Page 22 of Dragon Unbound (Dragon Kings 3)
She held his gaze. “I’d really like to know if you would share.”
He motioned for her to take his seat. If he were going to pull up those memories, he had to move around. “Our realm is called Earth. For countless years, the dragons ruled. There was only us and other animals. We covered the entire globe, every continent, in every climate. Our numbers were vast, and the land plentiful. Magic wasna just part of us, but also the planet. We found the source of the magic and made that area our home. It’s where the Dragon Kings gathered. We call it Dreagan. To feel the force of the magic is breathtaking.”
“You can feel it?”
Cullen turned his head to her and smiled. “It’s so thick in the Dragonwood, you can almost scoop it up with your hand.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“The magic chooses the Dragon Kings. It looks deep into the hearts of all dragons and finds the ones with the most magic, the most power, and the purest hearts to lead their clans. The magic chose dragons to protect Earth and the beings that lived on it. Things were no’ perfect, but they were good. But everything changed one day with the arrival of humans.”
Her dark brows drew together. “You mean they just showed up? Like the infants do here?”
“Aye. Except they were adults. They had no memory of who they were, and no magic. The Kings gathered before them. Before we knew it, we began to shift to their form. We were able to understand their language, and by shifting, we could speak with them. Constantine, the King of Dragon Kings, gave them protection since they were defenseless. We helped them build shelters and showed them how to hunt for food. We accepted them into our realm, and they accepted us. Some Kings even took the females as lovers. But that peace didna last. The mortals bred at a rapid rate and kept encroaching on our land. Dragons ate them at times, and they hunted and killed dragons. We gave more land to them, but it was only a matter of time before they wanted even more.”
Tamlyn pressed her lips together. “That doesn’t sound fair.”
“I’m sure it depends on who you ask,” he said with a rueful twist of his lips. “Things went on like that for a while. We were making it work. Then, one of the Kings fell in love with a human woman. Ulrik wanted to marry her. His uncle was bitter over no’ being a King himself, so he turned the female against Ulrik, urging her to kill Ulrik on their wedding night.”
Tamlyn’s hazel eyes bulged. “Please tell me she didn’t.”
“Con overheard one of their conversations. Ulrik was his best friend, and Con wouldna stand to have him betrayed in such a fashion. Con gathered the rest of us and informed us what was going on. So, we hunted her down and killed her.”
“That’s extreme,” Tamlyn said in a soft voice. “She hadn’t done anything yet.”
Cullen shrugged. “It seemed the right thing to do at the time. None of us realized it would change the course of everything. Tensions were already high between humans and dragons by that point. And Ulrik was furious over what’d happened. Angry at us, angry at the humans. He took his Silvers and began attacking the mortals. At first, only a few Kings joined him. It wasna long before most did. We wanted our realm back the way it was. Unfortunately, that started the war Con had been struggling to prevent. It took some time, but Con managed to get us back to his side, one by one. Some Kings sent their dragons to protect the humans at all costs, but that was the worst thing they could’ve done. The mortals attacked those dragons, and because the Kings ordered them to protect the humans, the dragons didna defend themselves. So many dragons were murdered that day.”
Cullen had to pause because the emotions were so heavy. Recalling those memories put him right back in them as if he were reliving it a second time. He squeezed his eyes closed, but he could still hear the dragons’ scared roars, the screams of the dying humans, and the Kings’ frantic calls.
His eyes snapped open when he felt a hand on his arm. Cullen looked over to find Tamlyn beside him. Her touch eased the vise around his chest. No one had ever comforted him in such a way. He found that he liked her touch. He wanted more of it.
Sadness filled her face. Her voice was soft as she asked, “What happened?”
“Whatever truce we’d had with the mortals was gone. The Kings recognized that we had two choices. We could wipe the world of the humans so we could live in peace, or we could send the dragons away.”
She shook her head, no words leaving her lips.
“The magic chose each King because of our purity. If we killed innocents, we would no longer be us. We had vowed to protect our realm and those who lived on it. Murdering the mortals would turn us into something we didna want to think about.”
Tamlyn dropped her hand slowly from his arm. “You thought the answer was sending your kind away?”
“We wanted to give them a chance for peace and happiness while we sorted things out on Earth. We always intended to bring them back.”
“Did you?”
Cullen shook his head. “Once the last dragon was gone, we put up a barrier around Dreagan so the mortals would stay away, and we hid away for centuries, waiting until our memory became myth and legend. When we came out, we realized that our hope of bringing our dragons back was gone. The humans had taken over the realm. We had to hide who we were. Even though we had magic and could wipe them out with barely a thought, we hid. Even now, we only fly at night so we aren’t seen, and we keep our magic to ourselves.”
“The dragons here are yours?”
“Their descendants, aye,” he said with a nod. “We only recently discovered this realm.”
She made a sound of confusion. “Then how did the dragons find this place?”
“They had help from a goddess, who created this realm specifically for them. She made it look as much like Earth as she could. Like my realm, there were only dragons here for a time.”
“Then humans began showing up,” she added.
Cullen sighed, nodding. “Brandr and Eurwen, those who rule the dragons here, are the twins of Constantine and his mate, Rhi—a royal Light Fae. They knew what’d happened on Earth, and they wanted to ensure that it didna repeat on Zora.”
Tamlyn nodded in understanding. “Which is why there is a barricade and the fear of dragons.”
“It’s why the twins wanted to keep the dragons safe and the humans to their own plots of land. They also enforced that there wouldna be any more land. If your kind outgrew what they had, it was their problem.”
“I can see why after your story. Making us fear the dragons ensured we didn’t cross the barrier.”
Cullen paused. “Brandr or Eurwen spoke to the humans to have them fear crossing onto dragon land, but not the dragons themselves.”
“Where did that come from if not from them?”
“Good question.”
