61. The Fire Gem

Thorn stepped up. He placed himself between Olcan and the water sphere Leila and his baby were in.

He stared at the wolf king with a deadly glare, and said with the coldest tone possible, as if every syllable was made of a sharp blade, “It was you all along.”

Olcan responded with a wicked grin, pulling the string of the crossbow in his hands, aiming at the sphere, “I suggest you back off, dragon prince, if you don’t want to die with Mother Dragon. I should have killed her along with her annoying husband that day. But after I finally killed that old wretch, I was already too exhausted, giving her a chance to escape.”

“But Eros’ ring... how did you get the ring?” Ula asked impatiently with a bewildered expression.

“I think I know what happened that night,” Thorn answered, his gaze unwaveringly glued to Olcan as he inched towards Eros with small steps, “Olcan killed my mother and the Luna Queen. Then, he stole Eros’s ring while he was drunk and asleep in Amaya’s chamber. What always bothered me though, is why Amaya wanted Leila dead so badly. Then I realized, on that night, Amaya made sure Eros was sleeping like a corpse. I've never seen my father drunk before—he’s a man who can hold his liquor. It became clear that he had been drugged. Amaya slipped some sleeping potion into Eros’ wine so she could leave, instead of accompanying the dragon king. She flew to the Craggy Mountains to make sure her crossbreed trafficking business was running smoothly for the royal court. With that out of the way, she knew she was ready to replace Tora as dragon queen.

"I remember... my mother and father were already in a toxic relationship. They argued all the time. I think Amaya must have believed that their relationship was a lost cause. She had to prepare herself accordingly. When she was in the Craggy Mountains, she must have assumed that the poor grey dragon lady selling knit goods had witnessed her ugly deeds. But her guilt had made her overly cautious. She couldn’t let a single mistake jeopardize her reputation. She wholeheartedly believed the woman had seen her transport all the crossbreeds into the cave for the high lords in the dragon court. So she needed to find her and kill her. ”

“But why did she want to kill Leila too?” Ula snapped, “She was planning on taking her life ever since she appeared in your palace!”

“Amaya was always a cruel woman. She couldn’t be sure how much Leila had seen as a baby, and she wanted her dead too, just in case. But the grey dragon woman had already given Leila to her sister. Amaya had to give up. But when Leila escaped from her aunt, Amaya immediately recognized her as the girl the grey dragon woman took away due to her lilac eyes.”

Thorn briefly looked down at the ring in Eros’ hands. His father was clinging to his last breath. Then, he looked quickly back up to Olcan, “But you... you went on to murder Father Dragon. You placed Eros’ ring at the crime scene, then blamed it on him by making sure the siren queen discovered the ring."

Olcan laughed. “ Precisely. You dragons are all evil! That dragon queen, she was determined to take my luna away from me! She put evil thoughts in my luna's head!” Olcan said emotionally, “That night, I found out that she went to meet with Tora again. So I followed her. I saw everything. What she was doing with Tora... I simply couldn’t accept it! She wanted to leave me forever! I could never allow that!”

“So you dropped a shiny needle on the ground to make sure Eros saw it. You diverted his path to Tora and the luna.” Thorn added.

“I needed the dragon king to see what his wife was doing to mine!” Olcan shouted angrily, “But I should’ve known he was weaker than rumored. He only argued with Tora, then ran off to his little whore and drank wine. But it was better that way, more effective... since I did it myself.”

“What exactly on earth were they doing in the dungeon?” Ben had to ask. Olcan’s eyes gleamed as he looked him.

Thorn tossed the diary to Ben and said, “Tora was only doing her a favor. A favor that Luna wanted more than anything.”

Ben looked at the dairy, quickly scanning along a frail page nestled within the diary. Then he exclaimed, “Luna was a crossbreed dragon?”

Thorn noddled. “It seems so. This wolf king had taken a strange liking to the crossbreed dragon girl. Tora wrote in her diary that he would abuse the luna, raping her and beating her, but claimed that was the way he showed his love. The luna couldn’t tolerate it anymore. She asked Tora to drain out half of her blood so she could stop being a crossbreed. It was a dangerous operation—only a few in the kingdom could perform it. Tora was one of them. She used Father Dragon’s heart stone to perform the ritual, a stone only the black dragon bloodline had the honor of owning. It’s a powerful object that she couldn’t risk falling into the wrong hands. She quickly sealed it in this diary when Olcan barged in.”

Ben eyed Olcan with a hateful stare. Olcan turned his attention toward Ben, trying to find the similarities between himself and his son. Thorn picked up Eros’s ring.

“If you surrender now, I'll give you a chance to speak with Ben before I kill you for good,” Thorn said. His eyes narrowed as he watched Olcan like a hawk. His tone was short and cold.

Olcan looked back at Thorn. “You're mistaken! I have the upper hand here! You're just like your mother, always overestimating yourself.” Then, he launched his arrow, eliminating any chance to appear heroic before Ben.

Instead of aiming at Thorn, the arrow went straight into the water sphere. Thorn quickly leaped forward, trying to snap the arrow. Ula quickly grabbed onto Ben and threw him forward.

But the arrow flew past Ben and shot directly through into the Mother Dragon.

The water sphere vanished at once. Mother Dragon was hurt, lying on the ground. Leila appeared out from under the protection of her wings, looking more ravishing than ever. The little baby dragon was alive but crying.

Thorn tossed the shiny heart stone to Leila. Then he slid Eros’s ring onto his finger, blowing a gentle breath on the fire gem inlaid in the ring, and shifted into the black dragon. He breathed out a flood of lava and stamped on the ground. The dragon stretched his wings and dove toward Olcan. With all of his power, he smashed Olcan deep into the ground, where the land ruptured beneath them.

Leila took the heart stone in her palms. She observed its shape and immediately knew where to put it.

“Please...” Leila put her baby in Rina’s arms.

Then she took the flute stone off of her neck and pushed the heart stone through. The two stones fit together as one. Quickly, the stone grew in size until it became a black, finely crafted scepter.

Leila kissed Mother Dragon, “Thank you for bestowing me with your power. Hang on there, I will be back soon.”

She then wrapped her hand tightly around the scepter and jumped into the fissure to find Thorn.