Chapter 9

It is said the deities are the very light of the titles of the dynasties.

Sunlight, Moonlight, Dawnlight, Dusklight and Twilight.

Only one of the deities we pray to is listening.

I pace up and down in front of the dungeon doors while I wait for Ziven and Ruelle to come out. Ziven was furious when he turned up five minutes after Kyrell attacked Mazzis, but he calmed when he saw I was okay. Mazzis is recovering in his own apartment with his own healers, and he will be fine, but Kyrell…he didn't look good. Calix had knocked him out instead of killing him, and I'm thankful he did that. I know he did that for me, because if any other vampyre had attacked Mazzis, they'd be dead.

It's been an hour since Ziven went in there with Ruelle and told me to get the bloody clothes off while she worked. I showered quickly and scoffed a sandwich and cake on my bed before getting changed in black leggings and a dark crop top with my boots.

Ziven finally comes out the doors, and I frown at the hard line on his lips. I just know he is going to say something I don't want to hear. "Don't ask me to let him out, Storm. He is dangerous."

Kyrell is not dangerous. Whatever happened to him back in that library was. I haven't told anyone how Kyrell smirked like the prince did before he'd hurt me. Before he punished me for any reason he could make up. Somehow, the prince controlled Kyrell, and this is all to hurt me. I know it is. I ran from him, and any hope that he had forgotten about me just disappeared.

"You don't get to make that choice for me, Ziven," I snap, trying to walk around him, but he stops me.

His eyes darken until they remind me of a night sky. "You're mine," he growls, leaning in. "So yes, I fucking do make the choice on this. You're thinking with your heart and not with common sense. Kyrell doesn't want to hurt you. Even if you don't want to listen to me, listen to him. Think about what he must feel like, knowing he nearly killed you!"

We glare at each other, both of us as stubborn as each other. I know he is right, but this is Kyrell. Kyrell, my best friend, and I can't watch him live in a dungeon. My shoulders drop and Ziven steps closer, tilting my chin up with a finger. "Storm, I'm not giving up on him. He kept you alive and got you to me. I owe the vampyre, and I don't intend to keep him in there forever."

"He saved me," I whisper.

Ziven runs his hand around to the back of my neck. "Trust me, Storm. I know I've done nothing to earn it yet, but I will."

Trusting Ziven has always been the problem between us. He is hundreds of years old and far more experienced in life than I am, but it makes him stubborn and resistant to change.

Ruelle comes out the doors, shutting them behind her. She rests on her stick in front of her, watching me as I step away from Ziven. "Is he well?"

"He has a bed, and he's safe with two guards. We've put blood in there, goat, for his comfort, but I'm sure he's already well fed." She sighs. "I am not an expert at healing or reading vampyres, but that poor boy has been through much. His heart is missing, and in its place is a shard of wood that my magic reeled from."

Ziven crosses his arms. "Reeled from?"

"Yes. I've never felt magic like it. There's a darkness wrapped around his soul from that wooden shard that is easily controlling him. Something's very wrong and I'm sorry to say I sense he will not have long in this world. What he is…it is not normal even for vampyres. I wish I had better news for you, but he is not in pain."

Ruelle touches my shoulder as I walk past her to the door and place my head against it. My voice breaks. "He's going to die?"

"Yes," Ruelle plainly answers. "We won't give up on your vampyre friend, and I do like a challenge. I will send people to look in the libraries with Mazzis. We don't have much history on the vampyres, but maybe on dark magic, resurrection and that wooden shard. There might be something to be found and an answer to keep him alive longer."

A desperate thought fills my mind. "He said the prince turned him. That means there could be clues in the castle where I was before…"

"My old castle." Ziven's voice is bitter. "Where I was born."

I didn't know he was born there, and something about the years I spent being used in that horrible place doesn't make me feel any better about Ziven's connection to it. "We should go there for answers. I can fly Maeve to it."

"It's not been cleared yet, but yes, we can go together." He makes the point of the word together , and I nod once. I feel like I can't breathe for a second. Trapped in this mansion, forced to watch Kyrell die. Another trap, another place I won't be able to leave. The prince turned him to punish me because he knew he would die again, and this time it might be more painful than the last. All of this…it is to get to me, and it's working. Ziven's arm wraps around my waist, and he's leading me out before the panic can truly set in. I don't have the energy to ask Ziven where he is taking me, but when we get outside, past the endless faces of fae who bow, smile or wave at us, I suck in a deep breath.

The air, the freedom of being outside, does make everything feel a little better. "Where are we going?"

Ziven leans down to my ear. "I want time alone with you. I want you distracted from this shit world we are in." He rubs his thumb on the small of my back. "You are a rider now, Storm. A powerful dragon rider that will be remembered in our history. We haven't spoken about what that means for you, and we have so much to discuss. I want to remind you what it means to be on a dragon and have only the skies to look down on us."

