35. Kadia

The image of the island being destroyed by the king and his army flashed through Kaida’s mind. A whine escaped her throat, and it caused her four mates to look at her. Beckett reached out and grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He tried to send her some calmness through their bond to help her. She frowned when it didn’t work.

"How can your father be this way? How is he okay with destroying this island and everyone who lives here? That is thousands of lives. Why would he do that?"

Beckett squeezed her hand again. "That is what happens when you become hungry with power. It goes to your head, and you are constantly trying to gain more to feed the animal within that is consuming you."

"I didn’t know my father was this way until now. He ruled with an iron fist, but so did many before him. It seemed only natural. Dragons are stubborn and want things to remain how they have always been because change is scary. I think the idea that Plasma Dragons have returned scared the shit out of him. That meant that, at any time, you could make a change, and most would follow you."

"If I were to be your mate and rule at your side, it would be that way, anyway," Kaida retorted.

She watched Enzo frown and open his mouth to defend his father. There was no redeeming his father right now, so his words would not be received well.

"Maybe that was the plan. Maybe he wanted you to come here so he could lead the attack while you were here," Beckett imparted with a very "matter-of-fact" tone.

"Why would he do that?" Enzo’s tone held more confusion than his face showed.

Kaida thought about it, and Beckett’s words rang true to her. If he was not happy with Kaida being a Plasma Dragon, he would not be happy with her being in the kingdom. Her power alone was more than his, which would cause the people to want Gemar to hand the kingdom over to Enzo and her.

"If your dad doesn’t want me to take over, and you came here to bring me home, then he would want you out of the way, too. He let you come here so he could secure his seat on the throne. We live long lives, Enzo. Your mother could birth another heir."

She felt her words slice through Enzo like a knife. Kaida sucked through her teeth at realizing how ruthless her words were toward him. There was no lie in her words. If they lose their heir before they can take over, most dragons will create another one.

During the silence, Beckett rocked his head back and forth for a minute. "She’s right, you know. That might be the plan. It looks like, to me, you are not exactly one that bends to your father’s will. I assume that you told him you didn’t care whether Kaida had a dragon or not while trying to convince him to allow you to come get her."

Enzo nodded and bowed his head. He put his hands on the back of the chair he was standing in front of, and Kaida noticed his knuckles were turning white. She bit her lip as she thought about going to him.

"I didn’t think my father would stoop so low. I know we’ve butted heads from time to time, but for the most part, we got along. He’s been teaching me so much over the last few years so I could take over when he felt I was ready. He said after I took a bride that he would prepare for me to take over because, for me to rule, I needed balance. A mate would give me that balance."

When Enzo paused, Kaida spoke up. "Until he found out that your mate is someone that could cause him to have to give over the throne immediately."

"Especially with Kaida having multiple mates. It wouldn’t exactly be you in charge of her backing you up. It would be her in charge and us supporting her," Arlo joined in.

Azulia raised her hand but didn’t wait for anyone to call on her. "I wonder if he caught wind of the fact that Kaida is friends with all of us, too. Having connections to the other kingdoms is definitely a threat."

Adrien copied Azulia. "That is a good point. It shows how powerful she is because that means she can bring other kingdoms into this fight."

Remy shook her head. "I don’t see the Lycans getting involved much. It’s not our fight. Putting the packs at risk facing dragons? It’s not like we have magic to fight with. Just our teeth and claws."

"Vampyres as well. We don’t really concern ourselves with matters of other species. It’s bad enough that we often have civil wars between the Solar and Lunar sides."

Remy pointed at Sundrei, "That’s a good point. Lycans, too. Before I came here, we were in the middle of dealing with a bunch of packs that started to push the lines of where their territories lie. The Alpha was getting ready to allow the packs just to declare war on their neighboring pack to figure it out because no one wanted to hear him out on how to divide everything."

"Doesn’t matter. If Kaida can build connections with other kingdoms when he hasn’t, that gives Kaida more power than he has," Beckett finished.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful. I came here to bring my mate home to keep her away from the fire that my father planned to build; instead, I learned she has multiple mates and now might have figured out that he plans to kill us all so he can continue his reign."

Enzo spilled the rest of the contents of his tea down his throat. Kaida could feel through the bond that Enzo wanted to just climb into a hole and remain there until this all passed. Hearing about anyone wanting to wipe out another for their own gain was difficult. To hear that it was their parent, and the person they wanted to kill was their child—that was devastating.

