Valentine (The Dragon Kings Book 3) (6 page)

“Nice to meet you, I’m Val.”

She seemed eager to meet him. He instantly liked her.

“Are you tired? We had a room made up for you.” Aspen bounced around on her feet. Was she just as nervous at meeting him as he was of her? He’d never met a queen before. Or a king for that matter.

Val shrugged. “Not really. Hungry though.”

Obsidian laughed and pointed to the stove. “None of us cook well. Skye did when she was here, but we haven’t seen her since the testing. There’s some fruit in the fridge. Help yourself. I’m going to put your bag in your room. I’ll be back in a second.”

Aspen opened the fridge, and Val stared at all the food. Bright green and red fruits. A carton with a white liquid. Some containers with who knows what inside of them. The airplane was easy; he just ate what was given to him. Before that Theo made all of his choices. From the clothes he wore to the movies he watched. There was hardly any time for him to get used to being human. Theo told him it would be easier if he just did as he was told.

Before he turned black, Val had never expected to even be in the presence of royalty, let alone be one of them, so he listened to Theo.

Then at the airport he let Hazel make decisions for him. His heart squeezed at the thought of her. That sparkle in her eye and the way she cocked her head when he took her by surprise. He wanted to have her here with him. He didn’t think it was possible to feel so strongly for someone in such a short amount of time.

“What’s good?” he finally asked Aspen.

“Still getting used to being a human, huh?” She pulled out a few pieces of fruit. “The apples and bananas are decent. Make sure you peel the banana though.” She pulled the bright yellow skin off the fruit.

“Thank you.”

They sat at the table. “How was your flight?”

He smiled. “Interesting.”

“This must be weird for you, huh? Are you coping okay?” She leaned back in her chair as he took a bite of the banana. The texture was strange, but the flavor was sweet.

Val was surprised by her concern. “It is a little strange, but so far I’ve found it to be nice.”

Obsidian came back with a tiny dragon in tow.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” The little dragon landed on the table with a crash and glared at Aspen. “I wanted to meet the new king.” She was a rainbow of colors, from her green head to her yellow wings. Her body was a swirl of pink and purple. He’d never seen such a dragon. Then again, before a week ago, he’d only seen his own kind.

Sid shrugged. “I didn’t mean to wake her up, but she heard me putting the bags away.”

Aspen offered the tiny dragon a piece of banana, which she gobbled up. “I’ve been taught to never wake a sleeping dragon. Besides, he’s tired and doesn’t want to be bothered.”

“Nonsense.” The dragon bobbed her head up and down in front of him. “I’m Runa. Can you take me to see the ocean? I’ve been asking everyone for weeks, but no one will take me.”

“No one is going to the ocean for a while. We’ve got too much going on,” Aspen said with a roll of her eyes.

Runa stuck her tongue out at Aspen and settled on the table in front of Val. He wasn’t sure what to make of her.

“What kind of dragon are you?” he asked.

“Underground and river.” She studied him with yellow eyes.

“She never shuts up. Kind of makes me wish she wasn’t river,” Aspen said with a laugh.

“Hey,” Runa started, but Aspen shoved another piece of banana in her mouth.

Obsidian sat down across from him. “As Aspen said, there’s a lot going on. There’s a war coming. We need to bring you up to speed on the prophecy and train you for battle. But the priority is finding you a queen.”

“Already done.” Val sat a little taller, glad he’d done something right. Maybe being a king wouldn’t be so hard.

Obsidian creased his eyebrows. “How is that possible? She has to be a human.”

“Oh, I know. Theo explained it to me. Then, I met a girl on the airplane.”

Aspen laughed. “It’s not quite that easy.”

Val’s confidence fell. He wasn’t quite sure if he knew what he was doing. But he did know that Hazel had sealed herself to him, so it couldn’t be that bad.

Runa popped her head up. “Is she pretty like Aspen? What color are her eyes?”

Val smiled at her. “She is pretty, and she has green eyes like Aspen. She lives here in Gardiner. Look.”

