Oh, shit.
It was true. Alex blinked up at Dorian, unable to form words. In the few minutes she had been in the penthouse, she’d withstood a bevy of emotions—and she knew it was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Immortal?” she repeated.
He nodded slowly, his blond hair moving about his shoulders. “Aye.”
“And you’re...well, old.” She winced when she heard herself, but her brain couldn’t manage math at the moment.
Dorian’s lips softened as he chuckled. “Aye.”
“How are you so normal?”
“We sleep.”
She gave him a shot of side eye. “Well, yeah. We all do.”
“Nay, lass. I’ve been in a deep sleep for millions of years.”
Her head was spinning. “I’ve got to sit down for this, I think.”
Alex moved past him and made her way to the hunter green sofa. She sat, letting the feel of the cool leather sink through her jeans and into her.
Dorian followed cautiously, watching as if he feared she might throw herself out the window. Which, if she were honest, she might have done had she learned all of this the previous night.
Immortal. Wow. She was actually having a harder time with that than the dragon part. Because if he was immortal, that meant he would continue to live long after she died.
And while they weren’t in a relationship of any kind, she might have been a bit premature and thought about what it would be like to be Dorian’s. Even that brief thought was enough to make her heart long for what she couldn’t have.
Dorian moved to sit in a chair opposite her. He leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “This is why I didna want to tell you.”
“It’s more than that,” she said, recognizing the truth. “You spoke of enemies. Enemies you didn’t want me to know about.”
“Aye, I did.”
“The video Meg told me about, that was you?”
He drew in a quick breath and leaned back. “I only woke a week ago, but aye, that video is of the Dragon Kings.”
“There is more than one of you? I don’t understand. I thought there could be only one king?”
Dorian stared at her a long moment. “Are you sure you want to know this? You can no’ repeat any of it. No’ to Meg or Paul or anyone.”
“I understand.”
“No matter what they try to tell you. This stays between us.”
“You have my word,” she promised.
He rubbed his hands on his jean-clad thighs, his gaze dropping to the large cream-colored rug. “Everything you’ve been taught about your history is a lie. For eons, dragons ruled this planet.” His eyes swung back to her. “Dragons of all sizes and colors. Each clan had a King.”
“So you were King of your clan,” she said, crossing one leg over the other.
“Aye. Each King is chosen by the magic within this realm. Only the strongest, the most powerful in each clan is chosen. Sometimes we have to issue a challenge to the current King in order to claim the throne.”
Alex held up a hand. “Wait. I thought you said you were immortal.”
“Only a Dragon King can kill another Dragon King. Dragons themselves are verra much mortal, though they have incredibly long life spans.”
“But if you aren’t a King, how can you kill another?”
There was a slight curve of his lips as he said. “Some want to be a King so badly they believe the magic has chosen them, when in fact it hasn’t. Those poor souls are killed by the Dragon King.”
“And the other ones? The ones who are chosen by the magic?”
“A few try to ignore their destiny, but I didna. I welcomed it. I challenged the King and won. It’s a fight to the death, so someone’s life is going to end.”
It sounded so barbaric, but then again, it was an entire other species. Who was she to judge? “How often do new Kings take over? Every year?”
“Some Kings remain in their position for hundreds or thousands of years, while others have a shorter reign if the magic discovers one who is better able to lead.”
“And what if that dragon doesn’t want to be King?” she asked.
Dorian shrugged. “I’ve never run across one who hasna, but I imagine that they wouldna issue the challenge.”
“Does the magic ever choose wrong? I mean, surely there have been some really bad Kings.”
“The magic doesna just discern our power and strength. It also sees our hearts. Only those the magic deems pure enough are chosen.”
Her brows shot up. “It’s too bad the magic can’t pick our leaders, because we seriously need to do some house cleaning. All over the world.”
“I can no’ disagree with you there,” he said with a smile.
She stared at his mouth for a long moment, basking in the glory of his grin. “Why doesn’t the magic help humans?”
“Perhaps because you are no’ of this realm? It could also be that you doona have magic. I can no’ answer that.”
“Can you ask the magic?”
He gave a shake of his head. “The magic isna a being we converse with. It’s a part of us.”
That made no sense, but she would save a more in-depth discussion about that for later. “Okay. Back to the story.”
“We have a King of Dragon Kings. His name is Constantine. Con is the one responsible for keeping us together.”
“Where are all the dragons? I’m sorry, I’m probably moving ahead of your story, but surely if there were that many, someone would’ve seen one.”
A great sadness came over Dorian’s face. “Your kind arrived one day.”
“Arrived?” she repeated, her head cocked to the side. “What do you mean?”
“One minute humans were no’ there, and the next they were. The Kings were drawn to the group, and when we gathered, each of us shifted for the first time in order to communicate with your kind. Dragons speak telepathically.”
She rotated her ankle. “And humans do not.”
“We learned that the group held no magic, and the Kings agreed to offer protection and refuge. We realigned our territories so the mortals would have a place to live. But it soon wasna enough. They kept asking for more. Dragons became irritated and there were clashes.”
Alex frowned. “I can’t imagine that ended well for the humans.”
“They retaliated by hunting the smallest dragons.”
Her heart thudded at the anger in his voice. “Did you go after the humans then?”
“We made a vow. Once a King gives such a promise, we doona go back on it. We were able to broker a truce, but by that time, the toll had already been dealt to that clan of dragons. It wasna long before the mortals began hunting them again. By the time their King realized that he was the last, it was too late.”
