Chapter 63

My skin itched and burned with the desperate need to be reunited with my King, the Guardian Bond on the crook of my arm now standing out starkly among a patch of reddened, bleeding skin where I had clawed and scratched at it in my need for some reprieve to its constant aching.

I had grown feverish in my desire to return to him, my need to fulfil the demands of the bond and keep my oath of eternal protection to him making my mind crack. It had left me panting, bordering on insanity most of the time. I couldn't think, could hardly draw the energy to eat, and sometimes I struggled to breathe without him.

And now I lay there, on the floor of that filthy room, surrounded by cowards and failures, all of those who had lost the fight for this place. Or worse; surrendered like the pathetic worms they were.

The stench in here was sickening, though we were given clean clothes and showers, I swore it still worsened day on day, the air thickening with the pungent stench of failure.

I gasped down breaths which felt shallow and thin, my lungs burning with the need for more air, a ringing in my ears making the words of those beyond the bars of my cage indistinguishable. Pinpricks of light danced before my eyes but when I closed them, even the memory of my dear, beloved king wasn't enough to soothe the ache in me.

A clang sounded and I peeled my eyelids open, feeling the crust around them from so many sleepless nights cracking and crumbling as I did so.

Polished boots stopped before me, a man asking what was wrong with me, a prod to my shoulder making me snarl with fury.

I spasmed beneath them, brought so low that the disgrace made me wince. I was a Dragon and yet here I lay at the feet of such lowly beasts.

"Are you sick?" one of them asked, shoving me again.

I groaned where I had meant to growl, swiping a hand at him far too late to make contact with the offending limb.

"Let's take her to Uranus Infirmary," a woman decided while I thrashed and spat at them, trying to fight off the grip of their hands.

But even as I did so, my heart cracked within my chest, the need I felt for my king crippling me with its intensity, the helplessness of my desire while locked up in this foul place enough to destroy what little I was.

A bang sounded as the gates to our cell opened then closed, my back arching against something hard as I fought to make sense of the movement around me, of the dim light suddenly turning bright, the stagnant air replaced with fresh.

My chapped lips parted as I stared up at the sky, my body jerking as I lurched for it, needing to be up there, among the clouds, belching fire into the deep blue. But as I tried to reach for it, I found myself bound, my chest strapped down onto the hard surface I was being transported upon.

"Call for Geraldine," said the man whose magic was carrying my stretcher, and I twisted my neck to see a weaselly rat of a fellow hurrying away to comply.

A hand touched my wrist and I snarled furiously, lurching towards the woman who walked there, my teeth bared. I would rip her throat out with nothing but these blunt Fae fangs if that was all I had at my disposal.

She jerked back in alarm, her fingers slipping from my wrist, her hand brushing mine and in that moment, I felt a thrum of power. Gold.

I clawed at her, throwing my weight her way, my fingernails ripping into her arm and drawing blood. She screamed, staggering back, but my fingers had hooked into the golden bracelet she wore, tearing it from her wrist. The stretcher tumbled to the ground, and I hit the dirt hard on my face.

Cries of alarm sounded all around me, the heavy weight of some cretin leaping onto my back to hold me down only grinding my face further into the gravel, but I had it, and I hastily shoved it into my waistband, the gold pressed directly to my flesh.

They heaved me upright again, more vines snaking out from several directions to restrain me, and I bucked and thrashed against their control. But all the while, a hot trickle of power began to rise beneath my skin as the gold worked to restore my magic.

I fell still as we walked further, my eyes on the sky and thoughts of my king clearer than ever in my mind. The magic slowly building in my blood helped to ease some of the torment I'd faced from the time I'd been forced to spend without power. The other pathetic souls who shared my cell had all been offered the chance to use some magic in a contained environment to stave off the insanity which could be caused by a prolonged absence from it. But they had been offered that chance for good behaviour. I would never lower myself to behave for these brutes and hellions. I was a Dragon, their superior in every way and they would not cow me.

The ache in my chest lessened as that spark of magic grew. It was merely an ember compared to the full might of what I was capable of, but it was a start.

My gaze snapped from face to face, marking each of the rats for death as they transported me into the heart of the academy towards Uranus Infirmary.

There, I was moved onto a bed, the vines stripped from my body and a single manacle placed around my ankle, chaining me to the metal bedframe.

I remained utterly still as Mother Dickins, the head healer at the academy and the professor who taught the subject entered the room, but my eyes were moving from place to place, a plan forming in me just as surely as that golden bracelet was restoring my magic.

