19. Bella

Ifound Lore in the armory, sharpening a blade with smooth, practiced strokes. As I entered, the metal rasp on stone grated in my ears, bracing for the coming battle. He glanced up, pale eyes frosty.

”We need to talk.” I crossed my arms, feet planted. I was angry that he gave me a morning of pleasure and then left me cold, furious, and used.

Lore”s lip curled derisively. ”I have nothing to say to you.”

I wanted to slam my fist in his pretty face. He was a tittering seesaw of hot and cold. One moment, he was friendly; the next, he was angry and cruel. It was making me dizzy.

”Well, I have plenty to say to you,” I shot back. ”Like why you refuse to tell me about this curse.”

He slammed the sword down. ”It”s not your concern,” he repeated like one of those stupid birds from a traveling performer, repeating the same damn nonsense.

My blood boiled in my veins. ”The hell it isn”t!” I advanced on him. ”I didn”t ask to get dragged here by your dragon. I”m stuck in this gods’ forsaken castle because of you and your curse. I deserve answers.” I stilled and realized my mistake.

Lore”s gaze turned molten with anger. ”You think I want my dragon to do whatever he wants at night without my knowledge? Do you think I want to be cut off from him all this time?” He growled as he stalked forward, his hands clenching into tight fists.

”What do you mean you”re cut off from your dragon?” I demanded, planting my feet as I tilted my head to glare at him. I refused to back down or let him scare me.

”It means...” Lore began, moving swiftly until he was towering over me. Pain and threat rolled off him in waves as he glared down at me, his expression too confusing. ”It means you need to be careful around me,” he growled, his eyes flashing red.

So much anger and so swiftly. It made me think - and not for the first time - that Lore was affected by not having a complete connection to his shifter side, his dragon.

Like a piece of him had been missing for far too long, it had slowly driven him to these intense mood swings and moments where he was grumpy and wretched. I couldn”t let him get away with it. He needed to know it was not okay to talk to me this way or try to intimidate me. I was tired of men in my life thinking they could just push me into a corner and take what they wanted.

I was tired of them thinking because I was a little weak girl, it was okay to use intimidation against me. My anger flared white hot as I stepped forward, ready to take him on if needed. I bared my teeth, uncowed. ”Yet you seemed happy enough to fuck me this morning. What changed?”

His nostrils flared, but his eyes remained pale blue with no hint of bleeding red. The dragon did not appear—only the man. Honestly, it was the man who scared me and the dragon who excited me. I swallowed hard but refused to retreat.

”Tell me about the curse,” I demanded.

Lore grabbed me, slamming me against the wall. His muscled frame caged me as I struggled. He leaned in, breath hot on my throat, and said, ”The curse cannot be broken. I am damned, as are you.”

I froze, shock coursing through me. Was our fate sealed just like that? Lore abruptly released me, sorrow flickering across his face before the mask slammed into place again. Dazed, I slid to the floor, grappling with this cruel revelation. We were prisoners here, and our destinies interlocked whether we willed it or not. The cursed dragon and vampire”s granddaughter, enemies and lovers, what future could we possibly have?

”There is an ancient curse upon this kingdom,” Lore said, his eyes haunted. He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long, deep breath, the skin creating tiny creases at the corners of his eyes before going smooth again. ”Many centuries ago, after I inadvertently caused the death of the moon goddess”s daughter, she struck back with her twisted magic. She froze our entire kingdom in time, condemning all who lived here to endless stagnation, never aging or changing. We are powerless prisoners.”

My ancestor had been the instrument in his sister”s demise, and I felt his pain as acutely as if I were the one to place the curse on him. The way he felt trapped, helpless for so long. I could understand that. I”d thought about it for every day of my life. Though my pain could not even scratch the surface of his.

I sat on the cold floor for a long moment before finally sighing, muttering a soft apology as I turned and left.

Because now fear wriggled inside me. Lore was going to destroy me. I feared if I let myself care about him, there would be nothing of my heart left. Even though we had this magnificent moment and a connection like nothing I”d ever felt or that his dragon had claimed me, it meant nothing.

We were enemies. We always would be. So, I walked outside and focused on finding a way out of this wretched place.

