Page 22 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)
Amaya
A week and a half had passed since the incident— that’s what Mother called it. As soon as Celestina grew stronger, she explained to Trace and my father how I’d helped her find her way back from that strange dual existence she’d created for herself. Even so, Trace still watched me as if he expected me to lose my temper and rip out Celestina’s throat again. Not that he let me get in scratching range of the village’s precious moonlight dragon.
My father, on the other hand, didn’t believe what Celestina had told them. He insisted she’d suffered from some kind of fevered dream brought on by a near-death experience. It didn’t matter that I had the same story to tell. Dragons couldn’t exist as air. And dragons couldn’t split themselves in half and exist in two places at once—not even accidentally.
They kept me locked in my room with a guard outside the door and two more outside my window. During that time, I overheard too many whispered conversations thanks to my ability to drop into the mind of anyone who was thinking about me. And most of the clan were thinking about me lately.
“She’s a danger to us all.”
“It’s her nature to destroy.”
“She needs a firmer hand controlling her.”
“She’s being who she was born to be.”
“She’s death.”
They weren’t wrong. My solution to every problem was to crush it, which was why when they’d locked me away, I’d wanted to smash down my bedroom door, shatter all my windows, and tear out the throats of the dragons prowling outside my room as guards. I would have done it if Anther hadn’t been out there serving as one of the guards.
I didn’t want him to see me losing control like that.
But while I stopped myself from tearing apart the world, that didn’t settle the raging firestorm that burned inside me.
The same destructive magic that had once given the others in the village a sense of safety and protection now frightened them. Since their beacon of hope had been returned in the form of the moonlight dragon, they no longer needed a trained assassin.
I returned her to you! I wanted to scream in their already wary faces.
Discussions in the village turned to how they could best use the moonlight dragon’s powers to protect the village. While I’d been kept locked up in my room for so long, I’d started to worry that they might forget about me. Not that servants didn’t bring me food and hot water for the bath. And my parents would visit every day. But the door remained locked.
Until one morning when I woke up to find my bedroom door open. The guard was gone. The guards outside the window were also nowhere in sight.
I cautiously crept down the stairs, keeping alert to any strange sounds. All the worst scenarios ran through my mind as I made my way through the house. Had the manor been attacked while I slept? Had my family been murdered in their beds? Would I be blamed for it? Was this the moonlight dragon’s doing? She might seem all sweet and ignorant on the outside, but I knew—I knew what terrible power lay just beneath her pretty surface. And I knew her heart lay with the vampires. Celestina was the dragon they should be worrying about.
As I padded down the hallway, I heard voices coming from my father’s study. I tiptoed closer.
“My daughter has been asking to talk with Gregory again,” Drix said. “She’s questioning whether he’s told her everything we know about midnight dragons and their powers.”
“What did you tell her?” Sires, one of the elders and a rare purple dragon, asked.
“I’ve not told her anything. But we can’t keep her locked up forever. And she’ll talk to him as soon as she’s out of her rooms.” Drix grumbled something I couldn’t hear. “Juniper has insisted I unlock her door.”
“Is that safe to do?” Trace demanded.
“I imagine letting her out is safer than trying to keep her caged,” Sires said with a nervous chuckle. “I’ll talk with Gregory and warn him that he should use a goodly amount of…discretion…when Amaya comes to him.”
“Thank you,” Drix said. “Gregory does get carried away when talking about history. Trace, you might want to warn our moonlight dragon that we’re no longer holding Amaya. I wouldn’t want her to be frightened if she sees her around the village.”
“I’ll make sure she’s made aware. And you’ll caution Amaya to keep her distance?”
“I’ll talk with her.” Drix sighed, not sounding at all happy about the thought of speaking with me. What a way to make a girl feel loved, Dad .
“Now about the other issue, have you given it more thought?” Sires asked.
“I have. I don’t like it. Nor do I think Juniper will agree to let us do it.”
“It’s for everyone’s safety,” Trace was quick to say. “Even Amaya’s.”
Anxiety clawed at my throat as I crept closer. Whatever they were discussing couldn’t be good.
“I agree with Trace,” Sires said. “Amaya said it herself. The moonlight dragon can grab control of the midnight dragon’s powers. Maybe, for the safety of us all, we should encourage Celestina to grab ahold of it and keep it.”
Had they already forgotten the absolute explosion of power Celestina had caused the last time she’d channeled my magic and how I’d had to scramble just to keep her alive?
“Celestina’s magic is more stable than Amaya’s,” Trace agreed. “And she’s mentioned that she’s able to use compulsion to control other magical creatures.”
“I don’t like what that would do to Amaya.” At least my father wasn’t jumping on board with their plan. “I don’t think she would agree to being controlled.”
“Now that we have the moonlight dragon, do we really still need Amaya’s erratic magic?” Sires asked. “The prophecy never mentions the midnight dragon.”
“But Amaya’s egg was protected alongside Celestina’s. There must have been a reason our ancestors did that.”
“Clearly, she was saved so the moonlight dragon would have access to the destructive power of midnight,” Sires said, sounding alarmingly ready to dismiss my existence. “It’s the moonlight dragon who the storytellers glorify and the other kingdoms fear. It’s the moonlight dragon who will usher in a new age for the continent. She’s our future. She’s the one we need to protect.”
“I’ll think about it,” Drix agreed.
The crinkling of fabric signaled movement in the study. I whisked down the hallway and around a corner before any of them came out and spotted me. I spent the rest of the morning sulking in the library. Sadly, this time the old woman never came to comfort me.
That night, now that I’d been released from the confines of the manor, I took my dragon form and soared through the star-speckled sky until exhaustion had me landing in a thick forest. This part of the forest was a fair distance from the plateau, but it looked familiar.
I sniffed. Vampires had stopped here. More specifically, Prince Cullen had camped here. His was a scent I’d never forget. Stupid vampire. This part of the forest was where Celestina and I had landed when she was trying to heal herself, which was telling. She felt closer to her vampire lover than she did to her own body. Foolish, brainwashed dragon.
I recognized that spindly tree over there. It was where Cullen had been standing.
But his scent was faint.
Did I come here by chance or did a part of me want to find this spot? I snarled. I did want another chance to rip out Cullen’s throat. The next time I saw him, I wouldn’t be so cautious. I planned to strike first and let him talk never .
The thought of killing the smug Prince Cullen made me remember how Celestina believed I could hold on to the nothingness that happened while shifting between my human and dragon forms. Was that a third form? One of nothingness? That would come in handy.
I shifted and attempted to grab on to the in-between shape. I tried to hold it. But it slipped through my grasp like water. I landed on the forest floor as a human. Naked and helpless. I quickly shifted back to my superior dragon form. I never wanted to turn back to my human form. I felt much more like myself as a dragon than I ever did living as a human.
Because the clan was in hiding, the council and elders always preferred that we lived as humans. That way, if a human did come across us, they wouldn’t ask too many questions, and we wouldn’t risk having a human reveal that dragons were still living on the continent.
I rolled on my back, letting the leaf litter scratch my wings.
While living as a human chafed, I did understand the importance. Our numbers were small. We might be able to take out an army or two. But we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves against an entire continent, and certainly not against a continent filled with magical defenses.
I wondered what the elders thought one moonlight dragon could do for them against such magical foes. The prophecy was vague. There had to be more information about it that I didn’t know about. I launched into the sky and headed back to the plateau.
I needed to talk to Gregory, and despite the council’s warnings, I needed to convince him to tell me everything.