Page 5 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)

Celestina

“Try to keep the tip up!” Soren shouted three days after the letters from his brother and father had arrived. A wave had smacked into the side of the sailing ship, sending me shuffle-stepping to the right in my struggle to keep from landing on my backside.

“I’m much more concerned about not tumbling over the side of the ship than the position of my sword tip,” I complained while rubbing my already bruised bottom. A rude reminder of the number of times I’d already fallen.

Soren lightly tapped my neck with the wooden practice sword he wielded like an extension of his arm. “Keeping your sword tip up could mean keeping your head attached to that lovely neck of yours.”

The rolling waves didn’t seem to affect him. He stood there smiling at me as if the ship were sitting in calm waters while I struggled to get back into a fighting stance. Show-off .

The sleek, black sailing ship had resumed its swift speed now that we were no longer waiting for Cullen’s return. As we neared the Tiburnian Kingdom on the southernmost tip of the Jayden Continent, Soren’s training sessions had turned more serious.

Something was waiting for us in Tiburnia, something dangerous. Something Soren still refused to talk to me about. I’d begged him to tell me. I’d pouted (not my finest hour). I’d threatened, which only earned me a painful punishment from Queen Beatrice’s collar. I’d even withheld my body from him, which had proved torturous to myself and hadn’t lasted more than one night.

According to Cullen’s spies, my mother and father weren’t bad people. They’d turned against Earst because they thought they were trying to help me escape from the cruel Queen Beatrice.

I still didn’t fully understand why they’d decided to act against the queen in such a dramatic fashion. Both Cullen and Soren believed I was a—

The slave collar wouldn’t let me even think the word without punishing me.

Wings.

Fire.

Magic.

That-that wasn’t me. Was it?

I’d been an overlooked and unpopular Queen’s Lady, a handmaid who had done the queen’s bidding. I’d mainly acted as a nanny for the queen’s four sons. That was before I’d been given to Soren, the Beast of Fein, as a reward for him and a punishment for me. The magic both Cullen and Soren sensed on me had to be the magic Queen Beatrice had imbued in the cursed slave collar that was now fused to the skin of my neck. Only the female royals in Earst possessed magic. And while my parents held court positions, neither they nor I had any claim to royalty.

But Soren wasn’t simply the Beast of Fein. He was also the crown prince of Fein and a vampire. (He should have told me those last two bits of information about himself before letting me fall deep, deep, deep in love with his warrior ass.) He believed I was a magical creature that had the ability to destroy the vampiric Kingdom of Fein…or at least powerful enough to start a war.

The King of Fein (Soren’s father) considered me Queen Beatrice’s “blade of death.” And perhaps he was right. I could fully believe that Queen Beatrice had gifted me to Fein’s battle-hardened general because she feared the strength of their army and wanted to weaken it. Or perhaps she’d discovered that Fein’s ruling class and most of their population were all secretly vampires. She did like to preach to us how she used her magic to find and destroy nests of vampires.

Whatever the reason, I knew that as long as I wore Queen Beatrice’s slave collar, I couldn’t stay in Fein. I couldn’t put innocent citizens at risk.

I hoped my mother or father could help explain my magic— do I really have magic? —and help stop Queen Beatrice’s destructive plans.

“Sky Girl!” Patty shouted as she came running on to the deck.

The teenager wasn’t supposed to be on the ship with us, but when we were sneaking away, she’d joined us, insisting we needed her to serve as our cook. And before anyone could tell her that she wasn’t old enough to embark on such a dangerous quest (not that I would have been the one to tell her that and crush her teenage pride) the King’s Guards had attacked. Gray had scooped her up in his arms and had run with her over his shoulder all the way to the ship.

Thanks to the huge crush she had on Gray, Patty had loved every heart-pounding second of our escape.

Gray, on the other hand—

“Sky Girl!” Patty called. “Sky Girl!”

With my sword tip held up, I twirled around in search of the danger. The ship lurched. She slammed into me, sending both of us careening dangerously toward the side of the boat. The railing wasn’t nearly high enough to keep us onboard.

Patty screamed. I wrapped my arms around my friend, hoping I’d be able to grab on to something…anything before we plunged into the frosty Winter Sea.

