Falling for the Ashfather

Chapter 5

“Tahlia Redwood,” the announcer said after a long pause. The audience was still cheering over the announcement that the Wyvern — my best friend in the world — was going to be killed right in front of them. Without any way to defend themselves. And I was still standing frozen, terror taking over the dream I had of becoming one of the Drakesworn.

I couldn’t be the one to kill him. And, if my dragon form turned out to be strong, I would be expected to do it. Not killing him would be considered a betrayal. How was I supposed to move forward when I wanted two such different things?

“Move!” My mother hissed at me, and I stumbled onto the stage when she pushed me from behind.

The energy of the crowd was tangible in the air as I forced myself to walk toward the eternal flame. My entire being was shaking as my eyes locked on the pile of ashes that had been Konrad’s family. I had to clench my hands into fists at my side and force my eyes away or risk falling to my knees again.

I had known them. I had eaten at their house. I had been inseparable from Konrad for years. And now, I could feel his eyes on me as I walked across that stage. I could practically feel the gears of his mind turning as I stepped up to the eternal flame and stared into it’s depths. He knew what I wanted. He had always said I would be the best of our generation. He had believed in me. And, I knew he still did.

Swallowing, I finally allowed myself to glance at him. It was written there, in his eyes. The mind-numbing grief he was feeling. The knowledge that this was the end for him. Fear. Anguish. Anger. All of it written in the slope of his shoulders that now held the membranes of his wings. In the dullness of his eyes as he watched me. In the way his eyes closed as I lifted my hand. As if he didn’t want to see what I would become. As if he didn’t want to know if I was going to be the one to do it.

It felt like there was a weight on my chest as my eyes dropped away from my long time friend, and I met the eyes of the prince.

He was one of the ones I had wanted to protect. I had thought it would be the greatest honour of my life to fight for him and his father. And his eyes widened when they met my gaze, as if he knew as well as Konrad that I would be powerful. He took a single step forward, and I jerked my eyes away from him.

The prince had condemned Konrad. Wyverns and Dragons had been at war for as long as anyone could remember, but the last battle had been a hundred years ago. A hundred years where the Wyverns had been in hiding, living a life that was illegal, not because of anything they had done, simply because of how they had been born. I’d never given them much thought, in my mind, they were gone. Practically extinct.

Today, though, I was forced to realize this wasn’t a problem of the past. They were killing innocents. Konrad and his family hadn’t done anything to deserve their fate. They had worked hard, had been loyal to the Ashfather and the dragons. They had done everything right. And now, they were dead.

That was who I wanted to fight for? That was who I wanted to defend?

“What are you waiting for?” My mother hissed from the side stage. The crowd was beginning to calm, whispers starting as I continued to hesitate to take that last step. To touch my hand to the eternal flame.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to be nothing but ordinary. I didn’t want to help the Ashfather. I didn’t want to be a Drakesworn. I wanted to live a life where I didn’t have to think about defending against people that weren’t a threat. I just wanted to do it with my best friend.

A tear tracked down my cheek as I forced myself to thrust my hand into the eternal flame.

The fire consumed me, but it didn’t hurt. The heat raced into my chest, and brought to light a presence I hadn’t known was there. My dragon. I closed my eyes and willed it away. If I wasn’t a dragon, I couldn’t be anything. I wouldn’t be a Drakesworn, and I would never have to kill Konrad. If I wasn’t a dragon, I could go about my life and forget about the dreams I had shared with him that would never become a reality.

Pain flared only when I fought against the change. My body wanted to take on the form it had so recently unlocked, but I held it back, pleading with everything in me to leave me be. To just let me be who I was now.

I could hear the whispers of the crowd getting louder as I continued not the change, even though the pain was growing all consuming. I didn’t know what would happen if I didn’t change. If I refused to take the form that was there inside me. It had never happened, as far as I knew. What dragonshifter wouldn’t want to take on their dragon form? It was everything to us. It had been everything to me. And now…

“Please,” I whispered under my breath. “I’ll let you out, I promise. Just not here, not now.”

It was like the dragon inside me heard what I said, because the pain died down, and I was able to take a breath again. When I opened my eyes, the prince was looking at me with narrowed eyes, then he dismissed me without another thought, turning back to Konrad, as if regretting that he had chosen to give the kill to another. And I was left standing on the stage, dragonless, and safe from having to be the one to take Konrad’s life.