Dark Promise by Annika West

37

The fact was that time moved quicker than my brain. I didn’t have all afternoon to think about the best course of action. Adair was making sure his people and guests were safe —

I felt a presence at my side to see that Adair was walking beside me. “What do you think the best course of action is?”

“I thought you were going to let them run rampant! What are you doing here?”

“This is my court, Aster. I ensured the safety of the fae, and now that my trusted assistants are here to complete that job, I plan to do what every leader would. No dragons will be destroying my home. Not today.”

“I guess it would be weird if you let me handle the two idiots on my own. But why are you asking me for the plan?”

“Consider it a training exercise.”

“Okie-doke. Energetic realms don’t matter when I can’t touch or influence. Since I also can’t do specific illusions, I was going to create blanket darkness.”

“And then what?”

My pause told him just how much I’d thought ahead.

“They can still fight in the darkness. You must instill emotional illusion into your work.”

“Okay, sensei. Why don’t you save the lecture until after the fucking disaster is over.”

“If you insist. Emotion, Aster. Focus on calming emotions.”

“Righto!” I flung my illusion magic out. A black sheet of energy drowned the sky, drenching reality in a void-like color.

Adair was the only clear subject in the mass of shadow.

When he turned, his eyes were scary and yellow. “Calm,” he stated.

Immediately, my heartbeat slowed. My head was practically in the clouds. Nothing was in a frenzy. For once, everything was in place and at peace.

“How… nice…” I commented.

Inside, I knew what happened. I understood the gravity of Adair’s power. If he could do this, he could manipulate anyone.

“It’s not what you think,” Adair stated. “The illusion lasts for as long as I can suspend it. And emotion is an incredibly difficult thing to influence. One day, you’ll understand. But for now, I release you.”

The calm disappeared. Like a flood returning, my body resumed its agitation. My thoughts began running at a million miles an hour.

I let go of the darkness.

Oz and Hux were in the middle of a burning circle of wildflower beds. Panting. Bleeding. Naked.

I sprinted in between them.

“Aster!” Adair shouted, but it was too late.

Hux’s eyes had already landed on me, and I’d realized my mistake.

He may have been artificially ‘calmed down’ by Adair, but now, that illusion was gone.

Hux’s pupils were the long slits of a dragon. Not human at all.

And the rune on his chest instantly brightened the second he laid those eyes on me.

He shifted his hand into a claw and shoved the talons into Oz’s chest.

“No!” I screamed.

“Aster, if you come one step closer, I will rip his heart out,” Hux promised. His voice was that rough, gravelly tone that made me think of a half-beast.

I stopped in my tracks as the fire crackled around us.

Hux dropped Oz to the floor, pressing the claws deeper.

Oz groaned. Blood gushed from his mouth. “So… dramatic…” he wheezed.

“When did you find her?” Hux demanded. “Answer truthfully and I’ll let you live. Don’t lie to me.”

“Who?”

“Aster. When did you find her?”

“She was in her room here,” Oz defended. “Adair told me she’d arrived. It was the first time I’d ever seen her — ah!”

Hux twisted his hand just slightly. Just enough to tear larger holes in his brother’s chest.

“Stop lying.”

Oz’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “You really don’t trust her that much? Really, Huxley? I think that’s called projection.”

If it wasn’t such a shitty situation, I might have laughed. Oz really wasn’t wrong. Hux lied and hid so much that he was suspecting me to do the same.

He guessed everyone was, probably.

What a sad, fucked up way to live and think. How could you ever trust anyone? Even those closest to you?

But then, Oz dropped the bomb.

“If you want to kill me for any reason, do it for killing our parents.”

Hux’s inhuman eyes widened. He pulled back just a fraction.

It was like the air stilled with the confession.

The two brothers faced off, covered in blood and old scars and pain.

Hux replied, “I didn’t expect you to admit as much.”

“But you knew,” Oz said. “You knew the moment you saw me.”

“Yes, I knew,” Hux growled.

It was like watching two Greek gods dish it out in the middle of a war. All the while, my heart ached.

Oz really did kill their parents. I hadn’t wanted to believe it. But there it was.

“I should shred you right here,” Hux growled.

To everyone’s surprise, Oz closed his eyes, let go of his brother’s arms, and rested against the ground.

He was giving Hux permission.

“Oh, you think it’s that easy?” Hux said, making me jump and Oz glance up, worried.

“What does that mean?” Oz demanded.

Hux yanked his talons out. Blood splattered across the two men, and this time, Oz did shout in pain.

“You aren’t allowed to martyr yourself over your own guilt, brother.”

“It was a mistake,” Oz choked out. “I didn’t mean for them to die, but I caused it all the same. It doesn’t matter how it happened. I caused it, and I will live with that shame for the rest of my life. That is all I will say. Kill me if you’d like. But that’s the last of the story you’ll have.”

Hux stood and looked down on his twin. “You will live. And I will tear the details from you if I have to. But I have important business to attend to.”

The next few seconds passed in a confusing blur.

Hux grabbed me, whispered, “If you dare run from me or disappear, I will burn this place to ash.”

After that charming promise, he shifted into a dragon. In the time it took me to gather the breath to scream curses at him, we were already way too far off the ground.

And that, my friends, is how I found myself two hundred feet in the air, screaming inside the cage of Hux’s front dragon feet. Are they even called feet? I don’t know. I’ll have to do an anatomy study once I’ve napped for three days straight and consumed a criminal amount of ice cream.

Hux’s scolding growl cut through my panic, and I clamped my teeth together. Just don’t look down. We’re only a million miles above the ground.

What could possibly go wrong?

This was an actual real-life scenario I used to hear about in story books. The princess gets kidnapped by the dragon, and the prince has to save her.

But in my case, the dragon is my prince, and he’s not interested in saving me from himself.

At least his scaly skin was brimming with warmth. It was nice that I didn’t have to shiver. So, I curled into a ball and dissociated the hell out of my present state until we tilted, and Hux began his descent.

His threat did linger inside me. I seriously considered getting the fuck out of here and disappearing, but in his current state, who knew what he would actually do?

I’d like to think that he wouldn’t murder potentially a lot of people because I was stubborn.

But maybe Hux was, deep down, very hangry. And we were never responsible for our actions when hangry.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times.

Since I was doing very, very well dissociating and not thinking about the fact that I was really high above the ground, I didn’t notice we were almost about to land.

Hux’s foot cage disappeared. I floated there, suspended in nothingness, wondering if this was where he finally snapped and killed my over-sugared ass.

He grabbed me with his human arms, while wings beat at his back.

I clung to his shoulder, panting, shaking. “That was so… rude…”

His feet touched the ground. It was some sort of cave carved into the side of a mountain. There was grass and moss and a tiny trickling waterfall stream that splashed down rocks and through crevices. Moss and vines curtained half of the entrance.

“Could use some interior design work, but I think it has potential,” I joked, trying to keep my cool. And then, “One of these days, I’d like to not get kidnapped by immortals.”

“Stop talking,” he ordered.