Claimed by the Dragon King (2 page)

“I…”

“If you tell me one more time that you don’t know what I’m talking about, Melinda, I swear I’ll-”

“How would I know that? I’m not a fortune teller.”

“Fair enough. Does he have a good chance then?”

“Um…” Why did I have to open my big mouth and confirm his suspicions? “I’d have to know more about the Fae King’s powers.”

“Well, fire breathing won’t do anything, just so you know. Though perhaps the beast- excuse me, the
dragon’s
fire might be different.” Was that an actual tip, or a trick? Gah! This is infuriating. “Arralt knows the Dragon has been freed, but he thinks it’s just the two of you. I haven’t told him about what your cousin told me.”

“Why not?” Sneaky bastard, what’s he playing at?

“Because we can use this Melinda.” Of course. He’s thinking about switching sides now so he can retain his influential position after the King is gone, and all the perks that come with it. “Arralt is slipping. He’s obsessed. Insane, even.”

“That’s how you’ve always described him.”

“Well, back then I just had to live with it. Now, perhaps I don’t. Maybe all magicfolk can be freed from his terrible reign.”

“So they can live under yours?” I reply.

“Or perhaps
yours
, if you play your cards right.”

“Mine?”

“Why not?”

“Because…” Wow. I don’t think I quite understood why Ash is so reluctant to rule the Underground until now.

“The wife of a powerful man can be more powerful than the man himself, if she knows how to play her cards. Why do you think Arralt killed his?”

“Is that the reason you killed yours?” I rise to my feet, glaring at his shocked expression.

“Wait!” he calls after me as I start down the hallway. “I had nothing to do with-”

“Nothing?” I snarl. “Nothing? You-” My lips roll together as I struggle to fight back tears. “You aren’t worth speaking to. Where the hell are the SIGMA Seekers anyway? I’m ready for my torture and magical lobotomy now.” Right on cue, footsteps begin to approach us.

“Melinda!”

I round the corner, my heart leaping into my throat when I see the cruel faces of the three Seekers. But at this point, I’d rather be with anyone but him.

Chapter Two

Thick hands roughly push me through a stone archway. Real sunlight floods my eyes and it takes a few minutes to adjust. After being in the dark for so long the light burning my retinas is a welcome pain that I am excited to endure. I never realized how happy I would be to see the sun again. The sun? That means I’m Uptop! How strange that Arralt would have a castle Uptop but I suppose it makes sense considering his favorite pastime is kidnaping human children. The door clinks shut behind me and I hear the sound of a key being turned in the lock. Crap. My father sold me out to Arralt. It doesn’t surprise me but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. For one minute I trusted him again and look where that got me. Bastard. I look around for anything that will give me a clue as to what’s coming next-- or even better, a way out.

A huge wooden door is recessed into the stone wall across the room. I race over to the door and pull at the large metal handles. I pull desperately and the door opens! Hah, stupid Fae, leaving the front door open. I start to run through the door but… that’s weird. I can’t! It’s like I’m stuck in some kind of invisible forcefield. As soon as I try to pull myself backwards, I’m ejected roughly. I stumble backwards and fall over ungracefully onto the hard floor. The door swings and shuts automatically. So much for stupid Fae...

My backside stings and I take a moment to just lie on the cold floor and get my bearings. The room feels old, ancient even. The cavernous ceiling is supported by beams bigger than my entire apartment! A chandelier hangs from a thick chain in the center of the room with a thousand glass bulbs that hold swirling spells for light. Heavily embroidered tapestries line the walls, each one depicting a different scene. There are lingering spells on the walls and floors for cleaning and repelling dust though they are old and move sluggishly. The windows look out into lavish gardens that would be nearly impossible to grow in the hot desert sun.

The mosaic tile floor is laid in a beautiful pattern of swirling colors. I follow a line of orange and find a large familiar eye staring out at me. What the hell? Pulling back an ornate rug reveals a much larger image. A huge red dragon with a crown holding a scepter and a scroll. I lean in closer to try and decipher what it says.

“Dreadful isn’t it?” a deep voice asks sardonically and I practically jump out of my own skin. In the corner of the room a lithe figure is draped dramatically over a gilt fainting couch. His white shirt is unbuttoned and tucked into forest green leggings. His pale skin glows faintly.

