Wings of Fire: Missed | The Turning Tides #1

Chapter 4

What was Gelid supposed to do? She could risk it and attack the hostile rainwing. The rainwing was big, bigger than her and almost as big as Queen Blizzard, and with rippling muscles too. Gelid had never seen a muscular rainwing before.

Maybe she could wait for the rainwing to let her guard down.

Queen Blizzard lifted her head up to peer at her attacker but her snout was pushed back to the floor and she winced.

"Mist!" Queen Blizzard cried. "What are you doing! I - I thought you were dead!"

Mist? The icewing and rainwing hybrid, born from a rainwing mother and a royal icewing prince. The only heir to the throne...But she died four years ago. They never found her body but she's been gone for so long.

"You knew exactly where I was, you silver scaled sack of seal blubber," Mist hissed loudly, with a ripple of crimson scales down her neck and tail. Gelid had never heard any dragon use a tongue of words such as those that Mist said, especially to Queen Blizzard.

"You kept me in a prison. You should've put a guard with a bigger head than that sandwing," Mist added.

"Prison? What in three moons are you talking about?" Queen Blizzard asked.

"The one you put me in. WHAT OTHER PRISON DO YOU THINK I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Mist snarled. Her talon moved from Queen Blizzard's snout to her neck and it looked as if Mist was about to dig her claws in.

Gelid couldn't let that happen. She took a step. "Wait! You're a princess, right?" She interrupted, receiving a deathly cold glare from Mist. Now she looked as if she wanted her claws on Gelid but Gelid had to stand her ground. "You can't fight Queen Blizzard like that. You need to partake in the Royal challenge if you want to challenge the current queen for the throne."

That was logical to her. Mist was the only living heir currently - no matter how much of her blood was royal, she was still the daughter of a prince and the niece of the queen.

"I don't want the throne! I want revenge! Now shut your snout!" Mist growled.

Gelid couldn't find the urge to protest - to find another word to say. Was she finally intimidated by this dragon? Was that the feeling in her throat that she couldn't describe? She must be disappointed in me right now, Gelid thought, both wishing to have nightwing mind-reading to read Queen Blizzard's mind but also not, just hoping that Queen Blizzard wasn't critisizing her. I'm trying. Why couldn't she just do her freaking job like she trained so long for?

Mist's eye twitched at Gelid. "Why did you kill North?" She asked into Queen Blizzard's ear. "Were you afraid he'd convince me to challenge you? Was that it?"

"North?" Queen Blizzard said, confused, then straightening her face before she spoke. "He's my little brother. I'd never hurt him! Or you! I - I care about you, Mist. When Boreal died..." She hesitated to keep speaking and momentarily turned her face away.

Gelid understood why. Boreal was her mate long ago. Queen Blizzard wanted him not because he was a first circle dragon but because they were great friends. But then he went missing and the entire kingdom froze the air to look for him. His body was found washed up on the icy water shores. He supposedly drowned.

"I realised that I couldn't have dragonets, not with any other dragon, not when it didn't feel right," Queen Blizzard said to Mist. "But when I heard North and Hibiscus were having a dragonet, I had hope. Hope that their dragonet would be stronger than me and not make the same mistakes as I did."

Mist grumbled something, turning her head away.

"And I was right. You have to believe me, Mist. I don't know what has happened to you in the last four years...but I had nothing to do with it."