Chapter 6 Mirror, Mirror on the Fall
Flint
My father’s words, though quiet, reverberate through the room like a bomb. They attack my already shaky confidence, the belief I’ve been holding on to that somehow everything is going to be okay, and send me spiraling.
Let go of Jaxon now that I finally have him? Lose the person I’ve loved since the day I met him?
Through good times and bad. Through intrigue and murder. Through lost friends and broken mating bonds, dead brothers and obliterated promises. Through everything.
And now that we’re together, now that we actually have a chance, I’m supposed to let him go or risk losing not just my position, not just my family’s legacy, but the lives of countless dragons who would be called to fight in a civil war.
We just got through fighting Cyrus. We can’t afford to fight ourselves, too.
But losing Jaxon can’t be the only way to prevent the dragon clans from rising against us. It can’t be the only way to save our people and the throne. Can it?
“Me dating Jaxon can’t be the only thing inciting the Council.” I give my father an imploring look. “You can’t expect me to believe that if we break up, they’ll just stop this mad campaign against our family.”
“It won’t stop some of the clans, no,” he agrees with a shake of his head.
“Not the ones who have spent centuries plotting to gain power themselves. But the others? The ones who really do just want what’s best for their people?
The ones who sent family members to die in the war incited by your boyfriend’s father?
The ones who would rather fight than see a vampire prince on the Dragon Court throne?
Yes, those people will be only too happy to mend fences once they realize Jaxon no longer has a place in this court. ”
His words make a terrible kind of sense.
As the truth seeps through me, my legs give out. I throw an arm out to catch myself on the high-backed chair beside me—princes can’t go around letting their knees buckle, after all.
My father gets to me first, his strong, steady arm around my shoulders holding me up when my whole body wants nothing more than to crumble.
It’s what he’s done my whole life—for me, for Damien, and for my mother.
The line of progenitor passes through her family, making her not just the dragon queen but the ruler of all the dragon clans.
It’s a position she’s held for more than a century with honor, with grace, and with an iron grip when necessary.
But it’s my father who holds her together when the weight of the crown is too much for her to bear, when the decisions she has to make for the good of the clans and the court go against what her heart tells her to.
It’s my father who has always held this family together, even after Damien’s death shattered us to pieces.
So, if he’s telling me that breaking up with Jaxon is the only way to continue to hold us together, then I believe him. Even if I don’t know if I can do what he asks.
Though I’m still shaky, I shrug off his arm. Benefitting from his strength and support seems wrong when I’m not sure it’s in me to give him what he wants.
“Is this what Mom wants?”
He gives me a steady look. “It’s what has to be done.”
“That’s not what I asked you. I want to know if Mom believes this is the only way. She gave up her dragon for Jaxon, gave the very essence of who she is to save him.”
“And look where it’s gotten her,” he fires back.
It’s the first time in my entire life I’ve ever heard him raise his voice.
“She spends half the day comatose and the other half barely able to do her duties. We’re holding this government, this whole court, together with nothing but glue and dental floss.
Do you really believe she would have done that if she’d known this is where we would all end up? ”
“I don’t know,” I answer, because it’s the truth. “But I’m selfishly grateful that she did.”
My father looks away, hands clenched and throat working convulsively. “I know this is hard for you, but—”
He breaks off as the sliding glass door leading to the balcony begins to rattle in its frame.
My blood runs cold as, seconds later, the floor trembles beneath my feet.
“What the hell?” my dad mutters as he crosses to look out the door. “Is a storm coming in?”
“I need to go,” I say as I head for the door.
“We’re not finished here—”
“I know. But there’s something I have to do.”
I yank the door open and take off running down the hallway. I don’t know if a storm is coming or not, but I do know that’s not what’s responsible for the way the whole building is shaking beneath my feet. And neither is one of New York’s very rare earthquakes.
No, this is pure Jaxon Vega, and it only happens when something is very, very wrong.
Worry tears through me as the ground continues to tremble. It’s not super powerful—not like when he and Hudson brought down Katmere—but it is prolonged. Which only freaks me out more.
Jaxon rarely loses control, and when he does, it’s usually only for a second or two. But this, this has been going on for over a minute, and it shows no signs of letting up.
