The Dragon Queen's Heir [book one]

7

MUCH TO MY DISMAY, I don't fall into a dreamless sleep.

Instead, I find myself back at home, at the royal palace, but something is off. Shadows are a thousand times deeper than they should be, and all the furniture and paintings rise up higher than I'm used to. It's almost like I've returned to being a child. Against my will, the body I'm in turns around and begins running, gray walls speeding past me as the sound of childish laughter bounces around the hallway.

The mixture of all these elements draws out a shiver from my spine, even more so when a voice calls after me. "Ashlyn, ready or not, here I come!" Immediately, my body screeches and dives under a table, wrapping my arms around my knees and drawing them close to my chest. I watch as a girl speeds past, straight red hair flying out behind her, and have to stifle a scream when she stops and turns around.

My body presses itself up against the wall behind me, blinking rapidly as the girl takes slow steps towards the table. When she reaches it, she sticks her head under and grins. "Boo!"

Her eyes are pure black.

~

I wake in cold sweat, taking shuddering breaths as I ponder what in Nightshorne just happened. The vision was far too realistic to have been a simple nightmare--but if it wasn't that, what could it have been?

The image of the older girl's black eyes haunt me as I stand and stretch; whenever I blink, I see them staring at me from behind my open bathroom door or up at me from under my bed. I shiver and force myself to get a grip. You need all your energy to focus on today. Forcing myself to think about something, anything, other than my nightmare, I walk to my bathroom and splash cold water on my face. It helps, but not much.

After a few moments, someone knocks gently on my door, and I hurry over to open it. Mikki's face greets me, her features twisting in concern as soon as she takes in my appearance. "Did you sleep all right?" She pauses, running her eyes over my body. "You look horrible."

I sigh. "Thanks." Opening the door wider, I let Mikki come into my room, and, closing the door behind her, say, "I had some creepy nightmare where this girl was chasing me through the palace. First, my vision at the Selecting, then this." I throw my arms in the air and lean my head against the door. "I've never had this problem before."

Mikki frowns. "Maybe you should talk to Professor Singh about it."

I run the idea around in my head, then shake my head. "No, it's okay. I'm sure it's nothing." At least, nothing important enough to get in the way of me finally getting to control my own life. It's probably just all the stress from the past few days finally getting to me, messing with my mind. "So what's going to happen today? I heard it's important."

Eyeing me for a moment, Mikki frowns. Then she sighs and shakes her head, putting two trunks onto my bed and saying, "Today is the day you meet your dragon. I'm here to make sure you look as impressive as possible, hopefully to dissipate some of the prejudice the boys here have against you."

The prospect excites me, but something nags at the corner of my mind. I frown. "They're afraid of me," I say softly. "They're scared I'm going to turn out like the last girl that came to this school." Taking a deep breath, I make a decision, my face hardening with resolve. "Don't make me look scary or impressive or anything. That will only make my situation worse." I pause, meeting Mikki's eyes. "Please just make me look as small and assuming as possible. I want to go here and learn to hone my powers in peace. I don't want any attention I don't need."

Mikki huffs. "You make me haul these heavy trunks of makeup up three flights of stairs only to tell me I won't need half of it?" She chuckles and shakes her head. "You're one of the most interesting people I've ever met, Ashlyn Rehlia." I blush and start to apologize, but Mikki immediately cuts me off. "No need to apologize. You need to get some self-confidence, girl. Now put that stone back on so I can work with your appearance."

I nod and take the stone from my nightstand, clenching it tightly in my fists. Mikki glances down at it, frowning. "Don't you have some way to wear that besides holding it in your pocket? Like a necklace or something?"

Shaking my head, I say, "I was kind of in a rush when I got it. I didn't have time to make it into something. Do you think I should?"

Mikki nods vigorously. "Hide it in plain sight. No one will suspect a thing. Here, I have some extra string so we can make it into a bracelet for you." She hurries over to my bed and flings open one of her trunks, revealing row after row of various bottled cosmetic items. She rummages through them for a second, then returns to me with a long strand of black nylon string.

I hand her my stone, and she loops the string around it, creating a hole where she can tie in the stone. Then she reaches for my wrist and creates several loops around it, finally tying it off with a barely-visible knot. "Thank you," I breathe, turning my wrist around to examine the bracelet. The string creates three loops around my wrist, the center one holding the stone. It's simple enough to not attract attention but elaborate enough to turn away any questions about why, exactly, I'm wearing a rock on my wrist.

Mikki grins. "Now we get to the real magic." She wiggles her fingers before going to my closet and swinging open the doors. I sit on my bed, mildly curious, as Mikki swipes through item after item of clothing, stopping every few seconds to mutter something under her breath before continuing. Finally, she stops and sucks in a deep breath, yanking the hanger out of the closet and bringing it over to me. "This. Is. Perfect," she says, her eyes lit up with excitement.

I examine the outfit, putting a finger on my chin as my eyes travel down the fabric. "Yes, I think that'll work just fine." 

Not the most interesting chapter, I know, but some serious stuff is going to start going down, starting next chapter! The plot is going to really start kicking off soon, and I can't wait to see what you guys think :3

Please consider voting if you enjoyed this chapter, and comment your thoughts and predictions below! <3

~ Amber