Page 54

~Vorzyr~

It was the worst time for me to have been summoned home.

Or maybe the truth was that there wasn’t a right time anymore.

It just didn’t feel like actually coming home now either.

As I approached the gates to the Dracoryn Realm, all I felt was grief at leaving Ariana, Kai, and Nyx behind, as well as a massive sense of apprehension.

I just couldn’t tell whether that apprehension was due to being away from them, especially at such a dire time and also some of the Malrik-Draco stuff weighing on me, or whether it was my draconic instincts warning of it being more than that.

Either way, I couldn’t simply turn tail now.

Not that I would—it was against my very nature to back down from any sort of adversity. Really, my instincts were to prepare me for what was coming. It wasn’t a fight-or-flight thing, because there was no flight option built into my makeup. It was always fight and might all the way.

I was just about to step through the gates, when I felt a push at my mind.

I smiled as I recognized the sensation and who it was attached to, and I opened up.

In the next moment, her gorgeous voice sounded through my head.

“My dragon, did you really think I wouldn’t find a way to say goodbye to you?”

“I’m so glad you did. Not doing so… it wasn’t sitting right with me.”

“Nyx reached out to me.”

“Of course he did. Little sweetheart.”

“He most definitely is. So, how are you feeling about going back there after everything?”

“Apprehensive, I guess. I haven’t even crossed the threshold into the Realm and already I feel out of place.”

“That makes sense given what you’ve come to know, and also how you were cast out. But try not to let that lead the way before you even lay eyes on your parents. You could miss out on a warm welcome, on the good involved of being home.”

“That’s a really nice way of looking at it.”

“I wish that it wasn’t urgent, then we’d all go with you.”

“It’s kind of good that it is urgent, because you need to concentrate on those sessions with Cassius. And Nyx and Kai need to do their things to help as well.”

“Wow, I never thought you’d actually be on board with my sessions.”

“I’m an untrusting bastard. That’s where that’s rooted.”

“You weren’t with Nyx or Kai. Even when Kai first came across as an obstacle to your pursuit of me.”

“Cassius came down as an antagonist to our foursome, to you, and to your free will. At first. I mean, it does seem he’s coming around now, especially from what you’ve been reporting to us about your sessions with him.

But… I guess the way he came in, and that fucking bargain and duty being forced on you still being in effect… he represents that to me.”

“I understand.”

“I know you do. You always do. I’m gonna miss you so much, gorgeous.”

“I’ll miss you, too. Don’t be too long, okay? Promise me.”

“I swear it to you. Believe me, I don’t want to be. I can’t wait to get right back to all three of you.”

“Be safe. You need anything, we’re here. We’re always here, okay?”

“I know. I know you are. Thank you.”

“See you soon, my dragon.”

“Soon, goddess.”

We disconnected, I took a moment to shore myself up, and then I continued onward.

It wasn’t long before I felt the air thicken, magic pressing against me—a sign I was drawing closer to the threshold.

I fiddled with the collar of my high-collared crimson and gold coat that was adorned with rubies.

I had my crimson leather pants with the golden threads on, along with an open-collared, crisp white shirt, my jeweled dragon’s head pendant nestled in the opening as it hung heavier than usual around my neck.

I was dressed respectfully—the only way my parents would accept it.

The gates came into view, two onyx arches carved into a mountainside that were guarded by mammoth dragon statues, their jeweled eyes glowing vibrantly as they tracked my movements.

Runes shimmered across the surface of the gates, pulsing with ancient flame.

Above, dark clouds hung in the sky, casting a violet twilight over everything, the sun just out of visual reach.

As the gates opened from sensing the presence of the Heir to House Titanus, I stepped on through and took in the jagged peaks that pierced the atmosphere, rivers of glowing magma cutting through darkened stone.

Winged shapes moved in the distance, circling the highest mountain where Titanus Castle rose like a crown of shadow and fire.

It was built into the side of the largest mountain in the realm, carved from black stone that was veined with crimson draconic magic.

Spires shaped like dragon horns curved toward the sky, and a massive bridge extended over a lava river leading to its main gates.

The banners of House Titanus whipped in the wind, a deep crimson and emblazoned with a three-headed dragon surrounded by flame.

I sucked in a breath, then teleported the distance.

Within seconds, I was inside the Throne Room.

The walls were lined with ancestral dragon bone columns, each engraved with the names of past rulers and revered warriors.

The floor was a polished black reflective glass.

At the far end were the twin thrones. The one belonging to my father, Zepharion, was made from dragon-forged steel, all sharp edges and carved intimidation.

And the one belonging to my mother, Serapha, was formed from woven dark crystal.

I didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds before I felt a surge of power, and then my parents appeared in a burst of my father’s red magical flame.

My father was an imposing figure with angular, commanding features and piercing steel-gray eyes.

His long, dark hair was streaked with silver, and his beard was as well-groomed as usual.

His gray skin had faint scaling. A heavy crimson robe was layered beneath black ceremonial armor adorned with our Titanus crest.

My mother was wearing the same armor, her hair black and a stark contrast to his. It was braided back from her face and threaded with strands of red silk. She was as tall as my father, albeit leaner, yet toned from her life as an accomplished warrior.

“Vorzyr,” my father greeted me, his cold tone sending a chill down my spine.

He was rigid and suffocatingly formal, always exuding dominance and lofty expectations, but this blatant taciturnity was new. He was putting a distance between us.

Why?

