CHAPTER 4: THE DRAGON KING HAS RETURNED
1578 Words
VORTHYXIS
Dwade kneels when I enter the war chamber as a form of respect.
“It’s time,” I say.
He looks up slowly, one scarred brow lifting. “I was wondering how long you’d pretend you didn’t care.”
“I didn’t,” I reply. “I waited.”
“For her.”
“Yes.”
He rises to his feet, armor already half-buckled, wings twitching beneath metal and leather. “Then Kevlan’s reign is over.”
“It never began. Had the greedy fool take up a bit of responsibility and he immediately betrays me thinking I'd die."
Dwade grins, sharp and feral. “You want him alive?”
I consider it.
Aurora’s presence hums in my chest, steady, dark, watching.
“No,” I say. “I want him and his supporters dead.”
Dwade laughs. “The kin will scream.”
“They always do.”
He sobers slightly. “You know what he’s done while you slept.”
“I know,” I answer.
He took my throne.
He crowned himself with my silence.
He used my absence to fracture the clans and fatten himself on fear.
“He called himself Regent at first,” Dwade continues. “Said it was temporary.”
I bare my teeth. “That lie never lasts.”
“He outlawed speaking your name.”
The room heats.
“He executed dissenters.”
The walls crack.
“And,” Dwade adds carefully, “he’s been breeding an army loyal only to him.”
I turn toward the open archway, where the sky churns red and gold.
“Then today,” I say, “we remind them what loyalty costs.”
Dwade snaps his helm into place. “Dragons assemble fast when blood’s in the air.”
“They will smell me,” I reply. “They always do.”
We don’t announce ourselves.
I step into the sky and become what the world remembers.
My wings tear the clouds apart, fire rolling across my scales like a living crown. Dwade flies beside me, smaller, sharper, laughing into the wind.
The capital rises ahead, black stone, spires carved from the bones of fallen gods.
My city.
Kevlan’s defenses ignite instantly.
“Here they come,” Dwade mutters.
Thousands.
Literally thousands.
Warrior dragons pour from the spires, wings blotting out the sky.
I smile.
“Good,” I say. “I was hoping he’d be stupid.”
The first wave hits us like a storm.
I don’t slow down for anything.
Fire explodes from my throat, white-hot and ancient, ripping through bodies like paper. Screams echo, short and final.
Dwade dives, blades flashing, tearing through wings, throats, spines.
“You missed this,” he roars over the chaos.
“I missed purpose,” I answer, tearing a dragon from the air and snapping his neck mid-flight.
They swarm.
They always swarm.
I let them.
Pain flares claws, teeth, magic, but it’s nothing compared to the bond humming steady in my chest.
Aurora is alive.
That is all that matters.
I crash through a formation, slam into the outer ramparts, and shift.
The impact shatters stone for miles.
Warrior dragons land around me, shifting too steel, scales, fire, fear.
One steps forward, eyes wide.
“It..it’s him.”
“Yes,” I say calmly. “It is.”
They hesitate.
Big mistake.
I move.
The ground runs red.
Dwade lands beside me, chest heaving, laughing like a madman. “Kevlan sent his pups.”
“He always preferred shields to strategy.”
The inner gates loom ahead thick, warded, arrogant.
They slam shut.
I walk forward anyway.
A voice booms from above.
“VORTHYXIS!”
Kevlan.
I look up slowly.
He stands on the balcony of my throne room wearing my crown.
My fire surges.
“You should have stayed asleep,” he calls.
I smile.
“You should have run.”
He signals.
The gates explode open.
Another wave pours out.
Dwade cracks his neck. “You want me to clear a path?”
“No,” I say, flames licking my fingers. “I want you to watch.”
I step forward into the tide of warriors, power fully unleashed now not rage, not chaos
Judgment.
The sky burns.
The throne waits for me.
The inner citadel now smells like fear.
Not panic, Kevlan has trained that out of them but the sharp, metallic scent of dragons who know they are standing on the wrong side of history.
Dwade wipes blood from his mouth as we advance through the shattered gates.
“They’re breaking,” he says with satisfaction.
“They always do,” I reply.