Ziven leads me to a long-forgotten pathway into the forest. There are hundreds of tents with campfires in the forest in every direction, but none are near here. The dragon roar and the rattling of the trees that follows, it lets me know why. We go past the stream where people are gathering water into buckets, and they watch us with wary eyes, but Ziven almost pretends they don't exist. "Are we going on dragons, then?"

"Mine, yes," he leans into me. "I've never taken another on my dragon. It is seen as a ritual for entwined mates. Ride with me, Story."

The chilly breeze blows down my spine, cooling my blood when it feels like it's on fire. A ritual? Something about riding a dragon together feels very personal. "I will, but you need to answer something first."

"Anything." He lifts me over a broken log, his hands purposely sliding down my ass before he lets go. I would complain, but I like it. "I'm not lying to you, Storm. You want answers, then you ask and I will give them to you, even if it fucking kills me."

"Why didn't you say anything after you knew I was your entwined mate? Why weren't you still on my side afterwards?"

"Because you were with him." He pauses right at the entrance to the dragon pit. The moonlight streams through the trees into his eyes, casting a glow around his body that is beautiful. The look in his eyes is the opposite to that. The jealous, fierce look sends shivers through my body. "You were with Daegan, and fuck, I hated him more, but I understood. He is the Sun king, all light and fucking sunshine. Easy to love." He wraps his hand around my waist, tugging me against him. "And I'm the one you called your enemy. The Moon king in the darkness, who is fucked up and complicated. I can't give you what he could. I thought he had chosen you over his need for war and you'd chosen him." He gulps as my heart races. "And as much as I hated it, I wondered whether you had fallen in love with him. Whether… Even when I'd been inside you, even when I had you, I felt like I hadn't gotten close. I was too fucked up for someone as beautiful and pure as you to love."

The dragons roar around us, shaking the very ground under our feet, but we don't look away. Even as we stand literally in the mouths of the dragons, it doesn't matter when I have to tell him the truth. "I never loved him. I only ever saw you."

He grips me tighter. "You kissed him back." Fury marks every word. Every breath between us. "And deities above, I've never wanted to murder anyone as much as I did him."

His lips slam into mine with enough passion to burn a fire through my soul.

When he breaks away from the kiss after thoroughly destroying my ability to think about anything and anyone else but him, Ziven takes my hand before we walk together, straight into the dark dragon's cave. The opening is tall and narrow before stretching into an immense dome, where every curved wall is a shimmering black stone. It spreads everywhere and sparkles in the fires in puddles of burning oil dug into the ground. It reminds me of the Decidere. There's a pit, a massive black circle with a red ring around the edge. I hear wings when I'm close, but Ziven doesn't stop, leading me past. "Is that where the dragons come from?" I question, pointing at it.

"No, they are over here." Ziven leads us into a big tunnel entrance full of jagged edges.

My eyes tug back to the giant pit, and there's a strange tug in my chest towards it. "You do not go down there," Maeve snarls inside my mind, and I jump.

Ziven frowns at me, and I explain. "Maeve doesn't want me to go down there…but why?"

"I believe these caves existed far longer than we did, and the truth of them was only known to the Twilight Dynasty. This might have been my land, but the mansion and caverns belonged to the Twilight Dynasty. My father told me once that their claim dated back to the beginning of our race and we should never argue it. They were here before the fae walked our world—Pennitan. The caves that the dragons live inside look like roots of a tree, and that is the deepest part. There are some places you don't go. Sometimes I hear dragons down there, but no one who has dared to go down has come back." He meets my eyes. "My mother said dragons that are made of shadows live down there, and they're not alive and they are wild. My dragon warned me never to go down there too. Every dragon warns their rider not to."

"Shadow dragons sound terrifying, though," I admit.

"Who knows if dragons even live down there? Our dragons do not speak of it, and Maeve's demand says enough. Whatever's down there, they're dangerous." I find myself still drawn to it as Ziven leads me further into the cavern.

I turn around as I hear a whoosh of wings, right before Brythan comes flying out. He's a beautiful dragon, and he suits Ziven in every way. My head whirls to Ziven as he starts singing in a language that I've never heard before. The singing's almost like a chant, a beautiful sound, and his dragon seems to be calmed by the echoing song. Brythan lands right in front of him, and a huff of smoke floats around Ziven's feet.

He looks powerful. Unstoppable. Every inch a dragon-riding king of the Moon Dynasty. When he stops, I clear my throat, oddly affected by the song. Or him singing it. "What's that language?" I ask.

Brythan sniffs me, blowing my hair around my shoulders in a smoky huff, and I try not to be super intimidated by this giant dragon. Ziven reaches out to stroke Brythan's snout. "I was taught it by my mother. She had a slightly strange history. My mother was born to witches, or at least, that's what people used to call them. They knew this language, and she taught me the songs when I was young. They are lost to most now. They can calm dragons. I've never heard many from the Sun Dynasty sing the old song of the dragons, and I assume they don't know them." He strokes my arm. "I'll teach you."

"Thank you," I whisper back, knowing how much it must mean for him to share a part of his mother's history with me.

He nods to Brythan. "Come."

