The Twin Dragons Series: Dragon's Slave

MADELINE

I’m exhausted in every way possible, but I can’t sleep. Not while I’m trapped inside this room. Not while I have to keep one eye open, waiting for Hael to come to torture me.

But he hasn’t come so far. In fact, he hasn’t spoken or interacted with me in any way.

Hael has left me to my own thoughts, which I know is his twisted way of punishing me.

Once my eyes adjust to the dark, I notice the room curves round a corner on the far side, and every time I stand up to stretch, I consider exploring before thinking better of it.

What I saw on the walls is already enough to freak me out. I don’t want to know what other twisted things this dragon lord keeps in here.

Instead, I lean against the metal door, keeping my eyes closed as much as I can as I try desperately to sleep.

It’s futile, however; I’m too uncomfortable, and for once in my life, I crave the warmth of my tiny, rock-hard slave bed with my tattered pillow and sewn blanket, both of which I made myself.

Just as I’m daydreaming for the thousandth time about my brother coming to rescue me, I’m jolted into reality as my sixth sense detects a presence on the other side of the door.

I scramble away as the door begins to creak and move, and I stand up as quickly as possible.

The massive, glowing bedchamber burns my sore eyes, but I take a swift step into it, scared the door might close and trap me once more if I linger.

Rubbing the simple gold bracelet on my wrist, I scan the room for Hael. He isn’t anywhere to be seen, and I realize he must have opened the door with his mind powers.

I don’t stick around. I run to the other side of the chamber and back into the cave’s passageways that we’d ventured through on our way in.

The paths crisscross throughout the mountain, moving up and down and side to side; a teeming network of interconnected veins that allow dragons and slaves to move around the mountain.

I know the corridors around my slave quarters and the guest rooms I clean, but with such limited duties, I rarely find myself in other places.

But I can’t help but smile when I stumble past the Common Royal Chamber, which I know vaguely from my brief encounters with it.

I start to see slaves running about, tending to their duties, carrying food, linen, wash buckets, and other tools.

I ignore their stares. It’s bad enough that I have bags under my eyes and look like shit, but with the gold bracelet shimmering on my wrist, I might as well be walking around with my hair aflame.

Regular slaves don’t wear jewelry. They are not adorned with anything pretty.

Jewelry, clean skin and hair, perfume: these are all signs you are the personal slave. After all, how we present ourselves reflects on the dragon in question.

It isn’t long before I pass the guest bedchambers, and I start to relax as the cave corridors become familiar.

I don’t know how long I was locked in that room, but from the types of supplies the slaves are carrying around me, I know it is lunchtime.

Now I have a direction. I know exactly where Darshan will be…assuming he’s made it back from Haven. It takes a lot longer to walk than to fly.

If he is, he’ll be in the dining hall. He and I always make the longest possible use of our food breaks. It’s how we met in the first place, over food.

I barge into the slave dining hall. My eyes light up when I see Darshan in the canteen line.

I know him too well.

I skip over, my heart instantly feeling lighter, and my energy levels increasing with the relief that comes from finding him safe and unharmed.

Before I even make it to him, I see from his grin and the way he angles his head that he is recognizing my footfalls.

“I’m glad you’re alive.”

Darshan puts down his plate just as I embrace him in a tight bear hug.

“I’m alive, yes, I’m alive,” I say, not letting him go until the people in the line behind us start trying to step around our little reunion.

As we untangle ourselves, one of his hands slips up my arm and grazes the bracelet.

His smile fades. “Go grab us our usual seats,” Darshan suggests. “I’ll get our food and meet you there, all right?”

“Yes, good idea.”

I head to our table but, before I get there, I spot a young, blue-haired girl I know all too well.

Layla is not sitting down but leaning against the wall, watching everyone in the room closely with her sharp dragon eyes.

When she spots me, she straightens her back at the sight of me. Is it because I look disheveled, grimy, dirty, and exhausted? Or is it the golden bracelet that makes her stiffen?

But I am truly glad to see her, even if I know she will tell me off for looking so unpresentable.

“I thought you would have escaped,” she mutters, and I’m surprised by her choice of words.

“How come you never told me Hael was going to make me his personal slave?” I ask. “You must have known. You are related to him after all. You’re practically royalty.”

“Second-class royalty. I’m only his distant cousin, Maddie. Let me look at that more closely.” She grabs my wrist and inspects the bracelet briefly before letting me go.

She smirks at me. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to scare you. Instead, I gave you a chance to get out of it, but here you are. You’re not going to have another chance to escape now.”

Layla lowers her voice to a whisper. “Darshan is coming over. Sit down. I have to keep watching everyone.”

“You what—?” Before I can question her further, I feel my whole dress tighten and pull as she uses her magic to force me down onto the bench beside the table.

Hael and Layla may be distant relatives but they clearly share an affinity for magic.

“Eat,” she orders, putting on her authoritarian tone.

“Bloody dragons,” I mutter to myself.

Darshan drops a plate down in front of me before sitting on the opposite side of the table. “It’s a shame they are so beautiful.”

Without looking behind me, I know that Layla is scowling at him for that.

She hates it when Darshan compliments her looks, even when he does it so indirectly. She just can’t take his opinion seriously when he has no working eyes.

Only once has she allowed him to scan his fingers over her face, and ever since, he hasn’t stopped with the admiration.

Plus, he knows how much it annoys her.

