Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
I was so, so tired.
My legs hurt from traversing the tunnels for what felt like the past twenty-four hours nonstop. My arms and back burned from carrying my satchels and supplies, but I wouldn’t put any down. I needed everything.
If Shava was tired, she hid it well.
That mud constitution that made them all tough might have skipped me. Well, physically, anyway. I was the toughest person I knew, mentally. Who else could make precise cuts into their skin and bleed, all for the sake of magick?
“Zariah better be here or nearby. I can’t walk another step.”
Shava emerged from the mine shaft and into the hot desert sand, the sun high in the sky by this point. She collapsed to the ground with a groan, rubbing her feet.
It was tempting to join her, but I resisted.
“Finally, they’ve joined us.”
I jerked and Shava gave a small yelp as the queen stepped out from behind an outcropping of rocks, two Fireguards at her side holding a squirming Noble.
“HELP! HELP!” He screamed incoherently at me, face twisted in horror. Surely, I didn’t look bad. I knew I looked rough after my rituals, but his reaction was over the top. Especially considering what he’d likely turn into, assuming he was one of the Noble’s about to turn into a demon.
“Dear me … what have you done?” the queen asked, stepping up to examine me closer. I returned the favor, noticing the odd, skintight outfit she wore on her body like a second skin. The garment left nothing to the imagination. She may be far older than me, but the queen was still a beautiful woman.
One silver-white eyebrow arched at me as if she knew the direction of my thoughts. I didn’t hide my gaze as it shifted to her breasts, arching an eyebrow of my own in response. Wear ridiculous clothes, and you’d get ridiculous looks.
“Did he look like this before?” the queen questioned Shava, turning her sharp tongue on him.
Shava glanced at me, oddly shaken as she shook her head furiously side to side. “N-no. I don’t know what he’s done. Do you?”
I frowned, touching a hand to my face. My nose felt a little off and my skin seemed paler, but surely it was simply because of exhaustion, or maybe something had happened from the ritual that had almost accidentally taken place.
“You’re uglier,” I bit out to the queen. Not that I cared how I looked. If doing rituals had physical consequences, I was fine with that. It was simple curiosity that led me to get more reactions, and more information.
“Now really isn’t the time to discuss it,” Shava shot back, eyes on the queen. “But we need to talk about it later. Assuming we’re not dead. ”
A nonanswer that avoided my question.
“Why is it always you?” the queen sneered. “What magicks have you dabbled in?”
I stared at her feet, realizing they were just as bare as Shava’s. What in the world was going on? The queen was out here dressed like some sort of … loose mud girl!
I didn’t have an answer for the queen, so I didn’t provide one. Caught red-handed openly defying her like this, I already knew Shava and I faced execution. For real, this time. Hopefully, it will be by the dragon in my back pocket.
“I’d order you to take him up to the dome, but that hasn’t been working well for us lately, has it? I suspect I haven’t given clear enough orders to the right dragon,” the queen continued.
I assumed the queen was using the royal we, but her comment was puzzling. There was only one dragon, so what was she talking about?
Don’t smirk. Don’t give an inch.
My face stayed impassive, though behind me, Shava trembled. A wet stain appeared on the Noble’s crotch, and I wrinkled my nose at him in disgust. I wanted to hiss at everyone to pull it together. Shava at least knew the dragon was on our side! What was she afraid of?
“ZION!” the queen thrilled out, her voice pinging off the surrounding rocks.
The massive golden dragon soared overhead, circling down before landing with a giant ‘thud’ a distance away. His giant wings stayed flared, casting a shadow on everything under his gaze.
“There you are. I suspect these two have been smuggling goods and even people out of the kingdom. I know you didn’t assist in this endeavor, did you? You of all people know how dangerous these people are. ”
The dragon crouched flat on his belly, his head whipping back and forth in an unmistakable gesture of submission.
“Well? Did you know?”
The dragon shook its head.
I frowned. Hadn’t Zariah said they had to obey the queen and couldn’t lie to her?
“As I suspected. Kill them.”
I didn’t have time to react or lord over our secret little alliance with the dragon.
Mostly because the dragon ignored said alliance and dove straight for us, the guards yelling and leaping out of range.
The Noble cried noisily and fell to the ground, covering his head with his hands.
All the while, the queen laughed hysterically.
The dragon would have killed me almost immediately with its outstretched claws through my chest, had Shava not yanked me backwards flat onto the ground.
