The Princess' Dragon Lord (4 page)

Prison? For a jail, this place didn't look
too uncomfortable, though she supposed being locked up in one place
for a thousand years was more than enough reason to see it as
such.

“
Princess.”

She gasped. That voice, the one from the
forest, telling her to run.

“Who’s there?” she asked.

Azoth looked quizzically at her.

“Who else is here?” she demanded.

“No others are here but my myself, the
dragon, and you,” he said.

“
Princess,”
the voice called again,
and Diana recognized that it was entirely inside her head, and not
whispering through the trees like before.

“I hear someone,” she said, but even to her
own ears, her voice sounded far away and distant. Azoth’s face
became shadowy as he too slipped farther and farther away, like he
was being sucked inside a tunnel.

“
Diana, come with me, you must come and
see
,” the voice said.

Azoth’s face became panicked. He cried out
her name, but Diana couldn’t understand why or what his problem was
as she was pulled into a state of semi-consciousness.

It was like the softest, warmest, most
snuggly blanket was wrapped around her, and she didn’t want to
struggle against it, or ever leave its warmth. A moment ago, she’d
been wishing for the comfort of her mother’s arms, and this was
nearly as good.

Her eyes became droopy, her thoughts slowing
down. She would’ve dozed off had it not been for the things she
saw.

Her. A woman who looked exactly like her,
only, not. There were some minor differences, but it was definitely
a look-a-like. Could have even passed for a twin.

One of those differences being the hair.
Instead of the dark gold color Diana had, the woman's hair was
glittery white, platinum blond. That, and she had no pink scar
between her eyes.

Her hair was braided down to nearly her waist
with tiny flower blossoms woven into the strands. She wore some
sort of ye old English gown with long trumpet lace sleeves and a
square neckline, only, Diana was pretty sure that no gown from the
medieval times was made of that pretty, pearl-white, shimmery
material. It just wasn't a practical color.

More fresh blossoms seemed to sprout along
her gown and trumpet sleeves, and tiny black spiders crawled along
her hem.

Weird. This was too weird.

Feeling a slight bit of courage mixed in with
her curiosity, Diana squinted her eyes and stepped closer, but the
other her didn't even seem to notice her presence as she observed
the gown. The other Diana seemed too preoccupied with staring off
into the distance, studying something that Diana herself, the real
her, couldn't see. The images from this spell, memory, whatever it
was, didn't seem to stretch that far out. Was she looking out a
window? Onto some fresh and lively garden? Maybe she really was
just staring into space.

Diana looked away and put her focus back onto
what she could see. The strange gown. It took a second for her to
realize that the spiders were actually weaving the gown as she—the
other her—wore it, and all the shimmer came from tiny dew drops
that had formed along the material, and the blossoms.

It must be early morning then
, she
thought.

The little blooming pink, white and blue
flowers, hadn't been picked and placed on the gown and in her hair
for decoration. They were
growing
right out of it, even from
the hair, which was curled over a pair of delicately pointed
ears.

Diana stepped back. She looked up at her
twin's head. The dainty tiara that rested there wasn't made out of
leaves and twigs or anything. It look made of silver and gold with
actual diamonds.

Diana had mice and birds and insects who
visited her regularly, sometimes offering gifts, other times just
dropping in to say hello. As well as they could with no vocal
cords, that is. She used to jokingly compare herself to a Disney
princess. Was the reality not that far off?

"No way."

"Diana!"

She turned, so did her twin. Diana didn't
recognize the man calling her name, and for a second as he ran
towards them, she thought someone was coming to take her out of
this strange dream.

The skinny man with black hair and robes
didn't run to her, he ran to her twin instead. Her twin's face was
hardly a happy one as they joined hands.

"I just heard the news. Are they truly to
marry you to a dragon?" The man's eyes—purple, now that she could
see—were wide. The whites went all around those oddly colored
irises.