"Do you know when he planned to do this?" Kaida asked.

"No. I just know they were beginning to make plans to attack."

Beckett made a face. "That could take weeks."

Kaida straightened herself in the chair. "Then we need to take this time to prepare ourselves. If this is true, and he plans to attack, we need to be ready."

"This island does not have an army," Arlo said dryly.

"No, but it does have people who would be willing to protect it at any cost," Kaida replied.

Remy lifted her upper lip. "Uh, not to bring the morale down, but I think there is a bigger issue here. We don’t even have the Dark Dimension dealt with. How are we going to deal with people losing control of themselves daily and manage to build up a mini army to deal with the Dragaal army?"

Kaida leaned back on the chair and groaned. "How the hell did I forget about the Dark Dimension?"

"A lot kind of happened at once, sweetie. You’re expected to forget one detail when a million others hit you simultaneously."

Adrien made a good point. A lot had happened in the last week. Enzo arriving and giving all of this information was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Dark Dimension?"

Enzo sounding confused worried Kaida. If the mainland had no idea what was happening on this island with the Dark Dimension, then they would be in for a rude awakening if they brought hundreds of dragons here to fight. People here were losing control and would not stop if someone said the fight was over.

"You don’t know about the Dark Dimension?" Kaida asked him.

"No. What’s that?"

Kaida raised her eyebrows. "Haven’t you seen the sky lately?"

Enzo leaned back and looked outside since the door was still open from earlier. His eyes widened, and he walked toward the door.

"What the hell is that? Why is the sky so dark?" Kaida heard him from down the hall.

"It’s not like that back home?" Kaida yelled back.

Enzo came back into the room and shook his head, "No. Everything seemed normal. "

"I think you would have noticed the sky darkening whether you were looking up or not. It looks like it’s starting to look like nighttime all the time over there," Kaida said blankly.

Enzo rubbed his face. "I don’t think it looks like that over there. What exactly is this?"

Adrien launched into everything that had happened with the Dark Dimension. Enzo was surprised by everything and said nothing like that happened on the mainland. None of the people were losing control of their dragons, and the sky had not changed color. Adrien mentioned that the Dark Dimension could change things for the island only to convert it to be more like that dimension. The very thought of that made Kaida’s stomach twist and her skin crawl.

"So not only do we have to worry about my father coming here to try to execute us all, but we also have to worry about this dimension spilling into ours?"

Adrien frowned. "Afraid so."

"How are we supposed to combat that?"

"I don’t know. Kaida’s magic seems to be something that closes it. The artifact I know about that opens and closes it has been lost for years. No one knows where it is. But if I were to return home and claim my position as High Priestess, I would need to find the artifact that would assist me during my ruling. I have been prophesied to wield the most powerful artifact. The only artifact the prophecy could reference is the sword that could close the Dark Dimension."

Kaida stared at her friend. She tried to recount the conversations they exchanged about this artifact. She did not recall Adrien stating that she was part of a prophecy about her wielding that sword.

"The only way you could return home is if your mate would return for you," Enzo stated.

Adrien narrowed her eyes at him. "No shit. Why do you think I sound depressed over here?"

Kaida stifled her laughter and noticed others were doing the same. It annoyed Kaida that this sword was the only chance they had to close the portal to the other dimension. It annoyed her more that Adrien was stuck here until her mate came back for her when she was the key to finding it.

We could always break the barrier and allow her to return home without her mate.

That barrier has layers upon layers of enchantments to ensure that it would not be broken. I doubt we could break it.

We won’t know until we try.

It also sounds draining. Can you imagine how much magic it would take to break?

"I don’t think there is anything else we can do right now about all of this. It’s getting late. Maybe we all need a good night’s sleep, and we can discuss it afterward. That way, we have fresh eyes to look at this situation," Beckett suggested as he pushed his chair back.

"I agree. Maybe we should all get some rest, and we will talk about this tomorrow?" Enzo asked.

"I have work. But I am sure we can all find time to get together." Azulia started and then yawned.

As they all made their way toward the door, Kaida leaned against Beckett as exhaustion began to set in. Once outside, Enzo turned around and looked at them.

"Uh... Where am I staying?"

Beckett laughed and looked down at Kaida, "Do you want him at the house?"

Kaida nodded, "I’d feel better if he was closer to us."

"I can make him a room when we get home."

Kaida yawned again. "Sounds like a plan."

Well, I wonder how this will go.