Dragon Blood (Completed)

The Summons

Chapter 1

Zane sat in his mortal form in one of the ballrooms at BlackskinCastle, going over yet another round of details surrounding his upcoming Desma. "Let me see the budget now that we have added the eternal flames as part of the lights." Zane sighed, knowing the extravagant addition was going to add to their almost ten thousand pounds of gold and twenty thousand pounds of silver already going into the reception. In a few months, he and the love of his life were to enter the Desama—the joining of dragon hearts that bound companions together for the rest of their days. The finalizing of these small details were the least of his worries, but Lavender Greenwing, his betrothed, was too excited to allow even the smallest detail to be left to the planners.

Kohen, the head planner, turned to his assistant to request the new totals. Zane watched as she quickly riffled through a stack of papers on the desk. Her nervous, sweaty hands, made her movements awkward and stilted, causing her to knock a large stack to the floor. Papers spread out with an annoying hiss, and the girl instantly dropped to the floor to gather the fallen sheets; her whole body vibrating now as she fumbled to hastily clean up the mess.

"Please, sir, we are very sorry. We beg for your kind mercy," Kohen pleaded with him.

Zane dragged his hand down his face, annoyed that the staff was yet again treating him like a tyrant. He'd grown so self-conscious of the downcast eyes and shaking bodies that served him. He often felt guilty for making the smallest request of the terrified staff. In the beginning, he let them go, dismissing several staffers, only to discover that it didn't help. Anyone who came under his employ soon started acting like he'd beat them all on a regular basis without provocation. Though he'd never laid a hand on any of them, only twice in the last two years had he raised his voice at all. He couldn't understand it. Just trying to talk to them only seemed to hurt the situation rather than make it better.

"How many children should we have?" Zane asked as a distraction, reaching up to play with a stray wisp of golden hair that was floating around Lavender's angular cheekbone.

"Once we produce an heir, we won't need any more," Lavender replied. He felt his face fall slightly as she reached for his hand. "Oh, don't frown, darling. Her eyes watered with the force of her emotions. "I couldn't stand for our children to grow up like you did without one of their parents. If it weren't for this war, I would give you as many as I could produce." For a dragon, that was usually a maximum of six since they only reproduced once every nine years, which was the slight drawback to the blessing of taking their dragon forms.

Zane's mother had been killed when he was just a boy of five. He still remembered her last screech as she sacrificed herself so he and his sister could escape Balaan's forces. The memory always made him shudder, once from childhood fears, now from grown-up anger.

"We are going to stop Balaan and win this war. Then you and I will have the life we've dreamt about, without fear of losing those we love," Zane swore to her.

"I kno—" The door banged open and Ryder burst in with a look of utter horror on his face. Zane and Lavender rose to their feet instantly, frightened of what Ryder had to say.

"He's dead, and now we're all going to die," his stepbrother declared, tugging on his wild hair as his orange eyes stared back at them in horror.

"What? Who's dead?" Lavender asked. But Zane didn't need to hear Ryder utter the name, Theo Bluescale. The old dragon had been in poor health for almost a year. Dragons from every kingdom had sent their best sorcerers to help, but in the end, death took everyone.