The other her lowered her head, her throat
working in what must have been a painful swallow. "Yes. I have been
told he is a lord, a prince. But I have never met him before! I do
not want to marry a stranger!"

Diana nearly fell on her ass as she watched
the exchange, but she didn't dare blink and forced herself to keep
from fainting. This was important, this was something she needed to
see, something familiar.

She'd done this before, had these reactions,
felt these fears.

"Marry me then," the man in black said.

"
What?
" Fae Princess Diana
exclaimed.

Real world Diana's jaw dropped.

Fae Diana shook her head, slowly, as though
she didn't quite believe what she'd heard. "Nyx, you cannot be
serious,"

"I am perfectly serious. If we are to be
blessed in marriage, then they cannot in good consciousness force
your hand. I love you, Highness, you know this. I will take good
care of you if you will be my wife."

Diana already knew what the answer would be
by the pitying expression on the other her's face, the way she
slowly retracted her hands from Nyx's grasp.

It wasn't that he was a servant, Diana
realized as she became more in tune with the fae woman's emotions.
The problem lay in the fact that she couldn't dishonor a promise
that her mother had made, regardless of whether or not Diana
herself wanted anything to do with it.

"Nyx, you are a good friend, and I do love
you, but I cannot go against my mother's wishes. I cannot give you
my hand."

Nix's black brows came down. He bit his lips
together and looked away from her, a clear indicator that he was
trying to not be angry at the rejection. The way the tips of his
ears transformed into a bright red gave that away anyway. "Of
course. Forgive me, Highness, I forgot my place."

"Nyx!" The other Diana called, pain in her
voice.

He already turned and started to walk
away.

Diana—the real Diana—felt a tremble in her
shoulders. Soft at first but then more and more violent until
everything she saw, the hazy images and memories, became an
indistinguishable blur as she was pulled out of her dream.

Azoth's face was in front of her, panic
written all over his expression. "Diana! Diana!"

The floor left her in a whoosh, and in a
split second she was aware that he'd lifted her into his arms, as
though she weighed no more than a crumbling leaf, and was carrying
her away.

"No," she said, trying to push him away, but
her weak attempts had all the effect of a drafty breeze pushing
against a brick house.

"I will not touch you,"

In bed, he meant, she was sure, since he was
already touching her now. Though he did keep his hands from
traveling anywhere inappropriate.

Her nose and lip itched. She reached up to
scratch but pulled away when her fingers touched a wet slippery
something.

When she pulled her hand back, a thick red
substance coated her fingers. Had she had a nose bleed during her
vision?

That suddenly didn't seem important at all.
Her little woodland friends who came to visit her, the little scar
that ran diagonal between her eyebrows to just under her eye, the
dragon outside the stone of this cave, and hell, even that vision
she'd just had. Azoth was telling her the truth.

"Nyx?" She asked.

Azoth put her in bed and was in the middle of
tucking her in when she'd said it. He froze at the mention of the
name. "Your memories…we will speak again once you've rested. I will
wash that away."

Probably talking about the bit of blood. He
grabbed a grubby looking cloth from somewhere on the floor. It was
cool and damp to the touch. He must keep a bowl of water in here
for basic washing.

P
rincess!

That voice in her head again. Nyx's
voice.

Didn't matter, she was being pulled into
dreamland. Diana wanted to stay awake and alert, but she might as
well have been breathing in chloroform for all the power she had
over her consciousness and her heavy eyelids. The bed was suddenly
too warm and cozy, her body contained all the willpower of a ball
of cotton, and she settled into Azoth's bed and passed out.

Princess, no! Leave! Leave this prison!

It was like a jolt of lightning struck,
forcing her out of what would have been the best nap of her life.
Her back arched high, and she would've flown clear off the bed had
Azoth not held her down.

The pain! Oh God, the pain! Every nerve
ending and skin cell lit up like it had been soaked in gasoline and
had a match thrown onto it.

Diana screamed.

Chapter Four

"Nyx! You wretched whoreson! I will kill you
for this! I swear it!"

