Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
She needed. . .something from Korin, but she didn't know what.
But her body did.
Her body desperately ached with that knowing.
Sol pressed her face against Korin's shoulder, breathing him in—jasmine, stormwater, flame—and a soft, involuntary sound escaped her lips.
Not quite a moan.
Not quite a whimper.
Something in between.
Something wild and desperate.
Korin's arms tightened around her.
His stride didn't falter, but she felt the change in him—the way his muscles tensed, the way his breath hitched just slightly before steadying again.
He knew.
Whatever was happening to her body, he knew.
And from somewhere beyond the corridor, that other roar answered again—colder, hungrier, and closer now.
Your other king, Korin had said.
Sol's blood ran hot and cold all at once.
No one knew that Korin had a twin. How did the world not know this?
She was being carried toward a second dragon.
And her body—traitorous, burning, wanting—didn't seem to mind at all.
Then soon, Korin brought Sol through a new doorway lined with sparkling gold, and the world shifted into even more luxury.
Korin’s treasure hoard had been magnificent—mountains of gold, rivers of gems, thrones buried beneath centuries of wealth.
But his brother’s?
That was something else entirely.
Oh my.
Sol's breath caught as they emerged into a cavern so vast it seemed to hold the sky itself. The walls stretched upward for what must have been a thousand feet, carved from black rock veined with rivers of molten gold that pulsed like living arteries.
Crystals the size of huts jutted from the stone—some clear as frozen water, others dark as midnight, and still others that shimmered with colors she had no names for.
But it wasn't the walls that stole her voice.
It was the lake.
In the center of this impossible space lay a body of water unlike anything she had ever imagined. The surface shimmered with liquid gold—not just reflected light, but actual gold coins floating across the top like fallen leaves on a pond.
Thousands of them.
Perhaps millions.
They drifted in slow, hypnotic spirals, catching the light from above.
And above. . .
Sol tilted her head back, and her heart nearly stopped.
High above them, the cavern narrowed to a jagged opening—a hole in the top of what she now realized was a hollowed-out mountain.
Her nerves frazzled.
Where is Korin’s brother?
Sol put her view back on the lake. Steam rose from the edges of the lake. The water stirred and tons of bubbles broke the golden surface.
"Welcome to the heart of our home," Korin murmured against her ear. "This is where we were born. Where we have lived for centuries. And now. . .where you will rule beside us."
Sol couldn't respond because something began to rise in the center of the huge lake.
A shape.
Massive.
Threatening.
At first, she thought it was an island—a mound of black stone rising from the golden waters. But then the shape shifted. Scales the color of midnight and silver caught the light.
A spine ridged with obsidian spikes broke the surface.
And then. . .gigantic eyes opened. Two orbs of molten silver—not gold like Korin's, but cold and bright as winter moons—fixed upon her from across the lake.
Sol's body locked.
No. No. No.
The creature in the lake was identical to Korin in his dragon form—the same impossible size, the same brutal elegance, the same raw power that made the air itself tremble.
But where Korin's scales had been black and gold, this dragon was black and silver.
Where Korin's eyes burned like twin suns, these eyes gleamed like large moons.
The same.
And yet. . .different.
Colder.
Harder.
Hungrier.
"K-Korin. . ." Sol's voice cracked. "I’m scared."
"It is only my brother. Your king." Korin shifted her in his arms, adjusting his grip on her naked body as he began to walk toward the edge of the lake. "Pyrran."
The name hung in the air like a curse.
Pyrran.
For several minutes, the dragon in the lake did not move. He simply watched them approach with those terrible silver eyes, his massive head still half-submerged, nostrils flaring just above the waterline.
Steam curled around his snout.
Gold coins drifted against his scales.
Sol began to tremble.
This was not like meeting Korin. When she had faced the golden-eyed dragon, there had been terror, yes—but also something else. A pull. A recognition. A heat that matched her cold.
But Pyrran?
Pyrran made her want to scream and run.
“Do not be afraid.” Korin stopped at the water's edge and gently lowered Sol to her feet.
“Why is he looking at me that way?”
“He’s not used to anyone being in here besides our servants.”
“Servants?”
“Yes. We are gods and must be prayed to and serviced.”
“But. . .” Her legs nearly buckled, but Korin’s hand remained firm at her back, steadying her.
"Stand." Korin smiled. "Pyrran needs to see you. To smell you. To know."
Sol's teeth chattered. She was still naked, still trembling, still trying to process everything that had happened. And now she was standing before another dragon—another beast who could incinerate her with a single breath.
Oh wait. I suppose his fire won’t work on me either. . .