Authors: Natalie Frost
CHAPTER NINE
They took her to a large, open field. If it hadn’t been for her situation she would have been in awe at its beauty. Her captors were once again in their human form, and standing around in a large circle.
Her wrists were still held tightly by the two men. She watched as Darius moved slowly to the center of the group, turning to address his people. Even from a distance, he appeared enormous. His dark skin and jet-black hair stood out against the bright, colorful flora surrounding them. The sun was beginning to come up in the distance, and the soft oranges, purples, and pinks did little to calm her down in that moment.
“I have called you all here because I have discovered a traitor among us!” he said loudly.
The crowd burst into an angry roar. Chelsea tried to make out what they were saying, but she couldn’t.
Directly across from where she was standing the people parted and Silas was pushed forward, and thrust harshly into the center of the circle. At the sight of him, a hiss filled the air, and everyone started to shift around nervously and angrily. A feeling of confusion and frustration filled the space and threatened to swallow her.
Silas kept his head down. He wouldn’t look up at her. His eyes, fixed on the ground, looked like dark pits and his hair was thrown around his face in a hectic mess.
“We found him sneaking around with one of the subjects!” Darius continued, looking over to where Chelsea stood.
The men holding her pushed her forward and threw her on the ground near to where Silas was standing.
He leaned forward quickly and helped her to her feet, but he still refused to look at her. Once she was standing, he stood, motionless, next to her, not making any effort to communicate with or comfort her.
“The laws of our kind are very clear, Silas,” Darius said, a little quieter than he had been speaking. He stepped up and stood directly in front of him, forcing Silas to look him in the eye.
“I know,” Silas muttered.
“With our race in crisis like it is, you would rather engage in an ill-thought dalliance with her?” Darius said, thrusting a finger in Chelsea’s face.
“It’s not that simple, sir,” Silas tried to reply.
“It is!” Darius yelled. “It’s as simple as saving our race!”
“Is this really the race we want to fight to protect?” Silas’ voice was stronger. He looked at the faces of the people around him. Everyone was silent, and the air was electric with tension.
“We’re not happy,” he continued. “We don’t enjoy life. What’s the point of saving a people that are miserable? A people that will torture others, for nothing!”
He turned to face Darius, who was eying him angrily. “How long have we been doing this?” he asked pointedly. “How long, Darius?”
Darius appeared surprised by his sudden aggression. He didn’t expect him to speak out the way that he did.
“Doing what?” Darius asked, obviously playing dumb.
“Abducting humans and running these painful, gruesome tests on them?”
“A while,” Darius replied, looking around at his people. “But what other way is there?” he bellowed.
“There has to be another answer!” Silas retorted, matching his loud, authoritative tone. “We have nothing!” he turned to face the crowd. “Did you know that? Did you know that as a result of years of testing and hundreds of subjects, we’re nowhere closer to solving our problem?”
A quiet murmur spread through the audience.
“We just need to change our methods!” Darius tried to explain.
“Maybe we just need to change our leader,” Silas spit at him.
His words seemed to hang in the air. Chelsea scanned the faces of everyone around them. They look flustered, confused, frightened. But, they no longer looked angry.
When her eyes rested on Darius’ face, it seemed to have turned from the dark tan tone to one of a soft red, flushed shade. His eyes looked like they were going to explode from their sockets, and there was one very large, defined vein running down over one of his temples.
“Are you challenging me, Silas?” he asked in a whisper. Even though it was a whisper, his words still seemed to fill the air around them.
Silas took a deep breath and turned to scan the faces of the people surrounding them. He then turned to face Chelsea. He took her hands in his and leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek.
An intense heat started to radiate off of Darius. Chelsea felt like it was suffocating her. She turned to look at him, but Silas placed a firm hand on her cheek and lifted her face to his.
“You need to get back,” he said to her firmly.
“What?” she asked.
He turned back to face Darius, who was disappearing into a cloud of smoke. “Get back!” he yelled to Chelsea, pushing her in the direction of the crowd.
CHAPTER TEN
They both transformed at the same time, filling the large space and pushing the on-lookers back against the line of trees surrounding them.
At first glance, it was easy to tell which of the two was which. Although their dragon forms carried no similarities to their human, Darius with his red scales, and gold-flecked wings was by far still larger. Silas, who still stood at least 10 feet tall, had bright green scales covering his body that appeared to change to a light blue color as he moved.
Chelsea cowered back in fear, tears burning her eyes. A soft touch from behind her startled her and released the scream that had been caught in her throat.
Turning around, she saw one of the women who had tended to her in the ship—the same one who had served as her guide, bringing her to see Darius the first day, and showing her to her living quarters after.
She didn’t speak to Chelsea, but for the first time, the expression on her face wasn’t a stern, serious one. It looked as if she was scared as well. She wrapped her arm around Chelsea’s shoulder and turned her attention to where Darius and Silas were already locked in battle.
Scared to look, Chelsea covered her eyes with her hands and peeked out at the scene between her fingers. She looked just in time to see Darius lunge forward quickly throwing Silas back against the ground.
