The place might have been perfect to look at, but it was clear that there were no living beings here. I could feel the emptiness.
Louis shrugged, his white, ribbed long-sleeved shirt rippling across lithe muscles. “I don’t know for sure. I believe they abandoned their physical bodies and are simply one with their world now.” That could explain the current state of perfection down here. If they were a part of this world, in spirit or power form, they could probably keep the maintenance up.
“I have heard a lot of stories about when they vanished. Apparently one minute they were here, controlling the power of Faerie and existing with their wild brethren, the dragons. They monitored the dragon mating and made sure that balance was kept through the realms. And then … they were gone. Before my time of course, but I’ve been studying the lands of Faerie for many years. I’ve gathered a lot of information about the history, because so much of it still affects us on the Earth plane. In truth, though, no one really knows what happened to them.”
Both of my hands flew up, palms toward him. “Whoa, hold up. The dragons are their brethren and they monitored dragon mating? What the hell are you saying?” Before he could answer, I spun around to Braxton. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
This was the second time someone had mentioned dragon mating or mated. I had never heard that term before, and I wanted to know what it was. Like right now.
“I have some idea, just very basic information about the way dragon shifters are born.” Braxton turned to Louis. “We’re never told much of it. Faerie guards their secrets. If you know more, you better start explaining.”
I spun around again. “Yes, what he said … start talking, sorcerer.” I was fully prepared to beat it out of him, even if he could turn me into a frog with a simple spell. Okay, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be that simple, but I bet Louis could do it.
“We’re wasting time standing here,” Jacob cut in. “We need to find whatever it is that can break the dragon marked ties. Can we explore and talk at the same time?”
Louis sucked in a deep breath, his eyes flittering across the castles towering over us. “I think we are going to have to venture inside, but I implore you all, stay close, do not wander off. I have no idea which of the ancient powers might be lying dormant in those walls.”
I couldn’t hold back my snort, which turned into full-blown laughter when Louis turned his sparkling purple peepers on me. “You implore us to stay close. No one speaks like you, my friend, no one.”
Okay, some of the oldest supes did on occasion lapse into a much more formal style of English, but Louis managed to combine old and new perfectly.
His grin widened. “I’ll dumb it down for you next time, shall I?”
I forced my face to go perfectly blank, before reaching up and twirling a strand of hair. “Awesome, that would be like, totally, like just the wickedest thing evers.”
I finished that by flipping him off, with both hands. Smartass fucker.
We were silent as we started our journey toward the castles again. This time Louis was leading. He chose the largest, middle castle. The light here felt natural, but we knew it wasn’t; there were no shadows, not even a darkening as we stepped up to the doorway. The sandstone building towered above us, its marble accents littered with rubies and sapphires, and the rest looked like a diamond infused membrane. So glittery.
I reached out a hand and placed it onto one of the pillars, which stood tall on either side of the main entrance. Sparks shot through my palm and up my arm, the magic skidding along my body and deep into my veins. I managed to yank myself off the wall before sinking back against Braxton.
“I don’t know what the hell that just was,” I said breathlessly. “But there’s some serious mojo in this castle. It’s so infused with magic that I would recommend not touching shit unless you have no choice.”
“Great plan, Jess,” Louis said before muttering a few words in the direction of the massive door, standing at least fifteen feet high. It slowly creaked open. I wasn’t sure what to expect on the other side, but when the sorcerer finally stepped through, and the rest of us followed, I was completely stunned.
One would think that stepping into a castle, the inside would in some way match the outside – large open foyer, huge curved marble staircases, maybe some long expanses of stone flooring, shiny marble even? Nope. Apparently in this isle of Faerie, what you got inside castles was a massive stretch of meadow, some scattered trees in the distance, and the softest looking grass and flowers flowing out across the distance. The space looked endless; the sky was dark blue, navy, and infused with light.
I couldn’t stop myself from stepping further into the meadow, sighing as my bare feet sank into the warm, dry, spongy softness. Wait … my shoes? I turned back and realized they had been flung haphazardly near the entrance. I must have kicked them off the moment I walked inside, needing to be in contact with the land.
I wanted to run and fly across the meadows. In fact, my dragon had stopped her calm pacing and was now straining against me. All of a sudden I had the feeling that this was her world and she wanted to be free. As if all control had left me, in a roar of fire and magic I felt the shift washing across my body. Braxton’s eyes captured mine just moments before my body morphed into my dragon.
My mind went into beast mode, the colors of this place even more dazzling with the extra spectrum of dragon sight. She was pushing my consciousness down, tapping into the base instincts of her kind. We were immediately in the sky, flying, roaring, sending plumes of flames around the world and into the blueness. Everything here felt right for the dragon’s existence – the temperature, the air currents, the scents, the colors. It was as if this was a dragon’s dream world.