Chapter 2 Chapter 0002

•RHAEGOR•

The fire in the hearth had been burning for three hours, and I hadn't moved from the chair in front of it.

The full moon was four days away, and I could already feel it working through my bones. It felt like something was clawing at my spine and my entire body was being pulled apart from the inside.

It happened every month on a full moon, and it weakened me until I craved blood to restore my strength.

Most days I could ignore it. I trained harder, drank more blood, and kept myself occupied until the feeling passed. But the closer the full moon crept, the harder it became to pretend that I was in control of anything.

I heard the front door open and close, then I heard footsteps crossing the marble floor of the corridor.

Aldric appeared in the living room doorway. He pulled off his gloves and tucked them into his pocket as he leaned toward me.

"Have you found something?" I asked him before he got on my side and opened his mouth. I was desperate for a cure, so I sent him wherever I thought he would find it.

He walked into the room and stopped a few feet from my chair. "I have found the girl we've been looking for."

I looked at him.

"She fits what we've been looking for," he continued. "I've spent the last three weeks tracking her bloodline, and she's the one. I'm certain of it."

I stood up from my chair. The fire crackled behind me. "Does she fit the description? The exact description?"

"Yes."

"She has to be able to alleviate the effects for at least a few months, Aldric. A few days won't do anything for me."

"I know that." He met my eyes without flinching. "She fits. She can hold the curse at bay through the full moon cycle if we do this correctly."

I studied his face for a moment. Aldric had been with me for eleven years. He didn't make promises he couldn't keep, and he didn't come to me with half-finished information. If he was standing in my living room telling me he had found her, then he had found her.

"What is she?" I asked.

"A siren or a werewolf. But whatever she is, she will be able to help you. She is our only shot." He paused. "And she doesn't know what she is. She's been living as a human her entire life."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know the full details yet. But I saw what she did this morning, and there's no question about what she is. I have seen what she's capable of when under pressure."

I turned back toward the fire for a moment, then turned around again. "Bring her here."

"I was planning to—"

"Now, Aldric. As soon as possible." I kept my voice level. "The full moon is in four days, and I won't wait that long for us to get the job done."

He nodded. "I'll have her here in two days."

"Good."

He held my gaze for a second longer, then turned and walked back through the corridor. I heard the front door close behind him.

I stood in front of the fire and pressed two fingers to the side of my jaw, feeling the tension that had settled there over the past week.

If the girl was everything Aldric believed her to be, then this full moon would be the first in three years that didn't leave me locked in my own cellar, barely conscious, waiting for the sun to rise and give me back some fraction of myself.

Three years of managing the effects instead of treating them. Three years of watching my own body become something I didn't fully recognize.

No one could help me. Aldric and I have traveled all over the world, searching for the cure in every area possible.

I consulted elves, sirens, and witches, and none of them knew the cure. The only thing I was told was that only blood could restore my strength after the full moon, and the blood of a supernatural girl could alleviate the curse for a few months.

The only cure that would stop the curse forever was drinking the blood of the girl who was the last descendant of the royal dragon, but that bloodline was believed to have gone extinct centuries ago.

My phone vibrated on the side table.

I picked it up without looking at the screen and answered. "Brother."

I said nothing.

"You haven't returned any of my calls," Cassian replied. There was loud music in the background, voices, and the sound of glasses. He was celebrating something. He was always celebrating something. "I thought you should hear it from me directly."

"Hear what?"

"Father will make an announcement at the end of the month," he chuckled. "He's naming me Dragon King. I will inherit his entire estate and businesses."

I stared at the fire.

"Did you call so I would clap my hands for you?"

Cassian laughed. "Don't be jealous, little brother. Your castle will be mine as well, which means you'll need to make arrangements to leave, I suppose. Clear out whatever you've accumulated there." He cleared his throat. "Unless you'd prefer to stay. I could always have you in the dungeon. There's plenty of room down there."

"Is that a joke?"

"Not really," he answered. "But you knew things would come down to this someday. We both know that you had been more ambitious than I was, and always gloated about how you'd be the next Dragon King. But now that the title will come to me, I want to make sure that you never get too close and sabotage me."

"Listen to me carefully," I replied. "If you think that being the Dragon King will stop me from killing you, then I advise you to build the tallest walls that would keep you safe from me. And that's a promise, Cassian. Your head will be mine."

He didn't answer for a moment, then he laughed. He laughed as if I had said something genuinely amusing.

"Goodnight, Rhaegor. Keep on dreaming those fairytales of yours." He then hung up the call before I could answer him.

I stood there for two seconds with the phone in my hand, the heat from the fire pressing against my face, and I could still hear Cassian's laugh in my ears, mocking me.

"FUUUCK!" I screamed as I threw the phone hard against the wall. It cracked apart on impact and the pieces scattered across the floor.