Page 25 of Dragon Blood (Dragon Island #3)

K ai and Astred stood in the Eastern Air Dragon’s palace, positioned at the foot of the ceremonial throne and dais where the king sat in gold and silver threaded robes. At the far end of the grand hall, the massive wooden doors eased open to admit Kai’s father and his retinue.

Astred stood erect, eyes forward.

The traditional curved headdress with its intricate carvings balanced on Keone Sun’s head as he glided forward. As the tiger clan’s head spiritual shaman, he bore the weight of his people’s traditions on his body for every age-old ceremony, since he’d accepted the title passed down from his ancestors before him.

Kai marveled at how the helmet never dared tip.

A talent he was sure never to develop, despite his father’s urgings and great disappointment.

No, the beautifully decorated attire would one day pass to one of Kai’s cousins, who made up part of the retinue. One of his aunties’ daughters, he hoped.

He studied their impassive faces as the group approached, though their eyes glittered with intense curiosity when they looked at him, next to Astred and the dragon king.

At the bottom of the dais, Keone flowed to a stop as though he’d never moved a muscle, dipped into a low bow, eyes always respectfully on King Dai Zen Long. “Your Majesty.” His smooth voice rolled forward, barely above a whisper, yet unmistakable.

“Wu Sun,” the king replied with a slight nod using his respected title.

Keone Sun’s gaze slid to Astred. “Princess.”

She curtsied respectfully, low and deep. “Your Eminence.”

Keone acknowledged Bayn before finally settling his gaze on Kai, his expression curiously resolute. “Shall we begin?”

Suddenly rigid, Astred lifted a brow, sucking in a breath, but nodded. Bayn had already explained some of the protocol to her before the mystical attendants arrived.

Keone turned on his heel, moving several paces toward the temple entrance, allowing Astred and Kai to fall in line behind him as the petitioners. King Long, followed by Bayn, then the remainder of Keone’s entourage and the imperial guards completed the parade.

They were going into the world of the spirit; Keone Sun’s domain, where kings, emperors and princesses were trifling titles.

Kai’s gaze swept the temple room. This room he’d never before entered, though he’d participated in many rituals over the years, they were usually at his tribe’s temple. Never this one.

This was the personal temple meant only for the king and his closest family, resplendent with the regalia and carvings appropriate for the royal air dragons.

An altar dominated the center of the room, and power vibrated through the space, forcing the hair on Kai’s body to rise. Stone, so finely carved that it appeared as though a mist lifted from the face of it, encircled the room. Dragons appeared to writhe in and out of fluffy cloud banks, while along the base of the wall rose a jeweled jungle, and mountains sparkling under the firelight.

The dragons remained unadorned. Colorless.

The Watchers.

His eye skimmed the bottom, opulent, portion of the decor where jeweled tigers prowled among the shadowy foliage. Kai swallowed the rise of emotion, having never expected the dragons to honor the tiger clan in this way.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Astred’s head turn as she too appreciated the beauty of the room, sweeping the areas where the tigers lurked. A smile tugged at her lips as she cast Kai a glance.

Both parts of his heritage were represented in this private royal dragon temple. Kai’s grandmother, Keone’s mother, and sister to Bayn and King Long, was an air dragon. She was the reason that the king’s family had been so welcoming to him, as a hybrid.

“Are you ready, Princess?” Keone’s dark eyes bored into Astred.

Astred turned to King Long. “Before we retrieve the star stone, I humbly request that the Watchmen safeguard something else of immeasurable value in its place.”

Astred pulled down the collar of her shirt, bearing the expanse of her chest above her breasts, covered in dragon scales, which then dissolved, revealing a disk.

Kai met Astred’s unapologetic gaze, then slid to King Long’s startled expression. The queen’s seal.

A dragon entwined with a smokeless flame, one of the three keys to dragonkind’s greatest treasure: The Mother Goddess’s sanctuary.

Kai’s gaze shot to Bayn and the king, who’d exchanged surprised glances, but maintained their silence as Dai Zen considered her request.

Accepting the seal could bring trouble to the neutral clan, should the secret be revealed.

“We would be honored to protect the sacred seal of the divine Mother.” The king nodded to Wu Sun.

Keone’s hand swept through the air with a breath. His voice intoned the first notes of the shadow work spell, drawing on the essence of the netherworld. An added layer in which to hide the Aeleftherian seal from detection.

Magic flowed from his body, filling the temple.

The song, combined with the shadow flow, created a protective barrier against remnants as Keone opened the sacred space to the liminal.

Keone led them around the altar, where on one side, a singular piece of jade, bearing the lines of a tiger and a dragon encircling each other, slowly appeared under the magic’s call.

It was the same etching as was on the back of Kolina’s locket.

Kai’s breath stalled. His pulse beat in his ears as his gaze shot to his father’s steady eyes.

