Chapter Six
Blaze
"You made him leave," Vale grumbled as Landon disappeared down the hall.
Blaze shoved a hand through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead. "I don't think I did anything. Vale, what the hell are you talking about, cutting off the entire island? They'll murder you."
"Then my adviser will just have to protect me," Vale said, stubborn as usual. He knew that Blaze would throw himself in the path of whatever was trying to hurt his King, but that didn't mean Vale needed to rile them up and give them a reason.
Blaze realized Vale was heading toward the platform and hurried to step in front of him. "If you go out there now and tell those people what you are planning to tell them, there will be a riot, Vale. Maybe I can protect you, maybe not. But I am damn sure I won't be able to protect both of you the same time."
"Both?"
"You know how untrusting our people are. Even I got some weird looks when I came back yesterday. But if you start cutting off people's links to health and wellness, they'll blame you first but who do you think they will blame second?" Blaze stood side-by-side with his King, within touching distance but he didn't dare touch him. It had taken one crashed dinner date for Blaze to realize that there was something there between him and Landon, separate from Vale. "What are your feelings towards him? He's a good guy, young, way too innocent to be a guard. Don't even get me started on how trusting is. What are your intentions with him, Vale?"
"Why do you care? And you can stop it with that, I heard the call, junk. You want to act like he's your mate and you don't have a choice, but if he was then why would I feel this way about him too?"
Dread settled in Blaze's stomach. Was Vale lying? Were they both doomed to fall for the same person because they were so similar to each other? That didn't seem fair. In fact, it seemed cruel. But then, sometimes the world was cruel. That was knowledge he'd cemented during his time off the island. "I'm not going to stop just because you asked me to, Vale. I'm not sure what this is, but I think it's something."
"He's mine, Blaze."
There had been a time when his King had whispered similar words but to him. They'd met as small children and, thanks to the elixir—including the extra vials that Vale used to steal for Blaze's consumption—they'd had a very long time to perfect their friendship. Then, puberty had hit, and their personalities had begun forming. They were both stubborn, both strong but where Vale fell back on tradition and laws, Blaze saw only the people being affected and some even hurt by archaic rules that had no place in their civilized society.
"Not yet, Vale. Part of this equation is missing from the conversation. We'll let Landon decide who he wants."
"And then the loser goes back to the states, without another fight?" Vale asked, a grin picking up one corner of his lips.
"You are so sure that it's going to, be you?"
"I'm the King," Vale said with enough arrogance that Blaze should have found it annoying. Instead he found it only endearing.
"You won't be for long if you keep testing your people like this," Blaze replied quietly. "Wait before you act. Gather all the information."
"You sound like we're in training again. A one-day King and his eager wannabe adviser. We've come from further than that, haven't we?"
Blaze opened his mouth to reply when there was a loud commotion coming from down the hallway. He poked his head out and located the cause. The scent of blood filled his nose.
"Stay here," he ordered but the King was right behind him, ignoring his command.
"Is that blood?"
At the end of the hallway there was a messenger was on the ground, crying. The scent of blood was stronger here, but he still didn't see it. "Were you harmed?" Surrounded by waitstaff and other dragons, the messenger spotted Vale at Blaze's side and gasped.
"My King, I was attacked. The message, for your eyes." The messenger reach for the bottom of his shirt and pulled up the fabric with a shaky hand. Etched into the skin of his chest were shallow slashes done by a sharp knife or claw. It took Blaze's mind some time to make sense of the scratches and then he saw that they formed into letters and words.
The dark one rises.
"Is that a message for the King? Or a reply to our letter?" Blaze asked.
The messenger scowled as he let his shirt fall. "The Shadow King didn't even read my message. He's not interested in working with us, he said as much before he had his men do this."
As easy as it would have been to overreact and launch an immediate counterstrike against the Shadow King, the simple fact was, their people had no military. No guards or soldiers to march against anyone. Their one defense was that they didn't have to defend themselves. They could close The Garden and be happy and healthy for years, while the rest of world tore each other apart--if that was what it took.
"Hang on, the dark one?" Blaze turned to Vale wondering why that phrase sounded so familiar. Vale returned his gaze before looking closer at the words etched into the messenger's skin.
"The dark one," he muttered. Then, a gasp. "Isn't that an old onyx dragon tale? The dark one for them, it's like an onyx dragon boogie man. The monster that monsters are afraid of."