He pulled off his shoes and peeled away his sock. Aspen looked down and then shot back up. “That says Hazel.”

“Yeah. She’s pretty amazing.” Val thought briefly of the kiss and had to fight to keep a silly grin off his face.

“I have a sister named Hazel.” Aspen’s eyebrows creased.

Val didn’t think much of her comment. “Lots of Hazels in the world, right? She’s beautiful and smart and kind. She’s perfect.”

Aspen rolled her eyes. “Still sounds like my sister. Dark hair, green eyes, able to get whatever she wants from a handsome face?”

Val squirmed. “Was you sister on an airplane tonight?”

“Yeah, she was coming home to help search for my brother.”

It
was
Hazel’s sister. That might make this all easier. Or harder, depending on how Aspen took the news.

“She talked about how much you loved dragons.”

“She hates them.” Aspen sat back in her chair with her arms crossed.

“I know. That’s going to be a problem. But seeing as how her name is on my ankle, we’ll make it work.” Val didn’t see the problem. As soon as he realized she’d sealed herself to him, he knew this was a done deal. He’d found his queen.

Runa jumped off the table. “I get to meet Aspen’s sister? I must go change and make myself presentable.”

Runa flew off, and Aspen frowned. “Does she know what you are?”

Val shook his head. Sid squeezed his eyes shut for a second, but he still didn’t say anything.

Aspen then turned to Sid. “This is unbelievable. What are the chances that he sealed himself to my sister?”

“About as likely as you sealing yourself to me the day we met.”

“But Hazel detests dragons.”

“Val wasn’t a dragon.”

Aspen turned back to Val. “This still doesn’t make sense. What about the marking? Did you two talk about that at all?”

“No. It happened just as our plane was landing. I didn’t get a chance to discuss it. I figured I’d find her tomorrow.” He didn’t understand why they weren’t more excited about this. One less thing they had worry about.

“I don’t think you really know my sister. She’s not into commitment. At all. She and I made a pact the summer we both got hurt that we’d never let it happen again. As far as I know, she still hasn’t changed her mind.”

“Yeah, she told me about that.”

“She told you about that?” Aspen sat up straighter.

“She told me how she got her heart broken by Teddy and doesn’t want to have anything to do with relationships.”

Aspen leaned back in her chair and frowned. Obsidian rubbed the back of her neck. “But you changed your mind. Maybe she did too.”

Aspen rolled her eyes. “On an airplane? Come on. Plus, she really hates dragons. I’m not sure how that happened, but something went wrong.”

Val rubbed his eyes. Hazel had told him that she wasn’t looking for a relationship, but Aspen made it seem like there was no way she’d love him. But that wasn’t possible. Her name was on his ankle. That meant she sealed herself to him as well. Because if she hadn’t, her name wouldn’t have appeared. It would just be a swirl of loops.

Aspen looked at her phone. “Dammit. It’s too late to go home. They won’t let me in. Sissy’s gonna freak when she’s sees that tattoo.”

“What do you mean that they won’t let you in?” Val asked.

“The military. They have barricades around the park, and they close at nine p.m. No one is allowed out or in. Stupid murderous dragon.” She typed quickly on her phone.

“What’s she talking about?” Val asked.

Obsidian jerked his head. “Hmm. Oh, the dragon that’s eating people. They shut down the park. They think he got her brother.”

Aspen slammed her phone down. “It didn’t get Rowan. He’s alive. I know it. We just need to find him.”

“How do you know he’s alive?”

“He’s my twin. I’d know if he were dead.” Her bright green eyes now burned with determination.

She looked down at her phone.

“Sissy said she’ll meet me at the Purple Dragon at eight. She’ll need some explanation of the tattoo. Does she know your full name?”

“Yeah. She called it romantic.” Val wanted to go with her. He desperately needed to see Hazel again.

Aspen tapped her foot. “She was probably being sarcastic. I’ll need to leave out the fact that you are a dragon and that the tattoo means she’ll never love anyone else. That will just scare her off.”

