Dragon Lake Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by R. L. Davennor

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN 978-1-7351315-1-1 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-1-7351315-2-8 (paperback)

  Published by Night Muse Press

  Cover art by Maria Spada Design

  Edited by J. E. Feldman

  Contents

  Dragon Lake

  A Land of Never After

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  To Jesse and Jena, who give me wings to fly.

  To Bonnie and Taylor, who kept me sane during daylight.

  To Kim, who was by my side no matter what.

  To my readers, who never cease to amaze me with their support and generosity.

  To Maria, who designed an incredible cover and was a joy to work with as always.

  And to Odette, who taught me that freedom is worth fighting for.

  To all the women tired of being pawns in a man’s story.

  Unable are the Loved to die

  For Love is Immortality,

  Nay, it is Deity—

  Unable they that love—to die

  For Love reforms Vitality

  Into Divinity.

  Emily Dickinson

  Dragon Lake

  Men are foolish, predictable creatures.

  This one was no different.

  I peered out from the tree concealing me and waited, scanning the moonlit forest for the prince that believed he chased a helpless, innocent maiden.

  I was neither.

  The dragon within me writhed as she always did at night, clawing and scraping at my insides even harder now that my target was near. He’d fallen behind and wouldn’t be able to make out details through the mist.

  He wouldn’t be able to tell the dragon was me.

  I gathered my dress in my fists. Silver embroidery trailed up the sleeves and the garment wasn’t cumbersome—a rare find. The minute I shifted, it would be ruined like all the others. If I took it off while still in one piece, I could retrieve it later...and surely I deserved such a luxury on my final mission. Once this was done, I’d be free of the dragon forever.

  Bunching the skirt, I threw it over my head and pulled. And pulled. How many layers did this damn thing have? It’d felt light while I was running, but perhaps that was just excitement flooding through my veins. The dragon thrashed against my ribcage, making my task no easier.

  And now my arms were stuck. I gritted my teeth and swore, yanking despite the discomfort. I couldn’t see, and the prince’s voice was getting louder. Closer.

  My petty desire was proving to be a fatal mistake.

  The fabric gave way at long last. My shoulders popped free, and my arms soon followed. As the dress floated to the ground and the prince’s silhouette became visible through the mist, my dragon came alive.

  The act of shifting wasn’t as painful as it was cathartic. Talons were first to sprout, bursting through the ends of my fingers and toes with such violence that splatters of crimson flecked the ground. Though the still-human part of me wanted to scream, I bit my tongue. The same moment hair retreated into my scalp, wings burst from my spine, and this time I couldn’t stifle the guttural shriek that tore from my throat. Bones twisted, popped and snapped, and through my blurring vision, the world shrank until even the tallest oaks became little more than twigs. The pain subsided, and my sight went from hazy to razor-focused. I pinpointed the prince chasing after me. I heard his elevated heart rate clear as a war drum. I smelled his exhilaration turned to fear the moment he glimpsed me.

  I yearned next to taste his blood.

  He staggered backward, and a draconian laugh quaked the ground beneath our feet. The beast took over when he started to run. Snarling, I stepped forward to crush a handful of trees. Trunks and other carnage fell in his path, and he screamed before darting to find an exit.

  There was one thing I loathed about this body; it was cumbersome. I could fight and kill in each of my forms, but the beast better concealed my identity, and when the dragon took over, things like emotion never got in the way. The dragon yearned for blood; nothing more, and nothing less. The human in me, no matter how much I tried to shut her out, felt things...so I needed to make this quick.

  The sooner this ended, the better for all involved. Once I finished him, I could go home for good. Ten princes, ten kills, and I would never be tormented by the dragon again. That was the deal Rothbart and I had made…well, most of it. There was still the matter of my master’s other demands, but the dragon shoved those thoughts aside.

  I had a prince to devour.

  He spotted the exit. The one exit among the trees I’d felled. Dammit. I smashed a log, splintering wood everywhere, but gods was he fast. Debris clouded the air, but he sprinted on, all traces of clumsiness gone as he gained ground faster than any prince I’d fought before.

  I turned to the side, aware of where he stood. I could crush him, but that was no fun; the dragon preferred bones snapping and crunching beneath her teeth. Utilizing the momentum from my behemoth body, I swung my tail in a continuing arc, taking with it nearly all the trees covering the hillside and starting an avalanche of rolling trunks. The only place left to run was straight into my clutches.

  But he surprised me yet again.

  With nimble grace I wish I possessed, the prince faced the danger head-on. He leaped and dodged, and by some miracle made it to an outcropping of rock seconds before he’d have been crushed by a wayward boulder. He wedged himself beneath the stone, using the shield that protected him from the relentless waves of debris.

  Clever as it was, it certainly wouldn’t protect him from me.

  I lowered my maw to the ground, waiting for the avalanche to subside before timing my strike. Our eyes met, and for reasons the dragon didn’t understand, my heart skipped a beat. He was pleading.

