“It’s impossible. Her energy wasn’t there. Everyone examined her, and they all confirmed she was born with none,” he snapped, but his voice vibrated. I knew he could sense the strength Avianna had given me when she hatched out.

  “Well, when you abandoned me, and after I left the orphanage, I went on the streets; I had to survive somehow, so I became a thief. One day, I hid in a house and accidentally overheard a conversation about a dragon egg. I stole the egg and escaped to the human world through a magical crack.”

  “Dragon, you have a real dragon? That cannot be true,” he whispered, going pale.

  “It turned out that this dragon fixed my magic. She said I’d always had magic, but my energy was all tangled up; the cells weren’t communicating with each other. Ever since I touched the egg, I have been a different person. She awakened the energy deep inside me,” I said, ready to kick his arse.

  “Francesca has brought wardens and warlocks together. Tell him about your plans and ideas,” Ripley said.

  “Why should I? This isn’t some family reunion,” I said. “He’s not my father, and as far as I’m concerned, I never had a real family.”

  “The council has been weakened. The Dark Ones are losing their magic because of the interference from the human world.” My father was saying. I hated calling him that, but he was a member of the council.

  It was such bullshit. I never thought that my own family would work in the system, the order that I was aiming to destroy from the inside out.

  “What do you want me to say about it? I’m organising the uprising,” I said. “I need to gather more wardens and find more dragons. We can’t defeat them without the eggs.”

  “Let’s forget about our family issues. I can help you. The council is in turmoil. If you spread the word on the street, wardens will come,” my father said, looking excited about this.

  I told myself that I needed to forget about the fact he was part of me. Other questions were burning in my mind. I felt lost, and I wanted to find out what happened to my mother, but it wasn’t the priority. Besides, I couldn’t let him see that I cared about this too much. She was the one who fought for me, but not hard enough.

  “We need to get to the eggs. Once we have a few, we can grow in strength,” I said.

  Timothy’s eyes shone with interest. Ripley was watching us. I had a feeling the warlock wanted one of the eggs for himself. There was something going on inside that head of his.

  “They are in the Dimond city. I can smuggle you there. I still have connections and influence with the Dark Ones,” Timothy added, sounding proud.

  I had to forget about the fact that the warden in front of me was my family. I was still in shock, unable to comprehend what was going on here. We started discussing our plans, magic, and dragons. Timothy assured me that he and his people could offer us everything we needed. I could tell he wanted change within the council, that he wasn’t happy.

  His house needed a lot of repairs; everything looked old and damaged. I was looking around, wondering how my own life would have been different if they had decided to keep me.

  “Right, so everything is sorted for now,” Ripley stated once we decided that we would meet with him again in a couple of days. “Fran will wait for Mangus’s son. He should be in Draconia in a few hours.”

  “Yes, once we have more eggs, the wardens will gather,” I said confidently. We needed to show them the power. They could survive with magic in the city.

  “This won’t be easy. The wardens won’t risk their lives for freedom. They have been living in oppression for too long,” Timothy grumbled. I hated that he was being so negative. “You should have stayed at that place in London, the one everyone is talking about. I heard that life there is simpler.”

  “The human world has no magic; besides, I couldn’t leave Avianna there. She’s growing way too fast, so it was a huge risk for all of us. Besides, the human elderly lady who helped me when I landed in London was taken by the Dark Ones, so we had to act.

  “I can see that we have at least one thing in common. We both believe that life without magic is not really a life,” he muttered. I wanted to ask him about my mother, the woman who really loved me, but I couldn’t. My voice stuck in my throat when I looked at him.

  We said our goodbyes and, a moment later, I walked downstairs. The shock was slowly wearing off.

  “Why did you do it? You knew all along that he was my father. Why did you bring me here?” I asked the warlock, wanting to scratch his face off. He infuriated me so much.

  “Frederick has foreseen the future. He had a vision of you meeting him, and I thought that it was time for me to do a good deed. I want this uprising as much as you do, and Timothy is the person who can make this happen,” Ripley said. I wanted to laugh in his face; he never cared about how I felt. It was all business to him.

  His fairy lover had foreseen the downfall of the Dark Ones, and the warlock wanted to be there to gain more power.

  “I can’t believe he’s my father. I don’t even need to demand any sort of test. I sense it, and I look a lot like him. My mother has different features,” I said, still going through the flashbacks in my head.

  “She left him soon after you were given to the state. She has never been a fan of the order. I heard she joined the Revolutionary League in the Dimond city straight after,” he told me. I wanted to ask him how he knew so much about her, but I was already overloaded with information.

  Now the heaviness I’d held inside my heart had vanished. It was like I had finally begun to understand who I was.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Explosions

  “She could have said no, she didn’t have to listen to him. I will find her, and then make my own judgement,” I said, thinking about my old contacts in the city. I had heard about the Revolutionary League in the past, but it had always been considered a myth. No one had actually ever seen them trying to defeat the Dark Ones.

  Deep down I knew my father couldn’t have forced her to just give me away. She made the decision along with him, and that was what hurt the most.