I walked the entire wall, all the way around the perimeter. The same poisonous thorns surrounded the entirety of the castle grounds. Only this time, as I studied them, throughout the thorns were the biggest and most beautiful roses I”d ever seen. I wondered if they were also poisonous. I had started to reach for one only to snatch my hand back, the reddened scar on my hand still throbbing.

”There has to be a fix for this,” I muttered. I hadn”t eaten anything today, too preoccupied by my conflicted thoughts.

”You see them, don”t you?” Billy asked, making me jump.

I hadn”t heard him approach; I was so intent on my thoughts. I turned to look into his young yet wise gaze, thinking not for the first time how frustrated he must be to be stuck at this age, frozen in time as a child.

I nodded. The thorns were as impenetrable as Lore”s heart.

”What”s it like, Billy?” I asked him softly.

He nodded, knowing what I meant. ”At first, it was fun.” He paused, taking a seat as our legs dangled over the stone wall that faced the castle. The poisonous thorns weren”t far from our backs. ”You know, you don”t realize the difference until it”s all you realize.” He sighed.

”I thought being hungry, cold, and unloved was the worst fate imaginable, but I think the idea of being stuck here for centuries while the world outside moves on is probably much worse.”

”Now add in being stuck as a ten-year-old,” he muttered bitterly, the first hint of his displeasure at his predicament showing. ”I put on a brave face and smile for my mom, but I hate it so much. I just want to grow up, but I can”t.”

I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. ”I hope you get to grow up soon.” I paused, watching the sun slowly dip lower into the horizon as it set in the distance. ”I”m not sure I”m going to be any help if I can”t find us a way out of here first.”

”There is only one way out,” Billy said. His eyes were distant momentarily before he turned and began to climb down. Once on the ground, he said, ”Tonight”s a full moon, so you”ll need to come inside. I think Mama has something special planned for dinner.”

”What does a full moon matter?” I called after his retreating form, but he didn”t answer me.

”You need to go get dressed!” Alysha practically yelled at me as I stood before her in a dirty tunic and ripped leggings, covered in dust and dirt from my activities of the day.

”Why?” I looked down at myself, dusting the dirt from my legs. ”I look fine.”

Alysha snorted. ”You look like a stable boy, but we can fix that.” She grabbed my arms and pulled me to my room, talking about the one night a year when things were different. I pretended to understand, smiling and nodding like a loon while letting her drag me across the castle. I carefully scooted around the odd furniture and knickknacks in various areas and places. Usually, I just pushed them out of the way.

I”d even stumbled over what appeared to be a tea tray the other day, denting the delicate, dainty metal as it skittered to the ground.

The way Alysha passed them, reverently touching each object and bit of furniture as if saying hi to an old friend, struck me as odd. I had noticed Lore giving a wide berth to the furniture as well. Had they gone just a little mad in the centuries of being stuck here? Was this my future if I didn”t get out? The questions echoed in my mind, twisting my stomach and making my heart beat to a point that almost hurt. My breaths became shorter as I felt, not for the first time, like a bird stuck in a cage with a predator. One that wanted to eat me bit by bit.

Soon, Alysha and I stood before my rumpled bed, where a beautiful dark purple dress had been laid out. The bodice was corseted, and the dress fanned out like a bell. The sheer material over the top was inlaid with dark purple stitched droplets that looked like falling leaves were cascading down from the waist. Roses and rose petals in a dark shade of blue-toned crimson melted into the dress”s purple shade as if the rose petals were flying away and down the bodice. It was more beautiful than anything I”d ever seen.

”Why do you want me to wear this?” I asked, perplexed as I touched the soft fabric.

”It”s a special night,” Alysha said as she pushed me toward the bathing area where hot water already steamed from the tub.

Minutes later, I was standing in a towel scrubbed until I sparkled, and now, I smelled like roses from the oil she”d poured into my bath.

”What is up with the rose scent and…” I motioned back toward the dress.

”Lore”s mother used to love roses. He”d bring her back a new rose bush every year for her to plant. She began planting them around the castle so that people would see them when they entered the castle grounds.” Alysha shrugged as she pulled a comb through my wet strands.