  He was afraid.

  I wanted to scream. Didn’t he know I was too? Didn’t he know I was doing this to set myself free from one torment only to be immediately enslaved by another?

  He was a prince. He’d never known torment a day in his life—save for what I was about to do.

  I bared my teeth. His hand shot to the pommel of his sword, enraging the dragon and bringing our conjoined minds to a state in which I had little control. The rubble slowed, and though I preferred to wait before lashing out, the blade changed things. I shot forward, teeth grazing stone and earth in their search for flesh and widened my maw just enough to fit him inside.

  I’d misjudged. A feral screech tore from my throat when my snout scraped the jagged surface of his shelter, and as I recoiled, blood rained down around us. The outcropping’s narrow opening had been enough to keep me out, and my overconfidence now meant I was wounded.

  The dragon’s rage built to dangerous levels. My eyes narrowed into slits and my claws dug into the earth. The prince drew his sword in preparation for my strike, but when our eyes met, his gaze trailed over the blood coating my snout.

  I growled. It would be his soon.

  The prince began waving his arms like a madman. With his sword still in his hand, the blade clanged against the rock shielding him from me, and even my human half was confused. Was thi
s a challenge? A threat? The desperation of a man who knew he was about to die?

  A sword answered my question.

  With another deafening shriek, I turned away from the prince and towards the forest. A company of men stood at the ready, weapons poised to strike while crests bearing the prince’s colors flapped in the breeze. Turning my head back towards where he’d been trapped, I saw nothing but a wall of rock.

  He’d escaped.

  Their mission accomplished, a few of the men took off while the rest stood firm, banging their swords against their shields and yelling unintelligible nonsense. Cowards and fools respectively. If they thought they’d saved their beloved prince, they were sorely mistaken.

  I’d kill them all.

  I lunged forward. One man crunched beneath my foot while I snatched another in my jaws, his armor doing less than nothing to protect him. Before I spat him out, I went for another, relishing the sensation of bones snapping as much as I relished their screams.

  I made quick work of the fools who thought they could face me, knowing the cowards who fled already had a head start. Wings beating to help propel me forward, I stomped through the trees, eyes darting in every direction to scan for movement.

  There.

  A straggler screamed in vain for the companions all too eager to leave him behind. As I’d done with the others, I snatched him in my claws—but this time, I didn’t crush him. My taste for blood had been sated for the moment, and with a handful of victims remaining, I could have some fun.

  I lifted him to my face, wanting him to feel my breath. I wanted him to see the blood of his companions staining my teeth as I bared them.

  Most of all, I wanted him to scream.

  He thrashed within my claws serving as a cage, suspended too high to jump. I pierced a claw into each of his feet, ignoring his howls of agony.

  When he met my gaze, I tore him in half.

  Blood oozed down my legs as I tossed the pieces to the dirt, already on the hunt for those that remained. My speed wasn’t impressive, but my size meant each stride spanned a hundred yards. It wasn’t long before another straggler fell behind; badly limping, he soon collapsed altogether. I pinpointed his location, intending to crush him as I continued my chase.

  But the prince turned around.

  He sprinted for his fallen man, reaching the straggler before I did, but there was no time to escape. Their only choice was to face death as one.

  Instead, the prince faced me.

  Siegfried.

  Shock rippled through me at the remembrance of his name, and I skidded to a halt. Trees quivered, and even the men stilled as they watched what I would do to their prince.

  Raising his sword, Siegfried screamed words the human part of me understood. “It’s me you want, yes?” Without waiting for me to respond, he headed toward the lake. He may not have explained himself to his men, but his message to me was clear.

  Don’t harm them.

  I growled. What right did he have to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do? I could crush them all—especially with the way they stared at me now as if their prince’s supposed sacrifice rendered them immune. I should slaughter them out of spite.

  No. What little was left of my humanity forced its way to the forefront of my mind. He’s the last one—the last prince. After this, no more.

  No more.

  I started after him.

  Siegfried kept his breakneck pace. The closer we drew to the lake, the wetter the ground became, and the harder it was for me to slog through. I beat my wings to no avail, screeching into the color-changing sky that reminded me I didn’t have much time. As soon as the sun began to rise, the dragon would leave me, and my hunt would start over. Every fiber of my being demanded Siegfried’s blood, and not because I’d been ordered to end him. It was because he’d made a fool of me and my master. If Rothbart knew I spared those men, he’d chain me in the dungeon for at least a week—most likely more. Best make sure he doesn’t find out, the human in me chastised, but keeping anything from the sorcerer was much easier said than done.

  Cliffs lined the lake’s eastern shores, offering Siegfried nowhere left to run. He gripped his sword tighter the more my shape shrouded him in shadow. Shadow? The sun peeked over the horizon, evaporating any traces of darkness.

