The Dragon Kings' Forbidden Witch

The effect of those words was immediate and catastrophic.

Thorne’s dark eyes went sharp, his entire body straightening as if he’d been struck by lightning.

”She what?” he demanded, his voice carrying a note of something that was part shock, part disbelief.

”Yes,” Draeven confirmed, watching both of his brothers. ”She went to meet with her. Alone.”

Kaelen cursed, a vicious, low word that carried the weight of fury and frustration mixed together. He began to pace, his pale eyes blazing, his entire frame radiating agitation.

”Why would she do that?” he demanded, his voice rising slightly. ”She should have come to us first. She should have told us what she was planning. She should have....”

He didn’t finish because the implications were crashing down on him too fast, creating too many questions, raising too many concerns.

Draeven watched his brother pace for a moment, then spoke.

”Now we need to find out whatever transpired between them in that room,” Draeven said. ”What she said to Morgana. What she did. What information she might have shared. We need to understand what our little ward now knows.”

The moment Draeven finished speaking, Thorne stood up, and he began walking toward the door.

Kaelen’s voice cut across the chamber, tight and controlled and barely containing the fury underneath.

”Where are you going, Thorne?” he asked, his voice carrying visible restraint.

Thorne paused at the threshold and turned to face his brother, and in that moment, his dark eyes burned with a challenge that was unmistakable.

”I’m going to see our ward, brother,” Thorne said, his voice steady and calm and absolutely unapologetic. ”Do you have a problem with that?”

For a moment, Kaelen simply stared at him. His pale eyes were beginning to show the color of his dragon.....a pale, icy blue that suggested GLACIUS was very close to the surface, very close to breaking free.

Draeven observed this exchange with the careful attention of a king who understood his brothers better than they understood themselves.

He shook his head slightly....a gesture that was almost subtle, but it was clear enough.

”Let him go to her, Kaelen,” Draeven said quietly.

Kaelen’s entire body went rigid.

”How can you say....” he began, turning to face his eldest brother, his voice carrying a note of something like betrayal.

But he didn’t finish because Thorne’s voice cut him off.

”Why can’t he say that, Kaelen?” Thorne asked, his dark eyes burning.

Kaelen spun to face his middle brother, and now his fury was visible, written across his face in lines of absolute rage.

”Because,” Kaelen said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, ”she belongs to me.”

The words hung in the air between them, charged with possession and hunger and a primal claim that was unmistakable.

Thorne didn’t flinch. Instead, he stepped forward, closing the distance between them, his dark eyes never wavering.

”She belongs to us,” Thorne continued, his eyes now fully showing the pale icy blue of GLACIUS, ”not you. She belongs to all of us. I get equal time as you get to have with her. She belongs to me too.”

The two brothers stood face to face, the air between them crackling with the tension of dragons responding to challenge.

Thorne’s lips curved into a slight smile....not a kind smile, but the smile of someone who had just won a battle of wills and was savoring the victory.

Then he turned and walked out of the office.

***

Kaelen watched his brother’s back as he disappeared through the doorway, and for a moment, he simply stood there, his entire body vibrating with fury and frustration and the desperate need to follow.

But he didn’t move.

Instead, his mouth closed. His jaw clenched. His hands formed into fists at his sides.

And he turned to the window, his pale eyes blazing with an intensity that would have frightened anyone who saw it.

Draeven watched his youngest brother for a long moment, watching the fury radiate from every line of his body, watching the way his entire frame was shaking with the effort of maintaining control.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet but absolute.

”You know he’s right, Kaelen.”

Kaelen’s entire body went rigid. Slowly, he turned to face his eldest brother, and when he did, his pale eyes were blazing with the color of his dragon....a pale, icy blue that was barely contained.

”He’s right,” Draeven continued, his golden eyes meeting and holding his youngest brother’s gaze. ”She belongs to all of us. Not just you alone.”

Kaelen turned back to the window, his entire body shaking with the effort of not responding violently to those words. He wanted to argue. He wanted to claim her as his alone. He wanted to deny that his brothers had any right to her at all.

But he knew, on some fundamental level, that Draeven was correct.

After a long moment of silence, Kaelen spoke.

”How are you still so calm?” he asked, and his voice was different now. The fury had been replaced by something almost desperate, something that was searching for understanding. ”How are you still so calm?”

He turned to face his eldest brother, and there was raw vulnerability in his expression.

”Don’t you crave her like I do?” Kaelen asked, and the question wasn’t accusatory. It was genuine, a plea for understanding, a need to know that he wasn’t alone in this hunger.

Draeven’s expression softened slightly, and when he spoke, his voice carried the weight of absolute honesty.

”Of course I crave her,” Draeven said, his golden eyes meeting Kaelen’s pale ones. ”I want her as bad as you do. Even worse than how you crave her.”

Kaelen stepped closer to his eldest brother, desperation clear in his movements.

”And how do you still manage to stay calm?” he demanded. ”How are you controlling this? INFERNUS is going insane just with the thought of Thorne going to her and getting to be with her. And you... you...”

He shook his head, unable to complete the thought, unable to understand how his eldest brother was maintaining such rigid control when his own control was crumbling to dust.