SHADOW

The Curse of Gold and Shadow

Ternus was so angry that he was ready to tear down the entire shrub fence in front of him, and that he did. He ripped one of the large shrubs from the ground and tossed it aside. He could not believe a damn black dragon dared to enter his castle unannounced and blast her energy all around the fortress like a challenge to him.

Dust and dirt flew everywhere. The woman shrieked and jumped out of the small pool of water before running inside. In a few strides, he caught her and grabbed the insolent thing by the throat, pinning her against the wall.

She screamed bloody murder and plunged her fingers toward his eyes. In that moment, he was grateful that his skin was as hard as stone, because even through his closed eyelids he could feel her nails, sharp as daggers, trying to pierce his nearly impenetrable skin. The pressure was unbearable.

He was about to snap her neck in cold rage, but he forced himself to stop. He had to find out who this woman was. Who had sent her here? Was there a black dragon uprising again?

From what he knew, there were only three or five black dragons left, and all of them were male. All female dragons had died long ago in the war, a crusade his grandfather and father had led with an iron hand after his great-grandmother betrayed and defeated the Dark Lord, the Black Dragon King, the Blood King.

The king who cursed the light dragons.

He cursed their females to die out as revenge for betraying him.

And the curse had held. Most of the light dragon females perished, and the more they died, the more fury it brought upon the black dragons from the light ones. The Light Queen and her predecessors believed that if they eradicated all black dragons, the curse might finally break and save their race.

But the curse endured.

Now there were only two light dragon females left, daughters of rival empires, and neither of them was destined for him. Unless he chose to wage war and claim one by force.

Never in his life had he imagined that black dragon females still existed. Had the black dragons been breeding and spreading behind his back all this time? Had he grown careless?

"Who are you, and who sent you here?" he roared into her face. "And let go of my eyes before I snap your neck. You have three seconds to remove your hands."

The woman gulped, and the pressure against his eyes weakened. He would probably have red marks on his face. Dragon nails were no joke, even in human form. This woman had not shifted her hands into talons, which was the only reason he had not been maimed.

Strange.

Had she been too frightened? Or did she simply lack common sense?

"You let go of my throat, you stupid ogre," she croaked, trying to push him away with her tiny hands. "I can't speak if you're choking me. I'm going to faint soon."

It was strange because he could not feel the strength of a dragon inside her body. She felt frail, almost human. Yet her energy was another matter entirely.

And she was naked.

Wet, trembling, and pressed far too close against him.

His anger slowly began to fade. The thought that he had actually felt threatened by this small girl was embarrassing.

He looked down at her rounded face, her large eyes, her porcelain skin, and her black hair. She looked much like him. Like him—the one they never named. The Dark One.

Ternus knew because, as a child, he used to sneak into the forbidden section of the royal library, where the enormous portrait of the terrible warrior in black armor still hung.