My heart was beating so hard it was almost loud enough to drown out the Queen’s voice in my head. This was information we needed, that would help us, but I wasn’t sure I could handle the full truth.
When we turned him down, he went to the shadow spawn, and while they were able to release the curse, they cannot touch the souls of dragons. Which is why he ended up turning two of our members. Their betrayal was deep and all encompassing.
Chrysandra’s eyes were open again now.
They stole four of our young, newly born dragons. They killed their physical bodies and contained their souls in balls of magic. These four became trapped in the curse of the shadow spawn, cursed to be dragon mated when that was never their fate. The first three were lost to the great sky in an attempt to forcibly mate them to some of Larkspur’s men, experiments so they would not make any mistakes with his chosen mate.
They were going to wait on the fourth, hoping to discover the secret to a successful dragon mating, but we thwarted those plans. The moment he killed those dragonlings, he made enemies of the shining ones and the dragons. It was only his ties with the shadow spawn that stopped us from killing him immediately. With his power so linked to theirs, the energy of his death may have given the shadow a window to escape their prison. We would have been weakened, and they would have overthrown us.
Instead we decided to throw as many obstacles in his path as we could, and eventually he was spooked enough to release the remaining dragon soul into the universe. She was still stuck within the marked curse, but instead of being forced to a specific supernatural, she was free to find the mate he needed.
The shining one paused and the air felt heavy. The next time her voice was in my head, it was shaky.
One of the stolen young was my child. Until this day I never knew if she was one of those who were lost or if she was the remaining soul released into the universe. The moment you stepped into my realm, I sensed her soul within you. She survives. The true heir to the dragon mantle, the last queen of our kind.
Holy shit. My heart broke for her. No mother should have to face the loss of a child.
It’s been like a thousand years since they stole the dragons, right? It had to be before the king was killed. So my dragon was just existing out in the universe, waiting to find the right soul to mate with? Larkspur wasn’t around to force her? So does that mean it was a natural dragon mating, like Braxton and other shifters?
I sensed her hesitation before she spoke again.
Larkspur did not force her to choose you, but as I said, the curse was strong and she was a victim as well. Larkspur commanded her to seek the strongest line of shifters, descended from the shining ones. She waited for you through the many centuries. You were the first to call to her, and even though your soul already had a wolf claim, she found a way to make the bond work. Through no fault of either of you, it was this joining which freed the shifter, for he could never have been awoken without the final piece of his curse.
Yep, I knew that all too well. I had been the piece of the puzzle, my blood and dragon mated soul the key to opening his tomb.
Even though she chose you, and you were bonded in the same way as all other dragon shifters, her soul was never supposed to be free to be dragon mated. She should be the queen of her people. She is everything we had hoped and dreamed of to lead our royal line. I have not had any young since. Josephina is the last of my line.
Josephina. The name slammed into me like a bullet to the gut. I played with her name in my head, and my dragon, who had been listening to her mother speak, sent warm energy toward me, trying to reassure me, trying to make me feel better about being the prison binding her soul. Being dragon mated was the greatest gift I could ever hope to have, but this was not the way it should have been.
Josephina wrapped herself closer around me, sending more of that ancient energy in my direction. I wailed my sorrow at her. I’m sorry. So, so sorry. And even though we couldn’t communicate the same way I was talking with her mother, I could tell that she was trying to comfort me, reassure me that this was not my fault, that she had chosen me for a reason, that even though, by the time she found me, I already had a wolf soul, there had been no one else strong enough for her.
I managed to pull myself together, steadying my breath, focusing again. I sent a question to Chrysandra: How were the dragon marked chosen?
Larkspur wanted the strongest minds. Body strength was not as important. He wanted twins and multiples because of the mental link you already possess, a link he could utilize when he tried to control you.
Made sense. Larky was a smug, intelligent asshole. And I was so going to kill him. He murdered baby dragons, for freak’s sake.
Chrysandra shifted closer to me, her head snaking down to hover inches from my own. Her eyes stared into my soul again and I wondered if she was trying to see Josephina, her daughter.
I have to go now. There’s much we do to keep this world as is, to stop those from waking who should not.
Wait, I blurted. Just really quickly, why did Larkspur not use magic when he fought against Braxton? And what did he promise you and the shadow spawn? What could he offer that would be worth the shadow ones helping him with a curse? That must have cost them precious energy.
Our gazes remained locked.
If he managed to dragon mate a soul to a shifter descended from the shining ones, she would be strong enough to produce his young.
I remember.
Her children would be dragon shifters, the first ever naturally born, no need for a dragon mated soul. These young would be stronger than any dragon-mated shifter, a true hybrid of the kind, and would hold power over the five supernatural races. Larkspur plans to build an army of his children to rule over the supernatural races. Even the gods would not be safe.