Page 50 of Curse of the Midnight Dragon (The Moonlight Dragon #2)

Celestina

The world suddenly felt smaller. And for the first time in my life, I could take a full breath. This . This was who I was meant to be. I soared above the mountain peaks, above the birds, above the clouds. The sun sinking below the horizon colored the sky in vivid streaks of reds and oranges. I could spend a lifetime up here and never tire of this feeling of freedom.

Another dragon shot like a bolt of black lightning in front of me. Startled, I drew my wings back against my body and immediately started to tumble from the sky.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, ” Amaya’s voice cut through my mind. “ Don’t be so dramatic .”

As if my body knew what to do better than my mind, my wings stretched back out and stopped my rapid descent. With a chuffing laugh, I spiraled back up, up, up until I was flying alongside the midnight dragon, matching her height and speed. She looked over at me and nodded her approval.

We were meant to be in the skies together like this, Amaya and me. We were creatures of the air. Graceful, lithe, and beautiful. As night descended on the land, I was amazed to discover that while Amaya disappeared into the darkness, I glowed softly. It reminded me of the phosphorescent diatoms floating on the Faraday Sea. When I’d watched them from Cullen’s ship, they’d felt familiar. Was this why?

I spun in lazy circles and flew large loops, delighting at the patterns of lights I formed in the sky. The midnight dragon stayed with me like a shadow, echoing my movements, occasionally suggesting her own.

Then I plunged through a cloud and emerged to find…

Flames.

Not dragon fires. These were the flames of war.

All my joy dissolved as I remembered Queen Beatrice and what she was doing, how she was twisting nature, how she was targeting the vampires.

My hoard.

They were in danger. I needed to get back to them.

I turned away from the fighting taking place on the side of the mountain to retrace a path back to the Fein camp. Amaya nipped my shoulder. She turned her massive head down to the soldiers below us.

“We can help.” She pushed the thought into my mind.

The vampire warriors were swinging their swords, fighting off a troop of unkillable soldiers. I might not be able to blast my fire to kill the undead army already battling the Fein without harming the vampires, but I could keep Soren’s warriors from being overrun by this new wave of undead marching toward them. I followed the midnight dragon, swooping low. We both released our fires, burning everything in our paths.

The midnight dragon looped in the air behind me, repeating the process of burning the army I’d already scorched, reducing their bodies to ashes.

“They will rise again if you don’t burn them into nothingness ,” Amaya explained. “ Let’s go attack Queen Beatrice’s camp. Cut off the head of the snake before she can bite us.”

That sounded like a splendid idea. I followed Amaya as she led the way to a collection of tan tents arranged on the side of a nearby mountain. I was about to open my mouth and blast the area with my fire when Queen Beatrice stepped out of the largest tent. Her hand rested on a tiny, bony shoulder.

Robert.

Goddess, no . Queen Beatrice had brought her youngest son to a war camp. Three more boys emerged from the tent. She brought all her babies to the battlefield? The oldest was only seven and the youngest was three. And the two twins in the middle had only recently turned five.

Queen Beatrice looked up at me and smiled. I could no longer hear her voice in my head, but I could imagine the words she’d say if she could—she was using those tiny, innocent babies of hers as a shield. If I wanted to kill her, I’d have to kill them first.

No, I can’t do that.

“I can do it .” Amaya’s voice flitted through my mind a moment before she began to dive toward the queen and her children.

“No!” I dove after her. My massive snout slammed against the side of her head, sending the burst of fire she’d aimed at the queen veering off course. Her fire burned several of the tents that surrounded the monarch’s tent. Men came running out. Some of them were on fire.

“I won’t allow you to burn innocent children!”

Queen Beatrice’s smile grew wider as she stood behind her four boys. They kept their heads down. This wasn’t right. Those imps should have been jumping with excitement to witness live dragons flying so close to them, but instead, they stood as still as statues. I wanted nothing more than to swoop down and gather the poor little boys into my arms and protect them.

“I will protect them ,” I vowed.

“How?” Amaya demanded. “ And why? They come from the bloodline of a killer.”

“They’re babies . And we’re not villains.” And that was all the reason I needed.

Amaya chuffed unhappily but spread her wings wide, catching the wind, letting it lift her away from the enemy encampment.