  “Not really, she didn’t have a choice. It was an arranged marriage. Her family forced her to obey Timothy; they had power over her, and she knew what would happen if she disobeyed. After some time, she couldn’t stand the guilt and left him. I don’t really know what happened to her. There have been rumours that she was captured by the Dark Ones during some operation in the Dimond city. No one has seen her since,” Ripley explained, and my heart sunk.

  This sounded terrible and, maybe in a way, I was glad that I was separated from them.

  “Her family?” I asked, shocked. I was starting to get a headache now. This was too much and, I just needed to sleep on it, at least for one night. Besides, we still hadn’t reunited with Idris. I hoped everything went smoothly on his end.

  “They were wealthy wardens; her father and your grandfather couldn’t bear the fact they would have a granddaughter without magic. It would have brought shame on the whole family, so he forced her to get rid of you,” Ripley said.

  For Quesborth, I wanted to end them with my own bare hands; this was disgusting. I thought I would never have to worry about my relatives, especially now.

  “Okay, let’s not talk about it right now. I think I have had enough for one day,” I said.

  “The moment you showed up in my house, I knew you were powerful, but I wasn’t sure if you were Timothy’s daughter. Later on, Frederick confirmed it,” he said. I didn’t know how to respond; most of my memories about my childhood were on the streets.

  Half an hour later, we walked back into Mangus’s residence. The streets around us were thriving with life. The wardens were rushing around, and luckily staying away from us. Only then did I begin to realise how much wardens truly hated the Dark Ones. It felt good being back in the place where I was born, sensing the energies swirling inside me. In Draconia I was alive, even if my movements were restricted.

  Nicolas was waiting for me in the kitchen. Avianna was flying around, while Rhian was looking at me with a worried expression. She instantly hugged me when she saw me.

  “We were worried about you. That fairy said that you were in trouble,” she said. Now I felt a little guilty that I didn’t let them know where I was going.

  “I’m fine. Ripley took me to see someone who knows how to get to the eggs,” I said, trying to mask everything going on inside my head. I sat down and Rhian placed a plate with porridge in front of me. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I was starving. I had to gain more energy; otherwise I was going to break it to pieces. My mother was probably dead. I didn’t think anyone could survive in the Dimond city prison for over ten years.

  “And what did he say? Do you have any info about Ally?” Nicolas asked, but I quickly shook my head. I didn’t ask my father about Ally and I should have. We needed to figure out where she was being kept as soon as possible. The Dark Ones were capable of getting all kinds of sensitive information out of her. Ally knew a lot about me and Nicolas, and this worried me the most.

  “No, we talked about the uprising. The warden we saw doesn’t deal with interrogations. I think Idris might have some information about Ally,” I said, and began to eat.

  “We better get on with it. Ally has been with them for two days,” Nicolas said.

  “We will get Ally out, Nicolas. I promise you, but we have to prepare the potion for Avianna; otherwise she won’t be able to leave the house,” I reminded Rhian, pushing away any negative thoughts. Idris had the map, but he wasn’t familiar with this territory.

  “Rhian is already a few steps ahead of you. She has been brewing something in that old office downstairs,” Avianna said, trying to take a piece of my bread from the plate. In the end, I just gave it to her.

  “I’m missing a few vital ingredients: rats’ fur, and some liquid gold, but overall, the potion should be ready tomorrow. I believe you can get this stuff on the streets,” Rhian said, and I nodded. At least we were on track with that. There were plenty of wardens on the streets who were selling illegal stuff.

  “Yeah, I’ll get some once I meet with Idris. He will be here in a few hours,” I said, thinking about my old buddies. I knew a lot of shady wardens, people who still owed me a favour. Harvey and Ripley weren’t in the kitchen with us, and in a way, I was glad. It was a huge house.

  “Good, so what is the plan now once Idris gets here?” Rhian asked, looking at me intensely.

  “We need to steal the eggs, and once we gather wardens around, they will understand what I’m talking about. We need a lot of them on our side. They need to understand that they have always been the original keepers of the dragons. And if some of them start to gain their magic, they will believe, too,” I explained, already seeing this in my head. I saw myself as an influencer, as someone who wanted to lead the crowd to freedom.

  “What’s wrong with you? You have been acting strange since you came back, and you have a strong aura around you,” Avianna said to me later on when I went to pack a few things in the room that we were both occupying now.

  I glanced at her, and then sat down on the bed. My head felt like it was just about to explode. I hated the fact that my father worked for the council, that he was a warden who poisoned people. I didn’t think I could ever trust him, but for now, we all needed him.

  “Ripley tricked me; he took me to meet my father. He’s the person who can take us to the other dragons,” I said, rubbing my forehead. Avianna started flying around the room like something was making her a little crazy, shouting inside my head.

  “What? Your father? You have to tell me everything!”

  I told her to calm down and stop moving around, because she was distracting me. When she finally landed on the floor, I went over what happened in that creepy house. I still had goosebumps all over my arms when I spoke about it.

  This took a while, and she interrupted me several times.

  “Oh, Fran, this is exciting. You have a family, a real family,” she said, and I looked at her, wondering what the hell happened to my snarky beast.

