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Killing brought some feelings back into my soul. But after doing it so much, I still felt soulless, lifeless, and better off dead.

The man scurried past another cobblestoned building. As swiftly as the rats in the streets, I found his neck beneath my hands, and raised the knife to meet his warm skin. The slick blade sliced as easily as it always did, thick blood dripping downmy hand. However, I didn’t mind. It was a liquid form of power and control that was mine. The crimson puddle pooling caught my eye. The image was soulless, empty. I wasn’t just a killer, but a beautiful monster.

1.Ezu (Eh-ooh): Heaven

Chapter four

AURELIA

“Let go of me!” I screamed as the knights dragged me outside of the castle. I didn’t want them to take me back to that dreaded tower of mine.

Attempting to slow them down, I surveyed the garden for any sign of a live object that could be used to channel the energy for the shield on my tower. I could have some freedom if I was able to destroy it before I was forced back inside. At least for the night.

Still kicking and thrashing, I looked around the garden, wildflowers everywhere, butterflies fluttering from leaf to leaf, and glistening dew from the night air crusted everything. I was looking for anything that had recently turned a different color, had a slight purple contrast around it, or was starting to turn translucent.

Frustration kicked into full force. We were getting closer to the edge, the place where I would be thrown into the magic wall. My tower, the place of hostage that they said was a protection forme. My arms flew back and forth, elbowing one of the knights in the stomach. He grunted but held firm. Their fingers clenched around my arms, tightening to restrain my movements.

“Stop touching me!” I shouted, continuing to look for anything out of the ordinary. However, the sun had long since fallen, leaving only the moon and the Celestials to light the garden we were passing. I was having no luck between lashing out and trying to find it in the night.

“You should’ve thought about the consequences before you started a scene.” The two knights smirked as they continued dragging me by my arms through the back of the castle grounds. They were so strong that they practically lifted me in the air, my feet floating and fighting to ground me.

I continued to resist. Anger rose inside of my stomach, boiling through my veins. I could feel my eyes heat up, and my hands started to blaze. The knights on both sides of me yelped from the heat of the fire that was engulfing my hands. The flames caught their glimmering purple vests, burning them to a crisp until the fire was suddenly restrained. There was only one person who could have stopped it.

Nana.

They had slightly released me but still had a grasp around my arms, sinking their nails in. They must’ve known I would use my abilities and didn’t seem too shocked, besides the small wails released from their lips.

We were outside the grounds of the castle; the garden surrounding us. The moonlight glimmered on the small ponds, surrounded by moss-green hedges with a waxy sheen as tall as me and in different shapes. The darkness cascaded down the garden from the sky, mirroring the light in the water.

My gaze swept the verdant garden in search of my grandmother. She was the only person in the kingdom whopracticed old magic. It was banned. The knights, frozen in anticipation, were also aware that she was present.

Amidst the foliage, she emerged. Her silver hair tumbled down her back, gleaming alongside the moon, her luxurious nightgown a regal purple hue.

“What did you do this time, girl?” She knew that it was me who had started a scene. My father, her son, kicked me out of the kingdom, condemning me back to my tower. Whether or not I misbehaved at dinner, I would’ve had to return to my tower, anyway.

“Nana, you put a shield onLaneux1.” A lingering heaviness weighed my heart. The dragon. Watching him die. Watching the naïve humans drool at the sight of a great dragon being weakened and put to death. She could have saved him. It was her fault that he was killed. She knew their importance and their power, yet she watched and allowed it to happen. “Why?” I almost whispered, breathless from the struggle against the guards.

The knights stood steadfastly to my side, adding a strengthened grip to my arms, letting me know that they were still there. The weight of my sorrow seemed to draw out their presence.

“You wouldn’t understand, Dearie. Maybe one day you will,” she softly said. My heart almost stopped in its place. What was there to understand? Dragons were more valuable than just being used as a sport for humans. One look at her and I held my tongue.

Her gaze became solemn as it glanced down at the grass beneath our feet. The way her eyes wouldn’t meet my own made me understand that something was pinging her heart, making her upset. But why?

As she turned around, the tip of the skull tattoo engraved on her back peeked above her nightgown. Etched in her skin, thetattoo whispered her gift of old magic that coursed through her veins. The one she actively hid every day to avoid the fate the others of her kind faced.

Nana said nothing else, only watching me as the light dimmed in her eyes, her lips trembling slightly. A flurry of thoughts swirled in my mind as the two knights led me past the garden grounds, breaching the large cobblestoned wall that blocked the view of my tower. A haze diffused above the divider between the castle grounds, covering the area that held my tower and even the Forbidden Forest.

The myth of the Forbidden Forest and how it was a curse placed by the Scalekeepers rang through my mind—placed between the Clandike and the Sardan Kingdom once upon a time to protect the Scalekind and the dragons, as well as the five deadly curses. It was placed on humankind to protect the Scalekind.

The towering building that came into view reminded me of my entrapment, of who I was. Rising tall and cloaked in a melancholy shade of dark gray, the tower loomed before me. I dreamed of having painted it an austere gold, but my father made it clear that it had to be as inconspicuous as possible. The ashen bricks lined the exterior, with vines and greenery following as it wrapped around, growing to the sky, exuding small thorns and ivory flowers that smelt of citrus and honey.

A small window peaked near the top of the spindle, the same one that I would rest on daily, studying the Forbidden Forest in the distance, only reminding me of the freedom that had been ripped away from me.

The knights tossed me to the slender and supple blades of grass below. The light purple veil formed its way up around me, reaching the sky, and trapping me in my tower’s grounds. Banging on the purple veil, the knights continued to watch me,smirking with authority. I was powerless, and they mocked me for that.

Lighting my hands again with flurries and sparks of fire, I attempted to hurl the fireballs through the veil, but it was useless, just as I had already known. Slumping to the floor, my back to the magic wall, I placed my hands over my face, pushing the feeling of defeat far down where I could lock it up with a key and hide it, pretending my life was different.

My gaze made its way up to the night sky as the knights left me. I watched the Celestials like luminescent diamonds scattered across the canvas of the night sky, the moon shimmering gently, the beauty reminding me ofLaneux.There were thousands of them, and they were so bright that I could almost touch them.