Dragons.
We’d had a plethora of dragon shifters back in the day, all of noble blood. All tasked with protecting the kingdom. But only one of them had routinely stopped me in my tracks.
He had been magnificent, larger than the others even though he was much younger. His movements had been so graceful. So sleek and beautiful. His roar had sent a shock through my very core, soaking my blood in fire. Commanding me to heed his call. I still, to this day, had never felt anything quite like it.
Every single person would stop and gawk as he passed over the village. They would stand transfixed, just like I used to, their mouths open, their gazes pinned to that incredible sight.
The dragon prince. Heir to the throne.
He’d do us all proud, they’d said. He had amazing potential. We’d have the finest kingdom in the magical world.
And then everything had come crashing down.
Rumor was he’d forsaken our kingdom before the king’s deal with the demons. The queen had died not long after, though I couldn’t remember the cause, if I’d ever known.
Next came the end of all things—the curse.
In through the door to the house, I deposited my books on the table and took the food to Hannon. He came out of Father’s room with a grim expression.
“How is he?” I asked.
He shrugged, taking the sack and heading to the kitchen. “Hanging in there.”
“He just needs to make it until spring. Come spring, I will try everything under the sun. I am bound to find something that works.”
He nodded, setting the groceries on the counter. “I know you will. It’s just hard, all of this.”
“Life is hard, but we’ll make do.” I patted his back. “Are the kids still at the schoolhouse?”
“They asked that we stop calling them kids, and yes, they are.”
“Fat chance,” I muttered with a smile. “Oh, guess what I heard today?”
“What’s that?”
“Jedrek is ready to marry!”
He stalled, glancing at me with raised eyebrows. “And his intended?”
I pointed two thumbs at myself. “He thinks we’re the most desirable of people and should therefore mate. I’ll get the honor of carrying all his kids.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “You two will be the handsomest couple in the village, with the surliest children.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “We would be, since there is no way I will agree to marry that assclown.”
He smiled. “What would you do if he turned out to be your true mate?”
“Reject him in a heartbeat. If my animal insisted, I’d sever all ties.”
He laughed softly. “Okay then, I guess we know where you stand.”
“What do you need right now? Can I help in any way?”
His gaze darted into the living room and then out the window to the backyard. “No, I think you deserve the afternoon off. You’ll be drying the leaves in the evening, right?”
“Yup. Magic hour.”
“I think magic hour is at three in the morning.”
“Oh really? Then what is twilight?”
“Twilight.”
Made sense.
I scooped up the books in the living room and headed to my favorite sycamore tree at the edge of the village, facing the Forbidden Wood. With the daylight burning bright, keeping all the demon’s creatures at bay, and that invisible barrier keeping the beast put, it was safe. I settled down on the ground against its trunk and spread out the books in front of me, deciding which I wanted to read right now.
The easy no was the book I’d grabbed about trees and their habitats. While I did want to study up on that damn birch, and the author had written these delightful asides about poisonous mushrooms and other poisons found in nature, I didn’t have the brain capacity right now. I was tired from lack of sleep and anxious about getting those leaves dried just right later on. I pushed it aside.
The romance was high on my list for obvious reasons. I desperately needed that kind of escape. But my gaze kept drifting to the book I’d grabbed about the history of my people, the shifters. Although there were only three kingdoms of shifters now—well, two, since the curse had essentially wiped us off the map—there’d once been five. Two kingdoms led by dragon shifters, two by the wolves, and a lone bear queen and her people. Only the wolf kings and queens now remained, tenacious bastards.
There were other kingdoms, of course, near and far. A few faerie kingdoms with their court politics and intrigues. Hideous goblins with their heaps of stolen treasure. The land of night, ruled by the vampires. And, of course, the cunning demon king who was slowly cutting down all of his competition. Within each kingdom, various villages and towns housed the hardworking people, usually all the same magical type—shifters lived in a shifter kingdom, faeries in a faerie kingdom—but occasionally a star-crossed lover would move in for a little magical diversity, sacrificing sameness for their love. That, or they’d escape beyond the veil to the human realm, disguising themselves within the mundane, often never to return.