She twisted and braided my moonlight strands until they were half off my shoulders, leaving a layer of hair still cascading down my back. She forced me into the gown.

”Is this really necessary?” I muttered as she sprayed more rose-scented perfume into my face until I sneezed.

”It”s a special night,” Alysha echoed before she inspected me, walking around me and making appreciative noises as if she had accomplished her goals.

Before I knew it, she pulled me back through the corridors and shoved me into a room lit low and laid out with food—a table set for two.

I turned to leave, to run out of the room, but just as I turned, I slammed into the hard chest of a body. As my eyes traveled up, I met the gaze of Lore—red eyes meeting mine. No, not just Lore, but his dragon too.

I turned my eyes to the window where the sun had long since left the sky, then looked back at him. My eyes widened in shock. It was night, and the man stood before me—albeit with the eyes of his dragon, but the body of the man all the same.

”I-I should go,” I stuttered before trying to run, but a large hand gently grabbed my arm, making me still.

”Please don”t,” a rough, gravelly voice said. Lore”s voice, the dragon”s voice. I turned to meet those red eyes.

”He wouldn”t want me here, or to have dinner with me,” I said softly, remembering the words we had shouted to each other earlier.

”He is…” the dragon trailed off as if considering the right word. ”We are just stupid,” he said with a triumphant grin as if admitting it was something he should be proud of.

I felt my lips twitch in response. I liked his dragon far more than I did him.

”Please stay.” He wrapped his hands in mine, pulling me back toward him. Once I stood close to him, he took one hand to tilt my face up to his. ”Let me make…” He paused again, trying to remember the correct words as if he hadn”t spoken in so long that it was hard to search his vocabulary. ”Up for that with tonight.”

My breath caught in my throat as I stared up at him, my thoughts going to the morning. Lore and I had lost ourselves in each other”s arms and the way he felt as he moved inside of me. How, for the first time ever, pleasure meant something to me. Not just a means to distract myself only to find myself utterly disappointed in the end.

There had been no disappointment in Lore”s arms. In this dragon”s arms, I felt the heat of his body near me as my heart sped up and that wetness between my thighs began to form again. I had to fight to keep myself from pressing my knees together.

The dragon leaned in and breathed in my scent deeply as he growled. That sound, purely primal and a different predatory need, made me arch my back. A soft whimper escaped from my lips. ”I think…” I said breathlessly. ”I think I can stay for a little bit.”

The dragon smiled at me with carnal delight as if he had already imagined what I would taste like if he feasted on me instead of the food left for us not far away.

”Good.”

We sat and began to eat, the dragon clumsy at first as if he”d forgotten so much of what it was like to be in a mortal body.

”I thought you two were separate due to the curse,” I said as the dragon that sat before me in Lore”s body looked up from shoving a mouthful of meat into his mouth. Without really chewing, he swallowed it whole before answering me.

”Things are changing,” he said darkly.

”You have.” I pointed to his mouth, where a bit of the meat sauce was smeared in an impressive arc around his mouth.

The dragon wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then winked at me. ”I”m afraid it”s been a long time since I”ve done this.” He set his fork down, wiped his hands off, and walked toward me. ”Would you like to dance?” he asked, and there was a vulnerability in his face and in the way he worded each syllable.

I couldn”t say no. I put my hand in his and let him sweep me away. My heart secretly soared as I thought of all the times in my childhood I”d wished to be whisked away by a handsome lord at a ball.

Music began in the distance, and we moved into the ballroom he”d found me in before. I noticed the furniture had been carefully pushed aside, leaving the entire floor open to use. As we danced, it almost felt as if I closed my eyes, I could imagine the ballroom was full of people there to watch the dragon prince and me dance.

Each time he pulled me close, I forgot a little more that we were enemies or that the man beneath the dragon hated me for things I had no control over. I could forget that I was a captive in a cursed castle.

Soon, all I could think about was that I was having more fun than I”d ever had in my life. We laughed and locked gazes as heat traveled between us until the music stopped, and the dragon inside of Lore pulled me close and captured my lips. He kissed me as if he were starving, as if one kiss from me would save him from death. He kissed me as if his very existence depended on it. He kissed me with such passion that I melted into him and lost all sense of who I was.

