Chapter 17

~Kamari~

Cassian Arkenstone was my ex-fiance's name. I didn't care to know anything about him back then. I didn't think he had a brother who was staring me right in the face. 

He smiles, "What luck." But I sense a bittersweetness to it. "I'm sorry to ask, but I need that ring back. It's part of our family."

"I wish I could give it back, but It got lost…" I lied. I got rid of it long ago. 

Javall double-blinks, then scoffs, "You lost your murdered fiance's ring?" The suspicion in his eyes gets my blood rushing. My guard is up. 

"It's been a very long time, Javall." I slightly back up.

Javall searches my eyes, "You didn't care to take care of it?"

I give him a forced laugh. "Carrying your dead fiance's ring around didn't sit well with me." The air thickens between us, and the weight on my chest doesn't allow me to take full breaths. I clear my throat. "Excuse me, I have to cut our visit short. It was nice meeting you, Javall." I turn on my heels and head towards the door, but it slams shut in my face. I try pulling the handle, but to no avail.

"I did try to give you a chance to tell me the truth." I hear Javall sigh behind me. My heart pounds, and I freeze. "I didn't need that ring. Cassian's magic goes back to the motherland either way."

My jaw slacks, "Magic," I say under my breath. Slowly I turn around, Javall's eyes are glassy, and his lips are thin. Javall scoffs, "Now I see why my brother fell for you. The most beautiful things are always deadly."

I hold my head high, "You have me trapped." I slap my hands down," Now what?" 

Javall slowly walks up to me. I stand my ground. He gets close to my face, searching my eyes. He takes a moment, and I feel something tickle my mind. I push him away, but Javall grabs my wrist, still searching for something. I could feel him rummaging through my mind.

Suddenly, his eyebrows flinch, and then his eyes widen. He scoffs, "Your mother is deranged…"

I grit my teeth, "Who the hell are you to judge my mother?"

My mind stops tingling, and Javall gazes at me, "No wonder you went mad and killed my brother…

"What are you talking about?" Was this man insane?! "Get off of me." I try to break out of his grip. He chuckles, "You have no idea, do you?"

"That you are insane? Yes, I do!" Good Goddess, this man's grip hurt!

"Let me show you then. You hold your mother in such high regard; let's see what you think of her after this," Javall presses his hand to my head, and a jolt goes through my body. And I become numb.

Short scenes, one after another, pass through my eyes. My mother smiled, cried, and never left my side the day I was born. It turned to her fighting with my father, but I couldn't hear them. It skips to Calea, a teenage priestess, and my mother, their faces serious, and My mother grabs a syringe. Calea grabs her, trying to stop her, but my mother slaps her. 

Next, I see a woman, one I don't recognize wandering around a evergreen forest until she stumbles upon the corpse of a dark purple Dragon. And not just any Dragon. A Shade Drake. Deadly Dragons that are known for their poison and fiery attitudes. The rumors said there could only be one at a time since they were such terrors. Which I never understood.

I feel my brows furrow, and my stomach churns as I watch her stick the syringe into it. It sucks out dark purple blood. Next thing I know my mother is feeding me the same blood through a bottle. My stomach lurches when I realize, my eyes were gray before the blood and after they turned violet. I feel my eyes burn as I watch her coddle me as I begin crying.

"Shh little one, it won't hurt for long. Good girl, drink it all my little darkling." As she says this our eyes start to glow. As she rocks me she continues talking to me, "This is our lineage. Forever mad like and designed to hold the fiery of a Shade. Isn't it delightful?" She smiles, "We are all connected, you, me, your grandmother. Only one can exist at a time, but I don't mind. My life is yours." She lays her forehead on mine, "We don't have a lot of time, but I'll make the moments of our time together unforgettable."

A time-lapse of women with violet eyes races before my eyes. All females, with Shade blood running through their veins. Deadly beauties, all of them, and the Shade line continued only if they had a girl, and the mothers chose to give them their blood and sacrifice their own life over time.

"There are no more Shade Dragons anymore my darkling, only us. We are their lineage."

As Javall lifts his hand, I punch him in the chest and scream. "Screw you!" I kick the door down with strength I didn't know I had, and I run. 

Everything in my life was manipulated by people I trusted.