“We need more dragons,” she said. “ If we’re going to fight the undead army by ourselves instead of killing their queen bitch, we need more dragons. And the clan won’t come. Not for me. I’ve already tried to bring them with me to save you and Soren. And the council denied me.”

I snorted at that. The Council had made such bold speeches about how I was supposed to lead them into a new age of the dragon. Well, if they wanted that to happen, they’d have to leave the plateau and join the fighting that was happening here.

“Hey, Moonglow,” Amaya transmitted. “ Doesn’t the moonlight dragon have the power to call the other dragons? Isn’t it a call they won’t be able to resist? You could connect to them through me.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on sending out a message to all the dragons by channeling Amaya’s magic. I wasn’t going to send a growly compulsion, like Amaya was suggesting. Just an invitation. “ Come, dragon clan. Come, all who can hear me. Fight with me. Retake the continent. Breathe new life into the fifth kingdom.”

“Mountainside straight ahead!” Amaya warned.

I opened my eyes in time to see the jagged peaks rushing toward me. With a flick of my wings that came naturally—thank goodness—I shot up into the night sky. My body blasted through a fluffy cloud, coating my scales in glistening dew. Once I was above even the highest of the mountain peaks, I leveled off and flew straight again. I shut my eyes and repeated the call to my fellow dragons.

“Come.”

The clan could meet at the Fein camp to strategize. The boys would have to be spirited away to safety before we could launch a full-on attack of Queen Beatrice’s unnatural forces.

“Come, my dragon kin.”

Working as a team, we would unleash our dragon fire on the undead.

“Our new homeland awaits.”

We would free the slaves in Earst and rule over the land. It would be a kingdom that would welcome both dragons and humans. One, where the citizens didn’t live in fear of their leader.

“Fight with me. Let’s take our rightful place as this land’s original magic.”

I could picture it now. I’d be giving the dragons their dream of rebuilding their kingdom while creating a future where Soren and I could rule together. In the same place. Loving each other.

“Wow, just wow. That was inspiring.” Amaya’s wry voice echoed in my mind. “ But they won’t come. You’ll have to compel them.”

“I—I won’t do that.” I knew what it was like to be forced to do something against my will. And I’d hated every moment of it. I wouldn’t do that to the dragons. I wouldn’t endanger them without their permission. “ Maybe they’ll recognize that this is the opportunity that they’ve been waiting for, that this is the reason our eggs finally hatched, and they’ll come .”

“They don’t trust you, Moonglow. They’ll fear that you’re trying to lure them into a trap.”

I growled.

Amaya chuffed. “ We’ll figure something out. But for now, let’s go find your vampire prince. I’m sure he’s anxious to see for himself that your human form is still as perfect as ever.”

Yes, I could feel the tug pulling me back to the one who owned my heart.

Trace and the rest of the clan had been wrong. Even in my dragon form, I wanted Soren.

I spiraled through another cloud as I sped toward the Fein’s military camp. My heart soared with happiness. I was loved. And I was free.

Following Amaya’s lead, I landed in a clearing yards outside the camp’s boundary. Being an oversized creature, I didn’t want to accidentally squish something or someone.

Soren, Cullen, Raya, Gray, and Mary all charged out of a tent and ran toward us.

“Celestina!” Soren called up to me as he skidded to a stop directly in front of me. “Celestina! You are magnificent, my love. You’re truly my Sky Girl.”

Raya and Gray remained several yards behind Soren. Neither had pulled a weapon. I was surprised that Gray hadn’t drawn his swords. He didn’t even look as if he wanted to. He crossed his arms over his chest and smiled as if he were happy for me. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though he’d often worried that I was a security threat, he’d also tried to fight for what he thought was best for me.

The smile Raya was wearing couldn’t have been wider. She stared up at me, nodding in approval as if she’d known all along that I would break free from the muting spells and take my dragon form.

More and more of the vampires emerged from the camp to see Amaya and me as we stood on our hind legs with our necks stretched high. It felt like we were nearly as tall as mountains as we held out our impressive wings that were as powerful as a blizzard. And even though I was enjoying the attention, I ached to wrap my arms around Soren, laugh with Raya, tease Gray, and cook stew with Mary.

But I didn’t know how to shift. Amaya had used her magic to pull my dragon out of me. Would I need her to use her magic for me to transform again?

I started to ask her when I heard a gasp. In a blink, I was no longer gazing down at my friends who were far beneath me. I was staring at my own toes. My human toes. My naked, human toes.