Keone turned his attention to Astred before the questions could pass Kai’s lips.

Kai returned his focus to the seal, the importance of this artifact, and the power it represented.

His gaze returned to Astred’s taut face, intent on the ceremony.

She didn’t tell me she had it all this time.

Removing it from the protection of her people, to this nearly forgotten sanctuary. Kai’s pulse increased as Keone’s notes rose to an abrupt stop, now that the room was filled with shadow magic. King Long approached the dais, placing his palm over the solidified dragon and tiger emblem. The internal locks clicked. He stepped aside, turning to Kai with a nod. Keone gestured for him to do as the king had done.

Unsure as to why he was part of the ritual, Kai obeyed, startled when a pin pricked his palm on contact, triggering the next set of locks. Keone turned the seal, releasing the final layer of tumblers inside the mechanism.

Next, Keone encased his hand in the thick layer of shadow magic before removing the barrier to the hidden cavity in the dais. He glanced at Kai from the corner of his eye as his hand slid over the dragon and tiger carving.

Something about that glance sent a tingle of foreboding up Kai’s nape. When he looked at the others in the room, their eyes were glued to him.

Shadows continued to swirl over the cavity, buffering the space as Keone reached inside.

Dark, glittering shadows writhed around his father’s hand as he withdrew it from the dais.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath,

The instant Keone released the shadows, revealing a shining object nestled within his palm, power, pure and fierce, trilled through Kai, making his body go as rigid as a drawn bowstring.

His muscles strained against the vibration charging the particles in his blood, usually dormant, infusing and waking his sleeping dragon deep within. Breathless, he fought for control as his body sought to expand in the restricted space of the temple. Power, like nothing he’d ever experienced before, surged, enticing his scales to erupt from his skin, sending his dragon senses into overload, coiling him with the need to allow his dragon instincts free rein.

Free rein to dominate this place, these other beings, to rise and crush, tear with deadly tooth and claw.

Keone’s rising song filled the temple, his shadows growing, reminding some small part of Kai of his training. His control.

But both aspects wanted control, and a dragon was so much stronger than a tiger when awakened, tasting freedom from its suppression, released by the song of the star stone revealed to him.

It sang to him, louder and clearer than his father’s shadow song.

Kai’s gaze locked on the stone in Keone’s hand and the Aeleftherian seal in Astred’s.

His heart jack hammered against his chest as the roaring rush of blood through his system filled his ears.

I can take both. Right now. And no one could stop me. I would be king of all dragons, with direct control of the Dragon Mother.

He was acutely aware of the intensity of the others beside him. Watchful, ready to spring into action. His senses told him everything they felt.

No one else seemed affected by the amulet in his father’s hand.

Just Kai.

Astred’s scent, her unique fragrance, broke through everything else, overloading his senses.

As his body shook with strain, his eyes met hers.

Astred stood so still, she barely breathed. Unshed tears gleamed in her beautiful eyes as she waited for him to find the thread that linked their hearts buried under the overwhelming power urging him to claim everything around him.

Holding her gaze, that gold thread hummed through the shadows and through the blinding power, incrementally granting him relief.

Kai gasped, gaze swinging to Dai Zen, then to Bayn. His king, his family.

He met his father’s worried eyes; despite his controlled expression, his shamanic shadow magic swirled through the room, providing a layer of protection.

He’s protecting them from me. From what I might do.

His magic would draw their corporeal forms into the shadow realm should Kai lose control and attack them physically.

Holding Astred’s gaze, Kai fought through the stone’s power for his own shadow essence. Once he had enough control over the dragon, he extended his hand as he formed his own swirling cloud of glittering shadow.

This was his test.

Placing his palm over his father’s, he muted the stone’s power, shaking and gasping.

Keone turned their palms so that the cold star stone fell into Kai’s palm.

He gripped it tight, clinging to the shadow magic flowing from his tiger soul to his fist.

With his other hand, he grasped Astred’s. Trembling, he transferred the amulet from his fist to her open palm so that she held both powerful artifacts.

Surrounded by the mix of Keone’s powerful shadow magic, bolstered by Kai’s, Astred pressed the amulet against her chest bone. Scales immediately flowed over the shadow-wrapped artifact, trapping it within her body.

With the stone’s song muted, Kai drew a deep, shaking breath, then growled, stepping away from her. “What the fuck was that?”

“That, my son, is the source of the Steelscale power.” Keone accepted the Aeleftherian seal from Astred, bundling it in protective shadow magic before placing it in the cavity where the stone had been, locking it in place.

King Long slid his palm over the lock. Then Astred did likewise.

Kai struggled against the anger, replacing the fading power, which continued to whisper to him.

With both artifacts safely stowed away, Dai Zen clapped his palms together. “Tea?”