Page 3 of Emergence of Fire

“Well, you’re lucky the fire didn’t spread. The only damage is to your bed, and there’s smoke damage on the walls. The question on my lips is how you managed to get out of your bed unscathed?” He raises his eyebrows at the question as he checks me over once more, as if he can’t believe I didn’t sustain any injuries. “A fire that hot should have spread rapidly. You’re lucky to be alive.” Ms. Banks makes an audible gasp. I reach out and rub her little arms whilst shooting the firefighter a look of death. I sigh. I don’t like lying, this situation is already getting out of hand. Well, here goes nothing.

“I must have slept with my phone in my bed while it was charging.” The lie feels thick on my tongue, but it’s the first thing I came up with that seems plausible.

“Your phone?” He purses his lips, whether it’s in disbelief, or in judgement at my irresponsibility to do something so careless, I’m not sure which. My cheeks heat both from shame of lying and with the need to tell him off for the look he’s giving me.

“All clear here. Ah, Miss.?” Another firefighter steps out of the door giving me an appraising look of his own.

“Drake.” I answer him quickly.

“Miss. Drake. Do you have somewhere else to stay tonight? You may want to stay with your neighbor here and let your apartment air out for a few days. If you develop a cough or have a hard time breathing within the next few hours, we advise you to go to the Emergency Room. You appear ok, but smoke inhalation can sneak up on you.” He’s all business while he and Mister Judgy pack up their equipment and prepare to leave.

“Thank you.” I say to them all with a smile. Some of the other firefighters even have the nerve to shake their heads as they exit my apartment. Well, laugh all you want assholes. A wave of shame hits me again from the big lie I told. The sound of ringing comes from somewhere inside my apartment. Everyone in the hall looks directly at me. Oh shit, my phone.

“Is that your phone?” The lead firefighter asks in surprise.

“I have two for emergencies.” I smirk at him as I run back inside my apartment. I can hear him telling Ms. Banks goodnight as I make a bee line straight into my very soggy room. I quickly grab my phone from the top drawer in my nightstand and answer.

“Hello.”

“Cordelia. Is something wrong?” My aunt Twyla sounds panicked, and I can almost hear her pacing through the phone. Somehow, she always knows when to call if something is going on with me. I tell her all the time it’s her superpower. If there's one person who I can be honest with she’s here on my phone, and right now I need to breakdown.

“Yes, there is something wrong.” I swallow the lump in my throat and hold back my tears. I feel so confused, shocked, and scared. “There was a fire. I had a dream. My bed was burning when I woke. I—”

“Come home, Cordelia. Come home now.” She sounds so insistent, I immediately start packing a bag.

“I’m on my way.” I tell her and hang up the phone. I throw random clothes in a duffle bag; thank goodness my closet wasn’t damaged. The thought of my clothes going up in flames would have just made this even worse. I grab my laptop off the kitchen counter as I make my way around my apartment. The smell of smoke is heavy in the air so I crack a window to let the air in. On my way out I check in with Ms. Banks and tell her I will be at my aunts for a few days. Satisfied I have everything I need I make my way to my car and my thoughts wander back to the Dragon and her last words to me.

“Wake up, Cordelia. Arcadia calls us home.” I shiver at the words bouncing around my head on a loop.

I don’t know what she means or what Arcadia is, but I am determined to find out.

CHAPTERTWO

TORIN

Soil slips between my fingers, it’s the only thing I can grab hold of as I slowly rise from the ground to sit on my heels. I take a deep breath and try to process what just happened. One second I was tilling the land around me, then the next I was face down in the soil. I know what I felt, although it can’t be possible. Can it? No, it can’t be because I know that she is dead. I rub the dirt from my fingers and look out over the rows upon rows of upturned soil ready for planting, and sigh heavily. It’s almost pointless to continue this charade. Every year we yield fewer and fewer crops naturally, but the Barons are determined to keep up the ruse that everything in Arcadia is fine.

