SHADOW

Ternus

Ternus just wanted to leave his skin in his throne and walk away free of this constant chatter with ministers. He was so bored. At one point, he envisioned himself letting his beast go and transforming right in front of them, mashing them all.

Well—no. He could not do that, or else he would have to replace them, and it was a pain in the ass to find new ministers, to keep the nobles from burning the palace. Not that it would get them something, since he loved fire—he could bathe in it, drink it for lunch and supper.

He simply got up and left the room. They all continued to fight among each other, not even noticing that his guard had taken his place, as he was usually ordered. The silver knight Alfeo was already sitting in his throne more often than he was.

Ternus chuckled and strolled along the corridors toward the back garden—his favorite place to spend time. He would have to take hidden corridors so nobody would know that the Emperor was spending his time in the most disheveled and forgotten part of the castle. He would have to remediate that someday, but not now. It was his best hideout spot.

There was a strange energy in the castle—a shadow, a huge buzz of power that pricked his interest. Another dragon.

The energy hummed under his skin. There was another dragon in the castle—not one of his silver guard dragons. A new dragon, unaccounted for. The energy buzzed under his skin, and Ternus grew furious.

Who would dare enter his castle unaccounted for? And not a simple dragon either—something with dark power.

It made him freeze in place. There was no living, breathing dark dragon left on this earth.

He followed the trail along the castle, feeling the intensity of the dark, shadowy energy buzzing all over his skin, attracting him like a magnet. To his surprise, it led him to the back of the castle, toward the garden, and he ended up, to his dismay, facing a hedge fence so dense he could not see anything behind it—only hear the voices of two women giggling.

"I had a bit too much fun last evening, my dear Sha. With your permission, I will leave you to enjoy your bath, and I will take a nap in the maid's wing. I have to find my assigned room there. I will see you in an hour."

"All right," replied the other woman. "If you do not want to join me in this wonderful water, I will just have it all for myself."

There was the sound of a door closing. So one of the women left—the maid. And the second one was still behind the hedge. And so was the source of the energy, coming right from behind it.

Ternus almost doubled over in terror, joy, and anger.

So there, behind this hedge, was hiding a black dragon. Black or not—it was a female. The only female dragons he knew about still living and breathing were his cousins, the precious daughters of the Bronze Empire.