Dragon Born

Chapter 19

My eyes grew sore after being nose deep in texts for hours. Jessie brought in a continuous supply of tea and snacks for me to nurse. When even those weren't enough, she spiked my tea with my own brew of stimulants to keep me going. She changed the candles around me three times. Raiden slept peacefully by the fireplace-

The castle trembled violently. A small piece of stone broke from the ceiling and landed in my lap. For a beat everything was silent.

Raiden scampered to my side, whining, with his wings flat against his back. I picked him up and stroked his back to calm him.

Jessie looked at me. “What are the chances of that being an earthquake and not a monster breaking into the castle?”
Considering the time of day, I would unfortunately have to go with the latter. Wordlessly, I rushed to my room, plucking the dragon scale jacket off the hanger and tying my father's sword at my waist.

Jessie caught up to me, eyes wide. “You’re not seriously going to fight it, are you? We’re in a castle full of Dragon Princes, they’ll protect us.”

“We’re in a big castle. What if the monster finds us before the Princes do? I have to protect Raiden.”

Her hands trembled at her sides.

“If you want, you can stay here. Barricade the door once I’m gone.”

A mask fell over her features, determination solidifying her gaze. “No. I’ll come with you. . . Do you have another weapon lying around, by chance?”

As a matter of fact, I did. I handed her my dagger. Alaric was slowly building me quite the weapons collection.

“Raiden.” The dragonling obediently went to my side, wrapping his tail around my leg. “Stick close, little guy. If things get hairy, I want you to find somewhere to hide. Understand?”

He peered up at me with those large green eyes. His whole body trembled. The squeak that came out of his jowls was barely audible over the chattering of his scales.

“Let's go.”

We followed the sounds of screams and shouts down the hallway, ready for battle.

I smirked to myself. A handmaiden, dragonling, and alchemist, rushing towards danger. What could go wrong?

Once we left the wing, we caught soldiers running towards the throne room. We picked up the pace; they were too focused on the matter at hand to notice we were tailing them. Not until they stopped at the grand entrance and faced us. The captain scowled furiously at us. “What are you ladies doing here?”

“We’re here to help. What’s going on?”
Ignoring me, he turned to one of his men. “Harmen, escort these ladies to the courtyard with everyone else.”

Harmen, a bright-eyed young lad with curly red hair, grabbed my arm. I ripped it out of his grasp, and Raiden snarled to further enforce we weren’t going anywhere. He gaped, at a loss with what to do when faced with an angry dragonling.

“I am Raiden’s Protector. I have every right to know what’s happening behind those doors.”

The captain huffed, muttering unintelligibly under his breath. “King Krona has ordered us to seal off the entrances to the throne room until the situation is resolved.”

“The situation being. . . ?”

“Prince Camden has lost control of his dragon.”

There is no monster. It was much, much worse than that. The moment I feared for Camden had come to pass.

“Move aside. I’m going in.”

“My Lady, I don’t think that is wise.” Just as he spoke, the castle shook again, so violently, cracks formed in the ceiling and walls. Jessie lost her footing and fell into Harem’s awaiting arms.