Dragon Soul (Daughter of Shadow Book 1) Read online

  "What do you have to offer us?" A few years ago, my cheeks would burn, but now I’m older and accustomed to men, I ignore the clear double meaning behind Rohan’s words.

  Yet my heart still skips. Rohan is attractive, more so due to his role. What girl wouldn't find someone of his stature attractive? Lightbringer. Hero. A man who has pledged an allegiance to fight for the kingdom until his dying breath.

  "Rohan," scolds Galen.

  "Perhaps you'd like a growth potion—for your… muscles?" I turn and pull a bottle of blue liquid and place it on the counter. "Or maybe a charm elixir in case you use up all you have on the town girls?"

  Galen laughs. "Calla has the measure of you."

  Instead of a scowl, Rohan smiles and takes the elixir bottle. He turns it in his hands. "Perhaps I should buy some of this."

  "No. Here is my list, Calla." Galen hands me folded parchment between slender fingers. "I trust you stock all this," he says as I scan the words.

  "Yes."

  I gather the goods from the shelves, and the men remain silent. Something in the atmosphere convinces me they're watching my every move as I climb up and down the stepladder and focus on finding Galen's more obscure requests.

  "Are you here to watch the tests?" I ask and stack the items onto the counter.

  Many from outside the town come to watch the spectacle, which annoys me because I swear some want a cheap laugh from watching people fail. The test judges move from town to town midsummer along with a fair to match the celebrations, so of course people want to attend. Who doesn't love a chance to see the travelling circus or try foods from exotic parts of the kingdom? Celebrations help us forget the war waged around us.

  "Yes." Galen pulls a pouch from his belt and counts out coins. "Will you be watching too?"

  "Oh. I'm taking part this year."

  "Really?" asks Rohan. "How old are you?"

  "Twenty-one."

  "Ah. That's good."

  "Why?" I ask him. He cocks a brow and I sigh. "Would you like a potion for stamina too? You may need it if you’re busy tonight."

  “I assure you I have plenty of energy for any requests made of me.” His eyes remain fixed on mine, and I refuse to look away.

  “Oh. So you will need that growth potion, then?” I flick a look at his crotch and hold up the bottle, fighting a smile at his arrogance.

  Galen chuckles. "Rohan. Meet Calla. Your match."

  "Hmm." He shakes his head and gathers the bottles and tins together. "I look forward to seeing your trials. Magic, I presume? Specialising in potion-making skills with the hope of moving to alchemy, or do you excel in another area?"

  Instead of an answer, I give a tight smile.

  Galen nods. "Perhaps we'll see you again before we leave. A pleasure to meet you." He dips his head in farewell. "Good luck tomorrow."

  Rohan gives a stiff bow and turns away. The two men walk from the shop and through the gleaming shop window I spot other girls double-taking the smartly dressed men, dazzled as much by their looks as the summer sunshine.

  The way I was.

  2

  CALLA

  Midsummer arrived sooner than I expected this year, and with it the oppressive heat. After the shop closes, I spend extra hours helping Mrs. Grunwald restock shelves. By the time I leave work, the sun has dropped behind the horizon, and I'm relieved that I don't face a hot walk home in the afternoon sun. I live on the town's outskirts, in a house surrounded by walled gardens where my parents tend the plants that they sell to apothecaries and kitchens for a pretty penny.

  Years ago, my father chose to remain in the town and married my mother. He's a skilled sorcerer but rejected a prestigious role at the king's stronghold to remain in the town and wasted his life using magic to aid the town council. My mother has no sorcery skills, and this diluted the magic in our family. They were blessed with one golden child—my younger brother—and also one who works her butt off to reach a level anywhere close to his or my father's. Me.

  My walk through the dark streets takes me to the edge of town, and the cobbled streets already fill with extra revellers. Loud voices and music mingle behind the tavern doors as I pass. People spill into the street due to the extra fair visitors taking up space inside. Night falls suddenly in Westdale, the stunning orange sunset I saw before has been wiped away by the dark evening.

