The Dragon Prince

The Fox

“ Aideon.”

I giggled gleefully as he spun me through the swirling mass of bodies. I was a horrid dancer, but he was skilled enough to keep me on my feet. The air around us grew heated as I looked up at his gorgeous face, all my thoughts fled as I noticed he was looking down at me with lust filled eyes.

“Arya…” His voice came out in a breathy whisper as he leaned down to speak into my ear. The heat between our bodies was almost unbearable. “I’ve been waiting for you for eons.” I gave him a drunken smile and stepped back to look at him, placing my hands on his strong arms. 

 “What do you mean?” I slurred, wondering exactly what had come over me. We had been dancing for what felt like forever, and the party around us started to feel menacing. 

 The beautiful music had become tumultuous, the fae around us letting go of their inhibitions and wildly grinding against each other. The scattered bodies on the ground were writhing in a frenzy. Small iridescent sprites flitted through the crowd, tugging at peoples hair and swirling around the fire. The flames of which had risen, now casting out vibrant sparks of luminescent colors. 

I stepped back from him, dropping my hands from his arms, trying to make sense of what was going on around me. He reached for me, but I pushed his outreached hand away. 

“What do you mean, Aideon?” I said, my voice came out more clearly as the fog over my mind lifted. 

He gave me a long look, and it suddenly felt as if we were the only two in the world. The music faded, the revel around us was muted. As I looked into his luminous blue eyes, a flicker of recognition tingled at the back of my mind. 

“Can’t you feel it, Arya?” He said, with a troubled expression crossing his handsome face. 

“Feel what?” My heart was pounding out of my chest, but before he could reply, I felt a strong hand grasp my arm from behind. 

A thunderous growl resounded from the direction I was being pulled. I was swept around to face Ash, whose face was contorted into a petrifying snarl. The gold in his eyes had taken on a darker hue, making him look animalistic in the radiating firelight.

“Arya, the Queen has requested your presence” He said through his teeth, not taking his eyes off Aideon. 

“Aw, come now wolf, won't you let the girl play for just a bit longer?” Aideon said with a sneer, holding Ash’s rage filled gaze.

“Revels are dangerous, lizard. You might be willing to risk her life, but I am not. The Queen wishes to see her, so she is coming with me.” 

Aideon gave him a sarcastic pout, throwing a wink in my direction. “Don’t worry, Arya, our conversation isn’t over.” He said, before vanishing into the crowd. 

“What did he say to you?” Ash said, turning me towards the castle. He was still tense, but the violent tone he’d taken on when speaking to AIdeon was starting to fade. He sounded genuinely concerned. 

“Nothing really, we just danced, I think?” My senses were starting to clear as we reached the entrance to the castle and I suddenly realized how out of sorts I’d been. 

“Revels have that effect on us. It’s in our nature, we’re animalistic creatures, Arya. It’s dangerous for someone so new to this realm to be alone at one.” He shook his head as he led me down the flower lit halls. 

“But I wasn’t alone, I was with Aideon.” He stopped, the look he gave me was piercing. 

“That’s even worse.” The underlying darkness of his tone caught me off guard. He placed his hand on my lower back with a sigh, urging me forward. 

“The prince of the Ice Court is not someone you want to get mixed up with. Just trust me.” I nodded, but my thoughts were scattered as we made our way onward to meet with the Queen. I reasoned that I’d have to wait to ask him more about Aideon until I could get a chance to be alone with him again, and he’d had time to cool down. 

We continued through the labyrinthian hallways until we arrived at a massive archway, which opened up into a spectacular throne room. The light from the Tree of Beginning seeped in through the enormous paned windows that lined the entirety of the expansive space. Immense roots trailed down the back wall, framing two immaculate thrones. One looked to be made from pure silver, set with sapphires the size of which I’d never seen before. The other was beautiful, ruby encrusted, solid gold. On the latter sat an alluring young woman, who was pointedly not the Queen I’d met just the night before. 

She was wearing a gorgeous floor length dress the color of sun kissed rubies, which framed her curvaceous figure perfectly. Her pearlescent skin seemed to glisten in the bright lighting, casting a radiant aura around her. The corners of her full lips turned up in a smile as we approached the thrones. 

She gazed down at us disconcertedly with her bright green eyes, causing me to shift anxiously on my feet and grip the hem of my dress, her slitted pupils catching me off guard. She let out a soft laugh, causing the tension in the room to break instantly. 

“So, you’re the little one my mate was telling me about?” Her face softened a bit as she paused to throw her long curtain of flame colored hair over one shoulder.

I shot Ash a look of confusion and nodded my agreement. He disregarded me, giving the woman a polite bow. 

“Her mate?” I asked, completely blown away once again. The woman let out a loud chuckle before standing and giving us a small curtsy. 

“Yes, I am Desdemona’s mate, Queen Saoirse. It’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”  

She strolled down the small staircase gracefully, breezing past us towards the entrance to the hallway we had just left.

“Well, come on then. You didn’t think I’d just have you stand in this musty old throne room, did you?” Her eyes were filled with a mischievous look as she ushered us out of the room. 

She led us through the halls until we reached a large wooden door, producing an ornate key from a hidden pocket in her dress. She slid it into the lock of the intricately carved doorknob.

