Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I shook my head, mutely. I was sitting on my bed in my room in the Western Tower of my father’s stronghold. Honestly, I had barely budged from this spot since General Lupe had brought me home.
I saw no reason to move—my l’lorna was dead and my heart had died with him.
“Come to your senses—we shouldn’t have to do this to bring out your Drake at your age!” my Sire exclaimed. “I’ve gathered the girls for him again—he can have his pick, now that the damned curse is lifted!”
It was true that Avery had been successful in lifting my Drake’s curse—which had ultimately killed him. But ever since he had, my Drake and I hadn’t spoken even once. Though I sensed him inside me still, he was silent. I wasn’t sure if he was mourning for our lost l’lorna or if lifting the curse had done something else to him. Maybe he had lost his voice.
It seemed strange to have silence in my head. For years I’d had him raging at me like a raving madman. Now that he was quiet, I didn’t know how to act. I simply sat in my room and mourned. My loss was so great there was nothing else I could do.
“Speak, damn you!” my Sire exclaimed. “Did you hear what I said? Soon you’ll be choosing your l’lorna! You must be ready to let your Drake out!”
I shook my head.
“I lost my l’lorna. No other can take his place,” I said in a low voice.
“That witch-boy was not your l’lorna!” my Sire growled. “You only thought he was because you were under a curse. Now that the curse is lifted, you can be free. Don’t you see my son—you can choose to be normal now! To live your life as a proper man with a wife and, in time, children. I might even make you my heir again if today’s Choosing goes well.”
I only shook my head. He thought that since my Drake was no longer cursed, he would be willing to choose a woman for us to spend our lives with. I doubted that was true. I still had no interest in the opposite sex and though my Sire seemed to think it was a personal choice, it wasn’t. I simply did not like females—at least, not romantically.
I remembered that Avery had felt the same way—he had told me he knew he was “gay” as the humans called it, back when he was only five or six years of age. So the idea that I could now “choose” to like women when I never had before was ridiculous—not that my Sire would believe that.
“If you don’t let your Drake out to choose a l’lorna, we’ll have to conduct the Trial of Fire,” he warned me now. “It will be a great shame to see a man of your age treated like a boy of eleven or twelve.”
Normally, the Trial of Fire was only used to make reluctant Drakes emerge in younger males. At the time of puberty, when a male’s Drake normally came out, there were always one or two shy ones. During the Trial, four full grown Drakes would all shoot their flame at the boys in question at the same time.
In order to keep from being burned alive, the boys always Shifted to their Drake forms at once—it was an instinctive reaction—an act of self-preservation. Now, because my Drake would not emerge on his own, my Sire threatened me with it.
But what did I care for shame? I cared for nothing now that Avery was gone. My Sire had forced me to remove his Mark too—the last little thing I had left of him. My forehead felt bare without it just as my heart felt empty without my l’lorna.
“Come on—off your bed. If you want to be stubborn, we’ll make your Drake come out the hard way!”
My Sire seized me roughly by the arm and dragged me along with him. Down the tower steps and through the main part of the palace we went. I saw the servants staring at us from the corners of their eyes, but I didn’t give a damn. Nothing mattered now that Avery was gone.
The worst thing was that my grieving period wasn’t even being acknowledged. Generally, if a Drake lost their mate, they were given an entire year before they were expected to act even remotely normal again. Some Drakes took even longer—ten years or even the rest of their lives. The loss of a beloved l’lorna was absolutely the worst thing that could happen to a male. And yet, it had been only a few days since I had been forced to leave my beloved’s body lying in the mud and my Sire was already trying to get me to mate again.
But I knew what I was going to do. I would ruin his plans for me—I would never choose another l’lorna. When the four Drakes aimed their flames at me, I wouldn’t Shift to protect myself. I wouldn’t let my Drake out—even if he wanted to come out, which I sensed he didn’t.