"You want me to ride your dragon?" I blurt out. His silver eyes settle on me, his hand still touching his very big, living dragon. Riding Maeve is scary, but Brythan? When we don't have a bond?

"Yes, with me. You're my entwined mate, and we can be guests on each other's dragons. They see us as one person." Good to know, and very romantic, but still I'm not convinced he won't throw me off in the sky. I have a suspicion Maeve would do that to Ziven if he tried to ride her. Ziven tugs me forward and Brythan surprises me by leaning down, lower than he does for Ziven. It's kind of cute. "If he didn't want you to ride, he would have made that very clear by now. He is as mean as I can be."

"No wonder you two get along, then," I mutter. Ziven laughs as he pushes me up by my waist, and I have no choice really but to climb up. The back of Brythan is rather smooth, almost like a saddle shape. It's been etched into the spikes and smooth back. I climb up, moving towards the front of his neck. Ziven is behind me in a second, and I nestle myself back between his thighs as he holds me.

"Fly," Ziven commands. We both know he could have commanded in his head, but it's a warning for me to brace myself. Brythan charges out of the dragon cave and jumps up, flapping his wings and diving into the skies. I can barely breathe at the force of his takeoff, but flying with Maeve got me used to this. I laugh into the wind as Brythan speeds across the forest tops, slowing into a glide towards the sea. I gasp as Ziven turns my head to the side, his lips trailing down my neck to my collarbone, his hand sliding under my shirt in the same breath.

"What are you doing?" I shout over the wind.

"Taking what I want." His words get into my ear and send shivers down my spine. The good kind. His hand cups my breast, slipping underneath the bra to rub over a hard nipple until I gasp in pleasure, unable to do much but let my head fall back to his shoulder. I'm equally as on fire with need as I am cold with fear from the flight. The mixture of the two is mind-numbing until I can only feel the intense pleasure. We are thousands of feet up, on a dragon, and doing this was not something that I thought was possible. Ziven doesn't seem to care as his other hand sinks below my leggings too, finding me absolutely soaked for him. He groans into my ear, and I shudder as he slides one finger, then two, deep inside me.

"Fuck," he whispers in my ear. "I'm desperate to be inside here, to fuck you until you're mine."

I am his. Fuck is definitely the word for this. Mind-blowing pleasure starts building inside me as he pumps his fingers in and out, his thumb grazing my clit. Teasing, pushing, and it's all too much. I scream to the wind as my orgasm hits, and I clench around his fingers, my orgasm so intense that I feel like I'm going to pass out. Ziven is dangerous for me. I've known it since the moment I met him, but moments like this?

He marks every inch of my body and soul, and I would have it no other way. If he is danger, then what does that make me for loving every second of him? I almost forget where we are as I come down from the high of my orgasm, an orgasm so intense I nearly blacked out. He isn't even inside me yet, and he can do this. I feel like a shaky mess as he removes his fingers, and Brythan dives on a silent command. Ziven's dark chuckle echoes in my ear as I see the cliff appearing. Brythan lands on the edge of the highest point, which overlooks the entire sea for miles until it hits the barrier of magic.

I want him. I need him.

Ziven climbs off first and I slide down after him, right into his arms. The world fades away as he picks me up and I wrap my legs around him, feeling him hard as he presses into me at the same time he slams his lips onto mine. I moan into his mouth as he carries me onto the smooth stone ledge by the edge of the cliff, kissing me deeply enough that the cold stone at my back doesn't register. His dragon takes off, leaving us alone in the night, and I swear the moon itself hangs brighter, higher as we lie beneath the stars.

He tears at my clothes, and I pull his until he takes them off. I stare up at him, my mouth going dry as I take in every inch of the Moon king. Of my mate. His hard length is just as impressive as I remember, thick and long and damn near massive. There isn't an inch of anything soft about him, from his rippling muscular lines on his stomach to his chest and arms, to his shoulders. Everything screams power except for the way he looks at me. There is burning desire, want, and when he looks at my body, his body tenses. My scars. Ziven leans down and kisses them, each and every scar, until I'm panting for him.

He kneels and parts my legs, lining up the tip of his cock at my entrance. He slips in just an inch, and I remember exactly how he stretches me. Ziven cups the back of my neck, tugging me up to meet his lips as he pushes further inside me. He pulls out, just a bit, before slamming right into me all the way, and I gasp as my back arches. He groans.

"Fuck, Storm. You're so fucking beautiful and tight around my cock." He grabs my chin and makes me look at him. "Do you know how many times I've stroked my cock thinking of you, remembering being inside you when you were in heat? Do you know how fucking insane you've made me feel?" He thrusts into me again and again, pushing me right towards another orgasm.

"You make me feel the same," I whisper, and he groans again, kissing me as the pressure builds up. He reaches between us, his thumb swirling on my clit, and I scream his name to the skies as I explode around him, taking him with me. Ziven fills me with one more thrust, kissing me breathless until we're both left staring at each other. "I love you."

He kisses me very softly and not like I'd ever expect a ruthless fae dragon rider to be able to kiss like. "I love you too, Storm."