“Gods, Des knows I hate doing formal stuff.” I heard her mumble to herself as the door swung open to reveal a moderately sized sitting room. The room was obviously decorated by a skillful eye, with bookshelves of dark wood covering the walls surrounding a huge solid stone fireplace. In the middle of the room sat a large table scattered with various papers and maps, surrounded by mismatched chairs that seemed to have been randomly placed around it. 

“Welcome to my she-shed, as it were!” She held out her arms and spun in a circle with a wide grin on her face. “Now, sit. Let’s get this over with, so we can get to bed. I’m absolutely exhausted.” She let out a loud yawn as she finished speaking and plopped down in a large plush chair near the center of the table. 

Ash and I moved to sit in the chairs directly across from her, sitting down carefully. The queen watched us get comfortable, her delicately manicured hands clasped together in front of her on the table. 

“Your majesty, may I ask why we were summoned?” Ash started, his tone conveying the slightest bit of nervousness. 

“Ash, you know I’d rather you call me Saoirse. I absolutely despise the formalities.” She gave me a wink. “Men, am I right?” She then stood, holding the sides of her ballgown, and stepped up onto the table. I leaned back in mild shock, looking up at her in confusion.

There was a bright flash, then the dress collapsed where the queen had just been standing. 

“What the absolute f**k just happened?!” I shouted at Ash vehemently, standing up to search the room for the missing queen. Ash grabbed my arm, tugging me back down into my seat. He rolled his eyes before gesturing back towards the dress. 

“Saoirse has a flair for the dramatics.” He said with a sigh, sinking back into his chair slowly. 

I looked back at the dress, and saw a small nose peeking out of the hem. A beautiful red fox pushed its way out of the fabric, giving its long fur a vigorous shake.

A voice sounded through my mind, and I gave a start as I realized it was the queen. 

“I was informed that you know absolutely nothing about our kind, and told that you needed a crash course. Of course I was then tasked with being the one to give the crash course because apparently, I’m less ‘intimidating’.” The fox-queen padded over to a pile of papers on the cluttered table and gingerly grabbed a large map out of the pile.

“So, before I get on with the boring stuff, do you have any questions, Arya?” Her head tilted to the side, giving me a reassuring look. Well, as reassuring as a fox could look, I suppose.

“Um…  so you’re a fox shifter?” I asked hesitantly, trying my best not to offend the queen, who was now licking an upturned paw. She lifted her eyes back to me, her voice resounding through my mind once again.

“Yes, I am. Fitting isn’t it?” She flashed her sharp teeth in what I could only assume was meant to be a grin. 

“So how exactly do the Fae-... I mean we, shift?” The queen padded back over to the dress, slipping underneath it, and I watched as another flash lit up the room. She reverted back to her usual self, stepped down from the table, and sat back into her chair.

“Shifting comes naturally to our kind, honestly I’m surprised you haven’t shifted yet.” She tilted her head to one side, pressing a finger to her rosey lips. 

“Well, she has spent her entire life in the human world…” Ash interjected, speaking up for the first time since we’d first arrived. 

“That’s true, perhaps the iron in her system is repressing her abilities. For now we’ll just have to wait and see. She may surprise us.” She said, giving me another wink. 

“So how many types of shifters are there?” I asked, my curiosity piqued. 

“Oh, as many as there are animals, I suppose. Most Fae are only able to shift into one animal form, and most of those are mammals or birds. There’s the occasional reptile, but the only well established reptiles are the dragon shifters of the Ice Court.” She finished with a scowl. I nodded at her reply, doing my best to try and take in all the information that had been thrown my way.

“She’s already been acquainted with the prince of the Ice Court.” Ash said with a huff, giving me a hard glance. I shifted in my seat nervously as the queen peered in my direction. 

“Is that so? The little devil just can’t stay out of trouble can he? It’s going to be a s**t-show when he’s finally crowned, I’ll tell you that.” She grabbed the map she’d placed in front of her seat when she’d been in her fox form, and laid it out in front of us so we could study it.

“Any further questions before I dive into the boring stuff?” She asked with a loud sigh. I shook my head in reply. 

“Alright then, let’s get to it I guess.”

***********

Ash escorted me back to my room afterwards, I was quiet as I mulled over all the details Saoirse had given me about the strange world I was now a part of. We were in the Dark Court, which was only a small portion of the Fae realm. There were six other Courts sprawling across the realm; Light, Ember, Tide, Gale, and Ice. The sixth, Spirit, had fallen into darkness decades prior to my arrival, no one knowing exactly what had happened to cause it to fall. 

Ash stopped in front of me as we reached my door, catching my solemn expression. 

“Are you okay, Arya?” I nodded, suddenly exhausted.

“I’m just tired and overwhelmed from today. I’ll be okay.” He surprised me by leaning down and planting a small kiss on my cheek. I blushed as he pulled away, and gave him a small smile.

“Alright, you’ve had a rough few days. Sleep well. I’ll come by in the morning to take you to breakfast.” He gave me a shy smile in return before turning and making his way down the hall. I turned to open my door, the exhaustion weighing down on me. I was excited to plop down into the luxurious four poster bed, but as I opened the door, an eerie feeling hit me. 

An ominous glow was filtering in from the large bay window, and fluttering outside of it, was

 an enormous white bird.