Hate by K.A Knight
When I cannot drive any longer, I take to the sky, flying the remaining distance to Rejek. I text Jean Paul and Nos beforehand to let them know where I am going. I hear back from neither, but then again, I am impatient and only give them thirty seconds.
I soar over the frozen tundra, mountains, and fields. Civilization is left behind as I head to the very peak of the country, an unforgotten corner too dangerous for humans and most supernaturals. It doesn’t help that the mountain is believed to be cursed, which I suppose makes sense as a council location. They are the oldest of us, after all. One is awake at all times to rule over the others and step in only in dire circumstances. They are relics of lost years...yet now we need them. More than ever.
Let’s hope they don’t kill me on sight.
The flight takes over two hours before I see the first stirrings of the mountain. The air starts to get thick and cloudy until I can barely see in front of my face, and I am forced to glide lower, almost touching a frozen lake surrounded by trees. Even then it is foggy, an unnatural fog. I feel it passing over me, judging me for what I am.
A security measure, no doubt.
I soar above it and over the trees, and then a black shape comes in to view ahead. I turn that direction, knowing it must be the mountain. I can feel the old magic there, pushing me away, warning me to leave.
It forms through the clouds and fog, stretching so far into the sky I can’t see the tip of it. Flattening my wings, I push higher and higher, climbing through the clouds until I reach the peak, which is an open top, giving me a clear view downwards into the base of the mountain that is far, far down.
It’s a volcano.
A dormant one, clearly, and I can feel the net over the top to protect the opening from attack. To keep things in...or out? I’m not sure, but I can’t get in that way, so I tuck in my wings and dive, flying around each side as I try to find an entrance.
I have to circle three more times and open my mind, pushing out my powers to search the thick, black rock until I locate the opening the ghosts mentioned. A concealed entrance sits at the base behind it, hidden by the edge of the cliff it stands on. If you didn’t have the power or knowledge of how to look, you wouldn’t find it. They really were not taking any chances.
I set down on the edge of the cliff and change back, lifting my head as I reach for Dawn.
I will be there soon, hold on.
Let’s hope the sleeping council doesn’t try to kill me. It would be horrible to explain to my mate why we have the whole supernatural world hunting us down if I murder them.
Sucking in the cold air one more time, I head into the carved black doorway. I feel a boundary pass over me instantly and I drop to my knees in agony. I can’t breathe, can’t see, or even hear. I lose track of everything, and I seem to be spinning, but I could be wrong. Heat starts at the soles of my feet and travels through my body like lava erupting from my head.
The sensation surges repeatedly until I am screaming. At least I think I am, it’s hard to tell. But I am a dragon and this is fire. I let the change flow through me, and the cool feeling of the souls trapped in my dragon sooth the burn until I flick open my eyes, my tail dancing behind me as my mouth expands to eat whoever did that to me…
But there is no one there.
Surely that couldn’t be a deterrent to get out? If so, what else will be lingering the closer I get…that one nearly killed me as it is. And Griffin said I was antisocial, these guys take it to a whole new level. Forcing the change when I realise I won’t fit through the path that seems to lead up through the caldera, I let my bare human feet meet the sharp rocks, which instantly cut into them. My blood puddles on the black, shiny stone for a moment before being absorbed, like the rock itself is tasting me.
I shiver, I can’t wait to get out of here. A bad feeling pushes through me at being here, my dragon roaring to flee. Who and what exactly is on the sleeping council? I wish I had asked.
But I push forward, knowing Griffin will never let me live it down if I come back empty-handed or abscond from the mountain. He will be all, ‘oh big, bad dragon got scared? Poor baby,’ and then I will have to gut him, and that will really put a damper on my relationship with Dawn.
Muttering to myself, I head farther into the volcano. I insult Griffin and his stupid wings, which are more decorative that functional—I mean, come on...feathers? He can’t even kill anyone with them! Next I start on his stupid, pretty face, the crazy bastard.
My muttering only stops when the rocks on either side of me give way and open up into a giant hole in the volcano. Okay then. Standing on the edge, I look around for stairs or a path, but there isn’t one, there is just blackness below me in a chasm, and darkness above me.
And I thought Griffin wasn’t very hospitable.
Leaping forward, I change mid-air, catching the upstream and flapping my wings to carry me upwards. I’m hoping that’s where they are, they wouldn’t be down, right? Who knows, this whole place is a maze.
I spot another open cave near the top, which seems a lot taller than the outside, undoubtedly with more magic. I have to change mid-flight and throw myself forward to get into the cave. Rolling to my feet, I come face-to-face with a small man wearing a drab, grey tunic tied at the top with short brown hair. His eyes are wide and alarmed. In his hand is a jug, and I sniff to smell whisky.
“Hello,” I greet, and he squeaks like a mouse and takes off back into the cave, his feet slapping against the rock. I hear the squeal slowly grow quieter and quieter until it disappears.
Well, that was odd.
Shrugging, I follow after him at a normal pace, wondering if he has gone to warn the sleeping council or whoever is awake. They felt me enter, I know it, unless they were distracted. Wait, do they actually sleep? What if they are asleep right now and he panicked because they didn’t feel my arrival?
The tunnel curves around and down a bit, with carved stone stairs that assist in my descent, until it opens up into what looks like a throne room where two angry-looking supernaturals are standing with the small man hiding behind them and pointing towards me.
They both turn my way. One’s eyes flash gold, while the other grins, even as mist swirls around him.