  Travelling folk and entertainers can be heard in the distance, unloading and camping in the field set up for the tests tomorrow. My mouth dries at the thought. I've no more time to practice now; I'll need to give everything I have tomorrow and hope that's enough.

  My soft shoes make little noise as I walk the cobbled streets, lost in plans, and I hear heavier footsteps behind me.

  "Calla!" I stop and turn. Thomas, for once not using my nickname. "Can I walk with you?"

  I snap my head up in surprise and suspicion. He approaches, and as he does, I can see his eyes are awash with alcohol. He gives me a lopsided smile.

  "Walk with me where?" I ask.

  "I could take you home?"

  "I'm fine. Thank you." I gesture back toward the tavern. "Don't leave the tavern. There are people you can have more fun with there."

  "I'd rather talk to you. We might not see each other again after tomorrow." Is he sincere? Aware we're about to hit true adulthood and he's decided to grow up? And be pleasant? The ale smell from his breath tells me why: he's drunk.

  "Fine." I stride ahead, in case anybody thinks we're sweethearts taking an evening stroll.

  For somebody who wants to talk to me, Thomas has little to say. He walks, head bowed, hands in pockets, and I swing between discomfort and annoyance. In the end, I pretend I'm alone and return to my thoughts.

  We reach the edge of town and set off into the small wooded area between the buildings and outlying cottages. I live in one several minutes away. As we make our way through the darkness and Thomas walks closer to me, my scalp prickles. Why isn't he speaking?

  The full moon ducks in and out from behind the clouds, and the sweet scent of the lilies that grow beneath the tall trees hangs heavy in the muggy air.

  "Hey, Calla. Can I ask you something?" Thomas grabs my arm and stands in front of me, so I need to stop.

  "What? Can we keep walking, please? I want to rest well before tomorrow."

  I attempt to pull away and his grip tightens. "I heard you like to lie with men and won’t wait until you’re married." His intrusive words shock me as much as his next move. Thomas releases my arm and takes my shoulders, backing me towards a nearby oak tree.

  Yes, I do, but selectively. I’m not the only girl who does, and I don’t care if I’m judged for this. They never judge the men and the hypocrites have looked down on me for years.

  "That's none of your business." I keep a harsh tone, although my stomach sickens with fear. I'm tall, but have little strength. I spent years relying on my wit to avoid fighting. Or Luin, but he flew back to the house as soon as the hour approached for his meal. My mum always gathers him food from the gardens, and the creature's stomach overrules everything in his life.

  Thomas's tree-trunk size leaves me no hope if he attacks.

  I gasp as he pushes his body against me, pressing my back into the tree. At the same time, Thomas's hand pushes beneath my skirt, a sweaty palm on my leg. "Get the fuck off me!" I call and struggle against his weight.

  Hot breath and a wet mouth touch my face as he attempts to kiss me, and I gag on the strong ale smell. "I've seen how you look at me."

  "What?" I attempt to move again. "Thomas, I can't breathe." His hand slides higher up my outer thigh, and I fight as his knee pushes between my legs in an attempt to part them.

  "If you give yourself away to men, I want to try the goods too."

  My stomach flips over as I feel his arousal against my stomach, and I freeze in fear as his other hand pulls at the front of my shirt, pawing at my breasts.

  I've never been in a situation close to this. I never dreamed I would be. My heart races, fl
ooding fear and anger into my veins in equal measure, but how do I fight someone with this strength? His disgusting mouth slides onto mine again as he attempts to push his tongue between my lips.

  I turn my head to one side. "Let me go! I don't want this."

  "Of course you do," he grunts.

  As he roughly pulls at my shirt again, and the material tears exposing my breasts, a fury grips like I've never felt before. A power courses through my body, flooding to my fingers the way elemental magic can when I manage to harness that power. But this feels different. This is triggered by emotion. By disgust. Hatred.

  Desire to hurt the bastard who's hurting me.

  "Get the fuck off me," I yell and jerk against him.

  He's pushed backwards by my sudden strength and sprawls onto the floor. The power pulses through me, ripping away logical thoughts and the desire to harm him grows. Green sparks crackle round my fingers, and I'm too fired up to be alarmed this magic hasn't happened before.