Another group rushes us elite guard this time, black-scaled, marked with Kevlan’s sigil carved into their armour.
I stop walking.
“Last warning,” I say calmly. “Step aside.”
One of them hesitates.
Another snarls, “The throne has a king.”
I nod. “Yes.”
Then I move.
I don’t fight them like soldiers.
I fight them like a reminder.
Bone cracks under my grip. Fire erupts point-blank. One tries to take my head, I rip his arm off and beat the next three with it.
Dwade laughs behind me. “Gods, I missed this.”
The hall clears fast after that.
Bodies litter the obsidian floor, steam rising from scorched blood.
At the far end, the throne room doors stand open.
Kevlan waits.
He sits sprawled across my throne like he was born there, golden scales polished, crown tilted, smile smug and thin.
“You look well,” he says. “For a relic.”
I step inside.
The doors slam shut behind us.
Dwade stays back, leaning against a pillar, blades dripping. “Try not to stain the walls too much. I just cleaned.”
Kevlan’s eyes flick to him. “Always a dog.”
Dwade grins. “Always alive.”
I stop ten paces from the throne.
“Get off it,” I say.
Kevlan chuckles. “You disappeared. The throne needed someone strong.”
“You needed opportunity.”
“I needed survival,” he snaps. “You abandoned us.”
I tilt my head. “I slept.”
“You vanished,” he roars, standing now, wings flaring. “No orders. No king. The clans were tearing each other apart.”
“And you saved them?” I ask.
“I unified them.”
“With executions.”
“With fear,” he corrects. “It works.”
I step closer.
“So does truth.”
His eyes narrow. “You lost your edge.”
“No,” I say quietly. “I found my reason.”
Something flickers across his face.
“A female,” he scoffs. “That’s the rumour.”
Dwade whistles. “Careful.”
Kevlan laughs. “The great Vorthyxis brought low by a bond.”
Fire ripples under my scales.
“You wore my crown,” I say. “You outlawed my name.”
“You were gone.”
“I was hibernating.”
“Convenient.”
“I chose stillness,” I growl, “because eternity without a mate was driving me mad.”
Silence hits.
Kevlan’s smile fades.
“You found her,” he whispers.
“Yes.”
“And she weakens you.”
“She gives me clarity.”
He bares his teeth. “Then dragons are doomed.”
I smile slowly. “They were doomed the moment you mistook absence for defeat.”
He lunges.
Fast.
Strong.
Not enough.
We collide in the centre of the throne room, power detonating outward. Pillars crack. The ceiling screams.
He fights like a king who learned cruelty.
I fight like one who remembered mercy and chose not to use it.
We crash through stone, claws and fire and ancient magic tearing at each other.
“You would end us for her!” he roars.
“I would end you for touching what was mine,” I answer, slamming him through the dais.
He rises, bleeding gold. “She’ll kill you.”
I grab him by the throat and lift him off the ground.
“Then I will die knowing who I was.”
His laughter chokes. “You’re not fit to rule anymore.”
I lean in close.
“Neither are you.”
I slam him into the throne.
Hard.
The crown shatters.
He stares up at me, dazed, disbelief cracking his features.
“You should have ruled in my name,” I say. “Instead, you ruled against it.”
He spits blood. “Do it.”
I release him.
He falls, coughing.
“You don’t deserve a warrior’s death,” I continue. “You deserve memory.”
I turn to Dwade. “Witness.”
Dwade straightens. “Always.”
I place my hand over Kevlan’s chest.
Fire doesn’t explode.
It condenses.
Ancient and absolute.
Kevlan screams as his power is stripped, his essence unraveling.
“This throne,” I say calmly, “recognizes only one king.”
He dissolves into ash at my feet.
Silence crashes down.
The citadel trembles.
Dwade exhales slowly. “Well.”
I turn.
The throne stands empty.
Waiting.
I don’t sit.
Not yet.
“Signal the clans,” I tell Dwade. “The Dragon King has returned.”
“And the female?” he asks carefully.
I look toward the distant horizon toward the bond that burns steady and wild.
“Her throne will wait for her until she is ready."
- Writer
