Page 5 of The Dragon Queen #3

“You’re doing the best you can.” My words were blurted out, so it’s no wonder Draven stopped where he was, his lips hovering over mine. “I mean, I have no idea how you do it.” I was stammering out words, having no idea where they were coming from or if they were the right ones. “Trying to deal with courtiers and not knowing where their loyalties lie.” I swallowed hard but forged on. “I imagine the weight of that is immense, and yet you keep going.”

He eyed me then like I was a wild horse, unpredictable, but it was him who was skittish.

“No one…” He swallowed hard. “No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.” When his hand shook, when he finished raking it through his hair, I grabbed it with my own, giving his hand a squeeze. “I…” His breath was coming in faster and faster, noisy in the peace of the field. “I was never meant to be this, Pippin.” It felt like a boil was being lanced within him and while that gave him some relief, the poison within had to leak free first. “I was born to be a soldier, a rider, to distinguish myself in the dragonrider corp and bring glory to my house. My brother was to be king, had been schooled in the arts of leadership, whereas I…” He looked over to the dark shapes of our dragons. “Learned how to ride a dragon. ”

“More than that.” I grabbed his hands and squeezed them. “Because you’re doing it. Each morning you get up, step up?—”

“And stumble where Felix would’ve stood tall.” His eyes met mine, and it wasn’t just the darkness that had shadows forming in them. “He was trying to work out what Mother had planned, to discover her plan and counter it before she could’ve put it into place.”

“You took up that work when he was killed,” I told him.

“And failed.” If I saw under Flynn’s mask earlier today, it felt like now was the moment when I really saw Draven. Not the arrogant prince, not the sensual creature of the other night, but a man–a vulnerable, wounded man. “I failed, Pippin. When I was…” His hand pulled away, reaching for me, but he stopped himself. “When I was celebrating the fact she was dead and gone, my own fucking mother. When I dared to think that we could move forward into a new era. One where people could live peacefully, happily.” His voice broke then. “Where we could be happy…”

He didn’t need to tell me what came next, how that dream died a premature death, because I knew. We all knew, but only he bore responsibility for it.

“Instead, my uncle used her death as a pretext to enact a plan so breathtaking in its selfishness it boggles my mind. Nevermere has been at peace since the demise of Queen Gloriana. My family was responsible for that peace.”

And now another part of his family was responsible for its demise.

“You are not your uncle, your mother, your brother,” I said.

“It is one of life’s tragedies that Felix died and I lived.”

He bit every word off, a rage burning there, but I couldn’t stand the fact that he directed it at himself.

“No.” I rose up on my knees, turning his face my way, even as he resisted my grip. “No, never say that. I’m sure Prince Felix was a very nice man and would’ve made a great king.” He stared into my eyes, making clear how much each word hurt him. “But I dare say that if I bonded to Glimmer while he still lived, he wouldn’t have driven me mad from the moment we first met. ”

“You would’ve loved him,” Draven ground out. “Everyone did.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” My fingers slid down his cheek, feeling every point of stubble. “I wouldn’t.” I felt his lips with my fingertips, tracing the shape of a mouth that featured a little too often in my daydreams, remembering now it was mine to kiss. I ducked my head downwards, doing just that, closing my eyes for a second to feel him, connect with him. “If Glimmer and I had a choice between two princes, we would choose you every time.”

Darkspire knew I was his mate as soon as he saw me , Glimmer added.

“Brom, the others, they choose you,” I continued.

“Don’t be so sure.” His hands went around my wrists, keeping me right where I was. “If I could find any other way to make you my queen and Brom’s wife, I would. Because if he’s forced to choose between the two of us?” He shook his head slightly. “What Brom and I had, it was a boyish thing, born as much from proximity as anything. Our mothers didn’t dissuade us because there’d be no bastard-born children from dallying with another man. It was all very intense until we were forced to stop being boys and become men.”

Draven pulled me into his lap, as if he needed to shield me from this confession.

