Chosen By The Dragon Kings novel Chapter 32

Abigail and I walk out and are greeted by a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, her black eyes showing she is a werewolf which I thought was odd. Most of the time werewolves weren’t permitted in the city unless looking for their mate’s. So, the fact she was here made me think she must be important to the dragon Kings.

“Hi, I am Taylor,” she says, holding out her hand to me. I quickly shake it, her eyes not even darting to Abigail, not even acknowledging her existence or the fact she is standing right beside me. She then turns on her heel and starts heading toward the gates at the front of the castle. The vampires standing guard open the gates, allowing us to slip through before closing them behind us. I noticed lots of people staring, some even ran off as we walked down the streets. Some whispered “a fae” It was expected, fae were rare creatures, and those that remained if any more remained hid in the shadows hoping to go unnoticed.

Taylor never stopped or looked back at us. Abigail stayed quiet and I assumed Taylor must know where we were headed because Abigail never once gave her direction. When we had walked around four blocks away, we turned up on a desolate street. Only a few houses were intact, the rest abandoned or destroyed. “That’s my mother’s place there,” Abigail said, pointing to the last house on the street. It was old and weathered. The gardens overgrown with exotic looking plants, which was a little odd because we were in one of the worst snow seasons we had ever suffered through.

Taylor looked back at us but didn’t say a word, just kept walking. When we were nearly to the end, Abigail nudged me and my eyes looked at her. She stopped walking and pointed to the gutter. My eyes darted down, she was pointing to a drain. And I knew she was telling me these were the tunnels she was talking about. I was familiar with the tunnels for the underground labs but they were on the other side of town, so I was unfamiliar with this side.

Taylor stopped, obviously not hearing our footfalls on the pavement. We quickly caught up to her. Walking through the little gate, Abigail walked up the porch steps and I followed her. She retrieved a key from her pocket and placed it in the door.

“I will wait out here, Silas has given you an hour, Elora” I nod to her before following Abigail inside. Taylor sits on the porch steps and pulls out her phone. Stepping inside was vastly different compared to the outside. The walls coloured yellow with white trims and I could smell lemon and citrus scented candles burning. The house was warm and had good heating but was scarcely furnished. A little girl comes running out that I know is her daughter. She runs up, screaming mummy, mummy before jumping into Abigail’s arms. “My little Princess, this is Elora, the fae girl I told you about.” The little girl looks up at me from Abigail’s arms shyly.

“Hello,” I whisper to her, giving her a brief wave. She smiles and says Hi before ducking her face into her mother’s shoulder.

“Where is grandma?” says Abigail.

“Out the back getting firewood” Abigail nods and I follow her down the hall, passing a lounge room with a fireplace that was crackling and into a yellow kitchen with brown cupboards. There was a door leading outside and Abigail walked out it and I followed.

Stepping out the back, the lawns were waist high, and I could see an old outhouse far in the backyard with a concrete path leading to it. Garden beds took up one entire side of the yard and a shed on the other. I could vaguely hear someone rummaging around in the shed before a woman with grey hair to her hips walked out with an armful of firewood. Looking up, she smiles. Before quickly coming over and wrapping an arm around Abigail.

“You must be Elora?” she asks, looking at me. I nod.

“I am Jackie, it is nice to finally put a face to the name” she chuckles. We follow her back inside and she closes the door. She turns on some music on the old radio. Before turning to face Abigail.

“Why can I sense someone else here?”

“There is a guard outside” Jackie nods before turning the jug on. She looks over at me and smiles softly, her green eyes lighting up.

“I haven’t seen a fae in decades,” she says, gesturing for me to take a seat. Abigail digs around in her pocket before dumping some cash on the table. “This is all I got on me, I will try to get more when I can” she tells her mother.

Her mother nods before putting the cash in a cookie jar. It wasn’t much, but I could tell her mother really appreciated it. She made us both some tea, and we talked for a while. When Taylor walked in, Jackie glared at her for letting herself in. She held no fear of the werewolf, yet I could see the alarm in Abigail’s eyes as we looked to the door.

“We leave in twenty minutes,”

“But you said an hour,” I tell her.

“Well, Silas wants you back” she states before turning and walking out. We listen for the door to close. Hearing the latch, Abigail lets out a breath.

“Mum, do you know if the tunnels are still accessible?” Abigail asks, looking at her mother. Jackie nods before putting a finger to her lips. She then stands up and walks to a door that I actually thought was a pantry. Jackie opened it and I realised it was a basement. She flicked on a light and we descended the stairs. The basement is filled with dried herbs hanging from shelves and canned food. Jackie walked to the back and pointed to a cupboard. Abigail walked over and gripped one side and I the other. We lifted the cupboard, careful to not make any noise so Taylor wouldn’t hear we were under the house.