Instead of waiting for the elevator—which isn’t where I want to be right now, anyway—I take the stairs two at a time. But I’m barely halfway down the second flight when I land wrong on my prosthetic and twist my knee.
Instinctively, I grab the railing to keep from falling ass over teakettle. Then decide fuck it, since I don’t have time to adjust it, and partially shift so that I can fly down the stairwells. They were built to accommodate wings, so why not take advantage of it?
I hit Jaxon’s floor right about the time the rumbling stops, thank God. But when I get to his suite, he’s not there. In fact, it looks exactly like it did when I left it, except Jaxon’s ripped and bloody clothes are in the trash can and there’s a damp towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door.
It’s not exactly a lot to go on.
I pull out my phone, fire off several texts—first to him, then to Eden and a couple of the other dragons Jaxon has become friends with since he got here.
And by “become friends with” I mean not totally iced out.
Just because he’s got a dragon’s heart now doesn’t mean he isn’t still tall, dark, and completely intimidating when he wants to be.
Jaxon and Eden are the only two who don’t answer me immediately. No one else has seen him, so I start running through possibilities of where he might be. But this is a really big building, and he could be anywhere.
I text him again, and when I still get no answer, I call him…and go straight to voicemail. Damn it.
I slam back out of Jaxon’s suite and head for the stairs again as I run through a list of places he might be. The kitchens. The rooftop patio. The gym. The training center. One of the lounges… The list goes on and on.
I decide to start with the roof and work my way down. He’s got to be somewhere, and I’m going to find him before he hurts himself or accidentally hurts someone else. I know he’d never forgive himself for that.
But just as I reach the end of the hall, the stairwell door swings open, and out walk Jaxon and Eden, looking like something out of a horror movie.
Panic races through me as I assess the damage.
Blood drips down their bare arms and faces, and there are several other spots of blood on their workout clothes next to small tears.
Part of me figures out what happened right away—they were in the training center when something set Jaxon off and he lost control.
But another, bigger part of me is simply freaking out because my boyfriend and my best friend are covered in their own blood.
But before I can so much as ask if they’re okay, Eden throws up a hand. “We’re fine. The training center needs a new mirror, but we’re fine. And no one else was up there, so everything’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Jaxon says hoarsely. I can’t tell if he’s talking to her or me, and to be honest, it doesn’t matter. All I care about is that he’s okay. That they both are.
Even though my heart is still pounding way too fast and my entire body is on high alert, I try to keep my voice calm as I ask, “Can I help you both clean up?”
“I’m good,” Eden tells me as she heads toward the half of the floor that’s reserved for Dragon Guard trainees. “It’s nothing a quick shower won’t take care of.”
Seconds later, she turns the corner, and I’m left alone with Jaxon. With my boyfriend who won’t even look me in the eyes as he starts toward his own suite.
I follow behind him like a puppy dog—just like I have for the last seven years. So why stop now?
“We cleaned up the mess.” Jaxon’s voice is still hoarse as he unlocks the door to his rooms and gestures for me to precede him. “I’ll pay for the new mirror.”
“I think we can handle it,” I tell him dryly. I want to ask if he’s okay, what made him lose control like that.
But he looks so fragile right now. So breakable. So entirely not like himself that all I can do is wrap my arms around him and pull him against my chest.
I expect him to fight me—he hasn’t exactly been in an accommodating mood this evening—but instead, he curls into me. His hands slide around my waist, his chest presses against my own, and he buries his face in the curve between my neck and my shoulder.
“Hey.” I can feel the hot burn of tears against my skin, and I pull him closer—hold him tighter—as my already broken heart shatters like glass. “I’ve got you, Jaxon. I’ve got you.”
I feel like a liar even as I say the words. Because my father’s lecture is playing on repeat in my head. His order that I leave Jaxon because he’s not my mate.
I won’t do it—I can’t do it. I love him, and he loves me, and I can’t just walk away from that. Not after everything we’ve been through to get here.
But then I think about my people. I think about everything my mother has done in her time as queen to make things better for all dragons. And I think about the people who are angling to seize control. Clan leaders who care more about themselves than they ever will their people. My people.
It’s an impossible decision, and an agonizing one that I’m not equipped to make. Especially not right now, when Jaxon is in my arms.
So, I do the only thing I can do. I hold him as tightly as I can and pray for a miracle.