Page 35 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)

Amaya

I hovered in the corner of the chamber, floating on a small current of warm air that had formed from the body heat of the room’s inhabitants. Holding my air form for an indefinite amount of time came to me easier now that I’d read the book Cullen had given me. It contained various tips and techniques that the ancient midnight dragon, Draco Falco had written about as if it were common knowledge.

I’d learned more in one night about midnight dragons and dragon history than I’d learned from years of Gregory’s tutoring sessions. At the end of the Vampiric Wars, the dragons must have lost much of their knowledge and traditions when the clan escaped to the plateau. This book, this gift Cullen had handed me, would change our clan for generations to come.

Why did Cullen give this to me? What did he expect in return?

If anything, his kindness had made me trust him less. And it troubled me that he could find me even when I was nothing but air. His warm, bespectacled gaze had traveled unerringly to my corner of the chamber. A corner of his lips tilted up before he continued to talk about those evil Tiburnians.

Of course, the Tiburnian who’d captured me had vampire ancestors.

“The Tiburnians’ have to trace their line back many, many generations before they can find any vampire ancestors. They’re essentially descendants of humans,” Cullen said as if he could hear what I was thinking.

Dammit, he can . I made an extra effort to tamp down any thoughts that came into my mind.

“The Tiburnians cannot access magic the way dragons and vampires do.” Was Cullen explaining this exclusively for my benefit?

His deliciously calm voice lulled the angry beast inside me, the beast that seemed to always be thrashing and searching for ways to burst free. Ways to be destructive. He glanced in my direction again before continuing. “Now here’s the interesting secret—the Tiburnians don’t know that the Fein are vampires. Before the War of the Magics, vampires were hunted, enslaved, and drained by humans. They used the healing powers in our blood. This continued until one day our ancestors rose up and rebelled. The uprising triggered the War of the Magics that blazed like a wildfire across the entire continent.

“After the war, the best of our kind, those who had the strongest powers of compulsion, came together and collectively wiped the memory of vampires from human minds. Our ancestors then went from kingdom to kingdom, gathering all the books, stealing away centuries of knowledge, to keep the survivors of the war from remembering why they had once hunted vampires. We went from being slaves to becoming the stuff of legends. We became the monsters that lie in wait in the dark shadows.”

He took off his glasses and used his sleeve to clean the lens. “That is how the Palladian Library was created. It’s stuffed full of stolen books and scrolls. And yes, Princess Celestina, Soren told me how you think hiding away all that knowledge is a crime. And you’re not wrong. But our ancestors went to such extremes because they knew what it was like to live as you once lived—collared, controlled, a life to be taken at a whim. They created our closed society here in Fein because they wanted to protect their descendants from suffering as they had suffered. And that is why slavery in any form in our culture is considered a great evil and a crime punishable by death.”

I floated on the ebbs and flows of his voice. Gentle waves tugging on me, making me feel his voice like a caress. It was like when he tried to use compulsion on me. But this time his voice felt softer, safer. And not like he was trying to lay down traps to ensnare me.

This, I thought, is his passion. Research and sharing knowledge. It must kill him to live in a society that hides all its knowledge from the rest of the continent.

“It does,” he answered.

I slammed down a wall around my thoughts, using a method Draco Falco had described in his book. But I kept listening to his voice, enjoying the stillness in the sound of it.

“How does this history lesson help us fight Queen Beatrice’s already dead warriors?” Gray asked from where he stood at the door, stiff-legged and looking as unhappy as I usually felt.

He’s getting to that, you impatient oaf. I let that thought sneak over the wall I’d built.

“Thank you.” Cullen smiled down at the book in his lap and then cleared his throat. “I needed to make sure we were all on the same page and understood the background before diving into new information. Context matters.” He adjusted his glasses, which he seemed to use as an excuse to glance in my direction. I wondered what he saw. I was formless, clear air.

“I see you, my beautiful Darkness,” his voice came as another sweet caress. “ Always you.”

“Whatever.” If I’d had eyes I would have rolled them.

Cullen chuckled.

“What’s funny? Don’t tell me. I think I already know. You’re losing your mind,” Cullen’s brother grumbled.

“I think I am,” Cullen agreed, but then he gave his head a hard shake. “But back to the research. Shortly after the War of the Magics, the Tiburnians discovered the power of blood magic. Perhaps some of the Tiburnians had clung to the memory of harvesting vampire blood for its healing magic and decided to see what they could do with blood from other living sources. That’s conjecture on my part. The origin of their knowledge has been lost to time. But we do know that the Tiburnians have been perfecting and expanding their blood magic for generations. This hasn’t come without a cost. Blood magic is corrosive magic. It takes from the user and the recipient, shortening both lives. That’s one reason why there are very few elders who use blood magic in Tiburnia. They don’t live to see old age.

“I suspect that modern legends of vampires have their roots in Tiburnians who wield blood magic. Their skin color turns a dusty pallor that burns easily in the sun. Their magic demands high quantities of blood, which can mean draining multiple victims dry. And they operate in secret, hiding that their magic is stolen from spilled blood.”

“My parents are with the Tiburnians.” Celestina pressed a hand to her mouth. “They could be in danger. Should I warn them?”

Those aren’t her parents. They’re her villainous abductors, I wanted to scream .

“They’re the only parents she remembers,” Cullen replied. “ It’s only natural that she’d feel an attachment for them. And wow, that was loud.”

Whoops. I guess I did scream it.

“We’ll warn them.” Soren took Celestina’s hand in his own. “I’ll send men to get them out, if that’s what you wish.”

Celestina nodded. Seeing her with her stupid warrior should have made me rage. Cullen’s calming presence must have stopped all that. Also, Soren hadn’t punished Celestina for exploding with a literal fiery rage. Instead, he’d brought her extra food.