“Hello, do you have any appointments available to speak to the council?” I inquire, and then almost cringe at that. Who storms into a volcano, which is cursed and protected by magic, hunting a sleeping council to save their mate, and then is that polite?
“I mean, I need to see the sleeping council!” I demand, and raise my chin.
“Well, well, a dragon, how interesting. How did you get past the guards, I wonder?” the one with the black eyes muses, stepping by the infuriated man who is glaring at me as if I have burned down his home and then asked him to cook me dinner.
“It was easy, I am a king, after all.” I sniff.
His lips quirk up again. He’s taller than me, skinnier though, but has some bulk. The power that is leaking from him is staggering and his face, though just as beautiful as my own, has an edge to it—it’s too perfect. Too sharp, too many angles. His eyes are dark, and his eyebrows slope down even as he smirks. I can almost see the outline of a giant monster behind him in the mist that swirls around him.
What is he?
“Not something you have ever encountered before, dragon, I can assure you,” he answers, addressing my thought, and I startle.
“Serpent, this is not protocol! That—this is disturbing, unruly, and against all our laws! We must kill him!” the other man yells, but the first, Serpent, ignores him and tilts his head, watching me closely as a dog comes to his side…if dogs measure to your chest and look like the spawn of evil. Yet the man pets its head like a treasured toy without one ounce of fear on his face.
“I do not fear what I created. Come, dragon, step inside, tell us why you are here.”
“You step too far, Serpent! You crave chaos and now look where this has brought us—” The other man’s voice cuts off in a gargle as the serpent whirls and rips out his throat, throwing it to the servant like a trophy. He then turns back to me.
“There, that will keep him quiet for a while, he does talk too much.” He turns and heads up a dais I didn’t see before and sits on a throne, throwing his legs carelessly over it as his...pet sits at his feet, its red eyes glaring at me.
I step into the room, the rock solid under my feet. The ceiling is massive here, reaching high up with floating lanterns. To the right are inscriptions along the floor, almost flaring with magic. The servant is standing there, still holding the throat as he looks from it to the other man and back again.
“M-Master, I—what shall I do with this?” he asks, fear coating his tone as he lifts up the other man’s trachea.
“Whatever you would like to do with it. Bring us something to drink,” the serpent calls, and waves him away, his eyes locked on me with interest. “So, dragon, why are you here? Not many would be able to find us, never mind get through our barriers. You had to know this would be a death sentence, so tell me why?”
“For my mate,” I tell him, stepping farther into the room. The hound snarls and I still.
“Ahh, love.” He spits the word ‘love’ like it’s a falsehood, and I raise an eyebrow. “Or maybe just lust. Free piece of advice, dragon, love is a lie, always trust lust.” He pats the hound. “So, your mate, what does she or he have to do with you seeking us out?”
“She, she’s in danger—”
“How marvellous, why should we care?” he interrupts, and I force back my growl. I can’t be a ‘rich prick,’ as Griffin said, around this man, he could kill me with a blink of an eye. I can feel it. Even a dragon knows when they are beat, and this man is something...old. Ancient, dark, and powerful, maybe even a god.
“Because that danger is your council,” I offer instead.
He blinks. I’ve shocked him, I can tell. “Those pompous assholes, what have they done now?”
It’s my turn to blink, he doesn’t like them? “They are kidnapping female supernaturals and experimenting on them, humans too. It is starting to get noticed. Human police are involved and now hunters are working with the council,” I summarise quickly.
He leaps to his feet with a roar, the room filling with darkness that seems to suffocate me. I have trouble breathing and fall to my knees, and when it finally clears, I get a look at the true monster I am dealing with and it steals my breath once again.
If he doesn’t kill us, he might just be the key to saving Dawn.
He stands before me, no longer a man, his curved horns touching the ceiling. His eyes are black, and in them I see roaring flames. His mouth is wide and filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth like a shark. His face is skeletal but covered in flesh, and he has no eyebrows, but his hair remains the same. His body is wider than even my dragon’s, his arms bigger than my human body. He is covered in nothing but a black piece of cloth over his manly bits, and swirls of red cover his skin, lighting up like I saw a volcano do once while it was erupting. It looks like the flames of hell are trapped inside his body.
He is a true monster and my dragon grins in approval.
“They are stealing women?” he booms, and I hear a noise. Turning, I see the other man getting to his feet, rubbing his throat. He glances up and gawks at the serpent who, with a giant fist, punches the other man straight through the wall. He looks back at me. “I felt pain, it woke me up, the flashes of a woman. She was being kidnapped.”
My eyes fly wide, he could mean any woman, he could...but my gut tells me he doesn’t. “Blonde hair? Body to die for?”
His eyes narrow. “I did not see.” His voice is so deep, like the shifting of rocks, that I feel blood start to drip from my ears. He finally calms down enough to change back. I watch this monstrous form melt, and then he is before me again with determination on his face.
“I was going to find her, she intrigued me. If they have taken her, they will answer to me. Come, dragon, let us free your mate and find out what the council is truly doing. I might even let you help me kill them.” He walks past me, the hound on his heels which I swear sticks his tongue out at me.
“She doesn’t need rescuing, she can rescue herself, she is strong, really strong. The problem is she will kill all of them. I didn’t want you to come after her.”
That stops him, and he turns his head, a grin on his face. “Your mate sounds like fun. I can’t guarantee I won’t kill her, but I would make it quick. Now, are you coming or do you want the angel to resurrect again and kill you?”
Fuck, what have I unleashed on the world?