“What we had afterwards was… habitual, the two of us drawn together and pulling away again, until…” A kiss was pressed to my temple. “Until my brother died and we could no longer pretend. I wasn’t a dragon rider but a prince in reality. He wasn’t my wing commander. We broke things off, and he never looked back, not until you. You were the one he chose, who he offered his ring. If it came down to it, Brom would choose you over me, every time.”

“So make sure he’s not forced to.” I looked up at Draven, the moon a massive silver halo behind his head. “Don’t force Flynn to pretend like his heart isn’t breaking. He’s not…” My hand went to his jacket, flicking open the toggle so my palm could rest on his skin. “He’s not able to compartmentalise like you can. Don’t expect Ged to be compliant, to not call you out.”

“As if that would ever happen…” Draven muttered.

“Don’t break Brom’s heart, forcing him to divorce me. Find another way, Draven, any other way. Do as Soren said and find a way where we’re all working together, not at odds with our very nature.”

“I am trying.” He confirmed my words in a tone ragged with emotion. “It’s all I think about. People are moving counters around on a map in the war room, as if every decision won’t cause the death and destruction of thousands, and I’m preoccupied with everything you described and more. How will this work, Pippin? How the hell will what we have grow, let alone survive, everything that’s happening?”

“Together.” Glimmer, Darkspire, and I said the same thing at the same time, and I think Draven heard each one of us. His eyes widened as if he hadn’t even considered that this burden could be shared.

“Just like that, hmm?” he asked, rearing up and dragging me so I straddled his hips. “Well, in the spirit of togetherness, I was perfectly happy to slope off here and sulk for a while and come back to sleep in the wet spot on the bed, left by you and your lovers. That was to be my penance.”

“Well…”

My fingers slid down the column of his neck, making quick work of the toggles of his jacket as he did the same to me. The moon watched us disrobe, putting aside insignias and rich clothing, to emerge naked and shivering.

“Remind me to bring blankets next time,” Draven said through clenched teeth. “At the very least to ensure I make a good showing. My balls feel like they’re trying to crawl up inside my body.”

“Perhaps they just need to be coaxed out,” I said, my hand sliding down.

“Oh… Gods above, Pippin…”

A sigh came the first time I touched him and each time I placed a kiss on the hard plane of his hip, moving closer and closer to a cock that was no longer feeling the cold but the hot wetness of my mouth. I could not consider myself an expert at this act, but Draven’s grunt made clear he found no fault in my attempt to please him .

“Gods, love…” He was a different man now, the one I needed to see more of when we returned to the palace, but perhaps now I needed to lure this softer, more open side of Draven out to allow that to happen. His hands spanned my scalp, teasing the short hairs there until he forced me away. “You’ve got me too close to the edge.”

“Perhaps you just need to leap off,” I replied.

“Together.” Our leathers were bundled up underneath me as he lay me back on the stone. “That’s what you said, so that’s how it will be.”

I forgot then about the day’s travails, of all the challenges waiting for us when we returned to the palace. That’s why this spot was sacred to him, I realised, as his mouth created a burning trail down my body, searing when his tongue flicked out, separating my folds. My hand slapped down on his head, something that had him snorting.

“Never fear me pulling away.” I was tugged closer, my legs spread wider to allow him greater access. “You jumped on the back of a dragon with me, my queen, let me take you out into the wilds. You won’t be going anywhere until I’ve had my fill.”

And mine too, I felt that as his lips closed around my pearl. My body moved like the tides, rolling over and over against the stone as he stirred me to greater and greater heights, but right as I was reaching my crest, he pulled away. I made a small sound of protest, something he apologised for, right as he thrust into me.

“Together,” he swore, his eyes meeting mine. I had a front row seat to his reaction, an echo of my own. A line formed between his brows, growing deeper with each thrust. It was a terrible pleasure, one that threatened to overwhelm the both of us, my eyes beginning to flutter closed so I could lose myself in it. “No,” he growled, stopping until my eyes flicked back open. “No, stay here with me, Pippin. Right here, with me.”