I—I didn’t understand why he’d do that. I understood very little of what the vampires were doing. Was this their way of charming us to do their bidding? Was this how they dragged us under their thrall?

Possibly.

Possibly? No! Probably. Undoubtably. Absolutely .

Goddess, it was already happening. I was already softening toward our mortal enemies. Fuck Cullen and his soothing voice. I would not let them wreck my defenses like they did with Celestina’s.

I started to move toward my fellow dragon. I needed to get her out of here. Even if I had to fight my way out, I needed to get us out before I turned as moon-eyed as she had.

But then Cullen said, “The Tiburnians aren’t our biggest concern, at least not right now. While I believe they’re helping Queen Beatrice create her undead army. It’s Queen Beatrice who’s the real threat. Not just to us, but to the entire continent, including the dragons.”

“No, you lie.” I materialized with my face directly in front of his, which meant I was kneeling since he was still sitting on the floor. Not the best defensive position, I knew. But I wanted him to feel the words in my breath against his face. “That human queen isn’t a threat to the dragons, not if our fire can kill them.”

His cheeks darkened. “Amaya,” he said my name so gently it made my chest ache.

“I’m not going to let you use your vampiric compulsion to lull Celestina and me into believing we have no choice but to help you. Not when it’s a lie.”

“Amaya!” Celestina launched to her feet. “You’re wearing clothes! How did you manage that?”

I was wearing my own clothes. And I was clutching Cullen’s dragon book to my chest. I wasn’t about to leave that treasure in the library for him to steal it away from me. I planned to return the book to the clan where it belonged. The book had taught me how to conjure clothes when I shifted to human form. It’d been a simple conjuring that pulled matter through magical currents. I’d pulled a black sweater and black wool leggings from my bedroom.

“Is this the other dragon you were talking about, Raya?” the younger woman with braids shouted. “She’s beautiful! You’re beautiful!”

I turned my head and snapped my razor-sharp dragon teeth at the girl to get her to back away from me.

Gray jumped between me and the girl, the metal of his twin swords singing as he drew them from the leather sheaths he wore on his back.

“Easy, now,” Cullen warned. He rose to his feet just as I did. But instead of taking a fighting stance—which he should have done, seeing how I could detach his head from his neck with one swipe of the talons I snapped together in warning—he held up both his hands as if wanting to surrender. I supposed that would be smarter than fighting me.

“We’re not your enemy, Amaya.” His voice eased into my head like a gentle summer rain and the soft rumble of distant thunder.

I swayed with the rhythm of the soothing sound. We weren’t enemies. I don’t know why I ever thought—

“Cullen.” Soren was now on his feet. Celestina wrapped her arms around the warrior prince’s chest. “Don’t.”

“You don’t want to harm anyone, Amaya.” The voice in my head tugged at me, daring me to run with him through open fields filled with spring flowers. Daring me to smile at him. How could I think this kind, bookish man was my enemy?

“Noooo!” I screamed, the compulsion snapping. I swiped at him with my talons.

He moved lightning fast, dancing out of the way. My talons hit empty air.

“I’m going to take Celestina home and let you vampires and humans and hybrids with blood magic have fun without us.” I held out my hand to Celestina, my fingers were still deadly sharp talons. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

“No.” Celestina tightened her arms around Soren. “I’m where I want to be. Where I need to be.”

“They’re using compulsion to make you think that!” I growl-shouted my frustration.

“Soren wouldn’t do that.”

My poor delusional moonlight dragon seriously believed that. She blinked at me with those giant mismatched doe-eyes as if trying to will me into believing it, too.

“Why wouldn’t he use compulsion to secure your cooperation? His brother has been trying to compel me to follow his directions from the moment we met!”

“And he’s going to stop doing that now.” Soren punched his brother’s arm. Hard. Cullen winced. “That’s not how we treat our friends, Cull.”

“I’d like to remind you that our friend has been plotting violent ways to end me ever since we met.” Cullen rubbed the spot where his brother had punched him.

“Maybe if you’d treated her better from the start,” Raya said, “she wouldn’t be angry all the time.”

Unfortunately, anger was pretty much a steady state for me, except for when Cullen was trying to enthrall me. “What that girl said.” I flicked my talons in Raya’s direction.

She backed up a few steps.

“Let’s put away our swords.” Soren gave an open hand “cool it” motion to Gray. “No one wants to force you to do anything, Amaya,” he said. His voice sounded flat and devoid of any kind of power except for the kind that came with being a natural-born leader. “We were discussing Queen Beatrice. I’d like to finish that discussion before we prematurely start another War of the Magics with the dragons.” He turned to his brother and raised his brows. “Cullen?”

Cullen clicked his tongue. “I’m sorry, Amaya. I shouldn’t have tried to use compulsion. That was a mistake on my part. Unless we’re in a life-or-death situation, I won’t do it again.”

I didn’t like that he’d added a caveat, but I was glad that he’d apologized. “Thank you. I still plan to take Celestina home with me.”

“But you can’t leave us again, Sky Girl!” the girl-child shouted. “We need dragon fire to fight the undead army. And I need you to—” She abruptly cut herself off as she flicked a glance toward Gray.

Ah.

“At least stay for tonight’s ball,” Cullen said. That calming quality stayed in his voice, but I felt no push of compulsion hidden underneath the calm.

Even so, I found myself nodding. I did want to go to this vampire ball of his and see what their rich, royal celebrations were like.

“Thank you,” Cullen said softly as the child shouted for joy and hugged me.

I’m so not a hugger. Having this strange girl’s arms wrapped around me felt like I was being attacked by a giant tangle tree. But, for Celestina’s sake, I didn’t swipe my talons through the child’s middle in a desperate attempt to escape. You’re welcome.