“And the humans couldn’t kill him.”
“Nay.”
She didn’t even know this King, but her heart broke for him. To have lost his entire clan without being able to defend them seemed wrong. “What happened to him?”
“He died when we battled each other, but I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“That’s...horrible.”
Dorian drew in a deep breath and released it. “There were other Kings who had better experiences with mortals. Ulrik, who was like a brother to Con, had such a union. Or so we thought. Like other Kings, he took a human as his lover, and he fell in love with her. To our shock, he asked her to be his mate. Dragons mate for life, so it means something when we make such a decision.”
Alex nodded, eager to hear more.
“During the early years, we learned that our seed rarely planted in the females. The few times it did, the bairns always died either in the womb, or were stillborn.”
“That’s awful,” Alex murmured.
Dorian twisted his lips. “That was a drawback of our pairings, but what the humans didna know was that being mated to us, they became immortal. Whether we took a dragon or a human as ours, they would live until we died.”
Well. She hadn’t seen that bit coming. In fact, she felt a kernel of hope spring up in her heart. But Alex hastily tried to squash it. It would do no good to dream about a man, er, dragon, that she couldn’t have.
“The woman Ulrik chose didna love him,” Dorian continued. “She felt beholden to him for all the things he’d done for her and her family. So Ulrik’s uncle, Mikkel, contrived a plan with the help of a Druid.”
“Druid?” she asked before he could go on.
Dorian wrinkled his nose. “Over the course of several hundred years, a few mortals garnered magic—the Druids.”
He said it as if that should answer all her questions about them. It didn’t even come close. But she’d let it go for now.
“The Druid utilized a spell to be able to converse with Mikkel and they used Ulrik’s woman, telling her that she needed to kill Ulrik before she was bound to him for life.”
This was better than any book Alex had read in years. She uncrossed her legs and sat up straighter. “Didn’t Ulrik tell her he couldn’t be killed?”
“He had no reason to give her such information. But she would never get the chance. Con wasna sure her love for Ulrik was real, so he took an interest in her. He discovered her plan before she could carry it out. You need to understand that Ulrik was the best of all of us. He loved to play jokes on others, and was always laughing, always helping. Con knew the betrayal would destroy him. So Con sent him away on a mission and gathered the rest of us. As soon as we heard, we all volunteered to kill her ourselves.”
Alex gaped at him. “Kill? Surely there was another option.”
“After all we had done for the mortals, this was how they repaid us? Nay, Alex, there was no other way. Con said we would find the female, kill her, and that would be the end of it. Less than thirty minutes later, the deed was done.”
She leaned forward, unsure of how she felt about the woman’s murder. “And Ulrik? What did he say when he returned?”
“He was furious. He didna lash out at us, though.”
“Of course not,” she said angrily. “You’re his brothers, his friends. As irate as he was, he knew you tried to help him.”
Dorian scratched his jaw. “Which meant that Ulrik took his anger out on the only ones he could—the humans.”
Alex slowly sat back, realization dawning. “There was a war.”
“The Silvers are some of the largest dragons along with the Golds. Ulrik, as King of the Silvers, attacked immediately. Half of the Kings sided with Ulrik, while the rest of us remained with Con.”
“Wait, wait,” she said. “Who is the King of Golds, and why didn’t he stop Ulrik?”
“It was Con. And he tried everything but fighting Ulrik himself.”
She nodded in understanding. “Because if Ulrik won, he’d be King of Kings.”
“Aye. Con began turning the Kings who went with Ulrik back to him. Those of us who stayed used our dragons to help defend the villages Ulrik and his Silvers attacked. It was a bloody, horrible war. Thousands of humans were slaughtered, and in turn, they went after all dragons, those defending them, and those who didna. Every time I think of the dragons who had orders to protect the mortals—who didna defend themselves when your kind attacked—I become enraged.”
Alex put her hand over her mouth, her eyes pricking with tears. “Oh, God. As appalling as all that sounds, I can see it happening. Human beings can commit such horrific atrocities.”
Dorian was silent for a moment, his gaze distant with his memories. “The war didna last verra long, though it felt like it. Eventually all the Kings returned to Con but Ulrik. The only way to stop Ulrik was to bind his magic and banish him from Dreagan. Con forced him to remain in human form, walking among the mortals he detested so.” Dorian blinked and focused on her. “No’ our finest moment. But we had other concerns. The humans intended to kill all the dragons. No’ wanting to see our clans constantly fighting for their lives, we decided to send them away until things calmed down. We opened a dragon bridge so they could go to another realm.”
Alex didn’t take her eyes from his face. He had yet to mention his sister, and she was afraid it would be worse than anything else she’d heard thus far.
His chest expanded with his breath. “Ceana helped me gather my dragons. The young and the old were the slowest, and she stayed back with them as I led the others to the bridge. It was one of my other dragons who alerted me something was wrong. I rushed back to find a hundred humans had surrounded my sister as she protected a group of orphaned younglings who were too exhausted and scared to fly. I arrived in time to see the mortals hacking her to bits. And all the while, she protected the younglings. Just as she had protected me. She didn’t fight back, didn’t douse the mortals with dragon fire.
“Because she knew her sacrifice was what I needed to get the younglings to safety. I could save her. Or them.”
Alex didn’t even try to stop the tears as they rolled freely down her cheek. It was no wonder Dorian hated humans. And that story alone told her so much about him.
In that heartbreaking moment, she fell completely, madly, deeply in love with him.