Page 9 of Dragon Blood (Dragon Island #3)

H eart racing, Astred observed as each of her chosen Aeleftherian escorts dove off the side of the ship into the rough ocean waters, emerging moments later in full dragon form with enough force to launch them into the sky.

Her mother had been bundled into the bottom of the small boat with care, and rowed away from the ship with Kai’s travel bag tucked at her feet. Astred’s crew held fast until the escort was ready to take her.

Kai dove next, disappearing deep into the water.

When he emerged, Astred noted the differences marking his scales. She’d never seen his dragon before. She’d almost forgotten that he held more than his tiger beast within him.

A metal dragon like his mother, bearing the subtle striations of his tiger markings, flagging him as ‘other’.

Magnificent.

He circled around, massive wings flapping to hold his position as he reached for the small boat, carefully lifting it from the water. Once secure in his grasp, the crew members jumped overboard, swimming to a second nearby rowboat that would take them back to the ship.

Last, Astred dove into the water, shifting into her dragon as she continued away from the ship, swimming fast to build up enough power to launch herself into the sky with a hard snap of her powerful wings. Flapping hard, she caught the bluster of the coming storm, aiding her ascent to join the others.

She flew alongside Kai, the small boat bearing her unconscious mother cradled in his claws. Kolina headed the convoy, while Marli and Zayli circled around to guard their backs.

Despite the great measures to secure peace with the combative males, not all followed Jori, or were interested in alliances such as the GPSA. There were still enemies out there.

Tension bunched Astred’s muscles as she concentrated on the flight, keeping her senses alert for trouble.

She also couldn’t be sure that Regina’s symptoms were actually due to her distance from home. Again, not with the recent attacks on their domain.

If that were the case, who would dare? Who could get close enough to affect her like this?

An infiltrator to Carson’s Island? An Aeleftherian traitor? The same that conspired with the Consortium? Another?

Astred kept her gaze straight ahead on Kolina’s lead. At her side, Kai carried her mother, his claws steady, his wingbeats smooth, despite the strengthening winds bearing down on them.

There were only Zayli and Marli behind her. Everyone else aboard the Crimson Claw were crew members that Astred trusted implicitly.

Her thoughts tumbled back to the island, desperately rolling through the faces of all present. She couldn’t picture a single one of them as responsible for this.

She dared another glance at her mother’s inert form, small amid bundled blankets, face pale.

Side effect or infliction?

Perhaps the Council had been right to try to force Regina to remain in Aeleftheria? They had forbidden her departure and warned of the dangers.

She’d never seen her mother sick, and the sight of Regina’s unconscious form sent tremors through Astred.

Her mother, her queen, was the solid foundation of their nation. She could not be seen as weak or fallible.

A measure of relief eased Astred’s mind as they passed through the magic barrier, shielding the boundary from the human world into Aeleftherian territory, deep in the Bermuda Triangle.

Aeleftherian guardian patrols approached the newcomers, swooping in fast and close, quickly banking and falling into formation, broadening their escort to the citadel.

After hours in the sky, her muscles burned, and her mind ached with the constant reel of suspicious possibilities. She pushed on as everyone else did. No one flagged or faltered.

The queen was ill, and it was imperative to see her immediately placed in the care of the draconic shamans.

Soon, the tail end of the Aeleftherian archipelago came into view amid white-capped waters. The land itself resembled a dragon in flight, as did the constellations when the sky darkened.

Home.

Kolina roared the tonal signal, alerting the shamans, drawing them to the infirmary platform. The guardians broke off, resuming their patrol.

The five dragons circled the tower platform in formation before Kolina led Kai downward, followed by Astred. Shamans assembled on the platform, surging forward to collect the incoming patient from the boat the moment Kai laid it on the stone surface.

Marli and Zayli were the last to land.

Shifting into human form, Kolina followed, accepting a proffered robe, turning to Kai as he collected his bag from the boat, pointing to a chamber to the left of the infirmary entrance. “There is a change room through there.”

“Escort Mr. Sun to the guest wing.” Astred ordered the attendants as she pulled a robe on, heart pounding, pausing to speak to Kai. “Someone will come for you later. And… thank you.”

He nodded, features drawn as his gaze swept her face. “Anything I can do, just say the word.”

