I itched to help. Hiding was cowardly and too much like my father. This was exactly what he would have done. That or run.
And as desperate as I was to get away from Yuto, I couldn’t run now, not like this.
My fingers curled around the nearest rock. It was a tiny thing, but it would do. As Yuto battled another beast, I pushed up onto shaky legs and threw the rock with all my might. It slammed into a creature’s face with a sickening crunch.
Heart hammering, I dropped behind the boulder again, desperately hoping I hadn’t been seen.
Two thick paws punched the boulder, and a terrifying jaw leaned over the side. Saliva dripped onto my face, hot and slimy. Shuddering, I scurried back toward the river. The creature hissed, slowly stalking toward me. My fingers curled in the dirt. I had nowhere to run. I could launch myself into the water, but the thing would only follow me there.
Fear blinded me. I couldn’t even move. My legs and arms were frozen to the ground. The creature stalked closer, the light of the moon glinting off its bared teeth. They were as big as my head.
I would die here this day.
A gold-tipped spear punched through the creature’s throat, and it fell with a loud thump only inches from my worn leather boots. Yuto yanked his weapon from the beast and stepped around it. He lowered one knee to the ground and held out a hand toward mine. Shakily, I took it, and Yuto hauled me to my feet.
“You’re all right,” he murmured, squeezing my hand tight. “Though next time we find ourselves face-to-face with a horde of Lykaon, let me do all the fighting, eh?”
I flushed and glanced at the ground, at the wolf-like body now drowning in spilled blood. “It didn’t feel right hiding. I wanted to help.”
“And that was very brave of you, Aradia.” He let go of my hand and stepped back. “But bravery could have gotten you killed. I don’t think either of us wants that.”
“Yeah, because you need me to get you back through that portal,” I snapped. “I doubt you would feel the same if I had nothing I could give you.”
His expression darkened. “How very right you are. And you would do well to remember it.”
* * *
Tired and hungry, I peered up at the looming castle. My mind struggled to make sense of it. As we’d pushed down the dirt path, the dense trees had almost instantly fallen away to reveal a high, rocky cliff dotted with flickering fires and molten pits. A crumbling castle squatted at the top of the rise. Ruins, really. Two of the towers had long since been blasted away, leaving nothing but charred remains behind. Chunks of the smoothed, crafted stone dotted the rocky hillside. Pieces that had fallen from the ancient walls in whatever attack had ravaged it.
“This is where you live?” I asked, my heart flickering in my chest. For some reason, I had imagined a majestic structure. Something as breathtaking as the power that emanated from Yuto’s body. Instead, what lay before us was almost…sad.
“This is part of my curse,” he said with a quiet danger in his tone. “This mess is modelled after Drakon Castle, my home. Only this one has been destroyed as you can see. It is a threat, a warning of what might come if I ever return before my thousand years are over.”
“I see,” I whispered. “And you want to go back anyway? Even knowing this? Even living with it all this time?”
“I do not cow to threats, Aradia. If anything, it only makes me that much more determined to return to Pira and take back what they have stolen from me.”
Things were starting to click into place, and I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the picture they were forming. Yuto had never said he was a prisoner, not like some of the others. He’d been forced to come here. Something of great value had been stolen from him. The castle—his home, he called it—twisted and used against him.
When Yuto had called himself theLordof Dragons, I’d thought he’d meant he was a dragonlord. One who could control dragons. Now, I was beginning to think he’d meant something else entirely.
Had I somehow landed myself in the hands of a former king?
Yuto must have read the look on my face because a flicker of a smile crossed his lips. “You’re very clever. Aren’t you, Aradia?”
“I always thought the stories of dragonlords were fiction,” I said. “But it’s all true. Isn’t it? You’re the Lord Master of your realm.”
“Myths always begin somewhere. Come. It’s time for you to get some rest, and you should meet the others.”
“The…others?” My heart dropped.The others?!Oh god, there were more of him. And they were here.
* * *
Yuto led me up the rocky hellscape, a task that took a good two hours. The castle gates yawned before us. They sagged on their hinges, and the arched wall overhead looked as though a monstrous creature had taken a bite right out of it.
We continued forward, passing through a barren courtyard. Several wooden stalls were dotted along the empty street, but not a single soul stood waiting behind them. There was no laughter, no singing, no plod of footsteps, but there was an echo of them, faint on the wind. Yuto’s castle felt as though it were inhabited by ghosts.
Soon, we entered the main section of the castle. A small squat building connected to two smaller towers that hadn’t been destroyed. From what I could tell, it was the only part of the castle that had retained every wall and every roof. Inside, torches lined the black stone walls, but many of the twisting corridors stretched out into darkness. A wide carpeted staircase rose before us. That was where the “others” stood waiting.