  Thomas's eyes grow wide, and he attempts to stammer out words as he crawls backwards, arse sliding across the grass. "Holy fuck, what... you..."

  The space around shimmers with a darkness, and in my head, a multitude of voices whisper he should die, that I should rid the world of those like him. My terror shifts and my hands shake. Thomas assaulted me, but death? No. I can't kill him.

  A shadowy figure appears from the corner of my eye, eyes blazing green as the humanoid form steps closer. I'm not sure who's more terrified—me or Thomas. Thomas screams like a little girl as my heart pulses an energy between myself and the black creature.

  "What the hell are you?" shouts Thomas, but not at the figure. At me. "I always knew there was something wrong with you!"

  I stare down. A green line of energy tethers the figure to my fingers, and I drop my hand in alarm. The line breaks and the apparition blends into the night, no longer visible. As the shadows drop, I slide to the ground, the tree's rough bark scraping my arms and neck.

  Thomas scrambles to his feet. "Shadowmancer. You're a daughter of shadow!"

  I become dizzy as the whispering voices leave, replaced by the distant sounds from the town and my laboured breathing. I grab at my ripped tunic and hold the material together.

  "Leave me alone." My voice is hoarse. "Don't ever touch me again, or you’ll regret it."

  Thomas doesn't need telling twice. I rest my head on the tree, focusing on calming my breathing and heart rate.

  I'm as scared of myself as I am of Thomas.

  3

  GALEN

  Rohan grips my arm as a green light flashes and illuminates the tree in a nearby clearing, and I stumble to a standstill. We sidestep behind a tree and watch. Across the copse, Calla stands and stares down at a jabbering male figure, a faint dark glow around her body and a green one to her hands.

  I'm glad I trusted my instincts and followed Calla.

  Curious about the unusual girl with the dragon, I waited for Calla to leave work and watched with curiosity as she walked along the town streets, oblivious to the world around. Her strange dragonkin companion wasn't with her, and my lightbringer companion was enjoying the pleasures of the tavern. I'd asked Rohan to accompany me, to speak to Calla again. He protested that he couldn't because he was pinned down by the ample-chested girl straddling his lap. Give this man time to himself away from the Lux and he loses self-control.

  I left him to his fun.

  I watched Calla move through the town alone, debating whether to speak to her again, and see if I could sense anything else from her. A girl with a dragon? I heard of her from kingdom visitors who attended last year. I asked to attend the tests this year and sought her out, eager to see if her companion truly is a surviving dragon and not a smaller dragonkin.

  I was met with disappointment when I saw he wasn't. Although, I swear I sensed something earlier, but in an apothecary all kinds of magic mingles and it's impossible to locate the source.

  Human girls rarely catch my attention; most hold no grace or allure. Male humans are worse: crude, unsophisticated, and normally have no sense of decorum. Rohan—a perfect example. Obsessed by sex and fighting. His prowess in battle allows him the status to regularly indulge in the sex he claims he also has prowess in. I find his behaviour strange, but he faces death in battle at a young age so I understand his desires.

  Calla. I've never been drawn to and mesmerised by a girl in this way— human or elf. I appreciate the female form as much as the next man, especially one as attractive as hers. Her shyness hidden behind her bravado, the way she dealt with Rohan, endeared me. But it was the blue-green eyes I looked into and saw more than something human that pulled me in. Is the lilac in her hair an aesthetic choice or a throwback to something more? I need to consult the history books.

  Rohan's crude comments to her made me wince, but his interest was expected the moment we stepped inside and discovered the apothecary owner wasn't a wizened old woman. Calla silenced him with her words, and this girl struck us both as readily as if she'd wound magic around us to mesmerise. Once we left, Rohan joked that we were spellbound by the incense in the air around, designed to persuade customers to part with more coin, but I recognised the smell. Sandalwood and sage, fragrant but benign.

  Calla passed the tavern I left Rohan in, and on my way to my lodgings, I spotted a man Calla's age stagger out and call her name. A sweetheart? I watched, disappointed I never had a chance to speak to 'the dragon girl'. But I sensed an unease in her, watched the way she kept her distance and the way he stared unashamedly at her backside as he followed.