The tension in her chest eased a fraction as she held his gaze, wanting to find comfort in his arms for just five seconds before facing the enormity of the situation.

She nodded, turning away to follow the contingent of shamans into the infirmary. The queen’s own council-appointed team were summoned from the citadel. The infirmary shamans continued their work to secure the queen’s comfort and establish what they could through preliminary triage.

Astred crossed her arms over her chest, observing the shamans murmuring to one another, touching their sovereign with the greatest care, yet with thorough efficiency. The lead shaman questioned Astred as she worked, while a clerk shadowed, recording everything.

Kolina stood next to her, reporting time and observations of when she parted with Regina. Astred filled in the rest. The queen’s guards had each checked in to see her asleep, as she was when Astred went to see her at Zayli’s summons. “She didn’t respond, no matter how I tried to wake her, and her breathing is so shallow, though steady.”

“Her Majesty appears to be in stasis—a subtle difference from unconsciousness.” She pulled several rune-inscribed crystals from her pocket. Astred recognized the stones as common energy monitors, similar to the ones she kept with her ship’s medical equipment.

These particular ones gauged a dragon’s energy, separate from the human form’s physiology.

Regina’s dragon energy was dim.

“I suspect that whatever the cause of the unconscious state, her Majesty’s dragon is creating a barrier of her own.” The head infirmary shaman straightened from her bent position. She used her personal senses to detect anomalies emanating from the queen before she reached for several swabs. “May I?”

Astred nodded, standing aside as the medic gently swabbed Regina’s inner lips, nostrils and various other points of her body, tucking the cotton-tipped tools into special containers. The clerk continued recording data from the team, imparting instructions regarding the samples.

“Is this a result of her absence from the island?” Astred leaned closer, voice low, while the clerk was too distracted to record their exchange.

The head shaman’s gaze darted to Astred’s concerned face, thoughts ticking before she glanced at the clerk, then the door.

Even though the queen’s personal shamans were coming, Astred wasn’t waiting to ask them.

“To my limited knowledge of the historic annals,” the head shaman jerked her head in the negative, her lips briefly tightened. “The strain on her bond with Aeleftheria would be significant and she would certainly feel it. Though causing her to lose consciousness after so short a time is highly questionable. Perhaps her personal shamans could impart a more thorough explanation.”

Astred turned her gaze to her mother’s prostrate form, atop the gurney, awaiting the arrival of her politically appointed medical team.

‘I don’t think so,’ Astred’s dragon responded from within. ‘ They are covetous of what they have and will not risk their political positions for anything.’

She drew a deep breath in defiance of her mother’s shallow draws.

If this isn’t the result of her absence, then what—or who caused this? Someone from the wedding party?

A shiver rippled through Astred.

Kymri and Marli had accepted the former enemy male dragons readily enough; her two oldest and closest friends, outside of the Crimson Claw’s crew.

Astred’s gaze slid to Kolina, watching the proceedings from the opposite side of Regina’s sick bed, arms crossed, expression grim.

Kolina and Elora were her mother’s closest friends. As close as one could have, when a sovereign.

Otherwise, Regina was surrounded by council appointed servants.

Astred rubbed at the tension in her throat, suddenly longing for the freedom of her ship.

Thoughts of ascension to the throne, ruling at the hands of the aged council, always brought sensations of suffocation that usually had her headed to the port earlier than expected.

She couldn’t do that now, not with her mother in danger.

If Regina was in danger, so was Aeleftheria.

I can’t run away.

Not anymore.

K ai paced his new guest room, his travel bag resting atop the foot of the high four-poster bed. The room was large and comfortable, but his inner tiger prowled within its walls.

Danger.

Entrapment.

Travel bag in hand, he’d followed the attendant down a spiral staircase that reminded him of the servants’ steps in medieval castles, along a covered footbridge, to another section of the complex. Different from the sweeping architecture he’d known as a youth in the Eastern Air Dragon court. Onward, through a variety of torch lit, rough stone corridors, which opened to a grand central hall bearing many family crests, and up a sweeping staircase with the Aeleftherian seal etched into a marble slab set into the wall. He recognized it as the duplicate of the pendant adorning Regina’s hair at the wedding.

