“Forevermore.”
2
~Evira~
I couldn’t find it.
I couldn’t find it anywhere.
I didn’t understand. I'd had it last night. Every night for that matter.
Son of a bitch.
I stared down at my two duffel bags that I’d packed to the brim with my clothes, toiletries, and personal effects, even down to three bottles of my coconut body wash.
Well,packedwas a nice way of putting it. Barely anything was folded, let alone settled inside either bag in any sort of strategic fashion. I got like that more so when I was super excited about something.
Just like I was about starting at Loxley Academy.
It was gonna be the beginning of something major.
A start to my own life, a life that I could actually determine for myself without the burden of expectations or any of the duty crap that attached itself to me all the while I remained here in the Dracoryn Realm as the only child of the reigning leader of the ruling house—House Vortimer.
My father, Draven Vortimer, was the High Regent of the Dracoryn Realm. My grandmother, revered ice dragon warrior, was even First Regent. And that made meCrown Heir.I’d thought my fate had been set in stone. Limited.
But my dad had recognized my rebellious spirit as a cry for liberation, wanting something beyond all of this, needing to explore.
And now, albeit technically a little late, with me being twenty years old, I was leaving for four years to attend Loxley Academy. To carve out my own path, to figure out what I wanted. To findme.
So, yeah, I was beyond excited.
Fine, it wasn’t straight down the line like that—I was also kind of nervous.
But that was normal when big change came about.
Or so I’d heard. This was my first time.
I scanned my room again, the bright morning light filtering in via the tall arched windows from the snowy mountains and the glacial surroundings. The frosted marble floors sparkled, and the light bounced off the pale-blue stone walls too, along with the decorative crystals interspersed about the space.
I snatched up my fluffy white pillows and tossed them aside, accidentally throwing them too far. They fell off the pale-wood bed that had beautiful blue streaks running through it, topped with snowy white silk sheets that were the softest material ever. I smiled at the ice dragon motif of my headboard surrounded by shards of icy feathers. I was going to miss looking at it every morning and before I went to bed at night.
There was one thing I was going to miss more than that, though. As much as my dad and grandmother.
“So, you were right.”
I smiled. It wasn’t the first time I’d been thinking of him and he’d shown up shortly afterward.
I looked up from hauling my pillows back onto my bed, ending up in an awkward position of being on my hands and knees as I looked out at him standing there in my doorway.
My best friend.
Well, really he was like my big brother. We referred to ourselves as pseudo-siblings.
Torvek Titanus.
He stood there in all his fire dragon glory, tall and broad-shouldered with an athletic build rather than bulk. He was precision and control, not brute force. His dark, thick hair was a little wilder than its usual just slightly tousled state. It meant something was wrong and he’d been shoving his hand through it anxiously. His molten gold eyes were flickering erratically, his gaze bouncing from me to various places in the room.
Yeah, he was stressed, all right.
