Dragon Frost: Draignis Clans, #3

By Aleah Raynes

As she struggles to control her growing powers, the quest for answers amidst the chaos leads Talia on a wild goddess chase with a heartbreaking ending.

 

Back from the dragon realm, Talia is concerned when she discovers that her obsession with The Horn of the First Dragon now causes unpredictable magical outbursts. Suddenly unable to balance her mage magic with her dragon powers, she sets off to gather answers about her heritage.

 

Before Talia and Raven can uncover much about her ancestors, a fire dragon raid cuts their quest short. With their team held captive, the pair are forced to join a camp of freedom-fighters led by a light dragon. Though Raven is skeptical about the dragon's intentions, Talia readily agrees to let the light dragon train her to control her wayward powers.

 

But in this camp of rogues and rebels, nothing is quite as it seems. When the goddess finally reveals herself, Talia's powers begin to grow stronger. Soon she must choose between trusting her devoted companion and proving her loyalty to the goddess, no matter what the goddess's true intentions might be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Davis Raynes Publishing Group, LLC
• Release date: Feb 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223971450

Book preview

Dragon Frost

Draignis Clans, Book Three

As she struggles to control her growing powers, the quest for answers amidst the chaos leads Talia on a wild goddess chase with a heartbreaking ending.

Back from the dragon realm, Talia is concerned when she discovers that her obsession with The Horn of the First Dragon now causes unpredictable magical outbursts. Suddenly unable to balance her mage magic with her dragon powers, she sets off to gather answers about her heritage.

Before Talia and Raven can uncover much about her ancestors, a fire dragon raid cuts their quest short. With their team held captive, the pair are forced to join a camp of freedom-fighters led by a light dragon. Though Raven is skeptical about the dragon's intentions, Talia readily agrees to let the light dragon train her to control her wayward powers.

But in this camp of rogues and rebels, nothing is quite as it seems. When the goddess finally reveals herself, Talia's powers begin to grow stronger. Soon she must choose between trusting her devoted companion and proving her loyalty to the goddess, no matter what the goddess's true intentions might be.

Chapter

One

Once upon a time I had considered myself a night owl. It made sense. Doing intelligence work with my father was often a nighttime activity. The seedy underbelly of New York came to life when the sun went down.

After he died and I went to live with my grandfather at his training school for young dragons, I enjoyed the nights there as well. Up in the mountains, away from all city lights. I could actually see the stars. Of course, every part of the day was stunning beyond all belief against such an incredible landscape.

Now, I firmly believed myself to be a morning person.

Since we spilled through the rift after several harrowing days as prisoners to Elder Colton, tyrant ruler of Draignis, I had yet to fully recover. No matter how much I slept or ate, I still felt a bone-deep exhaustion that the others didn’t seem to suffer.

Well, at least not directly.

I knew Raven felt a shadow of what I did. I still didn’t fully understand the bond between us. The shimmering, invisible string of power connecting our souls. A connection that’s been there since before either of us were born. In that place souls live when they aren’t contained within a body, ours were joined. Regardless of how much I understood it, I felt it. Undeniably.

We hadn’t gotten a chance to talk about it since we’ve been back. I found out by accident. Apparently, I was the last to know. But we were in a life-or-death situation at the time, and I had a million bigger things on my plate to deal with. Now, I didn’t have anything on my plate besides a looming sense of doom. Very much a calm-before-the-storm situation. However, I couldn’t handle talking about the bond yet and, frankly, there were more pressing personal matters I needed to deal with before I approached anything like what was between Raven and I.

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and yanked my hair from its braid, I enjoyed the solid one minute of peace I would get before the bullshit of another day started.

Raven was still asleep. I didn’t need to look away from my window to know that he’d come into my room sometime in the night. He always slept on the floor, even though I’d be okay if he got into bed next to me. He didn’t want to wake me up to ask permission, which was sweet in an old-fashioned kind of way. I, on the other hand, found myself wanting to feel secure. Tethered to reality. The bone deep instinct to burrow into his chest had made it hard to fall asleep these past few nights. I wanted to be held.

It was on the ever-growing list of stuff we needed to talk about. I felt certain he’d oblige if I asked, but…

Magic licked through my veins, slicing my thoughts in half. My precious moments of peace were quickly ending.

The sun hadn’t quiet risen over the tree line of the surrounding forest. The meadow and the magical cottage we’d been living for the last three days were still cast in shadow.

I carefully climbed out of bed, brining two blankets with me. I draped one over Raven’s sleeping form and tucked the other around my shoulders. I crept through the house, though I knew at least one other person was awake.

Neela, a clairvoyant ice dragon and caretaker of the magical cottage, always seemed to be awake. Whether that was because she doesn’t need to sleep, or her abilities let her know ahead of time who was going to wake up and when. She was in the kitchen now, kneading dough in front of the latticed window that overlooked the garden.

She offered me a warm smile as I made my way through the kitchen to the side door. As always, her expression was kind but unreadable. I never knew what was going through her ancient mind.

My mind reading abilities were useless against her, even when I could get them to behave.

After torturous weeks without access to my powers, they were back. The moment I shifted into my dragon form to save Raven’s life, the block lifted. Unfortunately, they weren’t how they used to be. They felt more…alive. Independent, even, though they were undeniably mine. They were no longer a tool to wield, but a beast to tame.

