never looked back.”

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