Chapter 104 Your queen
DAINE
Immediately after digital log off in Amsterdam Schiphol, I checked in with the ashbounds.
Vain creature that I am, I feast on praise and worship. On the enjoyment and gratitude of others when I lavish them with gifts and attention.
I was impatient to get a first-hand account of how my proper princess, rich girl pet, reacted to her surprise by the pool.
But upon turning my phone on, message notifications flooded my screen, overlapping before I could get a proper look. Alarm fired up my veins.
Hale was not a clingy lover. The only reason he would call so many times, especially when I was at work, was because something was wrong.
I navigated my screen to dial his number when my phone vibrated, his name flickering on my screen. I clicked the message icon, and as my eyes hurriedly scanned the letters, the world seemed to darken even more than its 10pm.
My body trembled, and twice, I felt a hot itch in the tissues covering my wings.
I made a U-turn back to the lounge to call operations.
It was the most I have ever had to push against instinct, to ignore the bright flare in my chest and the slow burning lava at my core, but years of discipline aided me.
Patiently, I explained that I would like to remove myself from the return leg, because of a personal emergency.
Then I waited even longer to ensure my senior relief captain was assigned for the return sector, before dashing off.
As I ran through the airport, on the phone with Sahmain, P. A, I wondered why I went through all this hassle to maintain anonymity, to hide that I was a dragon, THE dragon, pretending to be an ordinary pilot in the airline I owned.
But the answer was clear. Always had been.
I wanted, always, to be able to uproot my life at a moment's notice and move away with Nymphaea to whatever country she reincarnated in.
And that might prove a hassle if I sank my roots anywhere.
Sahmain concluded the arrangement of chattering a jet by the time I reached the hanger. And within the hour, we were bound for the US.
It was against the regulations to fly immediately after long hauls, and I knew better than to attempt teleporting to the US, after living as long as I had.
Especially with the plans forming in my mind.
So I sat in the aircraft for the first hour, feeling bound and useless. And finally, I forced myself to sleep, sleep to the satisfying images of revenge.
It was midnight when I arrived at L.A, and in another ten minutes I was in the blue-skinned idiot’s house.
Apparently, he had set camp in my city.
I took a seat on one of the living room sofas, still wrapped in its plastic covering in the tiny East Hollywood apartment. Then I perched my hat on my knee, took my jacket off, and rolled up my sleeves.
As soon as I perceived his presence a mile off, I masked my scent, waiting for him in complete darkness.
Jangling keys, grating keys, a dry catch, more clattering and then a metal click. Clumsy as always. He could not even open his own front door.
Oblivious, he hummed under his breath as he walked in, stumbling and kicking furniture as he fished for the light switch.
Even in the dark, I could see him clearly. A raggedy old man, in a weather-beaten janitor uniform. Yet another identity he had stolen to gain access to the academy.
But cursed as he was, he could not retain human form for as long as the rest of us. Every step he took, his false flesh dusted to the floor like ash. And soon, I could see his rotting blue skin, and the outline of his skeleton where bits of his flesh had fallen away.
“You toyed with my property.”
He froze, a strangled gasp leaving his lungs as he grabbed an armchair to save himself from falling over in fright.
This, however, was not nearly enough to soothe me.
I flicked my fingers and watched flames dance at my fingertips, illuminating the room.
He turned around then, his face relaxing, spine straightening in regained control. “Hello brother.”
I almost lost it then.
But I breathed through it, clinging onto logic. That was a lazy attempt to provoke me, bait me.
We were not brothers, he wasn’t even a dragon. But over the years, he had deluded himself into believing we were equals just because he couldn’t be destroyed.
“You have a few minutes before I turn rabid. I suggest you use them wisely.”
He snickered, “And should that scare me? You cannot even destroy me.”
I lifted my gaze from the flames still dancing at my fingertips. “There are fates worse than destruction. You of all people should know.”
He went quiet, eyes becoming wary.
“What business do you have with the ballerina?”
His lips curled, parting to reveal darkened teeth. “I live for these moments. When I know things you don’t."
“Wonderful. Do you mind schooling this ignorant dragon?”
His smile faltered, presumably distrusting my calmness.
I shook my head in mock exasperation. “The Senate's decisions are an eternal puzzle. They vote to keep the likes of you around. Look what you’ve become.” My gaze trailed his form. “A clown who makes sport of frightening young women.”
His nostrils flared, his temperament making the temperature drop several degrees.
“Your arrogance is your biggest flaw,” he winced, bristling at the insult. “And it will be your downfall.”
“I have earned the right to arrogance.” I wore my hat, rising slowly. “I outlived you lots on this floating rock, with all my abilities intact. I am pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Heavy on the pretty by the way.”
He did not like this.
Aionis was quite touchy about his looks. A narcissistic creature who had been famous for his good looks centuries ago, now reduced to rot.
That was the point he made the mistake of snarling at me.
My strides swallowed the distance between us, and I caught him by the throat before he could move.
He wheezed and kicked, but his hands fell away every time he tried to grab my forearm. The heat from my skin was too much for a creature like him to bear.
I pushed him into the mounted mirror I had been eyeing the whole time, and swept my hand across the surface, trapping him in there.
The mirror started to shake from the force of his struggle as I dusted bits of his rotting flesh off my shirt with a disgusted wince.
“You really have to do something about this decay of yours.”
He cursed at me, hitting the mirror like a trapped bird in an airless cage.
“Now that we have you contained. Back to our conversation. I refuse to believe you stupid enough to toy with my property.”
After his attack, I was intent now on making sure no one knew that she was my pet. That she had carved out a space for herself in my heart.
It was crucial I maintained the charade of her being a mere Ascendant, one of my properties.
“You did not have to trap me here for an answer I intend on giving you. Between the ballerina and the vampire, is your queen.”
My hand froze.
“I wish I could give you a definite response though. Intent as she is on hiding herself, she keeps giving me the run around, shifting between them.”