“I’m exhausted after that trek. You are lucky Hael flew you back.” Darshan digs into his food.

I kick his leg under the table. “You know how serious this situation is. How can you look at the positives right now? I was trapped in some sort of torture room all night.”

Darshan starts choking on his food before thumping his chest and coughing up whatever had gone down the wrong way. “He what?”

“Yes,” I say quietly.

More and more eyes glance at me and my wrist, and I do my best to ignore the gossip filtering around the room.

“He just locked me in there. He didn’t torture me, not physically. He was messing with me mentally.”

“Okay, that definitely sounds like something our good ol’ dragon lord would do.” Darshan takes a bite of steak and, with his mouth full, adds, “Tell me more.”

“This isn’t meant to be entertainment,” I growl.

“Listen to me,” Layla interrupts, surprising us both. She steps closer and leans over the table. “For starters, it is not a room of torture. He calls it his Pleasure Room.

“Two”—she is about to rest a hand on Darshan’s shoulder but, obviously, thinks better of it when she lowers it to her side—“watch how you speak about Hael. Unless you want to get flogged.”

“It won’t be so bad if you’re the one doing the flogging.” Darshan grins over his shoulder at Layla, who blushes very slightly.

An instant later, her silver eyes glass over, and I know she is communicating with another dragon—or maybe many dragons—telepathically.

“Hael is on his way, Madeline. You shouldn’t be here, so keep your head down.” Layla’s mental voice is quiet as she speaks to my mind.

She stalks away from our table and toward the entrance. Straight ahead of her, and me, I see Hael is already walking into the dining hall.

I try to position myself exactly opposite Darshan so that he is blocking me from Hael’s view. I hunch over to eat like everyone else around me.

The food melts in my mouth—I hadn’t realized how hungry I was—and I almost don’t notice when Darshan rests his hand on mine.

A grim resolve appears on his face. “What if I never see you again, Madeline?” He sounds serious now that Layla isn’t close enough to overhear.

Why is it that boys only speak sensibly in one-on-one situations?

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I reply, laughing nervously. “Dragons don’t keep their slaves away from the rest of the world.”

“Darren doesn’t get out much,” Darshan mutters.

“That’s because Adara is obsessed with him, everyone knows that…”

My thoughts and words trail off as I notice a flash of emerald green out of the corner of my eye.

Fortunately, Darshan and I like to sit at the very back of the hall, so there’s plenty of time for me to hide from Hael in case he tries to—

He’s looking right at me.

Hael is still by the entrance, speaking to Layla, but even with all the people rising and sitting and walking about in between us, his eyes are focused on one thing: me.

How did he find me so quickly?

My mouth is full of food, but I’m too tense to chew it. I just sit there and wait. Wait for him to come and drag me away.

And yet, when he finishes his conversation with Layla, he simply slinks off to the side and disappears down the corridor and out of sight.

I gulp down my half-chewed food, coughing when it nearly goes down the wrong way.

“Keen to find out what it’s like to have a full throat, are you, Madeline?” Hael’s voice filters through my head before his laughter fills my mind.

I watch as everyone in the room starts snickering or smiling, which tells me he didn’t say that to just me.

Great, now he’s humiliating me in front of everyone!

I see Darshan with a hand over his mouth, trying hard not to laugh.

“Stop it,” I snap. I grab the table until my knuckles turn white. “Seriously, Darshan, this isn’t funny. It’s humiliating!”

Darshan laughs out loud before forcing himself to stop. “That’s why it’s funny.” He tries to look innocent. “Don’t worry Madeline, you’ll be fine. You know why?”

“Why?” I narrow my eyes at him.

He picks up a piece of fruit from his plate and gently squeezes it in his hand. “You’re like a peach. Soft on the outside, but solid inside. You have a stone heart and mind that can’t be broken.

“He might be able to penetrate your, uh, yeah, you know what. But he won’t be able to break you on the inside.

“He can try, but I know that all he’ll get in return is your smart mouth. You hurt me on a daily basis with your insults, Madeline.”

“You’re an idiot,” I say before I realize I’ve just fallen for the bait, then I roll my eyes.

“But you are gullible.” He winks at me.

I decide I need to get some space to rest...and to think. “I’m done eating. I’m going to try and get the day off and see if I can get some sleep.”

I stand up, getting ready to head off, and Layla glances at me from the entrance. As she continues to wave people inside, she speaks to me through the mind-link.

“Hael has given you permission to nap. But you must bathe first. You’re filthy.”

“I hope they weren’t his exact words,” I think back as I walk away from a giggly Darshan and head toward a stoic-looking Layla.

“Remember who you’re talking to,” she says when I am close enough. “Clean yourself up first. You can nap after.”

I shrug, but she knows I’ll do as she says, and I storm out of the hall, away from all the judgmental stares.

Once I’m far enough from the dining room, my hard march slows and softens into a hesitant meander as I head for the baths.

A part of me wants to refuse and just go straight to bed, so I dawdle outside the baths for a moment.

Eventually, I decide I will clean myself.

Only because I want to.

Not because Hael ordered me to.

A terrifying thought comes to me: this might be the last chance I get to be alone, fully, before Hael wants me to accompany him everywhere.

I briefly consider if he’s likely to allow me some independence, and I can’t help but feel suspicious of him and his intentions.

Hael is up to something; I just don’t know what it is yet.

And I have a feeling that I’m about to find out.