Kiss of Dragons (Dragon Tails #9)

Prologue

Shadow

In the beginning, there was Darkness.

Cold, silent serenity.

And then a shaft of brilliant Light pierced through the abyss, impregnating the Darkness with a million stars. Darkness split into sky, sea and earth to cradle the stars in its airy arms, watch the stars in the mirrors of its seas, and kiss the stars with its snow-capped mountains before Light enfolded Darkness in its fiery embrace.

Thus Time began, with the endless cycle of Night and Day.

Out of Darkness and Light emerged Immortal beings, each with the might of a fiery star. Their names changed with the changing times, but their magic remained constant and true…

And of these brilliant, starry beings, two shone the brightest of all. One borne of Darkness and One borne of Light…

The Twins were inseparable, each the mirror image of the other. Where one’s dream ended, the other’s began. Where one spoke her heart’s desires, the other made them come true…

Or so the stories went.

Myths and lore that were passed down orally and symbolically through tens of thousands of years. And even longer than that.

Here’s the thing: those stories aren’t true.

At least, they weren’t entirely true.

One couldn’t possibly know what occurred in the past without having witnessed and experienced it first-hand. Most people couldn’t recall what they had for breakfast two days ago, never mind recall with crystal clarity what happened eons ago to immortalize in stories that passed down through the generations.

But Miss Seventh knew the truth, as far as her own creation was concerned anyway. After all, she was there for it.

Miss Seventh wasn’t really her name, of course. Who named their children by counting numbers? (Probably all-powerful beings who had innumerable progeny, but that was beside the point).

In the Celestial Realm where she used to reside for the past many millennia since her banishment from the earthly plane, she was known as Seventh Sister or Miss Seventh. It was just easier that way.

Truth beknown, she didn’t possess a particular calling card. As far as she was aware, she didn’t really have a name. Her creators didn’t tend to name things so much as describe them.

Case in point, what did you call the Cosmos, except… well… the Cosmos?

As humans gained in numbers and power, evolving complex languages across a multitude of different cultures, they added far more descriptors to things, including names. But the names weren’t necessarily unique. In fact, many humans had the habit of repeating names on purpose.

From that perspective, perhaps Miss Seventh wasn’t so bad as a moniker after all. It was more unique than some.

Now that she was stuck on earth for an unknown duration, and stuck in three average human forms, she chose average human names for herself to blend in with the rabble, as it were—Ruth, Eve, and Michael. An elderly woman, a young woman, and a young man.

She wasn’t just inhabiting these forms like an Immortal with shapeshifting abilities either; she was well and truly stuck!

It was absolutely awful to be human.

She now possessed all of humanity’s weaknesses: their susceptibility to disease, the process of dying with the passage of time (who knew skin flaked and hair fell out at such a rapid pace!), the sometimes uncontrollable surge of confounding emotions…

It had been ever so much simpler in her old life. Especially her incarceration in the Celestial Realm, where she was mostly an impartial and uninvolved observer of the happenings on earth.

Once in a while she injected her consciousness into earthly beings to lend Fate a hand, but never for long. Other times, she selected the very rare Pure souls who would be given the opportunity to live a new life, and even rarer, resurrect mighty warriors who would help protect and maintain the Universal Balance.

These were a few of her duties in the Celestial Realm since her banishment. She had others too, like weaving the tapestry of gorgeous illusion and fantasy that was the Celestial Realm. Papa Jade had always said she was a gifted artist. And while she was able to do incredible things by mortal standards, she retained only a speck of the power she used to possess.

She was effectively contained.

All because she’d trespassed some unwritten rule of the Universe by breaking the heart of a creature that had grown a Pure soul and died for his unrequited love of her.

How was that her fault?

Anyway, her “punishment” didn’t happen immediately. She rebelled against her creators’ first attempt at containment. Ultimately, she and her Twin—the only being in the Universe she trusted and counted on—lost.

That was definitely her fault. She’d chosen to save a creature she’d birthed rather than protect her own Twin.

The greatest punishment that came swiftly thereafter was that she became separated from her Twin. She was sent to the Celestial Realm, a ghost of her former glory. Her Twin was relegated to hell on earth in the form of a Fox Spirit who could only wear human or immortal skins, but never truly be one.

In a sense, her Twin, too, became a ghost.

Twenty earthly years ago, her Twin was defeated yet again after almost realizing her goal across thousands of years of careful plotting and maneuvering, despite the handicaps she’d existed with.

Defeated, but not gone.

Miss Seventh felt her still. She was there in her memories. In her dreams.

She was the shadow following her every move.