Soren cursed, tossed aside his wooden sword, and moved with mind-blurring vampire speed. Raya also moved faster than my eyes could track. Soren’s strong arm encircled my waist with such force, my feet went flying into the air. He whirled in a graceful arc that shifted our momentum and kept me on the ship. Raya snatched Patty by the arms, catching the poor girl just as she tripped over the railing. The two of them fell backwards landing on the deck.

“What the hell, Patty?” Gray shouted as he caught up to the rest of us. He yanked the girl from Raya’s grasp and shook her shoulders. “You could have been killed!”

Patty, her entire body shaking, pointed into the sky.

As we all looked up, Soren’s arms tightened around me.

Dragons.

I pressed a hand to my mouth.

Dragons.

Two of them.

Their leathery wings seemed to spread across the sky as they glided like clouds above the ship. A red one. And—tears sprang to my eyes—was that…was that my green dragon?

The sun glinted like gold off the green dragon’s scales.

It is him! It is him! My heart sang. The echoes of the child who used to watch the dragons and dream of running away with them ached to dance around on the deck with unfettered joy at the sight of my green dragon tracking our ship.

He used to sun himself in the valley next to Earst’s castle. I’d watch him and dream that he’d one day rescue me from the tower Queen Beatrice had stuck me in. And then, just recently, he’d returned to save me.

But he couldn’t carry me away. The magic in my slave collar had repelled him like two magnets trying to touch their north poles together.

What is he doing here? Why is he following me?

It wasn’t as if he were truly my dragon. Pretending he’d been mine had been a girlish daydream—a wish—not reality.

Still.

Look at him!

A smile sprang to my face.

My dragon.

He hadn’t abandoned me because of this vile collar I wore.

I grinned at Soren. “He’s magnificent, isn’t he?”

Soren didn’t smile back. All the color had drained from his face. “We need to get you inside.”

Prince Cullen’s creepy crewmen were flooding the deck with crossbows in their hands.

“What’s happening?” I cried.

“They’ll protect you.” Soren grabbed my hand and tugged. I pulled back, resisting his efforts to get me off the deck.

“I don’t need protection. Not from them.” I gestured toward the sky. “They’re mine . They’re my dragons.”

Soren was shaking his head. “What if they try to take you?” He held both of my wrists now and was pulling me toward the door that led to the cabins. “What if they try to carry you away? The collar will—”

“No!” With the same kind of slippery move I must have used to free myself from his ropes, I twisted away from Soren. I couldn’t let him take me away when Cullen’s men were threatening my dragons. I charged over to Driscoll, who had already raised his crossbow and seemed to be taking aim at the green dragon.

“No!” I used my growly voice. It was a voice I’d once used as a playful voice to scare the young princes under my care. It was the same voice I’d later learned carried a strange magic that compelled magical creatures to obey me.

Driscoll, being a vampire, was a creature susceptible to the power of this voice. He immediately lowered the crossbow.

“Don’t shoot them!” I growled to the entire crew. “Leave them alone! Leave them alone!” At the thought that any one of those three dragons might be harmed, my growls turned to sobbing hysteria, which apparently carried no magic. The more I shouted and cried, the less control I had over the crewmen. One by one, the men started taking aim with those awful crossbows again. “Stop! Stop! Leave them alone!” How could anyone wish to harm such beautiful creatures? It was a miracle that there were such things as dragons in the world, and Cullen’s crewmen wanted to destroy them? “Stop it! Stop it now!”

“Stand down,” Soren called to his brother’s men.

Driscoll glared at Soren, his crossbow once again pointing toward my green dragon. “I have orders to protect—”

“Stand down,” Soren repeated, “or I’ll take that crossbow along with the arm holding it.”

For several tense moments, Driscoll kept his gaze and his aim on the dragons above us. Finally, with a muttered curse, he let the crossbow drop. It clattered as it fell on to the ship’s deck.

The other crewmen, watching this, lowered their weapons.

The red dragon above us opened its mouth and roared. Fire poured from its mouth. The flames were so intense the air all around us heated up. I threw out my arms, closed my eyes, and reveled in its warmth. The heat danced like pinpricks of lightning on my skin.

