7

Lerin

Iswore I’d return after one day.

The kingdom, my brothers especially, seemed nervous about letting me out for too long. But it hurt to leave her behind. Every wing full of air that I gathered to propel me further simultaneously knocked the wind out of me.

She thought I was lying.

It made sense. Crystal Glass as a whole had worked hard to make sure we were barely even a myth in most minds. The fewer who believed we existed, the better chance we had at surviving without our way of life being challenged.

Whatever that meant.

Our way of life was going to die off sooner than later anyway.

Stormy weather gathered over Ember Abyss, so I rose up above the clouds until the sun was direct and hot on my scales. It energized me, waking me up to what was happening.

If she didn’t want to become my wife, it would kill me.

I’d only known her for a day, but there was an inevitability to her that shook my very core. The clouds churned below, bellowing thunder and howling rain. I let the sounds echo in my mind until I could sense I was nearly home.

Tucking my wings in close, I dived down through the clouds like lightning. I angled downwards fast and steep, the air deafening as it bucketed past my ears. I wouldn’t have been able to do this with Olive on my back.

I’d be willing to give it up for her.

The thought made me ache, and I shoved it aside.

As I landed, my pale wings shimmering with rain, a few servants came out to greet me. Cloaked in a warm robe with an umbrella held over my head, I was ushered into the castle.

“Sir Lerin, eldest Prince Rhuron wants to speak with you,” said one of the servants. Her voice trembled with nerves. I didn’t need any servant fearing me, but I could understand why they would. One of my cousins went on a near-murderous rampage during his hunt for his fated mate.

Nobody in the kingdom knew what to expect.

“Thank you,” I nodded.

I slipped off to my bedroom, pulled on some clothes, and started to dry off my hair.

“Brother!” Rhuron greeted me from the doorway.

“Ah, hey you, old lizard,” I sighed. He’d been insufferably happy since he found his mate. I was sure they weren’t pregnant yet, but he was already acting with the assurance of a man who’d won the crown.

I didn’t want to be king, but that didn’t mean his attitude didn’t agitate me.

He was getting a big head.

“Where’s your bride?” He looked around my room. I scoffed and rolled my eyes, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of thinking I’d failed.

“Not all of us want to get to know our mates by kidnapping them away,” I chided him. He laughed, not realizing I was being serious, and slumped down into the chair by my bed. Rhuron’s future bride was so terrified of him when she arrived that she later said she’d nearly killed herself.

My blood boiled thinking about putting Olive through the same kind of distress.

Regardless of our rights to offspring, treating mates as anything less than human was disgusting.

I drew my gaze away from Rhuron and went over to the mirror. “How’s the weed garden coming?” I asked, checking my hair was half decent. Rhuron’s bride had been busy at work putting together a greenhouse of our local blue roses, despite there already being thousands upon thousands of them growing on the castle grounds.

She didn’t make any sense, but then again, neither did he.

“It’s going well. She has a passion I haven’t seen in anyone else,” he gushed. I didn’t want to think about my brother and his ‘passion’ with his wife. “Tell me about your mate,” he pestered.

Tags: Autumn Reign Crystal Glass Dragons Paranormal
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