Dragon Talons (Indigo Apocalypse Book I)

Chapter Twenty-One: I Learn To Hate My Reflection

ZAVALA:
    The villages across the Silver Plains were ablaze with activity, the Head Dragon setting his women ushering the young and weak out in droves, sending them to the Snow Kingdom capital. Sending them there, where they'd be as safe as possible, while here, here we faced legends and myths, faced the Ragni Di Morte, the Spiders of Death. When we got here, when we'd told them, they hadn't believed us, of course, why should they. "The Snow Queen was their savior. She was eternal, their goddess." Why shoudl she plot to kill them all, and frame her son. "But with two days in, they'd finally listened, and taken our offer to usher them out, and to the castle. Three young hatchlings scampered by, holding backpacks filled with blankets and toys, a sight that made me feel sad. Uprooting, we were literally uprooting them from their comfortable home, and sending them to a legendary place. All the men, and many of the women stayed, would stay and fight, but without any true training, any true experience, I knew they'd all die. Two days in, and we still didn't have enough time, not enough to get them all out, to get them all to safety. Tomorrow, at sunset, the final sunset, this place would be under attack from legions of spiders, huge venomous creatures. They'd come from the mountains, the mountains, which everyone thought would protect them. Now they'd do nothing but unleash the horrors. Then, over all of that, Huntor wasn't mine. I gritted my teeth, standing in the home that I was given, stood in front of a mirror, staring at my pitiful face. Turquoise eyes, long black hair, turqoise horns, and beautiful skin. I growled, wondering why, just, why, couldn't anything go my way for once.
    I had dreamed of the day Huntor would notice me, would notice that I liked him, loved him, wanted, him. I'd given him time, opportunity, chance, and, and finally, finally, he'd given in, he'd allow me to show him, show him that I loved him, wanted him, cared about him. I had thought that I'd finally had it, finally was able to be happy with him, when everything was taken. He'd finally realized Sydney was his true mate, and I was left back here, like a child. I snarled at my reflection, and heard someone walk in. "What?" I snarled, not feeling polite. "So, are you ready to fight finally?" Draco, it was way, way, way, too early for me to be dealing with his sarcasm and sharp remarks. "Be careful Draco, otherwise, you'll find yourself without a dick." Draco appeared behind me, and gave me a sharp fanged grin. "You could try, but I doubt you'd get far before I took you down." I sighed. "Where's Raveaque, why don't you bother him?" Actually, he sent me to find you." "Why?" I asked. "He wants you to escort the final few hundred out to the castle." I slowly, slowly, turned ot face him. "What?" I asked quietly. TO his credit, he just shrugged. "Hey, I said you wouldn't like it, but—"No." I said simply. "What?" He asked. "No. I'm not going anywhere. Huntor told me to stay and fight, and I will listen." "Yeah, uh, Raveaque vetoed that, he—"Isn't my king now is he? No, he's my brother, and right now, I'm not caring about anything he, or you, say." Draco winced and said, "Zavala, look, I'm sorry, I—"Don't wanna hear it." I said, turning back to the mirror. "Go away, find someone else to badger and irritate, I'm off the list." I heard his feet walk out, and I breathed a heavy sigh. "Geez, I hope I wasn't that rude back then." I screamed and whipped around.
    No oen was there. "Actually, I was right here in front of you." I spun back round to the mirror, and screamed again. My reflection, was gone. Instead, there was another face, rounded and young, but beautiful. Blue eyes stared back, with the absence that the blind had, her hair was long and black, flowing around her shoulders, and she had a kind smile on her face. "Oh come on, I'm not that bad." She said, opening her mouth to laugh. I stumbled back, several feet. I looked around, but I was alone, alone, with, with, something, or someone, in the mirror. The girl tilted her head, hair swaying. "How strange, you're scared." "Duhh, what gave it away." I squeaked. "Who who, who, who, who, who—"Oh I think you know who I am." She said. I shook my head, then, remembering she was blind, said, "Nuh-nuh-no." She rolled her eyes. "Of course he didn't tell you. He must've wanted to make a big show of it. Ahhh, even in the life of death, you still have to love him." Realization hit me, hard. "It's you. You're the one he was talking about, the one who sacrificed herself for him." She nodded and gave me a grin, the same grin I saw on his face. "Yep, I'm Audrey, Audrey Kylie, Huntor's first real sexual love."
