Valentine (The Dragon Kings Book 3) (23 page)

“Y
OU CAN’T.”

Hazel spun, and saw Aspen standing in the doorway.

“Oh no, not you too.”

“I told you. Not my secret to share.”

Hazel rounded on her. “Not your secret? You’re the queen of the effing dragons, and you didn’t think I had a right to know that?”

Aspen shook her head. “No one knows. I knew I’d have to tell you eventually, but we had the human killer to take care of, Rowan missing, and the fact that you don’t like dragons. You have to admit it was a lot.”

Hazel stomped her foot like small child. “I don’t care. I had a right to know. About all of this. I still don’t understand.”

“Well, now that you’ve woken the whole house, let’s go talk in the theater room. It’s more comfortable, and we’ll be there for a while.”

“What time is it?” Val asked from behind her.

“About two a.m.” She couldn’t look at him. She didn’t understand the spell he’d cast over her. But kissing Paul felt wrong, and she knew she’d never love him the way she loved Val. She had left and drove around for hours trying to make sense of things. But sense could not be found.

“Fine. But no more lies.” She stormed off for the theater room.

Val, Aspen, and Sid joined her a few minutes later.

“Can I sit next to you?” Val asked.

“No.” Hazel crossed her arms and nodded her head in the direction of the opposite side of the couch. She was far too wound up to sit near anyone.

She sat alone on one side of the couch. The other three sat together. Aspen spoke first.

“Your mark will never go away because you are in love with Val. That will never change.”

“Why did you do that me?” she asked Val.

Aspen spoke before he had a chance. “He didn’t do it to you. You did to yourself. If Val had fallen in love with you first, you would’ve never seen the mark. But you fell in love with him.”

Hazel ran a hand through her hair. “That’s impossible. It was one kiss on an airplane.”

Aspen grinned at her. “That must’ve been some kiss.”

Hazel glowered at her. This wasn’t any time to be making jokes.

“Are you saying I will never be able to love anyone else?” Hazel tried to wrap her head around that concept. The idea that she would never love another. In a way she’d already known this, but hearing the words out loud made it real.

“I’m saying you won’t want to. Even now, you want to be with Val. Right?”

Hazel sighed. It was difficult to even look at him. “Is this some weird magic or something that dragons have?”

“Something like that. But I want you to know that it was you who chose to love him. He didn’t do anything to you. I loved Sid first. When my mark showed up, it didn’t have his name, and he didn’t get one until after he fell in love with me. Rowan has one too, but it doesn’t have a name because she doesn’t love him back.”

“Wait, are you saying that Skye chick is a dragon?”

Aspen nodded.

“Does Rowan know?”

“Yeah. He took it about as well as you did. But he got over it.”

Hazel didn’t believe her. But she figured if Rowan could get over it, she would eventually as well. But that wouldn’t happen tonight.

Sid leaned forward on the couch. “Hazel, we need your help.”

“Excuse me?”

“The dragons are about to go to war, and we need you to help us fight.”

Hazel snorted. “I saw the fighting you did today, and I don’t see how I can help.”

“Dragon kings get an enormous amount of strength from their queens. Aspen became my queen because she loves me, but also because I needed her. I have more strength than any other living dragon because of what she gave me. You could do the same for Val.”

Hazel creased her eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

Val crossed over to her side of the couch and took her hands in his own. “I’m also a dragon king.”

“How many kings are there?”

“Normally only one. But right now there are three. We haven’t found the third one yet, but a couple of eagles spotted him in northern California. This is the fulfillment of a prophecy given thousands of years ago. Sid is right. I need your strength. But more than that, Hazel, I’m so in love with you. I don’t want to spend another second without you. I would be honored if you would consent to become my queen. Not because I need you, but because I love you.”

Hazel took a deep breath. She didn’t know how to respond. She loved Val with every fiber of her being. She knew that. She was also furious with him. She opened her mouth to respond when Runa crashed on the floor in between them all.

“What is the meaning of this? Why are you having an important meeting without me?” Runa looked livid. Her face had gone a brilliant shade of red.

Aspen burst into laughter, and Sid followed suit. Val kept his eyes trained on Hazel though, his face expectant. Hazel couldn’t find the words she needed to say, so instead, she leaned forward and kissed him.

V
AL COULDN’T believe his fortune. Hazel hadn’t hesitated for even a second. He felt like he was in a dream.

“I’m going to summon an eagle. We’ll have the council meet us tomorrow morning and take care of the gifting and bonding ceremony,” Sid said.

Aspen jerked. “Will she have to go through the testing?”

Sid shook his head. “One of the things the council and I agreed upon was that the new queens would not have to submit to the testing since we already have one queen who did. But she will still need to be given the gifts so that Val can have them.”

Hazel clenched at Val’s hands. He wished he could tell what she was thinking.

Sid stood. “We should all go to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day. As soon as the ceremony is over, we need to go find the third king.”

Val pulled Hazel up and led her back to his room. She crawled into bed and cuddled up to him, resting her face on his chest. He stroked her hair.

“You don’t seem too freaked out by all this,” he said.

She chuckled. “Oh, I’m definitely freaked out. I know I was super angry when I arrived tonight, but I had already made the decision I wanted to be with you.

“Why? I’m glad you did, but it doesn’t make sense.”

She slid her hand up his shirt, and he tensed, but she was still relaxed. “You know I went out with Paul tonight, right?”

“Yeah, Aspen told me.”