Wasn’t I wearing shoes?

Oh.

Goddess.

Here I stood, in front of my friends and half of Fein’s army, completely and embarrassingly naked because I’d not used my magic to pull my clothes from the plateau.

“Whoops,” Amaya said as she shifted back to her human form, with perfectly combed hair, and wearing black pants and a matching black sweater. “I need to teach you how to bring clothes into your shifts back to your human form.”

“ Please , do that,” Soren begged as he whipped off his tunic and pulled it over my head. I hadn’t even had a chance to push my hands through the tunic’s armholes when Soren hugged me.

“You are the most beautiful dragon to have ever flown the skies,” he breathed against my neck as I snuggled against his broad chest. “I’m so happy for you. You broke the muting spell.”

“Amaya did,” I corrected. “She broke both the spells Queen Frieda had cast on me. There was a muting one and another one Queen Beatrice was planning to use to control me.”

He held my shoulders and pulled back so he could look at me. “She destroyed your eyes.”

“When I shifted, the damage was healed.”

“But your eyes are different. They’re indigo now.”

“Are they?” I blinked. “They feel the same.”

“They’re the same eyes,” Cullen clarified as he linked his fingers with Amaya’s.

Interesting .

“The spells Queen Frieda cast were placed in her eyes, changing their color in the process. There was only one sure way to break the spells. And that was to tear the cursed eyes out of her body. Isn’t that correct, Amaya?”

Amaya shifted from booted foot to booted foot before answering. “I did what had to be done. I knew that once you shifted between forms, your eyes would be restored to how they were before you’d been infected with those spells. But you couldn’t shift with the muting spell in place. That’s why I had to get rid of the spell by relieving your body of your eyes.”

“And it worked,” Culled was quick to remind us. He tightened his hold on Amaya’s hand. And Amaya leaned closer to him. “While it was violent, it worked. Princess Celestina is free from the two spells that had been put on her as a baby. Thanks to Amaya.”

Soren growled low in his throat.

I kissed the tip of his nose. “Amaya freed me when no one else could.”

Though Soren still didn’t look happy, some of the tension slipped from his shoulders.

“That was reckless,” he grumbled. “But…thank you. Thank you for doing what no one else could figure out.”

Cullen kissed the side of Amaya’s head.

“Not here.” Amaya smacked his shoulder.

Cullen smiled as if he’d been handed the rarest book in existence. But not even that smile could erase the lines of fatigue that had been etched deeply into his features. All my friends looked defeated. Even Soren.

“We are going to stop the undead army,” I told them. “And remove Queen Beatrice from power.” I needed the dragons to help us. But I wasn’t going to force the clan to come. I could only hope they’d answer my call to broaden their world. “We need to plan how to best do that. And it’s past dinnertime. I’d still like to help you with preparing the meals, Mary, if you think you can use me.”

“I’d be honored to have your assistance, Dragon Princess,” Mary said with a curtsy.

“Then it’s settled.” After I dressed in my Fein battle uniform, I went to work, handing out bowls of stew to exhausted and wounded warriors. Amaya joined me, though I suspected she was there because she felt like I needed a bodyguard. She snarled at the warriors she handed the stew to. Once we were done, Mary, Amaya, and I returned to the main tent where Soren and Cullen were reviewing the maps marking where Queen Beatrice’s undead armies were fighting his warriors.

“Have you heard from the dragons?” I asked Amaya. “Do you think they’ll come?”

Amaya closed her eyes and grimaced as she listened. “I’m sorry, Moonglow. They’re as stubborn as ever, unable to see a world past the plateau.”

Three lizards ran across a map. “Doesn’t it seem like there are more of them now?” Soren wondered aloud as he brushed them away.

He was right. The lizards were popping up from every nook and cranny in the rocks and in the tent. Mary yelped and held up her spoon as two crawled over her boot.

“They appear to be yours, Sky Girl,” Cullen said as he adjusted his glasses.

They are mine . I held out my hand and watched the little green creatures crawl over each other in their rush to reach me. “The old stories often get the specifics wrong,” I said as an ancient instinct stirred to life. The dragons weren’t the only creatures the moonlight dragon could call on for battle. These lizards were mine. The storytellers had forgotten or had changed the tales, but I could feel the truth of it as surely as I could feel the press of Soren’s hand on my hip.

These lizards are mine to call.