“Another warning?” I ask the shadowy figure in the room full of ice I find myself in. The floor, walls, and the ceiling are all frozen. I look down at my white dress, it’s covered in glitter and crystals.

“Yes,” the girl says, as her body comes into focus, and I can see her blue eyes, dark hair, and the long, dark blue dress she has on.

“Of what? Ice?” I ask, and she laughs sadly, shaking her head.

“Of what happens when fire falls for ice,” she waves around the room I don’t recognize, “ice always wins.”

“Who are you to me?”

“I cannot tell you that, you must discover that on your own,” she says, stepping closer so I can see we are the same height.

“Remember that when fire falls for ice, ice always wins,” she states, and everything fades to black before I can ask her what that even means.

I wake up to the feeling of something pulling my hair. Turning my head, I see Bee sitting on my pillow, a piece of my hair in her hand, tugging on it.

“Food?” she asks, and I yawn as I reach into the cabinet above my head and grab a chocolate bar.

“Do you eat anything other than chocolate?” I ask her, and she shakes her head, pointing to the tree.

“Leaves food, chocolate food,” she says.

“That’s good speech,” I smile at her as I open the chocolate bar and get out of bed. She flies over to her pod next to me, where I leave some pieces of chocolate for her.

“Bee, do you ever feel like everything is out of your control? Like you’re playing a game, but you don’t know the rules?” I ask her, resting my hand against the tree.

“No,” she says, shaking her head and flying out the pod. I hold my hand out, and she lands on it, hanging her feet over the side of my palm.

“Fate,” she points at the mark on my hand as she speaks.

“What if fate is playing a dangerous game?” I ask her.

“Fate, good,” she tells me and I don’t get to respond, as someone knocks on my door.

“Time to hide Bee,” I say, putting her in the pod and she closes the door. I walk over to my door, opening it up and hiding my body behind it.

“Hey, can I come in?” Dagan asks and I look down at my cat pyjamas and back to Dagan.

“Erm sure. I thought you would be Korbin for our run,” I say, letting him in and shutting the door behind him.

“He is running a little late but will be here soon,” he tells me, and then pauses looking at my pyjamas.

“Cats?” he laughs.

“Don’t, I couldn’t find anything to wear last night when I got back,” I say, and he shakes his head, reaching inside his jacket.

“I have a letter for you, kitty cat,” he says.

“Don’t call me that ever again,” I groan, taking the yellow letter off him and going to sit on my bed. I open it up, reading a long invitation from one of the area's richest families for their daughter's mating ceremony. The estate is nearby, and prominent families always invite a royal to watch their matings. Normal dragons may mate whenever they like, but it's considered a blessing to have a royal in attendance. I can’t see much danger with going, being that it’s not far away.

“It’s an invite to a mating ceremony, they think it’s a blessing if I go and they have my father’s approval,” I explain what it basically says.

“Makes sense,” Dagan responds, still rolling that damn sexy lip ring between his lips.

“How does that not get removed when you shift?” I ask him, curious. I always thought about having my belly button or something pierced but I assumed dragon healing wouldn’t let it stick.

“It’s a long story, up to you if you really want to know,” he says, leaning against the wall.

“Sure, I’m curious,” I reply.

“There’s a dragon that lives on Earth, who works in a tattoo parlour. He learnt how to do dragon piercings, tattoos and all that. Anyway, we had a job to find a young, runaway dragon girl on Earth a few years back, it was one of our first assignments, actually,” he chuckles as he rests against the wall and then carries on with his story.

“We tracked this girl, who was twenty, and found her with the tattoo guy, Lucak. They had fallen in love, and her parents wouldn’t let them mate, so she ran away,” he says.

“Did you take her back?” I ask.

“Nope, I’m not heartless. Besides, the family had told us she was in danger, which she wasn’t. She was happy and Lucak wanted to give us a gift to say thank you for keeping their location a secret. Especially considering we lost a lot of money doing so,” he says.

“The lip ring?” I ask.

“Yep, he did this, and Kor’s–“ he goes to say and then laughs, “I likely shouldn’t tell you that,”.

“What did he have pierced?” I ask, with a cheeky little smile.

“The night before Lucak was to do the piercing, we all had a bet, and the loser had to let us choose the piercing for him,” he says.

“Korbin lost?” I fill in.

“Yep, but still not telling you what we chose,” he winks at me, but I think I have a good idea what they would have chosen.

“And the tattoos? How does Lucak get them to stick to dragon skin with our healing,” I ask.

“As mad as it sounds, dragonglass,” he tells me.

“That’s crazy and sounds painful,” I say, a little shocked.

“It is, but it’s not dangerous,” he says.

“You have a tattoo like Korbin and Elias?” I ask and he grins, rolling the lip ring around.

“Yep, but kitty cat, I wouldn’t ask to see it if I were you. That is, unless you want me to be taking a lot of clothes off," he says, making me blush.

“Anyways,” I clear my throat, standing up and handing him the letter.

“It’s tonight, and I’m guessing I will need all of my guards,” I say as he reads the top of the letter.

“Also, we will need to leave in three hours in order to fly there and give you a few hours to get ready. So, looks like no class for you,” he says.

“Some good news then,” I grin.

“You and your dragon gonna be okay to fly there?” he asks, and I redirect the question to my dragon.

“As long as mine are with us,” she says, and I shake my head.

“She’s cool with it,” I say and he nods, walking out the room.

“See you in a few hours then, I will send Kor to guard your room,” he says and walks out.