“Far from it, sister,” the man informed her with far too much confidence in his features, almost like he expected her to accept that answer alone.
“Yeah, that’s not an answer. I’m not the kind that obeys a man just because he speaks. What have you done to me?” She looked away then, not exactly comfortable in this situation.
The man leaned down closer to her, nose to nose now. Then he smiled a smile that should chill her, but instead, made her feel warm and…like she’d finally come home? What the actual fuck?
“This is your nature, sister,” he said as if that wasn’t an equally terrifying thing for him to say. As if it wouldn’t make Ashley panic even more and wonder who the hell this man was.
“Look, I’m not into incest. I’ve told you that already.” She’d have said more if he didn’t grab her chin and force her mouth closed.
“You’re confused. I understand why. You’ve been denied the truth of your nature and who you are for much of your life, but let me put this simply, sister. I am your king.”
Ashley’s eyes widened in confusion. She felt the urge to pull away from the man, but she couldn’t. For some reason, every single bone in her body wanted to wait for his instruction, like he alone dictated what she was meant to.
Thankfully, the man was kind enough to sense her confusion and took a step back from her. That gave her some much-needed breathing room to think for a second. Just one.
“You might not realize it, but you and I are the same. We’re different from the others. We’re not like the humans that you have spent so much of your life around, sister. We’re dragons,” he said like it was possible for a human being to be a dragon. As if it wasn’t a completely and utterly crazy thing to say.
“I am your twin brother,” he said, and Ashley didn’t know how to respond to that. She simply blinked instead. “You are the princess.”
“Let me make one thing clear, bud. I’m 20 years old. I’m nobody’sprincess. And all this nonsense you’re spouting? You’re batshit crazy. You need to visit your local psychiatric unit for help, because I can’t give you that kind of help, I promise you. I’m not some high-grade trailer trash looking for a sugar daddy, buddy. Princess, indeed,” Ashley answered him when he stopped to take a breath. Too bad there were no federal agents around to stop him from carrying on like she hadn’t said a word.
“I can see that you’re not completely understanding what I’m trying to tell you, but don’t worry. I anticipated this. I’ve spent far too much time thinking about what I would say to you and how I would explain the situation to you when we found you.” He paused, not moving, gathering his thoughts, perhaps. Ashley waited, wondering what other nonsense he might come up with. “It’s just that I pictured the two of us meeting under farbettercircumstances.”
The man strolled away from her and began to pace as he spread his arms out and continued with his lunacy. “Jack was meant to find you much sooner. He reassured me that he would find you in a matter of weeks, but after months and months with no sign of you showing up, I began to believe that you were a myth. Especially considering our father’s farless than trustworthy behavior. Though, I suppose you wouldn’t know about that since you were lucky not to be around him. Regardless, if you decide to trust me for just a minute, I can tell you far more about yourself than you could ever think possible.”
Then, almost as if he anticipated her taking the risk and taking his hand, he held out his hand to her. His eyes pleaded with her to take the chance. Promised he could answer the questions she’d never spoken aloud, promised he was the family she’d always longed for.
But before she could so much as think of saying yes to him, there was one thing that she had to take care of. One person that she needed to make sure was safe. One person to whom she owed her whole entire existence.
“Where’s Ned?” Ashley asked, and with that question everything changed.
A large grin spread across the man’s face. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the darkness and into the light.
“Now,I know that a thousand different questions are probably flooding your sweet little head at this moment, sister, but you only need to know one thing. You and I are completely and utterly invaluable to the dragon world because we are both the last in a long line of the Opal Clan’s royal family. Ours is one of the most wealthy, widely known dragon families in the world, and one of the founding members of the order of the gems—a secret society of dragon shifters that has, for centuries, been essential to maintaining world order—basically, we make sure that things are as they should be, and the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor,” the man said, somehow managing to sayall of that with a straight face. He seemed to not realize that he sounded utterly bonkers.
Ashley frowned but found she didn’t have a whole lot to say. Not when she was distracted by the reality of where she found herself.
It turns out fairy tale creatures do exist, and wherever this place was, she was certainly in a castle. Maybe she was in some kind of living history park in another country? Was it England? France? Germany? Maybe Romania? She was sure she would have heard about a place like this in school if it was one of the Western European countries.
But then again…
Ashley looked out one of the large, picturesque windows to her side, hardly prepared for the sight that greeted her. What she was expecting most certainly wasn’t a fairy tale landscape, which looked like it should be featured in a Disney film.
Large, moonlight-colored bricks decorated the outside of the castle, making up the large, very tall walls. It glistened in the sun, making Ashley’s fingers long to touch it to feel its smooth texture. But she was forced to follow whoever this mysterious stranger was through the hallways. She wasn’t exactly allowed much time to take in the scenery. What she was allowed, however, was a glimpse out at the picturesque greenery and the realization that whoever these people were, they were surrounded by a lot of land. In fact, acres and acres of land stretched out beyond the window. Did they own all of that land?
If they did, these people were very wealthy, that much was obvious. She had no idea why someone as wealthy as this guy must be would think that someone like her was his sister. She was as poor as a church mouse.
She had to rush to catch up to the man, so many questions ready, but he was still talking. She wondered how much ancienthistory she’d missed, but it didn’t matter. History was never one of her favorite subjects so she was kind of glad she’d missed that.
“Anyway, at the top of the century comes the man of the hour, the one that you need to remember above all else—our grandfather,” the man said with a note of reverence, almost like he worshiped the ground that the man walked on. Which it was very apparent that he did, considering the way that his whole demeanor seemed to change the moment that his grandfather was mentioned. There was a lightness to his features and almost excitement to how he held himself. It was obvious that he wanted nothing more than for her to feel the same reverence for the man. And that he believed that Ashley was a part of his family.
“Excuse me, bud. What’s your name?” Ashley chose to interrupt him at that moment because she could sense that he was going to go on a long tirade about their grandfather and she wanted to nip that in the bud. She didn’t care about some old man she’d never met. What she did want to know was this guy’s name, so she’d at least know what to tell the authorities. If she ever found any.
“Valys,” he said as if that was a normal name. Ashley could only blink, not exactly knowing how to pronounce that name. Instead, she pursed her lips and looked him up and down, once again asking herself if it was possible that this man could actually be related to her.
There was a sort of elegance in the way that he held himself. Ashley could never hope to compare to that. She was all too willing to admit that she couldn’t compare, which was why, even though he had said the name Valys as clear as day—she knew she would have next to no chance of pronouncing it and instead chose to skip the formalities and refer to him with a nickname.
“Val,” Ashley said with a nod, deciding that that was close enough, and he didn’t open his mouth to argue. It must have been an acceptable nickname for him.