    I backed away until I saw on a sofa. "I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I have gone completely insane. The last several weeks have finally taken their toll on me and I've completely lost it." She rolled her eyes. "Nope, you aren't, and you know it. He most likely wanted to bring you to my gave at some point. To show you what happened, to tell you how I saved his ass. Probably to try to convince you that you and him, never were going to work." "How do you know that?" I snapped. She laughed. "Geez, because I see myself in you girl. That selfish determination to prove yourself to him. Your love might be genuine, mine never was. But you have that selfish determination to get his attention. You'll do anything to have him, wanted to since you first saw him. I didn't, not since we first met. I was young and naive, and thought if I took him on a magical mystical date, he'd understand, he'd realize. But he saw it way before I even created a portal. Knew way before then, and told me he couldn't love me back, forget that he didn't love me back. Of course I was pissed, who wouldn't be? But instead of learning to get over it, I channeled it, and it separated us, and, when we were alone together, he gave in to temptation, and it cost him everything." "Why are you telling me this?" I asked harshly. "I'm not like you, nowhere near like you. I'm a full-blooded dracon, can defend and take care of myself. I don't need his protection, never did." She laughed. "Geez, I know I wasn't that cocky back then. If I was, I feel bad for Huntor dealing with me. Yes girl, you may believe you're all powerful, but remember, then was against humans, now, it's demons, monsters of myth and legend—"How do you know that?" I asked. "Word gets around." She said slyly. When I waited, she said, "I've kept my, so called, eyes on Huntor. Been watching over him." "That doesn't sound like someone who's given up on him." For the first time, irritation flickered over her face. "I see why your brothers love you so much." "Where do you think I get it from." I muttered.
    Audrey said, "Look Zavala, there's a reason why I came. You need to be careful ok. You need to watch your back." "Let me guess, you won't say why." "Oh no I will. It's because you'll get yourself killed." My mouth fell open. "What?" I asked. "You'll, get, yourself, killed." "I heard you the first time." I snarled. She gave me that same grin, that wolfish grin on his face. "I know, I'm just teasing you, well, not about the get yourself killed part." "How am I going to get myself killed." I snapped. "Ok, that I can't tell you, Higher-Beings, blah blah blah, can't talk about death, you know." "If you don't say," I snarled. "I'm going to—"You'll do what?" She asked. "I'm already dead so, it's meh." Even her words were like his. I bared my fangs. "You know, they wanted to bring me back. They wanted me to come back, for him, wanted us back together as a force, a force to be reckoned with. But it was too late, I had already moved on to the after life." "Is there a point in telling me any of this?" I asked. She shrugged. "You needed to hear it from someone who understood, who loved him, or, thought she did, and died because of it. You needed to hear it before you did something you'd regret later on." I snorted. "Honest, I speak, literally, from experience. My lust and affection toward Huntor got me killed. If I learned to let him go, I still would've been alive, fighting along side the indigo, preparing for this second war." "Why don't you? Amala and Kamala came back, even though they were in the after life." "Actually, Amala's spirit was kind of put in limbo when she died. Kamala was in the after life. And the reason, is because it would ruin Huntor in the long run. He would be happy at first, no doubt, but after that, he'd grow despondent and it would ruin him." "How?" "Because my death unleashed him, set the story so he could grow into the being he was meant to be. Now, he has the power to defeat the Dark Queen, he and his mate Sydney, both will be able to." I didn't miss those words. "You mean, she really is going to wake, they won't be able to stop her." She gave me that wolfish grin. "Maybe I admitted it, maybe not." I threw the closest thing on hand, an oil lamp. Audrey laughed, as the lamp conect and shattered the mirror.