There were potions and tonics lined up in a glass cabinet along the wall, all manner of things from flea dips, to Faemidia tonic, to sedatives, but my gaze fell still as I spied the very thing I most needed. A vial of antidote to the Order suppressant and a pack of new syringes just waiting to draw up a dose powerful enough to release my Dragon from the chains it was locked in.

I waited as most of the guards left the room, apparently satisfied that I was under control now. As if pathetic cretins such as they could ever truly hope to control one of the most powerful beasts in all the lands for long.

A snarl rippled up the back of my throat as I was left in the company of the healer and only two guards. It was insulting that they believed themselves sufficient, but they would soon learn the error of their ways.

I allowed the healer to press her magic into me, welcoming the extra strength it lent to my limbs, the layers of exhaustion that were peeled away by her ministrations. She examined me, muttering to herself then looking me in the eyes as she asked me how long it had been since I'd last taken any Faeroids.

I licked my lips at the question, some part of me knowing that the shakes and agony in my body hadn't simply come from being separated from my king and the effect of the Guardian Bond. I needed my medicine. The mere mention of it left my throat rasping and my heart thrashing with desperation.

"Too long," I admitted, the shake in my hands confirming it anyway.

The healer nodded. "I'll get you a dose. It isn't safe to go cold turkey on these things."

She bustled from the room and the ringing in my ears grew to a crescendo as all of the partially-formed plans in my mind fell away, my hunger for my tonic consuming every piece of my mind, my gaze locked to that door, awaiting her return with a desperation that felt entirely physical.

The woman I had scratched was glowering at me, healing away the bloody gouges I'd left in her flesh. Her hand swept over her wrist and she sucked in a gasp, forcing my focus to her while her mind crashed to a realisation, her lips parting on the accusation.

My time was up and with a furious bellow, I hurled a twin set of wooden spears from my fist, piercing both guards through their throats and sending blood splattering across the room.

I threw myself from my bed in the wake of their deaths, falling heavily to the ground as the manacle on my ankle jerked tight. With a ferocious kick of my other leg, I broke the metal post I was chained to and the whole bed fell to the floor with a tremendous clang.

I grabbed the body of the woman I'd killed, rooting through her pockets until I found an Atlas and calling my father, barking orders at him to come to the academy to meet me, yelling that I was escaping and wasting no time listening for his reply. The Dragons would come for me. We protected our own.

The precious dregs of magic I'd managed to recover were gone now, consumed by that burst of earth magic, but I didn't need my magic, I needed my Dragon.

I clawed my way to my feet, ignoring the sounds of yells from beyond the door, the thundering of feet charging my way.

My fist shattered the glass door to the medicine cabinet, glass puncturing my skin and blood oozing between my fingers as I snatched the vial of antidote and a syringe from the shelf.

I ripped the packet open with my teeth, flinging the cap from the syringe and half bending the needle with the force I used, but it still managed to suck up a dose of the antidote when I thrust it into the bottle.

The door shattered and my gaze snapped up to meet the piercing blue eyes of that cantankerous bitch Geraldine Grus as she launched herself at me with a battle cry.

The last whisp of my power shot from me, vines binding her hands and locking her magic away.

She screamed furiously, racing straight for me despite her bound hands but as our gazes met, the needle pierced my flesh and I was already shifting, the beast bursting from my skin with a roar of victory.

The room was far too small for my Dragon body and the walls cracked and shuddered when my expanding flesh collided with them. Geraldine was knocked from her feet, slamming down heavily on her back beyond the door and I parted my lips on a blast of Dragon fire to finish her.

Cries came from the hall and my head snapped up, the Dragon Fire bursting from my jaws in the direction of the five guards who were racing for me instead.

I was outnumbered in this place and my need to return to my king outweighed my desire to destroy as many of these traitorous pieces of scum as I could.

I lunged for Geraldine, snatching her into my talons, a gift for my king to make up for my failure in being caught.

With a bounding leap, I crashed through the closest window, stone shattering around me as I forced my enormous body through the too-small hole. And in my claws, thrashing and cursing me while her blood ran down the sides of my talons, Geraldine Grus was dragged along with me.

I might have been returning to my king in disgrace, but I planned on gifting him the bitch who had played such a key role in this rebellion upon my return. And when he had drained all the knowledge of her pathetic rebellion from her head, I would be first in line for her public execution.