  I had only minutes.

  Wary and afraid, he stared at me like a caged animal. If only he knew just how much I could relate.

  “Did you kill her, too?”

  I narrowed my gaze.

  “You did, didn’t you?” Siegfried’s shoulders relaxed the longer he studied me. It was nearly as puzzling as the way he’d leaped to the defense of the men meant to be doing that for him. “She was just a girl.”

  He had no idea he was talking about me.

  “We knew you’d come for me. We didn’t know when, but knew it would be eventually.” Siegfried tossed his sword at my feet. “You sure as hell took your time.”

  Sunrise drew closer with every word he spoke, but I couldn’t bring myself to do what needed to be done.

  “I also knew I stood no chance of killing you.”

  I rumbled; it was true. Perhaps as a human, but never as a dragon.

  “You understand every word I’m saying, don’t you?”

  He did it again—held me captive with his eyes. Unlike the rest of him, they were light.

  Siegfried reached to unfasten his cloak. “Then understand this. I may not be able to kill you…but I can ensure you’re not what kills me.”

  He jumped.

  A strangled cry tore from my throat. I stumbled, belly striking stone while my neck dangled over the edge of the cliff. The lake sparkled below, reminding me it was too high a height for a human to survive the landing.

  But not a dragon.

  I dove after him.

  The first rays of dawn licked at my scales like fire, melting them where it touched. Human skin began to surface and my limbs started to flail, no longer recognizing my mind as the entity in control. I kept my eyes on Siegfried, beating my wings before they were sucked back into my body. Ignoring the pain that shot up my arm, I reached for him. We clasped hands—human hands—and though mine were slick with blood, I refused to let him go.

  Somewhere between forms, I pulled him against my chest, fighting against the curse harder than ever before. My wingbeats grew further apart, and with Siegfried’s added weight, we were falling much too fast.

  Even for the dragon.

  I struck the lake first and hardest. Blinded by the pain, Siegfried slipped from my grasp and into the depths below. I couldn’t even scream.

  I could only surrender.

  I opened my eyes expecting darkness, but instead, I saw him.

  Siegfried floated lifelessly in the lake. Eyes closed, his arms were spread wide in surrender, and nothing but peace was written all over his face. A chill that had nothing to do with the cold shot down my spine. My body screamed for the surface, but I swam toward him instead.

  He didn’t react when I looped an arm beneath his. The water made his weight easier to handle, but not by much. Each desperate kick not only burned energy I didn’t have to spare, it sent aches of pain pulsing from my ribs to my toes. I kept my gaze trained upward but seeing what I yearned for only taunted me.

  When at last I sucked in a breath, I couldn’t get enough. A final pull ensured Siegfried’s head was above water, but all I could do was heave and sputter while my mind cleared its haze. Little by little, my memories flooded back, confirming my deepest fears.

  I’d put his safety over my own—and he wasn’t even breathing.

  I transitioned from treading water to swimming like a madwoman, wondering why the fuck I even cared. I needed him dead, and he’d seen to that himself. Yanking the body was a chore, but a justifiable one; Rothbart never minded proof of my kills. I dug my heels into
the muck, muttering obscenities under my breath the entire way to the shore.

  Siegfried looked far worse than he had underwater. His pale skin appeared even paler, devoid of the color that gave him life, and when I brushed my hand against his cheek, it came back icy.

  It was done. I was free.

  But only of the dragon.

  For five long years she’d plagued me. Driven from my own kingdom with no explanation as to why or how I’d been cursed, I turned to the one man capable of helping me. Though he’d accepted me with open arms, Rothbart had a condition of his own. The magic enslaving me was old, dark, and complex, and he’d only reverse the spell if I agreed to marry him.

  But first, I had to kill for him. Princes were competition, especially for someone with no viable claim to any throne. Was it vile? Were there plenty of other men who would make kinder kings? Yes—but none of those men could help me.

  Save for one.

  Like every curse, mine could be broken by simpler means than acquiring the aid of a sorcerer. Killing men was far easier than finding one willing to love me and only me. Who could love a monster—let alone a monster who’d slaughtered so many? It was like a ridiculous storybook.

  But this was real life. And fucking stupid.

  He coughed, and I started so badly I swore it woke the dragon.

  He was alive?

  No. Oh, no. This couldn’t be happening. To kill him now, I’d have to get my hands dirty. There were plenty of options—choking, drowning, skull-bashing—but none of them clean. It had to be done. Rothbart was my only hope of reversing the curse.

  Unless I could break it.

  I laughed aloud and couldn’t stop. I’d sooner get Odile to compliment me.

  Siegfried stirred, and I bit back a scream. Rolling on his stomach, water spewed from his throat and made hideous noises that made me want to vomit right alongside him. The torrent seemed endless; perhaps I could still get away. I pictured where I could place my feet, shifted my weight, and took the first step…