My lover pleaded for it, my king commanded it, so what could I do but obey? I stared at him and the moon behind him, both feeling like they burned themselves on my retina, the shape of them to be seen when my eyes fell closed later that night. I’d wear that retinal scar gladly.

“That’s it, my darling.” I never expected such sweetness from the prince, but I’d take it over and over as my body moved to meet his. Faster and faster we raced, and that’s when I saw them.

Not Glimmer, not Zafira, but a golden queen nonetheless. She bugled her challenge to all around her, throwing herself into the air. Dragons massed below her in a great amphitheatre that somehow I knew lay below us, my hands sliding over grass, over pebbles, to claw at the earth as we got closer. The heat that burned in her body, burned in mine, his, theirs… A low croon came from the throats of our dragons, matched by the one in my vision. The pitch of it rose like we did, growing higher and higher. Draven demanded that we connect, our eyes locked on the other, but it invited more in.

Male dragons leapt into the air, giving chase, proving to the queen dragon with every wing stroke that they were strong potential fathers of her children, but she danced out of their grip, not willing to surrender. She was caught up in the music of her body, its strength, its power, her power, and I knew something about that. I broke down Draven’s brittle exterior, allowing the man to stumble free. No more sneers, no more cold looks, and he was a fire that threatened to burn me whole.

And him along with it.

I felt it, the moment my hands stopped raking at the earth, digging unconsciously, and my fingers closed around the crystal. Not entirely smooth, not like the ones that were always in my pocket, I could feel the ragged edge of the chip, my fingers teasing the shape edge. A tiny cut formed, blood beading along the edge, and that’s when it happened.

“Pippin…?”

He’d asked me to stay with him, so that meant he came with me.

We were making love in a bed in a room neither of us had ever seen before, the windows open, the curtains billowing as the mating fever of the queen dragon rode us. Janae, the name came to me from somewhere. But as we stared out the window, catching the moment when Janae’s mates caught up with her. Their tails, their wings all got tangled up, their mating a frenzy of rutting that had every adult caught up in its midst.

Except for them.

I caught sight of the strange dragons, heard the bugles of the dragons not caught up in the mating flight. No outsider dragons came here without permission, that I knew. This was the most sacred of times, when all the adult humans and all the dragons in this town came together to mark the creation of the next generation.

But not them.

Their uniforms were different in style to ours, the black unrelieved except for the silver of their insignias, which were familiar. They were royal dragon riders. Free dragons, the dragon corp so close together, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.

Especially not this.

One of the dragons carried something heavy in its claws, its flight erratic as a result, but closer it came. Dragons rose everywhere as humans ran. Draven and I pulled free of each other, reaching for strange clothes to help protect our territory.

Our territory?

I didn’t get a chance to explore what that meant because it all happened so fast. The amphitheatre was built like all the other dragon run towns, over the hatching sands. When the queen dragon was exhausted, sated, she would walk down the wide ramps leading to the hatching sands and rest her body until her eggs were born.

But she would never get a chance.

The intruder dragon dropped its burden, the heavy weight of it whistling as it fell. A simple rock would’ve been preferable, no matter how large, because this projectile was far more deadly.

“Dragonfire…” Draven now and Draven in the vision whispered. I didn’t get a chance to ask what that was as it hit the amphitheatre and then exploded out.

Screaming, I saw that as my hand found the smooth arch of a piece of masonry in the dirt. The hatching sands maintained their temperature because these were the points of Nevermere where lava bubbled the closest to the surface, keeping the area persistently hot. Dragonfire freed that molten flow. Lava splashed everywhere, over everything. Smoke, ash, fire, destruction, it all became a whirling vortex of destruction until finally I forced my fingers to loosen and the world came back with a snap.

“What the…?” Draven said, shaking his head as if that would dislodge what we’d seen. “What the hell was that?”