The dress is beautiful. Black silk with red and orange crystals at the bottom, made to look like flames crawling up the dress. It’s paired with a tiara of black iron.My hair is in an elaborate braid down my back and laced with small red stones. I smile at my reflection. The girl in the mirror is one I remember to be a fierce dragon warrior, one who would do anything to protect her family, but would do exactly as she was told. The perfect daughter.A knock at my door makes me turn around quickly.“Come in,” I say. The door opens to reveal my escort.“Hello uncle,” I greet him with a nod. He shakes his head at me, a smile on his face.“Just as beautiful as I remember,” he chuckles. I walk over to him, placing a chaste kiss on his cheek.“Let’s go,” I say, feel

My shoulder is bleeding badly, but I ignore it, the wound very minimal compared to some of my past ones. Kailo’s dragon, Venix, is growling furiously.Venix doesn’t take complete control of Kailo’s actions like Talon does mine. Talon will practically fight for me since he has much more control in dragon form.My collar is the only thing keeping him from taking full control forever.“How could you let Lyza do this to Kailo?” Venix growls. Dragons can speak to one another when in dragon form, but in a language only known to Dragons. I only know what Mitalonys has taught me.“Lyza has a mate, and you and I both know Kailo’s intentions to bond with Lyza weren’t pure,” Talon snarls and my wings stretch out to their full span. I hear several gasps from the crowd watching, no doubt from Angel and Daerius.

I can’t stop staring at Kailo’s mangled, bloody body. His eyes are still open, staring straight ahead.He looks like a boy again, like the boy I loved and vowed to spend eternity with. He used to be kind, strong, gentle, and would look at me as if I were the most important person in the world.And today I found out he was going to kill me for my throne. Years of affection and devotion, all for nothing.“Lyza? Are you there?” I hear Daerius’ voice say. I turn my head, still under Talon’s control. I see him standing at the edge of the dirt bowl I’m in. My head is level with his.“Listen I’m going to help you shift back, but first you need to come over here,” he says. My body moves forward but instead of presenting my neck to Daerius like I wanted, Talon has me knocking Daerius into the ring.

My arms curl tighter around her, my hand running through her hair. She suddenly seems so small, so fragile.I listen as her heartbeat and breathing slows. She is asleep in minutes.“Wow, the dragon doesn’t look so vicious now,” Angel says, walking out of the castle.“What do you want Angel?” I ask in annoyance. She raises her hands in surrender.“Oh, so now I need a reason to talk to my brother?” She scoffs.“You do when I’m with my mate,” I growl lowly.She purses her lips. “Fine. I wanted to know when we are leaving,” she says. I sigh, my head falling against the stone wall.“I don’t know, I can’t leave Lyza. And this is her home, I can’t make her leave that. I don’t know what to do,”

My head snaps up at the faint rumbling noise. I search the horizon in the direction it came from and my face falls.A bright red flame shoots through the sky, on the other side of the Zhyden mountains. Then suddenly a searing white pain shoots through my skull and I collapse onto the forest floor.My Beta rushes over, shaking my shoulder but I can’t hear a word he is saying. I can only focus on a single coherent thought as everything goes black. Lyza.***I open my eyes to someone calling my name. Angel’s face hovers over me, full of concern. The agony is gone now, replaced by a strange numbness.“Daerius are you alright?” My sister asks softly.I sit up, looking around my room in confusion. “What happened? All I remember is a red flare . . .” I trail off, confused and