As he spoke, Blaze remembered why it had sounded familiar. He pictured that day, both of them teenage boys sitting in the royal library, reading book after book of the information gathered regarding the other dragon tribes.
"This one here, did you see? It says that the Golden dragons have orgies." Blaze had barely been able to say the word without both getting an erection and blushing so brightly that his skin burned.
"Orgy you say?" the young Vale had asked him. "That's better than what I have here, the dark one." Vale said with a comically deep and gravelly tone. Something on the page had caught his attention, making him sit up just a little bit straighter. "That's actually interesting. I didn't think the onyx dragons were afraid of anything, but they fear this dark one returning. They've been fearing this dark one returning since the beginning of time." Young Vale had tossed the priceless tome onto the floor in a pile of others just like it. "If I were them, I would've given up on waiting so long."
"What if it is something worth waiting for?" Blaze had asked, sliding next to Vale.
Then, they'd spent the rest of the afternoon further desecrating the priceless books.
"Why would the Shadow King herald the dark one's return? That's a bad thing in onyx culture," Blaze asked as the doctor arrived with a single emerald rose.
The doctor placed it in a bowl and handed it to Vale who used his flame to reduce it to liquid. After, he gave Blaze a look as if to say, see I can be reasonable. None of these people yet knew just how much rarer the blossoms had become.
Blaze just shook his head. The doctor gave the messenger the bowl and he drank it down quickly. If they lifted his shirt now, they would find the cuts healed or nearly so.
"What did the castle look like?" Vale asked him.
The messenger jumped to his feet, the effects of the elixir were similar to an alcoholic buzz for the first five minutes or so and the dragon was clearly feeling better. "I have no idea. I didn't even get there. I got lost, my King and flew over a cluster of islands when I spotted the first dragon." He shuddered. "Their scales are so oily black, like the absence of life. They nearly knocked me out of the air, so I landed. That was when the King—"
"Did he call himself King?" Vale asked.
Normally, Blaze disapproved of Vale's brusque tone he used, specifically with his people, but this time, it felt warranted. Something was off.
"Well…no…"
Vale made an impatient noise. He stepped away, Blaze close by his side. "How much do you want to bet your messenger never even saw the King?" Blaze asked.
Nodding his head, Vale replied, "My thoughts exactly."
"Show me the roses, Vale," Blaze said. "Juniper knows, and I imagine the gardeners do as well, anyone else?"
"Of course not. Do you think the doctor would have rushed for a rose had he known how much rarer they are now? It won't take long for word to get out though. One fly over, one dragon swimming over that part of the dome, it can't be kept a secret for long. We still have the second field, but this will cause unrest."
That was putting it mildly.
Blaze followed Vale's rapid steps out of the castle, down a winding corridor overgrown with ivy and buzzing with life. His thoughts wandered as they walked in silence. He wished, for the millionth time, that things between them were different, that either one of them could open their mouths for a few moments without immediately going into a tailspin that ended with a fiery crash.
This mutual affection they had for Landon could kill them, especially if they continued to both pursue him. "What do you feel for him, Vale?" Blaze asked. "Perhaps, I could—" He didn't have any idea how he was going to end that sentence, but he never had to figure out what he would have said. The moment Vale led him within sight of the rose field his mouth dropped open.
He understood Vale's visceral reaction better now because Blaze was going through it himself. Looking out at the field, an expanse of land that was normally a sparkling green, was hazy and dim. The roses hadn't just died, they looked like they had been turned to stone. The rose blooms, normally soft to the touch, looked cracked and hard. The thorns that hadn't simply fallen off the stalks were chipped, like statues that had been left to crumble in the weather. The leaves were no longer shiny and smooth, they were wilted, shriveled and gray.
Looking at the field made Blaze's stomach roll. It was like he was looking at some other very lifeless, very wrong thing. Like a young animal dying and decomposing without the care, honor or consideration such a young beast demanded. Something was very wrong, supernaturally wrong. "A curse" he gasped finally, unable to step any closer.
"Perhaps. We do have a dragon very adept at cursing here in our dungeon."
"How would you know it if she woke up? I mean, how could you be sure?" Blaze asked fighting the urge to reach down and lift a dead rose just to see if it would be as heavy as it looked.
"Normally, I would say yes, but with this dragon? I don't know."