Azoth sounded pissed. It took a half second
for Diana to remember why, then she felt that weird tingling all
through her body, and then the pain of waking up. Ignoring Azoth's
continued ranting and raging at a fae man likely long dead, she
lifted her hand to her head. Her hair was all puffed out and felt
wiry to the touch. It crinkled loudly between her fingers.

And had the horrible scent of burned
hair.

If she could open her eyes she would’ve
cried. Her hair, the most beautiful part of her body, was
completely destroyed.

"Diana," Azoth must have noticed her
movement. He took her hand and held it in his own. "Are you well?
Say something."

A pained roar sounded in the distance. Her
teeth vibrated with it.
The dragon
, she realized.

"Diana. Do not leave me again." Azoth's voice
choked as he spoke. He was terrified. Of her leaving? She supposed
anyone would be when she was the only company to be had for one
thousand years.

"What happened?" She had to force her lids
open through what felt like several days worth of caked on dust.
Azoth was above her, worry all over his face, but not panic. He was
relieved. His large chest heaved as he seemed to breathe a sigh of
relief when she opened her eyes. She didn’t know what there was to
be happy about.

The hard ground beneath her fell away, and
she was suddenly aware of the sensation of being held securely in
solid muscled arms as Azoth walked away with her. She felt so small
as he held her. He carried her like she weighed as much as a sack
of cotton balls. It brought the uneasy feeling of being helpless
against him, and entirely cared for at the same time.

That warm feeling in her body returned, and
she sank against him.

She wouldn't make a fuss about being held by
him. Not now. “Where are we going?”

“To the spring. I know not why Nyx would
attack you, but now we must cleanse you. Your clothing is
ruined.”

Clothes too. Great.

“Who is Nyx?” She asked, even though she had
a pretty good idea from that vision she’d had during her
electrocution.

Azoth’s strong jaw tightened at the question.
“A former servant of your house. Do you truly have no
memories?”

Her head was pounding and she feared another
coming nosebleed. Diana still couldn’t allow herself to think that
these visions were actual memories, but all the same—

“I saw him, just now, when I was…” she didn’t
even have a word for what had happened to her. “He didn’t look like
he’d want to hurt me.” Then she thought of something. “How did you
know he was the one to attack me?”

Azoth neck and jaw tightened, an angry red
flush creeping up the flesh there. “It was his name you cried out
when the tremors took you.”

He looked down at her, brows raised. “Certain
that he would not harm you, are you?”

Diana thought it over. He—Nyx—had asked her,
that other her, to marry him to help her avoid a fixed marriage.
She didn’t want to say anything about that just in case Azoth
didn’t know of it, but all the same...

“I guess. What else can you tell me about
him, though? Just in case I'm missing something.” Diana's body
still trembled from the attack, but the sudden vision did nothing
to upset the clarity of her mind, and she was both painfully
curious and awake now.

Azoth sighed and seemed to swallow any harsh
feelings he had on the subject, if only to please her with an
answer to her question. “From what I knew of you, you had both been
close, allowed to become friends since you were the youngest of
your sisters, and it would hardly matter if you befriended a
servant.”

That made her pause. "Sisters? I don't have
any siblings. I'm an only child."

Azoth's eyes rounded as he stared down at
her, his jaw hanging. He paused his step but didn't stop walking.
“You had eleven sisters. I met them myself during our
engagement.”

She could hardly believe it. “Eleven?”

He nodded. “Strangest thing. Each born one
year and one month, roughly, away from the other. Twelve siblings,
twelve months of the year. You lot seemed very pleased about it as
well.”

She had a sinking suspicion she already knew,
but she had to ask, “What was my month?”

“One of the winter months, December.”

Diana let that sink in. Her full name was
Diana Winters, but her birthday, or what she thought was her
birthday, was in April, not December.

Maybe her last name was really just a clue
into her true identity. A hint so that she'd always know who she
was.