Oh, if only I could join those dragons in the sky. If only I could soar with them like giant sailing ships.

“They’re going to roast us!” Patty shouted.

I opened my eyes to find Patty huddled on the deck with her hands over her head. The crewmen were raising their crossbows again. Soren wrapped his arms protectively around my shoulders and pulled me snug to his side.

“We’ve got to get you to safety.” He looked more worried than I’d ever seen him. Gray and Raya were at his side with their swords in hand.

Fire licked the sides of the ship.

“They’re going to sink us!” Raya warned, her muscles tensing as if preparing to battle the dragons singlehanded. “There’s nothing we can do to stop them.”

Everyone on the ship seemed to be in a panic.

But me.

I didn’t know why I felt this calm. It wasn’t as if I had any control of the situation.

Wait. I did have a way to control magical creatures, creatures like vampires and dragons. Well, I hoped my powers worked on dragons.

“Stop.” My voice sounded hoarse, nervous even. If I couldn’t summon my only magical power—and fast—someone, or some dragon, might die. Not willing to let either happen, I clenched my fists and steadied my nerves. “Stop,” I repeated, louder this time. I used my growly voice, trusting there would be magic in the sound. Even if I didn’t understand how it worked, I needed to trust that my voice would have power. “Stop antagonizing each other.” I looked up to the sky and shouted to the dragons. “ You have to go. You’re scaring my friends.”

My heart shattered when my green dragon and his companion obeyed me. Almost immediately, they altered course, turning away from the ship, away from me.

Come back.

Come back.

My heart cried at losing them for the third time. How many more chances would I have with my dragons? How many opportunities would I get to see them?

Even though they were flying away, we weren’t out of danger. Fire raged on the deck all around us. It was too late. The ship would sink. And we’d all die.

The green dragon circled back around, diving low. As he approached the ship, he dipped the tip of his giant wing into the sea. With a great swish, he sent a wave crashing over the side of the boat, soaking all of us. I stood shivering in the drenching cold as the long shadow his green wings had cast over our ship lifted. The sudden return of the bright sunlight felt unwelcome and wrong. I didn’t want to feel the warmth of the sun if that meant my dragons were gone.

Soren, his arms still wrapped protectively around me, muttered words in a language I didn’t recognize. He was likely cursing in ancient Eirid, a forgotten language Soren’s army spoke when they didn’t want the enemy to understand them. He then pressed a rough kiss to my lips before hurrying off with Raya and Gray to help the crewmen bail out the water the giant wave had left behind and battle what was left of the fire that the wave hadn’t managed to douse.

I started to go along with them, but then I spotted Patty still huddled in the middle of the deck, her hands covering her head. Her shoulders were shaking. Damn, she was crying.

“Patty?” I knelt next to her. I gently touched my hand to her back. “Patty? It’s okay. They’re gone.” When her shoulders continued to tremble, I rubbed up and down her spine. “I promise. They’re gone.” I swallowed the sob that rose to my throat. My grief wouldn’t help soothe my friend. Nor would it bring back the dragons. “They—they won’t be coming back.”

She lifted her head. Her face was shiny from being washed in tears. Her eyes were red and puffy. Even her twin braids were coming undone. “Truly?” she whispered. “They’re not coming back?”

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to answer her without starting to cry myself, I shook my head. My green dragon was gone. I’d sent him away. And because of it, I might never see him again.

She threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my chest so tightly I could barely breathe. “Thank you. Thank you for saving us. Those dragons. They’re awful. I was sure we were all going to die when they flew up to us.” She looked up at me with her big, innocent eyes. “They were coming for you, weren’t they? Of course they were. They want you. They want to use you. And they wouldn’t care who they killed as long as they could get their talons on you.”

“I’m not sure that’s true. I am after all—” The collar struck. I wasn’t allowed to talk about or even think about what I was. I hissed a strangled breath.

“You’re not like them!” Patty hugged me even tighter. “You’re—” She opened and closed her mouth as if unsure about how to explain it. “You weren’t raised with them. You don’t destroy on a whim like that. You’re not evil .” She whispered the last word.

