Falling for the Ashfather

Chapter 12

I had never changed into my dragon form in front of anyone. I assumed I would be nervous, but as we walked out to a field where I could change without a million eyes on me, I just felt settled. If there was one thing in this world I felt like I was meant for, it was flying. And I was about to get up in the air again. And share it with a friend.

“Where are we going?” Clara asked, picking up her pace to keep up with me. I hadn’t even realized I had started walking faster the closer we got to the field, and I forced myself to slow down. I might need to get in the air, but I didn’t need to make Clara run to get there. We would fly soon enough.

“There’s a field out here,” I told her.

Clara blinked at me. “I know there’s a field out here. I’ve spent some time there. It’s popular among teenagers.”

I stopped walking, and looked at her. “What?”

“You use the field and didn’t know that?”

“Well, I usually go there in the middle of the night. When everyone, including the teenagers, are asleep.”

Clara shifted. “Why are we going there?”

My eyes widened. “No! That’s not why! I would have asked you if that was what I wanted. No, I just, well, I use it sometimes to go flying.”

“Flying,” Clara said after a second. She looked me over. “You don’t have a dragon form? Who are you flying on?”

Biting my lip, I looked again in the direction of the field. “You really think there will be teenagers there?”

“Well, it’s really early, and everyone had a rough morning, so probably not. Not even teenagers are thinking of sneaking out to get in some kissing when they have just watched a gruesome murder.”

I winced, her words bringing it all back, my mind replaying the scene with disturbing clarity. “Then, let’s go. I need to get up in the air. I need to clear my head. I don’t think I can walk around town for three days watching Lamier watch his wife rot in front of him. Not without doing something. And that will get the whole town killed, according to Thalos. So, I need to go flying.”

Turning, I started toward the field again, and Clara fell into step beside me. “About that,” she said, and I nearly groaned, knowing there was no way she was going to let go of what she learned about my family. “When were you going to tell me your sister was Prince Thalos’ consort?”

I’d known she was going to ask, how could she not? That Kami was Prince Thalos’ consort was something I tried not to think about. Because then, I had to think about how they met, and that would only send me spiralling again. Konrad and his death wasn’t something I talked about. To anyone. There were very few Dragonkin that would understand why I still felt his death down to my very core. We were supposed to hate the Wyvern. And I very much hadn’t.

“I wasn’t,” I told her, honestly. “I don’t talk to my sister, if I can help it. I barely talk to my mother. I would happily go about the rest of my life not ever talking to her again.”

Clara was quiet for a moment. “What happened? Why do you not want to talk to her.”

There it was. The question I was dreading. We had reached the field, and all I wanted to do was shift and go flying. Instead, I turned to my friend and sat down with a sigh. She followed suit.

“My sister and I never got along,” I said. “She was always the princess of the family, I was always second best. But, if was what happened the day of our Ashwalk that really ruined our relationship for good. My best friend, Konrad, when he did his, it was revealed he wasn’t a dragonkin at all. He was a Wyvern. Prince Thalos was there, and he decreed that the most powerful dragon caste revealed would be the one to kill him. That was Kami.”

Clara frowned. “She didn’t kill him, though, right? I mean, she knew you were friends with him. That would be an awful thing to do.”

I looked her in the eye. “Of course she did. He was a Wyvern, Clara. Dragonkin hates Wyvern, and Kami is no exception. The fact that she also didn’t like him because he didn’t buy into any of her bullshit, probably helped her get over the little fact of him being my best friend in the world.

“After that night, she gloated about it. She would walk around talking like she was a great Wyvern hunter. As if there hadn’t been dragons holding him down for her to kill. He didn’t even fight, at all. He had just watched his entire family be killed right in front of him. He was like Lamier. There was this look in his eyes, like there was nothing left in this world for him. And she killed him right there in cold blood. To the cheers of our town, and she relished it.”

I sighed and rested a head in my hand. “That was the day she met the Prince. And that was the day I realized I didn’t want anything to do with her or him. I always wanted to be a Drakesworn. Ironic, since I avoid them at all cost now. But that day, when the Prince told us Konrad would be killed right there in front of everyone, and he treated it as some kind of prize to be won, that was the day I knew I didn’t want to be a part of a group so willing to follow his orders.”

Glancing up, I saw my friend with a stunned expression on her face. It had been something of a risk to tell her that story. It confirmed that I was sympathetic to the Wyvern, if not what I was doing to help them. She could walk away from me and never look back. But, instead, she shook her head.

“What a b***h,” she muttered. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. That’s not right. Just like what he did to Lamier. What she helped him do.”

“So, now you know why, if I never saw my sister again, I would be happy.”

“One thing, you said you gave up on being a Drakesworn because of what Prince Thalos did that day. But, you don’t have a dragon form. You couldn’t have been a Drakesworn anyway.”

I gave her a faint smile. “I didn’t want to be the one to kill Konrad. I was terrified of it. So, when I cast my hand in that flame, I held back the change.”

Clara’s mouth dropped open. “What? How? That’s impossible.”

“It should be,” I said with a nod. “But it wasn’t.”

She was giving me a disbelieving look, so I stood and moved away from her, then pulled forth my dragon form, revealing my silver scales that gleamed in the bright light of the sun.

Clara scrambled to her feet and moved closer to me. There was a look of awe in her eyes, and her mouth opened, but before she could say anything, I gave her something of a grin, then jumped into the air, letting my wings take me to places my legs never could.