He moves gracefully, like a deer through a forest. His dark black boots pad softly on the floor and before I know it the Fae King is standing right in front of me. His chilling light grey eyes take me in.

“That’s Dragons for you though, you never know where they truly stand until they rip your throat out and offer it back to you at a price.” My heart pounds, giving away my nervousness, as he slowly circles me.

“Well you are a puzzle, aren’t you?” he asks rhetorically leaning in closely. “You smell like them you know? It’s terrible, the stench of a reptile.” His nose crinkles and he backs away as if my smell is actually repelling to him.

I can’t think of anything to say so I study him instead, ignoring the tinge of pain from accessing my depleted magic stores. His face and body are that of a 20 year old man. Not bad for someone who is over 3000 years old. The sheer amount of spells layered on top of him make it impossible to see who he really is but I can sense it, lingering, flickering, feeding off of the magic that is holding him together. He is beautiful in a way that is repulsive because I can see that it’s all magic. His features are too perfect, too exacting. The way the magic shifts across his skin reveal layers upon layers of different spells. I bet he looks completely different without all the spells. I focus hard on seeing through them until I see his real face. A hooked nose instead of his long slender one, dark black eyes, hollow cheeks, sickly pale skin. Hideous.

I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “But you’re so…” I fight the desire to give away the fact that I know what he really looks like.  “Young,” I blurt out.

He laughs wildly at this, actually bending over as if what I said were hilariously funny.

He straightens up and looks at me with a hint of madness in his eyes. “Magic, dear girl. I should think you would be experimenting more with your newfound…” He pauses dramatically and adds, “abilities.” He says the last part with a mocking edge. He shakes his head disapprovingly. I scowl at him. He knows that I can’t access my magic. He’s teasing me, goading me into giving myself away.

“I guess you could say that I’m using them for something more productive,” I say with an edge of sarcasm. I can’t believe I just said that to the King of the Underground!

His eyes flash cruelly and his lips pull back baring his teeth as if he were some kind of animal. I guess that was too bold... I back away quickly, pushing myself up against one of the tapestries.

“You don’t have any idea what you’re meddling in, girl,” he hisses, launching himself towards me. His thin hand grasps my face and I shudder at the contact.

“Maybe I should just kill you,” he whispers in my ear. “The first fire witch in a thousand years turns out to be so disappointing.” His hot breath against my face makes me shiver in fear.

“Hah,” he laughs unexpectedly. “So fragile.” He turns my head to the side, exposing my neck. “I could snap you in half so easily.” I can’t move. For some reason my mind seems to have stopped communicating with my body. I finally understand what humans mean when they talk about a deer in the headlights now. My neck is bent to the side painfully. He could easily kill me. Hell, he could have killed me back in the cave and his hands would have been clean. He’s gotta be keeping me alive for a reason… but what?

A door swings open and he quickly releases me and moves a few feet away. A small boy holding a scroll walks over to him and he reaches down to pat his head tenderly, lovingly. I can’t stifle the gasp that escapes my throat and Arralt flashes his eyes at me in annoyance. The kid is a human!

Chapter Three

“What do you have Michael?” he asks kindly turning back to the boy. The shift from angry to kind happens so quickly. It’s like seeing two different people wrapped in one. Michael hands him the scroll silently.

“Good job,” he says enthusiastically. The boy, strangely mute and unsmiling, bows slightly and leaves the room. How strange! The kid didn’t seem to have emotions. I shudder at the thought of what Arralt might have done to him. Arralt’s smile melts from his face and he rips the scroll open and reads it quickly. 

“Follow me,” he directs before turning and walking briskly away. I can’t believe this creep expects me to follow him! I cross my arms in front of my chest and watch as he walks away. He doesn’t noticed that I’m not following until he gets to the doorway. He’s pissed.

“I said follow,” he screams like a petulant child, snapping his fingers to release a spell. Pain shoots through my feet and it feels like I’m standing on shards of broken glass. I take an unintentional step towards him and my feet continue to pull me forward uncontrollably. I pull on my strength, my magic, but there’s nothing I can do to fight his spell. He smiles with satisfaction.