She was lightly running her fingers along his stomach, and it was incredibly distracting.

“Well, I kissed him.”

He unconsciously clenched his fists.

“Ouch,” Hazel said.

“Oh, sorry.” He’d grabbed her hair by mistake. He relaxed his fists again. “Why’d you kiss him?”

“Because I was angry and hurt, and I wanted to forget about you.”

“What happened?” He didn’t want to know the answer to this, but he had to hear it.

“It was awful.”

Val snorted. “Really?”

Hazel shimmied off his chest and propped herself up on her elbows so she was facing him. “Yes, really. No one will ever taste as sweet as you do. Not to mention that even though I didn’t want to admit it, I’m totally in love with you. Much more so than I ever was with Teddy. Speaking of, it’s going to be awkward seeing him around here.” Hazel froze. “Wait, is he a dragon too?”

Val wondered how she’d take this news. “He was.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Uh, I killed him this afternoon.”

“That was you? And him?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh. At some point I’m going to have to reconcile the fact that I was once in love with a serial killer.”

“Hopefully not tonight.” He didn’t want to spend the rest of the night rehashing her relationship with Theo.

She wiggled forward and kissed him lightly. “No, definitely not tonight. Now, can you explain to me what’s going to happen tomorrow? Because I am a little weirded out by the fact that I’m about to become a queen.”

“I don’t really want to talk much tonight. But I promise I will tell you anything you want to know in the morning.” Val flipped her over so he was hovering over her. Her eyes had a bright sparkle, and she pulled his head down toward her. She kissed him deeply, and he knew he’d be happy to never leave that room.

A
FTER BREAKFAST the next day, an eagle tapped on the window. Sid opened it, stared at the eagle, and closed the window.

“They council will meet us in the king’s cave in about thirty minutes. You ready?”

Hazel nodded her head even though she really wanted to shake it. She was ready to be with Val forever, but she still wasn’t sure about the dragon thing. Val had explained what he knew about the ceremony, which wasn’t much. Aspen probably would’ve been a better resource, but Hazel hadn’t wanted to leave Val’s side, and she felt weird asking Aspen personal questions in front of him.

The four of them went out the back door with Runa following.

“Another queen, yay!” Runa bobbed up and down excitedly. “Do you like dragons now?” she asked Hazel.

“No. Not really.”

Runa dropped to the ground. She stretched her neck high, but she still didn’t reach above Hazel’s knee.

“But you’re about to become a queen.”

“I know. But that’s because I love Val, not because I care for the dragons.”

“But Val’s a dragon.”

“Well, he’s not perfect now, is he?” Hazel didn’t know how to explain to Runa that she was only doing this for Val.

Aspen chuckled next to her. “They’ll grow on you. Runa, don’t worry, my sister will be a good queen.”

“Not like you, she won’t.”

“I’m only interested in making Val happy. From what I’ve heard, that’s all that really matters.”

Aspen nudged her. “It’s much more than that. But over time, you’ll learn, and I’m sure you’ll come to like them. I’m glad you don’t have to go through the testing though. That was awful.”

“What’d you have to do?”

“I was tortured, blinded, had my mind probed, and was seduced. It was the worst several hours of my life. But I survived, and that meant Sid did as well. It was worth it. Come on, it’s time to go.”

Hazel gripped Aspen’s hand. She and Aspen would need to spend some time together when this was all over and talk. The things her sister had gone through in the last few months were unthinkable.

Hazel watched as Val’s body changed from human to dragon. He brought his head down and blinked his deep brown eyes at her. They were so dark they nearly blended in with his black scales.

You ready?

“Was that you?”

Val’s body shook.
Yes, you can talk to me with your mind as well if you try hard enough. We’ll practice on the way to the cave. Now climb on up.

“You want help?” Aspen asked.

Hazel shook her head. She wanted to do this on her own.

Her hands trembled as she placed them on the smooth scales. She threw her leg over his neck and hoisted herself up. It was easier than she thought it would be. She gripped his neck tight when he spread his wings and took off. Suddenly her fear of flying overcame her. Her heart began to race, and all of her muscles tensed. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to take deep breaths.

You okay?

She shook her head against his body, but she knew he couldn’t see her.

I wish I could kiss you right now.

She almost laughed. That would make it all better. The flight seemed to take forever. But soon the light changed. Hazel peeked and saw they were in a cave. One with ruby studded walls.

Val touched down in the middle of a cavern.

“We beat the council,” Aspen said, scrambling off Sid’s back. She stood below Hazel. “Getting off is harder than getting on. You have to slide down.”

Hazel stumbled a little when she hit the ground. Val changed into a human and immediately brought her in for a kiss.

“What was that for?” Hazel asked.

“Because I couldn’t comfort you on the flight.”

Aspen giggled. “Oh yeah, I forgot Hazel doesn’t like to fly. Oh, here they come.”

A sparkly silver dragon flew above them, followed by a bright red one.

“That’s Pearl. She’s Sid’s sister. Behind her is Eros. Are you related to him, Val?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Val’s a fire dragon,” Aspen continued. Three more dragons flew in after them. “The yellow one is Xanthous. I like him. The blue is Kairi. Be glad you don’t have to go through her test.” Aspen shivered. “Sequoia is the purple and green. Oh, and look, there comes Anasazi. He’s a canyon. That speck behind him is Nedra. He’s blind.” Aspen creased her eyebrows. “Hey, Sid. Did they replace Winerva?”