Page 40 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)
War appears to read something in my eyes because she nods, grabbing me by the shoulders and shoving me into the door. “Omegas first.”
“Such a polite Alpha,” I mumble with the gold pressed against my lips.
I fumble for the metal door handle, pushing it down.
I stumble into the tower’s room. Then I raise my arm in front of eyes, blinded by the golden light.
“It’s like your eyes are being boiled out of your head by a hundred suns, when you first see this tower.
” War edges around me, further into the room.
“I hear that it’s worse the further you go into the tower, becoming even more extravagant.
I’ve never ventured further before. I only come here sometimes with Aurelius when he’s summoned. I won’t let him come alone anymore.”
I can guess who is summoning him. The anymore has me on edge.
Slowly, I lower my arm from my eyes, squinting around at the room.
The light isn’t from real sunlight, but rather the polished gold walls, floor, and roof.
The roof drips with moldings like flames, as if a dragon has roared its fire, which has then turned by alchemy to gold.
I stumble forward, twirling in a circle.
“I never dreamed…” I whisper, overwhelmed. “It’s incredible.”
Statues of golden dragons of all sizes sit on gleaming plinths, while beautifully decorated swords, daggers, and spears stand between them. Jewel encrusted golden bowls, plates, and goblets, along with glittering chains and rings, lie in heaped piles.
This is a true dragon’s treasure hoard.
“After Emperor Hadrian’s death, everything he owned in his palace was brought up here and stored in his personal wing.” War’s brow furrows. “Only royalty were allowed in here. Hadrian was to be forgotten and never spoken about again. The stain of his shame buried as if it ever could be.”
“How does it stay this clean?”
War looks amused. “Fuck me, I bring you somewhere this wondrous and that’s where your mind goes?”
I cross my arms. “I spent nearly two decades of my life thinking about how to keep a palace dust free.”
“Fucking sorcery, that’s how.”
“Shame that can’t be used in the rest of the palace. My knees would appreciate it.”
War stalks to me and snatches my hand, before pushing it down onto a golden statue with ruby eyes.
I scream at the burning sensation in my palm, which is searing.
“Do you want that poison flowing through the palace, simply so that servants can lose their jobs?” War growls. “This room lies beneath Maximinus’ control because it’s metallic.”
“Let go.” I struggle. “How about using words?”
“You’re the one who needs to touch the thorn to learn that it hurts.”
She finally lets go, and I hug my hand to my chest. But then, I stare at my skin in shock .
I expect to see it black and blistered. Instead, the skin is pink and unharmed.
“How…?” I shake my hand, as the last of the tingling pain fades.
“Fucking sorcery,” War repeats, making as if to grab my hand and show me again.
“I don’t need another demonstration.” I stagger backward, falling over a misshapen lump of gold onto my ass. “What’s this?”
I point at the deformed statue, careful not to touch it.
War’s expression becomes serious. “An example. Maximinus uses this place as a demonstration of the control that he can hold.” She nods at a giant statue that leans against the wall, which is shaped like a sword. “Another example.”
“For Aurelius.”
She nods.
“No matter how they tried,” I take a deep breath, studying the cool, monstrous statue next to me but knowing that it would burn me if I dared to reach out and touch it, “the Golden Dragon’s legend couldn’t be suppressed.
There were paintings of him in a cave back in Fang Kingdom.
I’ve been fascinated by the legend for years. Was Emperor Hadrian truly wicked?”
“You don’t know what wicked even means, Omega.” War pushes her hair back from her face. “I’ve fought battles against Unseelie and Bloods. I’ve witnessed…horrors…here in the Shadow Court. Yet none of it’s truly wicked compared to what went on during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. ”
The golden gleam is making my temples throb. I can see my reflection distorted in a hundred surfaces around me.
Suddenly, I feel trapped.
My breathing becomes ragged.
I’ve never been this close to the secrets at the heart of this court before. I can’t flee now.
“So, he was a brutal warlord,” I say. “Like Tarquin or his parents before him.”
“Not like them.” War’s eyes flash. “He didn’t need an army behind him. Too much power in the hands of a single dragon could never be good, but in the hands of a warlord, it was enough to make the gods weep blood.”
I push myself shakily to my feet. “What…?”
“He lost control. He razed the realms, until there was nothing left of his enemies but ash. Only a guild of Maximinus’ ancestors, who held the same metallicum powers as him, could contain Hadrian.
They created enchanted chains and a cell to hold him in.
Then they turned his own weapon on him and reduced him to ash. ”
I’m barely breathing, while War is breathing too fast.
“This was a mistake,” she mutters. “I’m taking you back to your nice safe rooms.”
“Hey, wait.” I dance away, as War tries to grab for my elbow. “I just wanted to know who Aurelius truly is.”
“He isn’t Hadrian!” War roars. “And maybe you should care more about who you are.”
I shove her, even though it’s like trying to move a rock. “I’m nobody.”
War gives a vicious grin, backing me further into the tower. “Nobody? Not how Wraith tells it. Lone survivor of the Orm massacre. A rare non-shifter. Soulmate to the Shadow Fae King. Loved by the Shadow Dragon King…”
“I said,” I snarl, “I’m nobody . I should know.”
“Apart from the fact that we’re most blind about ourselves.”
When my back hits something hard, which sears me even through my tunic, I yelp and twist around.
I find myself looking up at a full-sized gold statue of Emperor Hadrian.
The dragon shifter is dressed in armor and a cloak. His expression is haughty and forbidding in a way that makes me shiver. His right hand rests on the hilt of the same dagger with dragon head and scaled sheath, which I’ve seen at Aurelius’ waist.
It’s as if Hadrian himself has been turned to gold.
Except, not only Hadrian.
“He-h-he looks identical t-to Aurelius.” I stutter.
I can’t look away from the dominant Emperor, who looks so much like my Alpha.
My blood runs cold.
How can I deny that the legends are right and Aurelius is truly Hadrian reincarnated now?
“He won’t be the same,” War says with a stunning, simple belief.
“He isn’t Hadrian, wolf. I know people, and Aurelius isn’t a wicked beast, even if Maximinus has made him atone for this…
” She jerks her thumb at Hadrian’s statue, “…cocksucker’s sins.
Even if Maximinus has been trying to use him to continue Tarquin’s attempt to create a se cond empire, but this time, with him leashed from the start. ”
I force myself to look up at the statue again.
On second glance, the dragon looks nothing like Aurelius.
Physically, he is identical.
It sets my teeth on edge to realize that he is even wearing the same style of crown. Is it the exact same one taken from these rooms?
Yet everything about his bearing, expression, and the look in his eyes is different.
It’s more like they’re twins.
Does that mean it’s not inevitable that Aurelius will lose control?
I narrow my eyes, focusing on the small lettering, which circles the hilt of the dagger.
I’m certain that it’s not on Aurelius’ dagger. I study the items that I want to steal, and I’d have noticed it.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Nothing,” War says, far too quickly.
Important then.
I cock my head, reading out the beautiful, scrawled writing:
Golden fated mates, an Omega and her Alpha Kings, destined to bleed .
I frown. “What’s that mean?”
“It’s the Golden Dragon Prophecy,” War replies. “It was made to Hadrian by one of the sorcerers, before the Emperor was executed. Kind of the fuckers to engrave it on here.”
My skin feels too tight. “What does it mean?”
“Maximinus believes that the prophecy means Aurelius, Daire, or you, are going to die if you officially bond. The question to me, on the other hand, is: Does it actually mean that you’re going to kill each other?”