I felt him backing me up, taking me in his arms again. My legs wrapped around his waist, and I found myself once again up against a wall. His lips claimed me again until he stole the very breath in my lungs. Until part of him seemed to burrow deep inside of me, similar to how he had the other day. This time, I felt a spark I couldn”t explain that seemed to pulse, grow, and spread within me. I had to deny one that shouldn”t exist, one that should be between enemies.

I pulled my lips away to do just that, but the vulnerability in Lore”s dragon”s eyes and desperation stilled my lips. ”Look at me and see all the darkest parts of me. See the darkness in my soul and do not turn away in fear. Learn to love all those parts of me. The jagged edges of my soul fit with the edges of yours like a puzzle. I know what you are. Who you are to me. I have waited so long for you.” He said the words with such fevered ferocity and tenderness as he traced the corners of my jawline and then his thumb across my bottom lip. He claimed my lips again and pulled away one last time as if he hated the thought of us separating. He tilted his forehead to mine and lowered his voice. ”I will burn the world for you. I will do anything for you. You are mine now and forever. Let me be yours.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to deny him. This was too much, too soon. I was not meant to be his anything. Before I could say anything, crashing glass stopped my words. Lore and his dragon turned, leaving me cold and longing for his heat.

What I saw when he turned dropped me nearly to the floor. The dead. The dead were crawling through the window. Their sightless eyes were white, and their skin, what they had left of it, was gray and unsightly. Some had missing limbs or parts of their body muscles barely covered as the evidence of decay and vermin had eaten parts of their body. They moved with an unnatural speed that, in life, they could never have maintained.

Lore turned to me as he drew a sword, panic in his red gaze. ”Run!”

My feet carried me several yards down the shadowy corridor before I skidded to a halt. What was I doing, running like a coward while Lore battled the dead alone? If he was my destiny, as the dragon had claimed, then I needed to stand with him.

I stopped, realizing I couldn”t just run away and leave Lore in there to fight by himself. What if they got Alysha or hurt Billy? This wasn”t just about me. I needed to fight, too. I couldn”t cower and pretend it wasn”t happening.

I spun on my heel, sprinting back the way I”d come. The sounds of the ongoing struggle grew louder as I approached—the zombie”s ghastly moans, the dragon”s enraged roars, the crash of toppling furniture. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I refused to give into fear.

I looked out the window to see the last rays of light descending into the distance as more crashing glass and the sounds of the dead invading the castle increased. The roar of a dragon as he transitioned into his form rocked the foundations of the castle itself.

Bursting back into the ballroom, I assessed the chaos instantly. The floor was strewn with broken zombie bodies, but more kept crawling through the shattered windows. In the center of the room, the dragon lashed his spiked tail, sending the undead flying. They just kept coming.

I scanned the ground, grabbing a heavy silver candlestick. Testing its weight, I nodded firmly and threw myself into the fray. I smashed the candlestick into the nearest zombie”s skull, carving into the decaying bone. It collapsed in a heap, but two more lurched toward me, hands outstretched hungrily.

The battle raged on as I crushed and battered the relentless horde. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the dragon”s fiery breath incinerate a cluster of zombies to ash. We were holding our own—we might survive this night after all.

I didn”t notice the zombie looming at my back in my distraction until its fetid claws sank into my shoulders. I screamed as its jaws snapped for my throat, the candlestick clattering to the floor. With a roar of fury, the dragon barreled into my attacker, sending it flying off me in pieces.

The damage was done. Blood poured from the gashes in my shoulder, the stench attracting the other zombies. I tried to scramble away, but my torn muscles gave out. The dragon shielded me with his body, flames keeping the horde at bay. We were surrounded, our strength rapidly fading.

We fought until we could no longer stand, the dragon biting heads off and burning half of the horde as we finally made it outdoors and under the moonlight. We found Alastair, and he joined us as we spent the hours in battle holding them off. I prayed Billy and Alysha were safe. Soon, tiredness made my legs stumble and my arms too sore to hold the sword in my good hand, as blood loss began to truly become a problem for me, even though Alastair had made a makeshift bandage at one point in the night.

It felt like an endless battle, an endless night of carnage.