Not evil .

I’d been taught my entire life that vampires were evil beasts who lived in darkness and spent all their time luring unsuspecting victims into their nests. None of that was true.

It had to be the same for Patty—what she’d been taught about dragons her entire life couldn’t be true. Not my gentle dragons.

I peered around. Black scorch marks marred the deck. The sails hung in burnt tatters. And what hadn’t been burned was now soaked. Perhaps the dragons had acted without thought, without caring that they might be leaving us stranded in the middle of an icy sea. Perhaps they were creatures of destruction.

“The red dragon wasn’t trying to destroy us on a whim.” I didn’t know how I knew this. But I felt it in my bones that this was true. “He was angry about a wrong done to him. Very angry. And for some reason, he blamed us for it.”

“You don’t understand,” Patty cried. “Dragons and vampires are mortal enemies. They always have been. Always will be.”

“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. I’m sure there are instances where—”

“No!” She was adamant. “Everything is incompatible. The magic. The culture. The everything! Dragons and vampires can’t be together. They always destroy each other. Everyone knows that.”

I didn’t.

I suddenly felt the frigid cold air that was slowly causing my soaked tunic and leggings to freeze. Everything seemed to be turning to ice. Especially my head and my heart.

Dragons and vampires couldn’t be together? Was that true? The storytellers that had visited Earst rarely combined stories with both dragons and vampires. Sure, there were tales of the old War of the Magics where the vampires and dragons had nearly wiped each other out. But those stories were vague. And one always expected two warring sides to always be at odds. The humans were part of that war, and despite that, they were mating and having offspring with the dragons, creating mages and magical royalty.

Did the vampires, like the dragons, create magical creatures? Could they?

Vampires and humans lived together in Fein. Did they fall in love and bond? Was that even allowed?

“What are you two doing out here in the cold?” Gray scolded as he came back on the deck. “With those wet clothes still on, you’re going to turn into icicles that we’ll have to scrape off the deck.” He stomped over to us, picked up Patty, and tossed her over his shoulder. “Come on, brat, let’s get you inside and dried off.”

Raya followed behind him with a couple of towels draped over an arm. She handed one to me and then tossed the other over Patty, who looked pleased as anything to be carried away by the grumpy warrior. Gray, on the other hand, simply looked annoyed.

Patty smiled and finger waved at me as he carried her off, presumably toward her cabin. But with Gray, one never knew. He could have been carrying her to the kitchen— galley —to warm herself over the oven.

“I’ll help with dinner prep after I put on fresh clothes,” I told her.

“In that case, I’ll heat up some water for you to use to clean off the sea water and thaw out those blue fingers of yours,” Raya said.

But when I went to follow them, Soren appeared at my side. He placed a hand on my arm. “I heard what Patty said to you.”

“Is it true?” I asked him, suddenly desperate for him to tell me that our incompatibility was as made up as the stories I’d learned about vampires. “Can vampires only be with other vampires? Fein is a country of vampires and humans. Do they never bond? Never mate?”

“It’s not preferred, but there are joinings between the two species. For the most part, their offspring don’t possess magic.”

I nodded. I didn’t really want to ask the next question. But seeing how I wanted him to be honest with me, the flipside would be that I needed to ask questions.

I hadn’t forgotten how frightened he’d looked when the dragons had started flying overhead. They’d clearly terrified him, which meant I probably already knew the answer this time.

“Patty was right about dragons and vampires, wasn’t she?” I asked. “The two are mortal enemies.”

A muscle in his jaw tensed. “Yes, that part is true.”

“Then what part of what she was telling me isn’t true?” I asked, feeling more than a little anxious. Was our relationship doomed? He’d bonded with me, for goddess’s sake. It was an unbreakable bond. If I died, he died. There was no undoing that.

“What wasn’t true was the part where she said we couldn’t be together.” He hooked his finger under my chin. “Celestina, there’s nothing in this world that will break us apart. I’ll rewrite the fucking laws of nature to make sure you stay with me. I need you.”

I leaned into him, and his warm, strong arms went around me. This felt natural, like I belonged nowhere else but here in his arms.

“I need you, too.”