Neither of them spoke the plan out loud. They simply turned from the roses at the same time and began the way to the creek that would take them down to the bottom of the sea. In the pod, Blaze had to step closer to Vale than he would have normally. The pod walls grew up around them and suddenly, they were sharing the same air. For a moment, Blaze allowed himself to simply enjoy the crisp, masculine scent of the other man. His hair had grown long, the ends in front tickled against his lips and chin. For that space of time, Blaze let himself believe that Vale wasn't a man he couldn't be in the same room with without fighting, he let himself linger in the presence of a strong, virile man who could make Blaze's body sing. His stomach muscles tightened, and he closed his eyes instead of moaning.
"Blaze?" Vale's husky tone washed over him like the water washing over the outside of the pod.
"Yes?"
"It's nice to have you here for this. I'm saying, I'm glad you are here, no matter the reason."
Blaze's mind blanked. What did he say to something like that? Yes, I agree, let's bone? Landon's face popped up and while Blaze hadn't spent much time with the man, Blaze still felt a sense of loyalty. Would kissing Vale be cheating on Landon? "Thank you," he replied instead of pushing him up against the wall and lifting his leg so that it hooked around his ass.
The pod attached to the vegetation on the outside of the dungeon and began to absorb into the plant structure. A moment later, they walked through the doorway to the dungeon. Blaze half expected the Golden Grandma to be not only awake but running the place. Instead, he got the quiet stillness of the graveyard. The noises down here were fit for nightmares and many who had spent time in the dungeon had said as much. If the isolation didn't unnerve a prisoner then there was the quiet groaning of the entire ocean, pressing in on them. Or, the dull, nameless rumbling of any number of large beasts swimming by and, perhaps most unnerving, the constant drip, drip of water leaking in from somewhere, as if ever so slowly beginning the purge process.
"Did you expect her to jump out from around the corner and shout, boo?" Vale asked.
Blaze found himself smiling. He had. He still kind of did. As they tiptoed through the dingy, dripping corridor to the cell Avia was in, he grew more aware of how Vale moved beside him, the location of his body. His dragon became more attuned to the man's movements so that when Vale stopped in front of a cell, Blaze knew he was going to stop a second before.
Inside the cell, laying on the ground was the ancient dragon. She looked frail, almost helpless in her current state, but Blaze would not be fooled. She was dangerous, but she was also clearly asleep, still stuck in the magical coma that they'd used to transport her.
"Damn," Vale cursed. "I'd been hoping for a reason to purge her."
"Could you?" Blaze asked looking at the heap of a woman. Like this, she didn't seem formidable. "You would be able to purge her in this state?"
Vale didn't blink before replying. "Without a moment's hesitation."
Despite knowing that Vale's reply was likely the best and safest choice for all of them, his lack of concern spooked Blaze. "Maybe you have more in common with the Shadow King than you think."
"Why? Because I would do anything to protect my people? To protect my home? To protect you?"
Blaze tore his gaze from their prisoner and squared up against the King, toe to toe. "Don't pretend it's for me."
"Everything that I do, is for you," Vale said with a scowl and when it looked like Blaze didn't believe him, the scowl deepened. "I've been wondering if you've changed. I see now, you're the same old Blaze."
With his jaw clenched, Blaze saw a little more of the man he'd left. The man who had refused to even entertain the idea that there was a better, different way for them to run things. "You're just the same."
"A good thing too, since that means everyone is still alive and safe. You get upset with me for making the hard choices, but the reality is there's no one else who can make these choices. It isn't fun and no, I don't enjoy it, but this stuff needs to happen. It's clear that Avia had nothing to do with the roses turning into stone. Which means, we're back to my old plan. No one gets their ration until the dragon responsible is caught."
Anger flowed fast and freely through Blaze's veins. "I can't believe I thought that you might be different this time. That Landon was making a difference. You're the same unfeeling, heartless ruler--"
A sound cut off the rest of what Blaze had been about to say. He spun towards it as Vale pulled his hand out of the hole he'd made with his fist through the plant wall. Water rushed in as the plant repaired itself. Blaze stood very still. Vale might have been ruthless and strict, but he didn't normally have a temper-that was Blaze's department. "Are you okay?" Blaze asked without stepping any closer.
Vale didn't reply. He stomped away from Blaze toward the creek. "Stay down here if you like," Vale said with a voice that was deathly quiet. "I'm going to go and do what needs to be done."
"You're going to go start a riot!" Blaze shouted but it was no use, Vale had already stepped on a pod and was on his way back up to the guard.