All of our attentions were drawn back to the darkening sky. Dragon-shaped shadows were zagging across it and the six of us settled into a semi-circle, waiting to see what was about to happen, preparing ourselves. Louis stepped to the front, his power longer-reaching than the rest of ours. Tyson was the next best.
The shadows disappeared, only to reappear moments later. Before I could react my head exploded and darkness engulfed me. For the first time in my life, Jessa was lost to the dragon. The shining ones were here to play.
I awoke in a field very much like the one I’d just left, my head squashed against something quite hard and rough, and by the time I opened my eyes and scrambled to my feet, it was too late to haul butt from the dragon – a dragon who was not Braxton or Larky. Nope, this dragon was so unbelievably stunning it made the rest of us look like geckos – you know, those weird little translucent lizards – ugly bastards, no matter how useful they were at keeping the spider population down.
This dragon was a pure, shimmery gold, like the richest vein of gold you could ever hope to mine from the ground, so sparkling that it irritated my eyes if I stared too directly.
Large, red, jewel-like eyes gazed at me. Unblinking. I sensed no aggression from the beast, even though the wild magic it emitted suggested it was a wild dragon, not a shifter. While it felt like a bad idea to remove my attention from this golden giant, I had to send out my senses to see if my pack was close by.
I got nothing from our immediate surroundings, no other energy at all.
Welcome to my realm, youngling.
The musical voice echoed across my mind and crashed like cymbals into my brain. I shook my head, trying to dispel the lingering fogginess that had sprung up by simply being in the presence of something so magical.
Who are you?
Somehow I knew how to project the words I wanted and keep the rest private.
I am Chrysandra. I am both shining one and queen of the wild dragons.
Holy crap on toast. And I had thought I was a special cupcake. How could she be both?
Have the shining ones always been dragons? I had pictured them looking like pointed-ear elf-princesses.
No, many millennia ago our two races were strong enough to exist separately. Now we are one and the same. After the battle with shadow spawn, those who were left chose to be dragon mated to our most magical of brethren. This is how we survived.
Un-freaking-believable. The shining ones did the opposite of the dragon shifters. The dragons didn’t mate to them, they went into the beast.
What do you want with me? What happened when I blacked out?
Images appeared in my head then, flashes of my dragon flying in a large group of beasts, all of them impressive and ancient looking, although none still came close to the spectacular visage of the dragon before me now.
You and the soul of your dragon are innocent victims in something which should never have happened. A thousand years ago a shifter came to our land. He asked for a favor, offering his own boon in return. We refused him, for what he requested was so abhorrent to our kind that there would be nothing he would ever be able to give which could justify it.
Fucking Larky. Bet they wished they killed that arrogant dick right then and there. I certainly wished they had.
He was charismatic and very persistent, though, and somehow managed to convince two of the younger shining dragons to join forces with him. Together they approached the shadow spawn. Our enemy took his offering and granted his request. Even with limited power, they still managed to create a curse, a line of magic which was sent out into the universe. The shifter wanted to bind souls to his own. In the case of his death, he would be able to be reborn with the blood of those who bore his mark.
So it had been the shadow spawn who created the marked.
Why is my mark different than the others? Why did my blood free him from his prison?
Chrysandra didn’t answer immediately, and I felt like she was searching my mind, ferreting around in there, probably trying to figure out why I was so special. Finally, her deep tones sounded again.
You’re descended from the shining ones, you and your twin both. There was once many supernaturals who were descended from us, but now they are few. You and Mischa are the only two to be both dragon marked and contain the blood of the shining ones. Teamed with the blood of Larkspur’s daughters, you held enough power to trigger his curse.
I never even bothered to wonder how she knew Mischa’s name. She was a god, they just knew shit.
So, I’m actually descended from … the shining ones. I trusted the word of this golden beast, but it was still a crazy thing to wrap my head around. Guess I knew now why the labyrinth had let me in and Loch Ness had been like a massive, scaled kitty-serpent. I was family and stuff.
Yes, your family is one of the stronger lines left in the supernatural races, and because you were the first born of your twin set, you’re stronger than Mischa. This is why you were the dragon mated.
Yes, how the hell … uh, how did that happen? I’m a dual shifter. I also have a wolf soul bonded to mine.
Those jewel eyes blinked then, closing in one slow sweep, and stayed closed for many moments. I could hear nothing, but the sorrow that seeped through and into her magic was potent.
That was part of the curse and the reason we would never have helped him. I flinched, her eyes were still closed and I had not expected her to start talking. He wanted us to forcibly mate a dragon soul with a supernatural, one descended from the shining ones, and in doing so, we would create a mate strong enough to bear his children, a queen to help him lead the five races. This was against everything we stood for, everything we had ever promised to our majestic beast friends.