Chapter 2
“This is her?” A man with warm brown skin, handsome features, and long black hair said. At least I was pretty sure that’s what he said. I’d never been particularly good at reading lips and he wasn’t facing me directly which made it even more difficult.
My father’s back was angled to me so I didn’t have a hope of reading his lips.
If I wasn’t distracted by my hunger I’d probably be more pissed about being left out of the conversation.
But I’d been in the dungeon for almost two weeks and food had been scarce.
For all his skills, Eddie hadn’t been able to sneak me food in here so I’d been surviving on one meager meal a day… and sometimes the guards skipped a day.
The dungeons beneath the citadel weren’t used all that often.
For all our fancy speeches and refined ways of living, we were violent predators at heart.
If a dragon truly misstepped, their punishment was typically a brutal beating or death.
Which was why I was the sole occupant of the dungeon currently.
And only because my life still held value to my father.
I absently rubbed at my neck where the thick metal collar rested against my skin.
When my father had led me to the dungeon, I hadn’t fought because there was no point.
We were more evenly matched in our dragon forms—not that he’d ever admit it—but it’s not like I’d been able to shift.
Unless I wanted to bring the citadel down on top of us.
But when he’d grabbed one of the metal collars off the shelf—then I’d fought like my life depended on it.
The collar had still ended up around my neck but not before I’d broken several of my father’s bones and almost managed to gouge out one of his eyes.
But now even if I wanted to shift I couldn’t.
The collar was spellbound and it wouldn’t break.
If I shifted into my larger form, my neck would instantly snap.
It felt like a cage knowing I was trapped in my current form. Even more of a cage than the literal bars around me.
My father continued talking to the dark-haired man.
I hated not being included in conversations and my father knew it.
Every dragon was taught sign language because roughly ten percent of our children were born deaf.
I had many criticisms of our culture—especially lately with people like Cerri’s father rising to the top—but deafness was never seen as weakness.
Everyone accepted that some of us spoke and interacted differently.
It was natural for someone to pick up signing whenever necessary in conversations.
But my father liked to undermine me and this was one of the ways that he did it.
Movement caught my attention and I drew my gaze away from the hold I’d been burning into the back of my father’s head. The man’s fingers were moving subtly at his side. It was hard to tell at this angle, but I was pretty sure he was saying, I’m sorry, over and over again.
He knew. He knew that my father was deliberately leaving me out of this conversation and he didn’t approve of it.
My brows furrowed together. I recognized the man, his name was Vizor.
He’d come here recently from Ralis, one of the other cities, and had been quietly making a name for himself amongst the members of the dragon council.
It wasn’t a good name.
More than one night I’d watched Cerri pace back and forth in her room while ranting about something Vizor had done.
And Eddie hated him. I didn’t know what had gone down between the two, but Eddie always got this look on his face whenever the other dragon was near like he was imagining pulling his guts out with his bare hands.
And yet here he was… apologizing for my father’s rudeness.
I frowned harder as I stared at him. Vizor was a bit of a mystery to everyone but it was clear that he was vying for a spot on the council.
How the council came to be and ruled was…
messy. We used to have one ruler—a king or queen—back in the days when the fae and other beings would visit us from their realms. Back when the daemons still lived here.
But the dragons of old had been cruel to the daemons—something many didn’t like to admit—and the daemons had found a way to escape this realm.
To forge a new life for themselves. They’d gotten their vengeance on the dragons though.
On the way out, they’d ripped open a gateway to another realm and the trakdi had flooded in.
Then the daemons shut the door on the way out, trapping the dragons here with monsters who were perfectly adapted to hunt them.
I had to give it to the daemons—they were the underdogs that came out on top.
Chaos reigned in that first century. The dragon king fell and the dragon council rose.
Those strong enough to claim a seat did so—and held onto it.
A thousand years later, many of the original council members still maintained their seats.
But sometimes there would be usurpers or a new seat would be added.
Nobody was elected or nominated, it was very much a might makes right situation.
But having the backing of other council members greatly helped your bid for a seat. But that did mean choosing a faction, and there were multiple ones on the council, all with varying degrees of power.
It seemed Vizor had chosen to ally himself with Thorod and my father. That made me inclined to agree with Cerri and Eddie that he was an asshole, despite his apology.
I was snapped out about my thoughts regarding Vizor’s presence here and his odd behavior when my father walked over to the cell door, unlocked it, and jerked it open. He waved a hand at Vizor and then towards me.
What the fuck? I rose from where I’d been sitting against the back wall and eyed both dragons, unsure on which one was the bigger threat. I was alone in an enclosed space with my asshole father and a man who I barely knew but was despised by my friends.
Vizor’s piercing stare landed on my father for a moment before he stalked into my cell and grabbed my arm. I immediately tried to pull it away but he only tightened his grip. I caught a glimpse of my father’s pleased smile as Vizor dragged me out of the cell and then up the stairs.
The panic that had been lowkey brewing for the last couple weeks erupted and I started clawing and punching to get free.
I just needed to get away long enough to find Cerri and Eddie.
They’d help me, I knew they would. But Vizor wasn’t having it and my efforts to get free were in vain because suddenly the world shifted and I was thrown over his shoulder.
I kept beating at his back but he ignored it and when I tried to heave myself off him, his arms clamped down over the back of my thighs holding me in place.
Suddenly fresh air filled my lungs and we were outside, Vizor must have ducked out onto one of the nearby balconies as soon as he cleared the stairwell that led to the dungeon.
He dropped me on my feet and I quickly backed away.
Not that I had anywhere to go. The outside walls of the citadel were lined with balconies that were just open platforms large enough for our dragon forms to land on.
They had no railing and the only way back inside was blocked by Vizor.
And I couldn’t shift with this damn color on my neck.
Vizor met my gaze and raised his hands. Sorry about this.
Then he strode forward towards the balcony edge and stepped off with zero hesitation. Knowing what he intended to do, I darted towards the entryway back into the citadel. I made it halfway before something wrapped around my waist and yanked me off the balcony.