The Barons struck a deal with the Fae Queen years ago and they’ve been using their magic to assist in this deception. Despite the Fae’s efforts, Arcadia is still in decline. I don’t know how or what the Barons promised to get the Fae involved but they do nothing for free. No amount of magic will help Arcadia. All hope died with the queen and the princess. If that’s the case, what am I feeling? I think to myself. Almost afraid to say it out loud, she feels alive. Or is that just the longing I’ve always felt for her? My future unfulfilled, my destiny unclaimed.

I was four years old the night my mother and I ran from Saphir. I only got to see Cordelia once, she was sleeping soundly in her crib. Even at that age I felt a connection to her. Although I didn’t know the meaning of it until I became much older. By then it was too late. She was gone. My brothers and I were left with an emptiness in our hearts. Well, Gale and Adrian aren’t my biological brothers, but we’ve been bound together since birth. Bound to her. We were predetermined by fate to be her mates, the future Queen of Arcadia.

“She’s gone,” I say to myself out loud and stand up in one swift motion. I turn my back on the fields and make my way back to my home in the heart ofCresceria, region of the Earth Dragons of Arcadia. The rolling hills and pastural land was once green and vibrant, now it’s almost lost all of its luster. I run my hands through my hair in frustration at the lies I have to tell my own people. I am disgusted by the Black Barons and what they have done to our Realm. Arcadia was once a utopia, overflowing with riches and resources beyond imagining. We traded with all the other Realms: Fae, Druids, and Shifters. Our lives under our queens were prosperous.

That’s the story my mother told me for years after she was sequestered in our home to do nothing but tend to my siblings and me. Even as a child I knew the importance of my mother to my family, and in one night it was all taken away. She may as well have died that night because she, along with most of the women in power, became shells of their former selves. Those who protested or rebelled against the Barons were put to death—publicly—and made an example of. Now look at our Realm. Every year it dies a fraction more. I dread to think what will be left for future Dragons.

Only the Barons, my brothers and I, know the truth. All three of us are Regents of our regions now that our fathers have stepped down. Not that they knew what they were doing really, it was our mothers who were the original Regents of Cresceria, Panlongia, and Kaeluma. Since the beginning, Arcadia was a matriarchal society, ruled and governed by the females of our kind. Our queen, the rare Red Fire Dragon, was chosen by the divine to lead us. Fire was both the great creator and a devastating destroyer. Through its destruction it brought renewal and rebirth, the Red Dragon embodied all these things. The ultimate synergy. Now, that’s only our history, a history that the Black Barons want to erase.

I can hear the flapping of wings in the distance, and I turn to scan the horizon. My Dragon sight picks them out easily, two Dragons flying side by side. “Why are they here?” I wonder out loud, but in the pit of my stomach I already know.

As they fly closer, I can see Gale’s blue scales shimmering like sapphires in the mid-day sunlight. Being an Air Dragon, he has the longest wingspan out of the three of us. He easily glides through the air, out pacing Adrian and leaving him behind. All Kaelumians thought they were the superior Dragons. I called bullshit on that. But I guess we are all partial to our own species. I frown as his long tail swishes in excitement as his magic creates a whirlwind, ending up spraying me with the dirt from the fields. Damn show off. He tosses his clothes bundle that was held in his huge talon to the ground then lands, shifting into human form easily.

Adrian takes his time. Never one to rush, he flies in the air like he is swimming in the ocean. His long emerald-green body undulates through the air, creating S shapes with his body. Water Dragons have webbed feet and it always amazes me to watch him fly. It’s almost like he’s running on the air. Adrian follows Gale’s lead and tosses his clothes before landing. I fold my arms over my chest and wait while they dress quickly. Gale is the first to finish and begins to jog toward me.

“Tell me you felt it. Tell me I’m not crazy.” He smiles as he approaches, his excitement is palpable. He searches my face for any hint of my emotions, but I give him nothing.

“I don’t know what you mean.” I raise my eyebrow in challenge. I lie of course, I can’t believe it. It can’t be true. Where has she been all these years? Why now?

“You’re lying, Torin.” Adrian says as he approaches slowly, with his hands in his pockets. He looks just as tentative about this as I am.

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