“You summoned me, so here I am.”

“As you should be,” he returned, tersely.

I tried to blow it off, so this forced reunion wasn’t made any more unpleasant than it needed to be, and I started forward to my mother, intending to embrace her.

But my father thrust out his arm in front of her, his eyes flashing at me and aggressively discouraging my approach.

“Mother?” I queried.

“He is reacting protectively,” she told me.

She was a fierce woman, severe in nature, but she’d always had a softness with me, as her son.

That wasn’t present now.

There was no sign of that maternal warmth from her, as her hard gaze drilled into me.

It was like she was looking at a stranger.

And, from my father, it was like he was looking at a threat.

“Since when does Mother require your protection?” I asked him. He knew better than to patronize her with that.

“She is with child.”

I started. “She’s… what? I thought… I thought it wasn’t possible following the complications of my birth?”

“We have been blessed with a miracle,” my mother said, actually softening, but only as she laid her hand over her belly.

She wasn’t showing at all yet, so this had to be very new.

Of course it had to be. She hadn’t been pregnant before I’d left. I would have sensed another heartbeat among us, an unborn dragon baby in our midst.

“This is what you intend to announce, what you wanted to impart to me first,” I realized aloud. “I will have a sibling.”

“ We will have another child. A true heir,” my father spoke.

I tensed. “A true heir? You already have that in me.”

“You will be our true heir no longer, Vorzyr,” my father told me, and I watched my mother grasp his shoulder in a physical show of unity.

“What are you talking about? I’ve done everything you asked. I didn’t fight my punishment of being sent away to Maven Academy to learn and even be tamed, as much as I abhorred the notion of the latter.”

“I sent you away to weaken you, boy.”

“What?”

“Living among those lesser beings, as dragon, you are forced to rein yourself in constantly, to live as less than you are, and get used to doing so, until it would eventually become your natural state. Given more time, we’d believed it would make you vulnerable,” my mother explained.

“Vulnerable to attack,” my father finished.

“The aim was to make it easy to incapacitate you without the threat of horrific collateral damage, and attention of the Guardian Movement being drawn to such an undertaking, something they would foolishly not approve of, given that you are currently marked as Heir to House Titanus. They would believe it to be a risk of instability.”

A chill rolled down my spine. “You did recognize the signs in me, then. That was really why you cast me out, yes?”

“Indeed. It became undeniably apparent to us both.”

“We also felt you activate the Stone of Recollection,” my mother said.

“You were not supposed to do so. The sins that your grandfather committed were supposed to die with him and the Beast. It would bring great dishonor and even invite challenge from other Houses if word were to spread of the corrupted bloodline.”

“I’m not going to spread it around. It’s not something I want known either. The fact that Malrik did what he did with Draco makes me sick.”

“Yet, it is still a danger that you know.” My father gestured at my mother’s belly.

“This child was not infected the same way you were. His blood is not tainted like yours is.” He glared at me.

“ He is not an abomination like you are. We thought we’d have to make do with you, and find a way to suppress those abominable additional abilities that you possess when you seemed to be our only chance of producing an heir.

But we were finally successful in conceiving another child.

” His eyes flamed. “Now, boy, you have become irrelevant. Nothing but a threat that needs disposing of. As of this moment, you are denied your birthright. You are no son of ours and certainly no heir.” He snapped his fingers, and a rush of soldiers in black and crimson armor teleported all around the room, surrounding me.

“Malrik’s corruption of our bloodline ends here. ” He spat in disdain. “With your fall.”

Adrenaline thrummed through me white-hot.

“This stays with us only,” my father called to his ten soldiers. “As far as the realm and the world beyond will know, Vorzyr Titanus fell tragically through arrogant and foolish actions.”

“That won’t fly,” I warned him.

“It was just going to be us nullifying your dragon fire, tearing it from you forevermore. But that was when it was necessary to keep you alive when you were the only possible heir to House Titanus. With this new child, we no longer need to take precautions to control your abominable, tainted nature—we can instead eliminate you altogether.”

“I am your son!” I cried, looking between both my mother and father. “Your family. Your own blood!”

“No longer are you any of those things,” my father hissed.

“It is for the best,” my mother had the gall to say, while looking at me blankly, with absolutely no emotion or upset that her son was about to be murdered right in front of her.

“It wouldn’t have been long before your unnatural abilities consumed you and you had to be put down anyway.

At least this way it is by your family.”

My family? That was the most sickening part about it.

Because it didn’t ring true.

Maybe it never had, beyond the obligation of being the next in line to the throne.

They had truly disowned me in the time that I’d been gone, and made their peace with it as well.

They had forsaken me entirely.

Now, as they looked upon me, all they saw was Malrik’s corruption of our bloodline.

And here I was, expected to pay for his sins.

As grief, utter devastation, and flaming rage gripped me, I missed the signal of attack from my father.

And then it was too late.

My parents’ magic struck me together with brutal force that, as rulers of House Titanus, was unmatched.

Or so it was believed.

Because I hadn’t been prepared to react in time, it slammed into me, wrenching me to my knees with almost shattering force.

In the next split-second, the guards moved in all around me, streaming their magic forth in a multicolored light show of epic proportions, as they fashioned chains with hooks at their ends that drove deep into my skin, right through my dragon hide, and through the other side, into the floor below me, essentially crucifying me to it.

A roar tore from my throat, thundering through the Throne Room and making the entire place reverberate with it.

“ Argh! Argh! Argh!”