“How are you going to explain the tattoo without explaining that I’m a dragon?” Val wished he had some grand plan on how to win her over, but he had no clue what he was doing.

“I don’t know, but we’ll sleep on it. Maybe I can just play dumb. Say I don’t know anything more about it than she does. I’ll show her mine, and we can just be dumbfounded together.”

“Do you really think she’ll buy it?” He frowned. Hazel was smarter than that. Plus, she wasn’t the type to just accept pat answers.

“Maybe. It’s that or have her run for the hills when she finds out you’re a dragon.”

“How are we going to get her to like dragons?” Val figured that would be their biggest obstacle. Her commitment issues wouldn’t matter. Not after she sealed herself to him.

“I don’t know. But leave that to me. You focus on convincing her to like you.”

Val nodded. It would make everything easier if he wasn’t trying to make her like dragons. He really didn’t think getting her to like him would be a problem. He’d never heard of anyone who sealed to someone they didn’t love or want to spend the rest of their life with. When dragons sealed together, they were already madly in love.

Sid stood. “We should get some sleep. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”

“Wait, there is something else you should know.”

Sid sat back down. “What’s up?”

“I was attacked on the airplane. It’s possible it was just a fluke, but the man who attacked me seemed pretty determined to get to me specifically.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sid.

Val explained what happened on the airplane.

Sid leaned back and crossed his arms, staring off into space. Aspen’s eyes flicked between him and Val, who tapped his fingers on the table. The assassination attempt bothered him.

“It does seem that his purpose was to assassinate you. I’ll put out feelers and see who knows about you. I expect it has to do with the prophecy, which we’ll talk about later. For now you’re safe with us. Let’s go to bed and worry about queens, wars, and death in the morning.” Sid grinned and pulled Aspen up with him. “The love side of this is so much more fun than the wars. Don’t you think?”

“Of course,” Aspen replied. “Too bad, we have to go outside and, you know, actually live life.”

Val followed them upstairs. He liked Sid’s laid back and friendly attitude. Theo was more uptight, so he’d expected Sid to be as well. Val could see why people would follow him. He was the type of leader that won you over with his easy ways, not the type that demanded it. Val knew he would have to step up and be a king as well, and he hoped he could do it like this.

If no one else tried to kill him.

H
AZEL WOKE EARLY the next morning, if you could call what she did over the night as sleep. She barely caught a minute of shuteye, and the evidence was everywhere. Her pillows were missing from her bed, and her blankets fell off to one side.

Her room was just as she left it a year and a half ago, with the picture of the raging ocean hanging over her dresser to her forgotten surfboard behind the closet door.

Last summer her family came to visit her instead of her coming home. She had hoped to spend the time with her sister, but Aspen had disappeared into the mountains to photograph those wretched dragons. Rowan wouldn’t leave the hotel room, so it was mostly just Hazel and her parents down at the beach.

She missed Aspen. A lot. They were super close before she moved away. If it hadn’t been for Paul and his clinginess, she’d still be here. Maybe she shouldn’t have let him run her off.

She threw on jeans and an old Gardiner High hoodie, and grinned. She hadn’t worn jeans since she left home. The cold was going to kill her. Maybe it had killed Rowan. He always hated the snow and the cold. They lived in Florida when they were kids, and so he’d never built snowmen or gone sledding. Hazel remembered the first snowfall after they moved to Montana. She and Aspen had gone outside and made a massive snowman while Rowan watched from the window. His only contribution had been a broken pair of his old glasses. Now he was out in the freezing cold, possibly dead. Her stomach clenched. No, she wouldn’t think of that. He was alive somewhere. He had to be.

She dug around a drawer and found some socks. When she sat down to put them on, she studied the marking on her ankle again. It didn’t make sense. How did something like that just show up?

It didn’t. That was the problem. Things like this didn’t just happen. When did it show up? It wasn’t before she got on the plane.