“Amusing,” he purrs. “You can try to fight me girl but we both know that you have nothing to do it with. It will be much easier if you just do as I say,” he snaps. His beautiful face contorts with ugly rage. I guess he’s not used to people defying him.

Damn. He is right though, I can’t use my magic for some reason. I mentally search my core for the glowing pulse of magic. It’s gone. No, not gone but blocked somehow. I don’t have time to figure out anything else before he sets off again and my feet follow automatically.

The door leads to a long hallway with glowing sconces on the walls. I’m surprised to see that Arralt is using electricity… I would have thought the magic would interfere too much to allow electricity to work. I wonder how that works? I shift to the left to get as close to the wall as his spell will allow. Inside each of the brightly glowing glass containers is a Sprite. They look absolutely drained. They must be using all of their magic up just to light the hallway. How awful! I try to stop and figure out a way to grab one of the little creatures without Arralt noticing but the spell won’t let me vere from the path.

Well, if I’m not going to be able to control my own feet, at least I’m going to be productive. It’s a little fuzzy but even with my magic blocked I can use my Witchsight.  My stomach lurches at the lack of power and my head pounds as I try to focus. The spell that is controlling my feet looks like a shimmery pair of boots on top of my shoes. A thin line of magic connects the spell to Arralt so that when he turns the corner so do I. As soon as he gets back into view I try to get a closer look at the Fae King. I’m actually kind of grateful for the spell that’s pulling me along because it means that I don’t have to pay attention to where I’m going. This is my best opportunity to see the spell that links him to Asher. Taking a deep breath, I steel my nerves for the pain that I know is going to accompany using up the last little bit of magic that I have.

My head practically splits in two but I can See it! The spell swirls around Arralt but instead of chaining him in like it does with Ash I can see how it’s feeding him magic. Glowing orbs of dragon magic pulse all along the length of his lean body. Spider-like words run back and forth between the orbs. My head feels like its going to crack open but I have to try to keep it going. I’m not going to waste this opportunity. Arralt raises his hand and one of the orbs absorbs into his skin. He flicks his hand to the massive wooden door and it swings open. The space where the orb was, is slowly filling in with more magic. It takes a lot longer to fill than I expected. I take a deep breath and narrow my focus.

The spell is actually weak and brittle at the edges! I can’t tell if it’s weaker in any particular areas but I can feel the weakness of it as a whole. That’s odd… I suppose after a thousand years the original linkages of the spell have sort of corroded. It’s still an impressive spell, even with it being so old. If this spell get’s renewed as planned, it’s going to be impossible to break! I think about the way it binds Asher in chains, restricting him from using his full power and how it’s exactly the opposite with Arralt. They’ve got to be connected… I wonder what would happen if the Renewal celebration didn’t happen. Would Arralt and Ashers’ spell fade on their own?  I can’t keep this amount of focus for much longer. It’s useless to try and figure it all out now. Maybe if I can just memorize a small section of the spell I could think about it later…

We end up stopping the forced march in a room with mirrors all along the edges of the walls, making the room look twice as large as it already is. The parquet floor is filled with racecars, dolls, giant stuffed animals, and more toys than a toy store. Laughing children race around from one thing to the next. Blocks tumble and bubbles erupt from a whirling blower. A little girl with golden blonde curls spots us and runs over, wrapping her tiny arms around Arralt’s legs. He picks her up and tosses her into the air as if she doesn’t weigh an ounce. The look of pure delight on her face and her calling “again, again!” almost make me forget about the ugly truth of it all.  But it’s there- deep within her eyes I can see that she’s been spelled to forget. Too bad I can’t. These kids were stolen from their parents and will soon be fully turned into Fae. Ash would be furious if he could see this. I look closer at the little girl and notice tiny antlers poking out from under her curls. Another little boy has skin covered in soft fur and his ears stick out unnaturally from his head. None of them seem worried or hurt in anyway. In fact, one of the kids is using his newfound tail as a jump rope.

“Do you like my progeny? They are beautiful aren’t they?” he says, placing the girl back on the ground. She giggles shyly and runs away, back to the group of kids climbing on a miniature version of a castle.

