Chapter One
Vil
“You can’t be serious,” the silvery-gray dragon scoffed from where he lay curled up on a rock ledge jutting from the side of the enormous underground cavern. “A human woman?”
“I am quite serious,” I ground out, my mind fixated on the image of the woman I saw in the Watching Mirror.
She was tall, with legs that went on for days, killer blue eyes, and a smile of white teeth that would be blinding if it had been genuine. The image I’d seen was of her at work, and the happiness she portrayed outward had clearly not worked its way into her soul.
But it will, once I show her what her true worth is as my Eternal Mate. Regardless of what these pompous pricks say.
“Impossible,” another dragon stated, his dull gray scales a pale comparison to my shining silver ones. “We are dragons, Vil, or have you forgotten that?”
I snorted, smoke curling up from the twin nostrils at the end of my long snout. “You forget your place, Mol. I am your prince, not your compatriot. You will address me with respect.”
Before he could reply, the silvery-gray dragon intervened. “You are not prince yet, Anvil. And you will not be without the blessing of the Nine.”
He lifted a wing, the tip waving to encompass the nine dragons I stood before, each on their own ledge or platform scattered throughout the cavern, lit only by the brilliant red-orange lava flowing beneath us through the underground river.
“The only blessing I need to be the Prince of Iron is that of the God-King,” I snarled, standing my ground, my tail twitching with barely chained fury. “You do not control me or this clan, Adamantine. You’d best remember that.”
The giant silvery-gray dragon uncurled on its ledge. “Are you threatening me, boy?”
“I don’t know, Daman,” I said, not intimidated in the least by his posturing. “Are you trying to usurp me as heir to the Iron Throne?”
The dragon bared its teeth as I used the diminutive form of his name, something he disliked intently.
But I had him, and he knew it. Openly admitting he was trying to replace me would be grounds for his arrest and subsequent execution at my hand.
Something we both knew I would be more than happy to oblige.
He wasn’t stupid enough to give me the opening I needed to end his quest for power. Much to my regret.
“Of course not,” the leader of the Nine replied. “We are here as ever to serve the best interests of the Iron Clan. That is all.”
I nearly laughed out loud. The Nine, especially Adamantine, wanted nothing more than power.
The idea of “serving” anyone was not something they had ever imagined doing.
By seizing the throne and removing myself from their path, they would finally be in control of the entire clan, something they had wanted for centuries but had always been denied.
I won’t be the one to give it to them either, mark my words.
“Good,” I said instead. “Then it’s settled. I will go to Earth to find my mate and bring her back here so that this period of transition between my father and me will come to an end at last.”
“You cannot do that. The princess must be a dragon!” Adamantine insisted.
“Tell that to Ember and Torrent,” I fired back, naming the princes of the Fire and Storm Clans. “They found their mates among the humans. The God-King even blessed them so!”
“Degenerates who would sully their blood,” the head of the Nine said implacably, waving my claim away with a flick of a wingtip. “We will not stoop to their level. We have several candidates for the spot of the princess. You would be better suited choosing from one of them.”
As if I’m going to let your handpicked lackeys anywhere near the throne.
“You are not my fairy godmother,” I said. “I’ve seen all the women of the Iron Kingdom. None of them make my blood burn the way they should. It’s time we looked elsewhere for the good of the clan as a whole. Enough wasting time. I have seen my mate. I will go to her and claim her as my own!”
“If you do this,” Adamantine said, his head rising on his long dragon’s neck until he could stare imperiously down at me, “we will be forced to oppose you, Anvil. We cannot let the clan fall into disgrace by allowing a human to sit on the throne. Our blood will stay pure.”
“It isn’t their outward appearance that matters,” I said, spreading my wings wide. “All that matters is that they have the soul of a dragon within them. If the God-King has blessed others this way, then he will do the same for me. You will see. I go!”
Before Adamantine or the rest of the Nine could interject, I launched myself into the air, immediately banking hard to the right and into the tunnel that would take me up into the Iron Fortress, my home.
I see you, I told the image of the woman from the mirror, her sparkling blue eyes calling out to me. I will come for you. It is time you were happy with your entire soul. It is time for you to be where you belong. At my side.
I burst into the sky above the star-shaped fortress that held the seat of power of the Iron Clan.
Giant muscles beat against the sky, sending my near platinum-silver form streaking toward the singular, giant mountain peak that lay at the heart of the entire dragon realm.
Far below Mount Drakonus lay the Rift that would take me to Earth and my mate.
I am coming for you, my love. It won’t be long now.