“How can she do that?” Terra cried, waving at the news broadcast.
Angela agreed with the indignation in Terra’s voice. The ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen was unbelievable. The reporter was grim as she commented on the short message from the leader of the dragon world: the king of dragons was dead. Angela glanced over to where Kyle was sitting to see how he was taking the news of his untimely demise.
While he did seem calm, Angela could tell that the news had hit him hard. He sat on the front edge of the cushion with his elbows resting on his knees. His breathing was deep and even, but it looked too measured to be natural. It was clear he was doing his best to accept the news without breaking down.
Pulling in a deep breath, Kyle sat up, rubbed a hand over his mouth, and stared at the screen. “She had to,” he said. Resignation gave his voice strength.
“No, she didn’t,” Terra snapped. She glared at the repeated image of Carissa declaring Kyle lost, announcing his funeral, and making arrangements for her coronation as the new ruler of dragon kind. “This is an outrage!” she yelled waving at the screen again. “You’re not dead.”
Kyle let out a long sigh and slumped in his seat. “Yes, but she doesn’t know that,” he explained.
“Then tell her,” Terra demanded.
Angela rubbed her hands up her arms and nodded her agreement. A simple call to Carissa would clear all this up.
Agitated, Kyle stood up and started pacing around the chairs where the group had gathered. It had originally been their intention to discuss getting Kyle’s dragon back, but the breaking news had chirped across Kara’s phone and they had all stopped to watch. “It’s not that easy,” Kyle explained as his feet worried the floor. “I could call my sister and let her know what happened, but she would still have to take the crown.”
Angela’s brow furrowed in confusion and she stared at Kyle as the rest of the group looked away. She waited for someone to ask the question burning in her mind but no one did. After a few moments, she spoke up. “Why?”
Kyle stopped and stared at her. Pain raced across his eyes. “I can’t be king.”
She raised an eyebrow, irritated that he would be so hard on himself. “Because they took your dragon?”
“Exactly,” he said as he came over and perched on the high stool next to her. He took her hand and toyed with it as he spoke. “King of Dragons isn’t just a title I was given because I was the heir to the throne. It’s a job with some very complex responsibilities.”
Angela cocked her head and thought about it. “Something you can’t do without your dragon?”
Kyle nodded. “Do you know much about dragon history?”
Dragon lore wasn’t something taught in schools yet, so she only knew the basic stories that circled around the web. She drew in a considering breath before speaking. “Only the myth about a king being granted the power to turn dragon to protect his people.”
“That’s only part of the story,” Kyle admitted. “The tale is more complex than that.”
Angela waited for him to go on.
He drew in a breath and let it out before beginning. “Everything started in a small valley behind the village where my great-grandfather grew up. At one end there was a massive pile of stones that resembled a dragon.”
Sitting taller, Angela cocked her head but did not interrupt his story.
“At the time, no one realized what it was, but my great-grandfather made it his special place. He always felt the stones were listening and would often tell them his troubles. Hearing the words out loud would help him clear his mind and find some answer. I don’t think he ever expected the stones to speak back.”
“But they did,” Angela said in awe.
Kyle nodded. “War was coming to the village. The elders had done everything they could think of to keep the peace between two neighboring clans, but nothing was working. My great grandfather went out to the stones to voice his concerns, and the stones gave him an answer.”
“It was a dragon?” Angela asked, unable to keep quiet anymore.
“It was,” Kyle confirmed. “The last of the great dragons. I can’t even begin to tell you how old the creature was, but it had come to the valley to die. Its power had waned to the point it could no longer move, but it hung around, watching the children of the local village that came to climb on it. It listened to my great grandfather’s problems as it waited for its life to end, but it could not remain silent when it heard of the troubles coming to the village.
“It spoke to my great-grandfather, offering him aid,” he went on. “Unfortunately, the creature was too far gone to physically help, but it promised the power to win the war in exchange for one small favor.”
“What was the favor?” Angela asked.
“The dragon didn’t really want to die,” Kyle explained. “As the rest of its kind dwindled, it had tried to make friends with the lesser lifeforms, but they were too afraid of its size and power. It was lonely and had given up hope. The dragon offered up its life force and power in exchange for a form that would allow it to live and see the world again.”
“It wanted a body,” she breathed the truth as things started to come together.
