The Dragon Kings' Forbidden Witch

Neither of his brothers moved.

”I felt the fever through you. The heat. The way her magic was tearing at her. I thought....” He swallowed. ”I thought it might not break. I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t do a damn thing but sit in a chair and feel it.”

”Kaelen,” Draeven said.

”And then Auryn’s warning.” Kaelen’s hand opened and closed at his side. ”I can feel it, you know. GLACIUS. He has been pulling at me since the Sanctum. Every hour. Every time someone touches her door.” He laughed once, short and rough. ”I wanted to put my fist through Thorne because it was easier than admitting I’m afraid I’ll lose myself before I finish what I started with her.”

Thorne said nothing.

After a moment, he stood, crossed the floor, and put his hand on the back of his brother’s neck. Kaelen let him. They stood like that in the thin light through the windows, foreheads close, the way they had stood in a hundred worse hours.

”You will not lose yourself,” Thorne said.

”You don’t know that.”

”I know you’re the loudest bastard I have ever met, and you do not go quietly.”

Kaelen exhaled something that was nearly a laugh.

Draeven watched them. Something in his face eased.

”Good,” he said. ”Now sit. Both of you. There is more.”

They did not go back to the thrones. Draeven dragged a bench from the wall and set it near the dais, and the three of them sat with the cold morning light on the floor between them, which they had not done in years.

Kaelen spoke first.

”And when they ask for her?”

Draeven’s eyes lifted.

”The dragons. Pyros, Aeris, Auryn. They said we should bring her to them as soon as possible.” Kaelen leaned forward, elbows on his knees. ”I said I would not allow it. You said we would decide after we knew what she was. Do we hand her over, Draeven? When we know?”

”No.”

”You said.....”

”I said we decide after. Not that the answer is yes.” Draeven’s tone did not change. ”Nothing leaves this palace, and no one touches her, until we have bonded with her fully. If the dragons want her, they will say why, and we will weigh it. But she is not a gift. She is not an offering. She is ours to protect before she is anyone’s to take.”

Kaelen nodded once. Some of the tension went out of his back.

”Then there is the other matter,” Draeven said.

His brothers waited.

”Cedric asked when we will hold the ritual. I said soon. That is true. But I want you both to understand what soon requires.” He looked at Kaelen, then Thorne. ”The ritual is not a ceremony. It binds her to us, and us to her, and it binds the three dragons into one working. It does not start with words in a hall. It starts with the bonding. Each of our dragons must know her. Must claim her, and be claimed in return.”

”Two of three have,” Thorne said quietly.

”Two of three,” Draeven agreed. ”GLACIUS knows her. NOCTYS knows her. INFERNUS does not.”

Neither of them spoke.

”I am the First King,” Draeven said. ”INFERNUS carries more of the curse than either of yours. More of its weight, and more of its control. Where it fails, you two fall with it. Where it holds, you hold.” His eyes found Kaelen. ”When your dragon slipped, in the winter, it was my fire that pulled you back. Not because I am wiser. Because the curse runs through me first.”

Kaelen’s mouth tightened at the memory. Thorne looked at the floor.

”If the ritual is attempted without my dragon bonded to her, it will fail. At best.” Draeven’s voice dropped. ”At worst, it will break one of us. I would not wager on which.”

”Draeven,” Kaelen said slowly. ”You’ve said nothing to her. You haven’t once...”

”I haven’t touched her. No.” Draeven did not look away. ”That was not an accident. You have both seen how she startles. You’ve both seen how she runs when she senses a weight she doesn’t understand. If all three of us come at her with full intensity, she will see a cage, not a bond.”

”So you waited,” Thorne said.

”I waited so she might be allowed to choose. And she has chosen, in her way. Twice, now.” Draeven’s mouth moved, not quite a smile. ”I do not pretend I did not hear you both through the bond. I do not pretend INFERNUS did not tear at me for it. He has wanted her longer than either of you will admit you did.”

Kaelen looked up at that.

”This is not a favor I ask,” Draeven said. ”And it is not a preference. It is necessity. My dragon must claim her before the ritual. I will do it carefully, and I will do it in my own time. But I need you both to understand that my turn is coming, and that nothing and no one stands between her and me when it does.”

A long silence followed.

Thorne tilted his head. ”I have no quarrel with that.”

Kaelen was staring at the floor. His thumb dug into his palm. GLACIUS stirred in his throat; Draeven watched the scales on his brother’s jaw flicker, flare, and fade.

”I want to say no,” Kaelen said.

”I know,” said Draeven.

”I want to say she’s mine.” He lifted his head. His eyes were clear now, if tired. ”But I know what I said in the Sanctum. And I know what my dragon is doing to me. If it takes your fire to hold this together....” He stopped, breathed, started again. ”Then do it soon.”

”I will.”

”Soon, Draeven.”

”I heard you the first time, brother.”

Kaelen stood. He rolled his shoulders once, as though shaking off something heavy, and strode for the doors. At the threshold he stopped, one hand on the iron.

”I’m going to the training grounds,” he said over his shoulder. ”Don’t send anyone after me.”

The door shut behind him.

Thorne watched it a moment longer.

”Let us pray he does not burn it down like the last time.”