Once moved, I find a metal grate covering a huge square hole in the ground. Jackie helped Abigail lift it off.

“Follow the tunnels, they lead to an old pharmacy on the main drag.” I nod and jump in. The drop wasn’t that far, but the stench of stagnant water was putrid. Abigail drops a torch down to me and I flick it on before looking up at them.

“What about you? They will know you helped me.”

“Don’t worry about us, good luck I hope you make it out.”

“I don’t need to make it out, I just need to head home and retrieve something. I won’t get past the border guards, but I may be able to hide out till I come up with a plan to escape,” Abigail nods at my words.

“It was nice meeting you, Elora” Jackie says before helping Abigail lift the grate back over. Looking down the tunnel with the torch I start walking, I follow the tunnels. I come to a few intersections and takes me a few seconds each time, trying to decide which way to go. I should have asked. After about twenty minutes of wandering, though, I hear lots of voices and noise coming from above. When I see a drain and a little ladder leading up, I climb up. Peering out the gap that looked onto the road. It was the main road, letting out a breath of relief. I continue down the tunnel. I followed it before taking the next left, which I knew was an alleyway. Seeing another ladder, I climb it before pushing on the grate and sliding it to the side. Sticking my head out, I was correct: I was in the alleyway behind the Victors pharmacist. I wasn’t far from home now. Climbing out, I pulled my hood over my head and slipped out of the alleyway.

My mind raced at how easy this all seemed, some voice nagging me. Telling me it was too easy and to stay alert. The sky was getting darker, and I looked up, noticing a snow storm coming in. Picking up my pace, I jog for around ten minutes before I finally find my old street and house. The door was kicked in still, and I had a sense of Deja vu wash over me. Walking in, I hold my breath as I look in what used to be the lounge room. Gasping when I realised my grandmother’s body was gone and I didn’t know if I felt relieved or worried.

Carefully looking around, I find the place the same. Someone had looted the cupboards and ransacked the place, leaving only the furniture. Going into my room, I look under the bed and see the floorboards still intact showing no one bothered to move the bed or they would have noticed the drag marks of the bed. Pulling the bed from the wall. I drag it to the other side before counting the floorboards, when I hit number nine. I push on it, but it doesn’t budge. I use my nails trying to get my fingers under the edge of it so I can pull it out. After about twenty minutes of fiddling with it and trying to get a knife down the side of it and becoming annoyed, I hit the floor with my fist. The entire floor lifted in a wave and the floorboards popped out, making me gasp. I look at my hands, shocked at what I just did. I wasn’t even sure how I did it.

But one thing I knew was that I just used magic or an element of some sort. Lifting the board out. I reached in for the box that was hidden underneath, only I felt nothing as I gripped the floorboard next to it. I feel hands go underneath my arms making me jump in fright. Hearing someone chuckle and my heart skips a beat as I am lifted and placed on the bed. An icy shiver running up my spine when I see Silas was the one that picked me up.

My hands tremble and I wait for his wrath, only it doesn’t come. Instead, he bends down and rips the floorboard up and reaches in, grabbing the box before sitting next to me.

“You know you could have just told me; I would have brought you here myself instead of you sneaking off. Now I have to punish you” I felt tears brim in my eyes at his words and my mind instantly drifted to Abigail and her family. Would he hurt them? I could handle him hurting me, but them? That would kill me. Silas grips my chin, forcing me to look up at him, my tears falling down my face.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Because I don’t want to break the curse on you” I see anger flash in his eyes before he masks it.

“But you want to break the curse on the fae?” I nod, not saying anything and Silas chuckles.

“What?” I ask, wondering what he found amusing.

“Nothing, I just think it funny that you want to save the fae but not help your own mates.”

“I never asked for this Silas, I don’t want to be your mate,” I tell him, waiting for his anger knowing it is just below the surface of his calm facade.

“Fates decide that, not you. And you were made for us, maybe when you realise that, you can bind what’s left of the fae back to their magic.”

“What do you mean?”

“To break that curse, you first have to break mine,” he says, letting my face go. Silas stands up, putting the box in his jacket pocket. He stares down at me.

“Are you going to come willingly or am I going to have to use force,” he says, making a shiver run up my spine. He extends his hand to me and I look at it before placing my hand in his. His hand is huge, swallowing mine and warm. I let him pull me to my feet and we walked out of the place and I find Dragus and Matitus standing out the front of the house.

“Are you going to hurt Abigail?” I ask, worried that he would. Silas glanced down at me before pulling me against his side and draping his arm over my shoulder.

He doesn’t answer, instead just pulls me along following Dragus and Matitus.