Wings Of Fire: Whisper In The Shadows (book 1)

Chapter 4- Tempest

Anger boils in the pit of my stomach. Boiling hot lava. She's lied to him his whole life! Ever since he was a dragonet! I can't believe Coral would do that to him.

Queen Coral, I remind myself—my grandmother.

A thought hits me. Did my mom know? Was she lying to me when she told me he was dead? Or did the Queen tell her the lies as well? She is Coral's daughter... and she does tell Tsunami everything... No. I think fiercely, My mother would never lie about that.

The moment I saw him in the Sky Palace, I knew it was him. He had fading scarlet, purple and navy scales and was covered in golden markings. It was when his periwinkle eyes landed on mine, and anger tore through my heart that I truly knew it was him.

All lies! Every single one of them! But I had to contain my anger, instead of sprinting up to him and shaking him repeatedly screaming "YOUR BROTHER IS ALIVE," I greeted him politely just as every other councillor had at this stupid, frivolous meeting.

Well politely is a stretch...

"What's your name?" I had blurted, biting my claws anxiously. What I really wanted to ask him was, 'Do you have a brother? No? Cause you do, and you've been lied to your whole life.'

"Oh, umm, Storm." He replied, visibly confused about how I was so nervous. "You're Tsunami's daughter right? Tempest?"

"Yeah. But listen there's something I need to tell you, you have a brother and he's-"

"Oooooh, you must be one of Ruby's generals! A hybrid, how exciting!" Queen Coral's high, queenly voice suddenly interrupted.

"Oh, Tempest you're here too, your mother was just looking for you." Coral remarked with a dissming wave of  her talon. Then she turned her attention back to Storm, oblivious to the scathing look I was sending her.

"Hello, I'm Queen Coral as you probably may know," Coral said importantly as if it were some pleasure to simply bask in her glorious presence. Actually, that's probably her daily affirmation. 

Storm bowed and Queen Coral offered a talon to shake with an impossibly insufferable smile. Storm shook it polietly.

"Yes of course, nice to meet you, you're majesty," Storm said graciously. "My name is St-" "Stymph!" I interrupted hurriedly. Coral might recognise the name and then it would be all over! Coral shot me a reprimanding look.

"Yes, His name is Stymphalian." I said quickly.

Storm looked at me with a confused look, but the queen didn't notice.

"Oh, well nice to meet you Stympalian, I have heard great things about you." Coral turned to leave and a bit of resentment boiled in the pit of my stomach. Selfish, snail brain!

"So. Storm." I turned to look at him, his brow was furrowed in confusion like Gales always does. My heart wrenches, Gale! What will he do when he finds out?

"As I was saying, your brother is alive!" I blurt out.

Storms eyes widened in surprise, shock, confusion, worry, joy, excitement, dread, anger and a million other emotions I can't name.

Just before Storm could reply, we were interrupted by the arrival of Queen Ruby and the meeting starting.

I wanted to rip my talons out! No, not my talons, Corals. But I plastered a smile on my face while meeting Queen Ruby and I even kept a smile on throughout the entire meeting (all about a potential Skywing/Seawing relationship) and through the dumb reception at the end, and even on the cold, windy flight home.