As the night wore on, it seemed our fate was sealed. A piercing ray of dawn split the darkness, bathing us in glorious sunshine. The remaining zombies shuddered and collapsed, ashes in the wind. We had survived to see the light of a new day.

The castle was in shambles, and so much of the room, the furniture that Alysha and Lore had treated with such reverence, was in pieces. Lore fell to his knees as he looked out across the wreckage.

I moved slowly toward him, placing my hand softly on his shoulder.

”I”m sorry,” I offered, my voice weak and tired from the long night. I grunted as my shoulder shifted, and an intense pain shot through it.

Lore turned his haunted gaze to me, his eyes taking in my injury. ”I told you to run, to hide. If you…” He shook his head and pressed his lips together. He checked my bandage, and his lips pressed firmly together. He shuddered, looking away, and when his eyes turned back to mine, they were hard once again. ”Go. Get out. Leave me. Alysha will come tend your wound.”

I snatched my hand back. His words were not unusual. He occasionally turned to cruelty, but how he looked at me now made it seem as if all of this, the destruction and even the curse, were my fault.

”Leaving me in the dark, not telling me anything!” I yelled as my anger cut me like a seared knife. I let all that rage out on him. ”Refusing to give me the truth, it has not served you. Now tell me what I”m stuck in. What is this fucked up fairytale nightmare I”ve been forced to be a part of?”

The only answer was the dark chuckle from Lore as he shook his head.

Anger formed within me as I saw his sword not far away. I snatched it up and held it up to his throat. I”d planned all along to kill him, to take his life, and this was my chance.

”Tell me,” I snarled, my hand steady as I held the sword. The blade cut a shallow line on his throat, a trail of blood running down Lore”s neck as he lifted his chin, almost as if he were begging me to do it. Our eyes collided, and I realized that was precisely what he wanted. He was begging me to kill him, to end the ceaseless torment of his cursed existence. The resolve in his face told me he would welcome death.

His eyes flashed crimson as if hearing my thoughts, and the dragon stared out at me with resignation. ”Do it,” the dragon rumbled, ”for there is no life without you.” He closed his eyes, sighing as he released all tension from his body, finally at peace with his fate.

I dropped the sword as if scalded, staring down at my hands in horror. I had planned to kill him, I realized with a jolt. I was no better than the monsters I despised, willing to kill for my own ends.

When my eyes met Lore”s again, rage roared through me like an inferno. He looked upon me with bitter disappointment as if I had somehow become less in his eyes by sparing him. That look shattered the last fragile thread of sanity I clung to.

With a feral scream, I snatched up the sword and swung it wildly, chopping it into the nearest antique chair. I hacked viciously at the old furnishings, consumed by a crazed fury. With each splintering blow, I gave voice to a lifetime of pain and helplessness.

I heard the roar of Lore in my ears. Strong hands wrenched the sword away, forcing me to face blazing blue eyes alight with horror.

”You have no idea what you”ve done,” Lore choked out. He opened his mouth as if to explain, then snapped it shut, slowly shaking his head. When he finally spoke, his voice was hollow. ”You cannot see as I do. Now, you will.”

Lore spoke strange, archaic words that raised the hairs on my nape. His hands waving over me, pressure built in my skull, and I squeezed my eyes shut against it. When I forced them open again, I wished I hadn”t.

Blood was everywhere. It drenched me, the coppery tang cloying in my nose and mouth. Bodies lay strewn around the once-grand ballroom, flesh rent and spilling crimson. Frozen faces were twisted in agony, eternally trapped in their final moments. With dawning revulsion, I realized these were the cursed people of the castle, suspended helplessly in time. And I had butchered one of them.

There were so many pieces of flesh and bone, and it was hard to tell which had been from me. Where the sword had cleaved pieces of wood laid what appeared to be an elderly man dressed in fine clothing now stained in blood. His face didn”t appear to be wrenched in pain or agony, but as if it were frozen in time, still in his last moment. A pleasant smile stretched across his lips because he was unaware of the death that had been dealt him. Death by my hand.

I fell to my knees and retched, sobbing. When I could take no more, I fled blindly down the halls, unable to face the gruesome horrors I had unwittingly unleashed. What had I done?