Kyle nodded again. “It wanted to share my great grandfather’s body. He, of course, agreed, and the dragon used the last of its physical strength to create a heartstone. My great-grandfather tried to contain the dragon’s full power, but it was too great to withstand and nearly killed him. The pair agreed that my great grandfather would only take a small piece of the stone. He later shared that power with his four closest friends so they could protect their village.”
“What about the rest of the heartstone?” Angela asked.
“And therein lies the problem,” Kyle explained. “For years, my great-grandfather carried the stone with him allowing the dragon to experience the world through him, but he kept his promise and the stone a secret. He felt the enormous power within the stone was too tempting to let others know about it. The dragon’s power in the wrong hands would be devastating.
“When my great-grandfather grew too old to tend the stone, he told my grandfather the secret. My grandfather then took up the link to keep the dragon safe and happy. Everything was going well until people started actively hunting dragons.”
“Hunting?” Angela asked appalled.
“Yes,” Kyle said sadly. “I’m not sure if they were afraid or jealous, but they massacred hundreds of dragons before we could escape into hiding. My grandfather died before he could share the secret of the stone with my father. Unfortunately, my grandfather had let the story of the stone slip to a comrade in arms while drinking late one night.
“After a few years of searching for it, this man found the stone and attempted to claim the power for his own. But he didn’t realize what he was dealing with and was destroyed in the process. The dragon claimed his physical form and started terrorizing the countryside.”
Angela stared at him in horror. “Why?” She didn’t understand how a creature could go from being helpful to terrorizing people.
“The dragon wasn’t whole,” Kyle explained. “When my grandfather took the dragon’s power, it lost the ability to tell right from wrong. With no moral compass to guide it when it was released, it was driven by instinct alone.”
“Wow,” Angela said, unsure how else to respond to the story. “What happened to the dragon?”
Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head. “My father, my brother, and I captured the creature and convinced it to return to the stone, but it cost my brother his life.”
Angela raised her hand and covered her mouth. “No,” she whispered.
“My father dedicated the rest of his life to keeping the stone and left me to run the kingdom in his stead. When he died, I took up the link with the dragon.”
Her heart ached for him as she put things together. “And without your dragon, you’ve lost the link with the stone.”
Kyle nodded again. “I don’t know if my dragon retains the link, but we can’t let these people get their hands on that stone.” His jaw clenched, and he took a deep breath before continuing. “When Carissa takes the stone, what’s left of my link will break.”
Angela looked down to where Kyle squeezed her hand. She rested her free hand over his, drawing his attention back up. “We will stop them,” she said, unsure how she could help but determined to try.
The edges of his mouth turned up as the tension and anger drained from his face. “And that’s why we can’t tell Carissa I’m alive.” He released her hand. Standing back up, he raised his voice to fill the room. “We need to put an end to this now.”
Looking around, Angela saw that Kyle held everyone’s attention as he paced the length of the room.
“I can only think of one reason my sister would take action,” Kyle explained. “She felt what happened last night.” His hand rubbed across his chest over his heart. “She had finally given up hope and if we contact her, there is a likely chance that the moles in Eternity will hear about it.”
Angela glance around to the Eternity agents. Their eyes tracked Kyle as he moved, but agreement shown on every one of their faces.
“We need to strike fast,” Kyle said. He stopped and turned to Angela. “You said you knew where they were keeping my dragon.”
Fear raced up Angela’s spine. She sat taller in her seat trying not to wilt as everyone looked at her. “I know where Eugene put it in before he left,” she admitted. “And if he’s trying to hide it from my father, the box will be in my father’s study.”
Daniel cleared his throat, drawing Angela’s attention. There was a serious look in his eye that made Angela’s insides tighten. “You know, there’s very likely a chance that your father’s involved with this.”
Angela drew in a shaky breath and looked down at her hands. She folded them in her lap and squeezed her fingers together. Admitting her father had a hand in hurting Kyle didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t deny the possibilities. Eugene had shadowed her father very closely in his time as an aide. It was unlikely that Eugene could have planned and executed the whole event without her father knowing about it, but she still couldn’t bring herself to agree with Daniel. She nodded her understanding before looking up to meet his eyes. “Please don’t do anything rash before making sure he’s involved.”
Daniel tipped his head to her. “I promise.”
“Tell us what you know,” Kyle said as he got the group back on track.