“You planned this!” My father’s accusing voice had lost its royal timbre, reduced to the whine of a cornered coyote. “You’ve been planning this for months, you bastard!”
“Years, actually.” I stepped over an enemy corpse without looking down, my attention fixed on him. “But you’re right about one thing. The timeline accelerated the day you tried to murder my mate in this very room. Politics, Father. Nothing personal—isn’t that what you used to say?”
“I’ll destroy you!” Desperation and fear drove him back to the throne, his hands gripping the armrests carved with our family’s symbols. He pulled on centuries of accumulated power, chaos magic responding to blood if not to worthiness. “I AM KING!”
His power lashed out toward me, but my shadow and starlight met his chaos magic and tossed it aside. His face paled with the realization that had my death magic struck him, he would have been dead. Queen Odette cowered behind the throne, her snakes retreating into her hair with low hisses.
“Were king,” I corrected.
Then I unleashed my dragon.
The change ripped through me with violent ecstasy. Human flesh gave way to scales darker than midnight. Bones lengthened and thickened. Muscles multiplied. Wings erupted from my back.
When the transformation was complete, the dragon filled the throne room, sixty feet of fire and death incarnate.
The battle stopped instantly. Every knee hit the marble. Friend and foe alike bowed before the black dragon, and he savored the fear lingering in the air. My death magic and his dragon flame settled like a mantle around his massive scaled shoulders.
He raised his head, and his roar shook the throne hall to its foundations.
“WHERE IS MY MATE?” The demand tore from the dragon’s maw, shaking the very stones of the throne room. “I need the location of the second bride trial!”
The former king trembled, reeking of sheer terror.
“All…all the bride candidates are competing in the maze of the Underworld,” he stammered. “It is a sealed trial. Please…son, my heir, do not kill me.”
“I am not your heir!” the dragon thundered, the words a blast of heat and power. “I am your KING. Now get out, before I reconsider. Never return. And if you ever scheme against me again, I will unmake you so thoroughly that even death will forget your name.”
Death magic twined around his colossal form, and for a terrifying heartbeat, the dragon became a vast skeleton wreathed in furious flame. From the far corners of the hall came whimpers, then the soft thuds of a couple of courtiers fainting where they stood.
I leashed my death power, and the dragon stood whole again.
You displease me,the dragon grunted.I don’t like you making me look like that. If mate were here, it would scar her for life!
She’s stronger than that,I replied.
Do not try that again,he growled, puffing a stream of fire and smoke into the ravaged hall.I am DRAGON!
The former king and queen fled through the door my people opened just wide enough to permit their disgrace. I let them go. Martyrs could inspire rebellion; exiles only inspired pity.
“My king.” Cassius slammed a fist to his chest. “Your orders?”
Soon, I would leave this court to descend to the Underworld itself, tearing apart every labyrinthine circle of Hell to bring my mate and every candidate home.
“Secure the palace. Exile any remaining loyalists who refuse to swear fealty.” The command rumbled from the dragon’s throat as I gazed through his fiery eyes at the empty thrones. I saw not symbols of victory but tools for the war to come. An army was now mine to command, a means to protect my mate, my people, and this realm. “You’re the duke and my Hand, Lord Cassius. Hold the throne while I'm at the academy. Anyone who questions your authority answers to my dragon.”
My rule would be nothing like my father’s. He was a cruel tyrant who deafened himself to his people’s voices, a king with a penchant for torture who adorned his palace walls with the heads of those who dared dissent. I would not be that king.
My first act as king would be to put an end to the damned bride trials.
Chapter
Ten
Barbie
We stumbled down the volcanic trail like newborn fawns learning how legs worked. We probably looked drunk.
“If we’re doing this,” Sy called, raising her hands, and creation magic sparked between her fingers, “let’s do it in style.”
