24. Edward

Despite Henry and the others having run to get the key from my dad, I still attacked the door like a madman. It didn’t do any good. The door didn’t even budge an inch. The only thing I accomplished was to vent some of my anger.

I cussed loudly and for the first time since I had been cursed, I wished I didn’t only turn into a dragon at night. If I could have turned into my dragon shape right now, I wouldn’t have had any problems getting out of here—door or windows, it wouldn’t have mattered. The heat of my flames melted metal, I had experimented with it many times. Nights could be long and boring, especially before I met Eliza.

Eliza!

Her name alone invigorated me. Eliza, I nearly laughed. How perfect and fitting. Why had I never guessed that name before? I had tried Isabella, Elizabeth, Elaine, but not Eliza.

I stopped pounding the door and noticed excited voices on the other side. Yelling and screaming. Something was happening.

I rushed to the windows and my heart nearly stopped beating in my chest at the sight of my bride running down the veranda stairs in her white gown. Pressing her damn nettle mantles against her chest, chased by… No, that couldn’t be. Dammit. My father and friends were chasing her down like some wild animal. Followed and egged on by Lucy.

I used the fire poker and slammed it into the bulletproof glass to no avail.

“Leave her be,” I screamed, knowing nobody would hear me.

Eliza was running straight for the pond and I hammered harder against the glass, realizing she was cornered before she did.

No! No that couldn’t be happening.

I roared in frustration. My heart rate spiked and my muscles bulged as I hammered against the window, watching my father and friends grab a hold of Eliza. Her careful and meticulously woven mantles fell to the ground. The swans were attacking the men wildly, but mostly without effect.

When I realized they were about to push Eliza into the pond, I lost it. The heavy gown she was wearing would pull her under in no time. The water was murky, she would be lost from sight within seconds. She would drown.

My precious, wonderful bride. The love of my life. The one woman who had never done anything bad, who had been loving, gentle, and giving.

I roared again and felt a stirring under my skin. Just like when darkness fell and my body changed into a dragon. Yes!

Already I noticed scales building. My adrenaline rushed.

Everybody would see me in my dragon form—my father, my friends—but I didn’t care. All that mattered at that moment was that it was the dragon who could save my love.

With another roar, the dragon broke free inside me. Steam escaped my nostrils and fire blasted in my lungs as I took a deep inhale to concentrate the stream at the window and bars behind it.

It took only seconds, the glass melted along with the bars. Not caring that I was cutting my skin on the edges, I pushed myself forward and out, I barely fit and some of the bricks came loose. I roared again and spread my wings the moment I was free. Lifting into the air, I shot down toward my father and friends holding Eliza, feeling like an avenging angel.

“Oh my God,” my aunt Tess screamed and ran into my cousin Susan.

More eyes lifted up, more screams erupted, and even the swans stopped their attacks.

Hands fell off Eliza and she stumbled forward, scrambling to get to her nettle mantles.

I hovered a few feet over the park, over the heads of my father and friends who huddled in a circle, ready to fight, while most of the other guests either hid underneath tables or ran inside.

Lucy stood rooted to the ground, staring up at me through baleful eyes.

“You dirty son of a bitch. You will remain in this form from now until eternity, do you hear me? I curse you. Curse you!” Her form changed into that of another woman, a beautiful woman. But her beauty was as cruel as her twisted face.

”In scales of might and wings that soar, with fiery breath forevermore. By ancient curse, a fate is spun, from man to dragon, never to be undone. Scale and claw, in shadows tread, a scaly fate forever spread. Break the spell, no mortal plea, a dragon’s form, his destiny.”

“No!” a loud voice rang out, and all eyes shifted to the same green witch that had cursed me in the first place. I roared in anger.

“He is mine to curse and mine alone. You cannot curse a cursed man,” she called out to the other woman.

“Scale and flame to flesh and bone, from dragon’s might to human’s tone. By noble act, in peril found, break the curse that doth abound. Return to form, from beast to man, with bravery, undo what began!” she repeated the same words she had given me so long ago.

“Return to your true form, Edward, for you have passed your trial. You showed true bravery, you are willing to show yourself to all the people that matter to you in order to save the woman you love. That was a truly selfless act and you shall be rewarded for it,” she intoned.

My wings drew back into arms and I plummeted the few feet to the ground, where I lay a bit dazed and stared up at the green witch.

“Edward!” my father exclaimed in shock.

“Edward!” Eliza screamed, throwing her nettle mantles to her left and right over her eleven swans that were encircling her, all while she was running toward me with a wide smile on her lips.

“She speaks,” Sean exclaimed.

She had! She had called my name and never had it sounded better than when it came from her lips.

“Edward.” She flew into my arms, sobbing and laughing at the same time.

“Eliza.” I pressed her against me, felt the strong beating of her heart, and was the happiest I had ever been.

“Will someone please explain to me what—” It wasn’t my father’s voice that ripped me out of my moment of happiness, but the way it broke off midsentence. I looked up, only to gape at Eliza’s swans.

One by one, they pushed off the mantles she had thrown over them, and my eyes fell on emerging young, strapping men. All of them with the same black-and-white hair as my Eliza’s.

With a scream, Eliza tore from my arms and ran to the men. “Caspian! William! Richard!” That was all I caught, the others broke off in sobs as the twelve of them enveloped and hugged each other.

“Here, you should probably… cover up.” Henry stepped up next to me, giving me his jacket to put around my waist. The young men, also naked, grabbed table clothes to cover themselves before they hugged my bride.

What in the hell had happened here?

“What in the hell is going on?” my father voiced my thoughts.

From the corner of my eye I noticed Lucy, who didn’t look like Lucy anymore, trying to sneak off.

“Hold on!” I called. “You have some explaining to do.”

“Stop!” the green witch ordered and Lucy stopped dead in her tracks.

Eliza and the men broke apart and I realized that not all of them were men, some were teenagers, some boys.

“Constancia!” one of the older men, I thought he might be my age, yelled.

“Constancia,” Eliza added with an expression of hate on her face I had never seen on her before.

“Eliza?” My voice was barely a whisper, but she heard me and rushed to my side.

“Edward, my Edward.” She clung to me and that was all that mattered.