A dragon entwined with a flame.

The image poked at the ancient dragon soul within him, making his skin prickle.

I don’t belong here.

‘Yes, you do,’ his dragon growled.

The attendant led him to a thick wooden door, intricately carved with Aeleftherian flora, set into the thick stone walls. Pushing it open, she gestured for him to enter and silently pulled the door closed behind him.

As much as he wanted to leave this place that he’d given up wanting to see at the age of fourteen, here he was, fighting his deep-seated curiosity. His need to know something of his heritage—his mother’s heritage.

A culture that rejected his like.

Not just a male, but an anomaly. A hybrid male.

Most children of mixed shifter heritage were born as one or the other of their parents’ genetics.

Rarely both.

Did they know? Had Kolina told them what he was? Had she ever spoken of him to them ?

He’d never known what Astred had thought of his duality. They’d never spoken of it, but her rejection of his proposal had been enough.

Kai huffed.

Of course, she would never have accepted him as he was. As heir to the Aeleftherian throne, no queen could have a live-in consort, let alone one such as himself.

Kai rubbed the back of his neck.

When Kolina had returned, a year after her last visit, with the baby in her arms to present to his father, Kai had shared his self-discovery with his mother.

She hadn’t said a word, but her expression hadn’t required her to.

Kai had swallowed, his heart sliding into his stomach.

He’d thought she’d be pleased to see how special he was. How strong he would become as both tiger and dragon.

Instead, her gaze had locked on his father’s, standing behind him. The feel of his father’s reassuring hand on his shoulder made his lip quiver.

Even at fourteen, he didn’t cry, though his heart had cracked apart as he faced his mother, cradling his baby sister. The one that would go back to Aeleftheria with her.

To his father, she’d said, “You have connections.”

“The Shǒuwàng Zhě are willing to foster him.”

She’d nodded, silent for so long, Kai had wondered if she’d simply frozen.

In a sense, she had.

Though he didn’t know it, not then.

Finally, Kolina had reached for the gold locket that his baby sister grasped, tiny fingers stroking its etched surface, and tucked it under her tunic.

Kai hadn’t known, until Kolina’s return some months ago, that bits of his hair were in that locket. Nor that she had worn it against her heart all this time. Even now, as far as he knew.

The Kolina Steelscale that he was coming to know these last few months was vastly different from that last memory of her, though she hadn’t been so harsh during her previous visits, which had been several times a year, prior to his sister’s birth.

Everything had changed after that.

A knock pulled his inward thoughts to the door, pausing his return stride across the guest room.

He opened the door to his mother’s grim face.

“Will the queen be alright?”

Will Astred be alright?

“Her personal shamans have removed her to the citadel through discreet tunnels.” She sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. “I’ve been ordered to ensure you speak to no one about this.”

“They’re keeping her illness secret?”

Kolina nodded.

“Wouldn’t the entire island have heard the alert and seen our arrival at the hospital?”

“They would. Though the Council will weave some story as to the reason. No one would necessarily know that it was the queen in the boat. They want you to remain here.”

“I’d rather go home.”

She shook her head. “You’re a witness to the queen’s activities and decline. They won’t let you go until they interview you for information.”

“Like fuck they won’t,” he growled, resuming his pacing.

She reached for his shoulder. “Please.”

He glared down at her raised hand.

She dropped it. “You were meant to be a guest—are a guest. As you can appreciate, circumstances have changed.”

“No shit,” he spat.

Shame wriggled its way into Kai’s chest. His instinctive need to escape any cage stirred his temper. Halting his stride, he rubbed the back of his neck, drawing a deep breath. As he blew it out, he turned his gaze to his patiently waiting mother.

This stranger.

He flexed his dragon magic, summoning scales to his wrist, testing.

“I wouldn’t try that. The entire compound is warded to disallow anyone to shift within the palace walls. If you try any harder, the wards will trigger, summoning the guards.”

Of course it was, as was the case at the Eastern dragon palace and the tiger clan’s stronghold.

Those wards would undoubtedly extend to any prison cells the Aeleftherian guards would inevitably throw him into, because by his very gender, he was a potentially dangerous enemy. A dangerous enemy that had touched their sacred queen.

They could decide that he had caused her downfall.

“What is required of me?”