  I saw the thumbs up he gave a nearby man, and the encouraging laugh he received in return set my teeth on edge. Returning to the tavern, I dragged a protesting Rohan out and told him we needed to follow Calla. I thought we'd lost her until the unmistakable magic lit up the trees close to the town path.

  Light fading now.

  "You saw the green magic, right?" Rohan asks.

  "Yes."

  "And can you sense the shadow?”

  I bite on my bottom lip. Yes, but what will Rohan do if I agree? March in there, representative of the Order of the Lux, and drag Calla to the authorities—or worse, kill her on sight?

  But someone else in town must know she's a possible daughter of shadow, surely? They would've sensed her before now. As someone who uses nature's power, I recognised the darkness sucking life from the air, as she drew on the energy and corrupted it to feed the dark magic inside her.

  "Stupid question, huh?" Rohan's hand goes to his broadsword he always has strapped to his belt.

  "You can't walk over there and kill the girl!" I close my hand over his and squeeze.

  "Stop that, Galen," he says. "Don't use your magic on me."

  "Calm." The leaves in the trees around rustle despite no breeze, and nature's energy gathers around my fingers. "We can't cause trouble."

  Rohan blinks back at me and drags his hand away. "Okay, elf, I'll hold back. But not because your magic affected me."

  I nod. "Sure, Rohan."

  He grips the sword hilt. "We watch her and we wait for the right moment to act."

  I'm distracted as I watch the boy pull himself from the ground, skidding on broken sticks as he escapes the scene. Calla remains still, beneath the tree with her head in her hands. What did he do that made her unleash magic on him in this way?

  "Galen? What are you doing?" Rohan whispers as I move towards her.

  "She's distressed. If she were a true daughter of shadow she'd relish what she just did, or be angry that her spell didn't succeed. I don't think she conjured her magic deliberately."

  "Bloody soft-hearted elves." Rohan sheaths his sword and follows as I stride to Calla.

  She doesn't look up and her back moves rapidly as her heavy breaths are muffled by her skirts.

  I crouch down. "Calla?"

  Wild eyes meet mine. There's no darkness in them, thank the Goddess. "Where did you come from?" Calla asks and looks behind us. She scrambles to her feet. An
ger stabs me as I see her shirt ripped open and skin exposed above where she grips the torn material together. The grip tightens as she looks between the two of us, and her voice rises. "Please. Leave me alone."

  My heart pains as if somebody thrust a hand into my chest and twisted it. I know what happened here. I sweep a gaze over the rest of her clothes, but only her blouse is torn. I stand and step back. "We don't want to harm you."

  Calla's face crumples, and she fights to regain her composure.

  "What happened?" asked Rohan. His harsh tone drops as he steps closer and looks at her clothes too. "Did that fucker...?" He trails off and his hand goes back to his sword. "Screw this. I'll have words with him."

  "Rohan. Again, please temper your reaction."

  "I'm a protector, elf, it's my duty."

  "Two minutes ago you were ready to kill Calla and now you've changed your mind?" Calla squeaks in horror and backs against the tree. "Sorry. Rohan saw your dark magic. How long have you practiced that?"

  "I don't. I haven't. I don't know what," she stammers. "What was it?" The trembling starts again.

  "Shadowmancy. Ebon magic and banned. This is punishable by death, Calla. You must know of the Ebon queen?" Rohan approaches too.

  Calla looks like a frightened deer, ready to bolt, and I place my hands on her cheeks. The same soothing magic I used on Rohan flows through, and her cheeks cool beneath my hands. I can't sense how people feel, but I can channel nature's energy to heal their wounds—mental and physical. Her shoulders slacken slightly as she looks back with tear-filled eyes.

  My heart twists again, but this time joined by a warm surge, of a need to protect, to hold, to comfort.

  To wipe away her pain.

  "You're safe now. I promise," I whisper.

  I could punch Rohan when he snorts in disbelief. Calla pulls away my hands. "If I conjured Ebon magic, what happens when Thomas tells people? His father is on the town council." Her voice rises. "Will I be punished? I will, won't I?"