It was clear that Silas was the underdog. As he flew back and hit the ground, the earth under her feet shook, and her heart felt like it had taken the fall with him.
Darius suddenly took to the air, ready to dive down and throw his weight into his already struggling opponent. Silas was able to roll out of the way, just as the large, red body came plummeting towards him. Hitting the ground hard, Darius was clearly shaken up.
Silas took advantage of his momentary state of confusion to push himself to his feet and release a column of flame in his direction, consuming him almost completely.
This caused Chelsea to surge with hope. That hope, however, was quickly squashed when Darius emerged through the fire, looking to be completely unaffected.
Silas charged forward, hoping to once again surprise him, but it didn’t work. Darius was in the air again. Silas turned quickly and took off as well.
As they spiraled upward, locked in combat, Chelsea buried her face into the shoulder of the woman who was still holding her close. She couldn’t watch.
When a loud crash rang out, and the ground shook violently around them, she didn’t have to look to know who she would see.
Silas was lying on the ground, his body heaving and his breathing labored. She wanted to do something, anything to help him. But, she couldn’t.
Darius set himself down on the ground gently, the air filling with smoke and a maniacal laugh sending an eerie shiver running down her spine.
“You’re too weak, Silas,” he said when he appeared once again in his human form. “You can’t defeat me.”
Silas shuddered and another cloud of smoke consumed him. When it cleared she saw him—weak, defeated, and horribly injured. She couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed free of the woman’s grasp and threw herself on the ground next to him.
“Chelsea,” Silas coughed, “you have to stay back.”
“No,” she said wrapping her arms around him. “I won’t leave you.”
“Then you’ll suffer the same fate,” Darius said with a shrug.
“Fate?” she looked up at him, fear gripping her.
“If we battle, it’s to the death.”
Death. She let the word hang in the air and the reality come crashing down on her.
“That is, of course, unless Silas wants to continue his futile attempt at usurpation,” Darius added with a chuckle.
“Chelsea, you have to go,” Silas whispered, grabbing onto her arm firmly and looking intently at her. She could see tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
“I’ll take his place,” the woman who had comforted Chelsea stepped forward. Everyone turned to look at her. “I agree with what Silas said,” she spoke confidently. “He’s right. What we’re doing isn’t working. We need change.”
Darius looked at her in disbelief. “If he can’t best me, there’s no way you will be able to!” he scoffed.
“I’ll fight too,” another voice came from the other side of the ring.
“Me, too,” another yelled out. And then another, and another. Before Chelsea could really process what was happening, there were at least a dozen people that had stepped forward to show their support for Silas.
Darius shouted, panic on his voice for the first time, “you’re going to stand with him? I’ve led you for the last decade! I alone have kept us alive!”
“They’ve made their choice,” Silas said pushing himself up.
Darius turned to look at him, hate, anger, and fear in his eyes. “So, what now, Silas? You’re going to kill me? You’re going to slit my throat and assume my throne?”
Silas looked down at Chelsea and smiled. “No,” he said turning his focus back to Darius, “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to exile you.”
“Exile?” Darius choked. “To where?”
“I don’t really care,” Silas said stepping forward. “There are millions of planets out there, Darius. I don’t care which one you choose, but you have to get the hell off of this one.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Silas naturally assumed the role as leader of their race. He made sweeping changes, and all of the subjects were scheduled to be sent home immediately.
Chelsea sat, alone, in her cave, staring at the setting sun. Everything that had happened felt like a dream. And now, the dream was over.
“Why so sad?” Silas asked, appearing suddenly at the entrance.
“Not sad, nostalgic,” she corrected him.
“Oh,” he said with a nod. He crossed the small space and sat next to her, taking her hand in his. “Why?”
“I’m leaving. I know my time here hasn’t been the best, but, sadly enough, it’s still better than the life I have waiting for me when I get home.”
“You don’t have to leave,” he said softly.
She turned to look at him, her eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you want to stay, you can. That’s why I came to see you, actually.”
“Really?”
“I don’t want you to go, Chelsea. I need you by my side as I enter this new chapter of my life. It’s because of you that I had the courage to start it. I can’t imagine going through it without you.”
“But,” she said, her hands shaking, “I’m not, I mean, I can’t—you know—turn into a dragon.”
He laughed and pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her and planting a soft kiss on her lips, sending the feeling of comfort and happiness he gave her running through her.
“And?” he asked when they pulled apart.
“I can’t even leave my room!” she laughed. “I can’t fly myself up here and swoop back down there when I need things like, oh, I don’t know, food.”
“We’ll put in a staircase.”
“That’s going to have to be one hell of a staircase.”
He smiled at her and brushed the hair out of her face, letting his dark eyes burn into hers, “we’ll make it work.”
“Okay,” she said, a smile spreading quickly across her face.
“Okay?” he asked with an eager nod. “Okay, you’ll stay?”
“I’ll stay. But just know, if I do, you’re never going to be able to get rid of me.”