My grandfather, Thaddeus, told me not to worry about it too much. It was completely normal for a new dragon’s powers to go wonky for a while after their first shift.

Whatever was going on with me felt more than wonky. It was downright unpredictable. Not just unpredictable, impossible.

I walked through the garden to the meadow beyond. There was a faint trail leading to a river. I liked to go there in the mornings. When the never-ending whirlwind of what-ifs, self-doubts, and the ever-growing mound of unanswered questions broke through my sleep addled brain, I liked to be by the water.

The river didn’t mind when I accidentally shoot a burst of flame toward it. Water was understanding like that.

It wasn’t always fire, though. Sometimes, I expelled a cloud of pitch-black shadows that engulfed everything around me. They were strong enough to blot out the sun. Somehow, that was scarier than the fire.

I’d grown up using fire magic. My father was a fire mage, after all. When bursts of flame erupted from my hands, I knew how to deal with it. I had no idea how to deal with the inky shadows of death. I’d tried to ask Raven once before but I couldn’t reproduce them so there wasn’t much he could to do help me.

I dipped my feet into the cool waters of the gently rippling river. When I first arrived at the compound, Raven taught me how to control my breathing and settle my mind through meditation. Of all the things I’d learned since coming under the tutelage of other dragons, that was the most valuable.

It was also the most direct way to feel the bond that joined us.

The river wasn’t more than six feet wide and only a foot or so deep at most. I waded into the middle, letting it cool my skin. I was hotter than I should have been for this hour of the morning. Most likely, my fire magic would act up.

I tried to summon it, recalling the lessons my father instilled in me when I was younger. Before he was killed on what was supposed to be a simple assignment. Fire and breath went hand in hand.

I took a deep, centering breath and thought of the flames. Thought of heat. Burning. Cinders. Rage.

And then…nothing.

It was like I could feel it swirling under my skin. It was right there. Yet I couldn’t get the damn flames to actually appear.

Letting my frustrations get the better of me, I balled my hands into fists and let out a scream.

Tingling sensations shot down my arm, forcing me to open my palms as power flowed out of me. But it wasn’t fire.

It was ice.

Twin spikes of iridescent ice embedded themselves on either side of the river.

My first instinct was to cover my gaping mouth, but I stopped myself. If ice spikes were on the table, I didn’t want my hands anywhere near my face. Good thing I caught myself. Another, smaller, ice spike shoots from my palm a breath away from my cheek, taking a lock of hair with it.

I stumbled backward, falling ass-first into the stream. The cold was a shock, enough to snap my mind out of the rapidly building panic.

What the hell was that? I said on a shuddering breath.

A small shock of power rippled through me. The bond between Raven and I flared to life. No doubt he sensed my fear, even in his sleep. I was momentarily torn. On one hand, I wanted him here with me. I wanted him to tell me that it’s totally normal for new dragons to showcase powers they weren’t supposed to have. But I knew that wasn’t true.

Instead, I calmed myself and sent reassurance through the bond. I sent images of the river and the slippery rocks. Let him think I fell. It wasn’t as good as telepathy. It wasn’t as defined and clear. If I could reach his mind with mine, I would. But my nerves were too frazzled to call upon my old faithful ability.

A moment later, I felt his sleepy reassurance.

One less thing to deal with at the moment.

But ice? How could I do that?

There was a moment when I’d locked myself in a bathroom in the fortress of the Elder fire dragon, I saw the spirit of my mother. She gave me some kind of…gift. I still didn’t know how to explain it. A loan, I supposed.

I was able to summon weak frost. Nothing more than some flurries. It was enough to get the horn to respond to me, even though it violated just about every fact and magical law we knew about the horn in the first place. But that didn’t matter.

The moment I had that horn in my hands, I swore the power vanished. It was never my power. It couldn’t have been my power.

That didn’t mean wielding it didn’t feel amazing. What did that really mean? It was the first taste of magic I was able to control in weeks. Of course, I loved it. No matter how unnatural it was supposed to be.

Now it was back, somehow? And stronger. Dangerously so.

I lifted the small section of my raven hair that hadn’t been lucky enough to escape the ice burst. It wasn’t that noticeable. Especially with my hair down. Might not align in my usual braid now, but I could get creative.

Whatever happened when I spoke to my mother back in Draignis, whatever she did to my powers, was permanent. That was the only explanation. It was permanent and it was building. I still didn’t understand exactly what she did but some of the others think otherwise.

Add it to the pile of things I didn’t understand and weren’t likely to get an explanation for.

Frustration bubbled in my chest. As it did, my fingertips grew deadly cold before flaring white hot. This time, I knew was what coming and redirected my hands so when the fireballs burst forward, they hit only water.

The river boiled and hissed where my flames made contact.

Sorry, I whispered through a wince. Hopefully there weren’t any little fish or tadpoles in that area. It was bad enough mother nature most certainly thought I was a nuisance.

After a heavy expulsion of magic, my heart settled down and my mind cleared. Well, it almost cleared. There was always that humming in the back of my mind. The horn pulling me toward it. The only power of mine that was a constant. The only