“No,” I answer even though I know he wasn’t really asking.

Arralt snarls at me. “You don’t understand,” he hisses.

“You’re stealing children from their homes and turning them into something unnatural. I think I understand perfectly,” I snap back. Where did that come from? I gulp back the lump that’s forming in my throat. Good job Melinda, piss him off. Maybe he’ll kill you faster.

“You know nothing!” he screams. For just one moment, the hideous face underneath the magic shows through and I take a step back. The kids stop playing and turn to us with frightened glances. Arralt’s face, which had been slowly turning red with anger, drops and returns to it’s usual glowing paleness. He smiles warmly at the kids and waves his hands in the air. A group of small men appear in the back of the room bearing heavy trays filled with sweets, cakes, and chips. The kids race to the trays and engorge themselves with the junk food. Wait those aren’t men, they’re Gnomes! I hardly recognized them because they’re so thin, skeletal even. Gnomes are usually so round and jolly! These gnomes look like they can hardly bear the weight of the trays. One of the gnomes shakes with the exertion, his face pale and sickly. Two of the other gnomes sidle over to him and press his weight in between them, holding him up. The kids don’t seem to have noticed a thing. This is so messed up! 

Michael, the boy who handed Arralt the scroll earlier, walks over with two adult Fae. They grasp hands as they get closer and I can’t help but notice that they look nervous. Michael reaches us and looks up at me. His beautiful brown eyes look sad. Why isn’t he playing with the other children? He should be running around, playing and enjoying his last moments as a human not acting as a butler for a mad King.

“Michael, take her to meet the others,” Arralt says to the boy. Michael grabs my hand and gently tugs.

I don’t have any other option so I follow the boy. He takes me over to the table with the other children and then stands off to the side, watching indifferently. The other kids swarm me, pushing handfuls of their favorite snacks into my hands. Should I eat the Fae food? What if it’s spelled? It smells so good though! My stomach rumbles uncomfortably and I just cant resist. One little piece wouldn’t hurt… A soft chunk of chocolate melts on my tongue and it tastes incredible. I let out a moan and grab for more. The kids snicker at my outburst and I can’t help smiling at them as I stuff my face.

“Oh no more, it’s too much!” I say to them after a few mouthfuls of food. They keep trying to press handfuls of their favorite snacks into my hands. It felt so good to get something in my stomach but now… maybe I ate too fast? I let out a loud burp that’s met with a wild round of giggles.

Arralt and the Fae couple are standing too far away for me to hear what they are talking about so I inch a little closer. I make my way to a pile of stuffed animals and pick up a big pink bear. The spell inside of it comes to life and the bear blinks up at me. It’s tiny arms fold around me in a snuggly hug. One of the little girls rushes over to me and tugs at the bear. I hand it over to her and crouch down.

“What’s your name?” I ask sweetly. Her wispy brown hair sticks up in odd places. Her hazel eyes drink me in. She shrugs. “Do you know your name?” She shakes her no head back in forth. “Does your bear have a name?”

“Tinkey,” she says smiling down at the bear. The stuffed toy cuddles against her neck and she squeezes it to her.

“Is he your favorite?” She shakes her head no and pulls a stuffed dog out of the pile. It looks just like one of the toys that I had as a child. I reach for the dog and she reluctantly hands it to me. “I had a dog like this when I was a kid. My mom gave it to me…”

“Mom?” the little girl whispers. Her eyes suddenly look less glassy and her bottom lip quivers. Michael appears beside us and offers the little girl his hand. She pushes it away at first but he reaches over and takes it anyways. He looks the girl in the eyes and she starts to calm down. Her eyes fog over and she lets out a little giggle, grabbing the bear from my hands and racing away. Michael gives me a condescending look and shakes his head disdainfully.

I look over to Arralt. Maybe I can get a little closer… The couple is leaving and they have one of the little children swinging from their arms. A guard is talking with the King and he deftly hands him something from one of his pockets. Arralt looks curiously at the object in his hand. Suddenly he looks up at me with a tight scowl on his face. A bright flash catches my eye and my heart sinks. Dangling from his fingertips is the bracelet Asher gave me. A bell tolls loudly and the children file out of the room.