A flash of silver went by my face and the dragon screamed, rearing back in pain as the knife nicked the soft skin around its eyes.
It breathed fire everywhere, creating absolute chaos.
“Fuck, missed,” Shava cursed, pulling me up harshly. “Come on, get up! We have to get to the tunnel, and fast!”
In its rage and pain, the dragon stomped and blew fire everywhere, scattering the guards and making it hard to breathe, let alone see.
The queen screamed at him to obey and soon enough he would, so we had to hurry, scurrying back through the gate into the mud quarter.
My body kept moving automatically while my mind kept whirling, not understanding why the dragon had lied to the queen.
And when I didn’t understand something, it drove me mad until I figured it out.
And then, through the smoke, the impossible happened.
A second golden dragon dropped out of the sky and tackled the first one .
“What the fuck—” I breathed out.
“No time! Come on!”
By some miracle, Shava found the tunnel’s entrance, and yanked me in after her.
Two dragons? TWO DRAGONS?
And why had Zariah attacked us? Hot betrayal burned in my gut. It was M all over again, winning my hard-earned trust only to stab me in the back.
This was why you never trusted people. This was why humanity wasn’t worth my effort.
But two dragons .
“I think we made it far enough below ground. The shaking has stopped.” Shava’s hand around my wrist tightened. Her eyes were wide with panic, but her voice was steady. She was steady, like always.
My spiraling thoughts ground to a halt. Shava was right; the rumbling in the earth was gone, the dragon’s rampaging only muffled thuds far off.
“Zariah lied to the queen’s face, and then he attacked us!” I shouted out into the abyss as Shava grabbed my wrist and held on, ensuring we wouldn’t get separated in the darkness. There was no time to light a torch. I was too in my head to do anything but follow behind her.
I thought back to the day I’d first met him.
“Prince Zion,” I gasped out.
The naked boy frowned, sitting back on his haunches.
“No. I am Zariah.”
“Zariah? The prince’s name is Zion,” I protested.
The boy’s eyes watered with tears as he slapped his hands over his face.
“I’m not supposed to tell! Momma said!”
I blinked as possibilities crashed together, leaving one inevitable conclusion.
“There’re two of them,” I whispered .
“What?” Shava asked, barely sparing a glance back at me as she pulled me along. In my stupor, I wasn’t keeping up. “Speak up. You’re muttering.”
“Twins,” I continued, lost in my own thoughts. “Fucking dragon prince twins. ”
She stopped so suddenly I crashed into her, banging noses. We didn’t waste time on apologies or rubbing bruises appendages. She stared at me, knowing what this meant.
“You mean?—”
“One lives his life mostly with the queen in the palace; that’s Prince Zion,” I began. “The other lives his life mostly as the dragon. That’s Zariah.” Lost in the revelation, I babbled mindlessly. “I can’t believe all this time … it makes so much sense. ”
“W-wait for me!”
A terrified, snot-nosed voice filled the passageway, jerking both of us out of our shocked stupor.
“You’re fucking kidding me …” I growled, recognizing it immediately.
The pasty Noble stopped in front of us, panting hard with his hands on his knees.
His blond hair stuck to face, sweaty and sticking up every which way.
His eyes were brown, the only hint of his mud parentage.
Had his mother been a reaped girl forced against her will like so many of the others?
Why had my own experiment and the princes’ worked, but this Noble’s hadn’t?
He scratched nervously at his wrist, the skin red and inflamed. I glanced down at it, and Shava was quick to catch the movement. He’d change eventually, just like all the others.
“The d-dragons … they were rampaging everywhere. I didn’t know where else to go. The queen is so angry with me! What could I have done? Did she know I nicked one of her spoons a week ago? ”
He trailed off in thought, pudgy face quivering.
I ignored him. There were more pressing concerns.
Shava saved your ass. You owe her something.
I hated owing anyone anything, but she had proved her usefulness.
Just proves I did an excellent job choosing her.
And yet …
“You are quick thinking,” I pushed out, before I could think better of it. I couldn’t see Shava’s reaction in the darkness, and that was for the best. I didn’t want any sappy declarations or misunderstandings.
Shava gave me a dubious look, but there was a ghost of a smirk at the corner of her mouth.
“We need to find another way back through one of the branching tunnels and plan what to do now. Hopefully, they don’t find us.
There are more passageways, but we haven’t explored them.
The queen will send Fireguards after us. ”