“Where are you going?” Olivia hissed.
“Home.”
“This is your home,” she said through gritted teeth.
“One day it will be.” Needing to get out of the forest, I shifted into my dragon form, flying up and leaving my pixies behind.
They didn't understand. Nobody could.
Yes, Caste Castle was my home, but it had been tainted with death, lies, and betrayal. I had grown up in a different place against my will and yet when I needed to run, to hide from the politics of my court, I ran there.
I soared through the sky, flying toward the castle, knowing that I would return much faster than my companions. When the castle came into sight, I flew toward the open garden: the Royal Courtyard. Below, a magical barrier kept anyone without the royal runes out. I shifted above the barrier, my dragon form too big and bulky to land inside.
My skin tingled as I passed through. Using my shadow wings to hover, I dropped in front of the lilac tree, then placed my hand on the bark.
The bark wavered under my palm as I spoke the ancientwords. Wood shimmered and I pressed in, stepping through the portal into the Dryad Realm.
My surroundings shifted, the sky turning into hues of pink and orange. It was already sunset here. The sky was like our realm, though instead of clear blue, it was varying shades of oranges and pinks. At night, those shades darkened to more silvery, muted tones of purple and navy.
There was a silence that filled the Dryad Realm different from the chattering busyness of my court. The only animals here ate plants and there were no other races. Endless vibrant foliage, flowers bigger and larger than any of their kind back in our world.
You've returned.
A voice entered my thoughts.
Axelia.
The dryad who had raised and protected me for forty years.
I didn't come here often. At first, I was terrified that time would pass as quickly as it did when my mother had sent me here. One week in our realm was forty years here.
I don’t think my mother knew about the abnormality of time.
I could never forget that moment I returned to the castle. I had been so angry after she abandoned me.
The glow of the ancient lilac tree warmed my back as I stepped into the realm I had once called home.
Mother was there, hands clenched,with blood covering her dress. Her face paled,as if I were some ghost she hadn’t expected to see again.
I knew I looked different. My once pale skin had tanned, tinged with the magic of the dryads and the draconic bloodline thathadoverpowered everything else after my first transformation. My silver eyes, once so like hers, had shifted into an amber that matched the fury in my veins.
I was no longer the boy she had thrown away.
Tallis released her, stepping forward as I emerged fully into the torchlight.
His eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
I didn’t hesitate. “I suppose you would forget about me after forty years.”
That wiped the confusion from my mother's face.
Her lips parted in shock. “It can’t be. It’s not even been a week.”
“For you, maybe,” I said coldly, folding my arms. “But for me,it’s been much longer.”
Forty years. Alone. Abandoned. Left to make sense of a world I hadn’t chosen.
She’d once disappeared into that realm and returned unchanged. I hadn’t been so fortunate.