  “Timothy is not my father. He’s still only a stranger, a warden who will help us. I don’t know why Ripley didn’t say anything earlier. I don’t trust him,” I said, remembering what Idris had told me. I wasn’t supposed to trust the warlocks. Ripley wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his own heart.

  “That’s complicated, even for me. It seems that both sides of your family are hated by the wardens,” she said, and I couldn’t have agreed more. My family was powerful, and they were involved with the council.

  “Yes, that’s why I have to find my mother. She’s being kept in the Dimond City, but I have no idea if she is still alive or not.”

  Avianna wasn’t optimistic, either. Whoever ended up in Dimond city prison for a long period of time always died there. I was lucky, because my sentence was only a short one. I needed to learn more about this Revolutionary fighting front, too. Apparently, they had been formed when the Dark Ones had taken over, but it was strange that I had never come across any of their members.

  “They were very active years ago before I was arrested, but since then, a lot of their members have been killed, their ideology fizzled out,” Rhian told me after I went back downstairs.

  I wanted to go and meet Idris alone, but Nicolas said he was done sitting at home. In the end, I convinced him to stay with Rhian. I was a little apprehensive leaving her in the company of the warlocks, and Nicolas was much stronger when he was around Rhian. Avianna was vulnerable being with me on the street, especially if we were going to be surrounded by the Dark Ones. And I had to get my hands on the rest of the ingredients, so Rhian could finish the potion.

  First things first, I had to make sure that Idris’s cover was still intact. We all needed him. I missed him so much, and it had only been a day, but I knew I would be much calmer if I knew he was all right. My heart was beating frantically inside my chest when I left the house alone. I didn’t wear a disguise because it wasn’t necessary. Ripley and Harvey locked themselves in the office upstairs, and I was glad that they were out of the way. The Dark Ones didn’t know I was in Draconia—no one was supposed to know—so for now, I was safe.

  Wardens were staring at me when I was walking by, maybe because I looked like I had money. My clothes weren’t torn, and my skin had a healthy glow. This was a little out of the ordinary, especially in this area. My stomach was in knots when I passed the infected wardens. I kept my knife open in my pocket. This was the poor part of the city, most of the wealthy wardens—and there weren’t many of them—kept away from here. My mind felt a little foggy. Before we left the human world, Idris mentioned that he had acted as a guide to some officials from London. I hoped he found a way to meet me alone in the mill. I had some Draconian money with me that Rhian had found in Mangus’s office. Nothing changed. I felt like I was still the same girl who had been trying to save Dara. She was still fresh in my memories and, every time I remembered her last few hours, my heart broke all over again.

  Rubbish, empty bottles, and bricks were lying on the streets. They all needed magic, they all needed to experience being with the dragons. I squeezed my fists and told myself that I had to focus on one thing at a time.

  It was late afternoon; the sun was going down much quicker than in the human world, and the days were shorter. I never knew about this before. Once I got to the steam bike shop, I rented one with the money Rhian had given me. Everything was pricey, and I could never afford anything like this before. I picked an old steam bike that could get me to the other side of the city. It felt strange to sit on the bike; it had been such a long time. Before I ended up in London, one of my thieving friends gave me a ride on one of these bad boys. I could still remember how much I enjoyed riding it. As the small engine roared to life, an exhilarating feeling moved through me. Other wardens were still staring because it was odd. No one in this part of the city could afford anything at all.

  I knew how to ride it somehow. The bike was old, but still fast. I rather preferred this method of transportation. Idris had his cars—he was a collector—but I wanted to get him on one of these.

  The centre was busy, and I almost crashed into one of the wardens. He started shouting at me, telling me that I was dumb riding on a steam bike. One of the Dark Ones stared at us from the distance when we argued. I was ready to punch that warden in the face, but I let it go. My magic was coursing through my body, and my fingertips started sparkling. I gave the warden some coins and drove away. My nerves started getting to me when I saw how many Dark Ones were patrolling the main part of the city. The square was filled with them. Not long ago, I had caused a fire at the market, so Rhian could escape her house arrest. If I had to bet, I was sure the council decided to add extra security since then. Luckily, we managed to escape then. Baxley was the only one who knew I had escaped from prison in London and, as far as we knew, he didn’t report the fact he caught me to the council. There was also Mangus, but his state of mind was questionable.

  After an hour of travelling through my beloved city, I began experiencing a lot of pain. Everything was making me angry, especially seeing so many kids walking around looking hungry. Some of them were infected with Dragon Fever, too.

  I remembered all the streets and hidden alleys in the city. When I was crossing over the old bridge, some drunken wardens were singing outside the old tavern, and a female warden was shouting at them from the balcony to shut up. The noise from the road was fading as I walked deeper and deeper into that ugly and gruesome part of this incredible city. No one in their right mind would normally hang around here. After ten more minutes, I found the entrance to the old mill. I kicked the wooden door and snuck inside. Well, now it was just a ruined building, but the smell of fresh blood let me know that someone was here a few hours ago. Something felt off. My magic exploded, shattering through me like a lightbulb when someone grabbed me from behind. A hand went over my mouth. I fought hard, but my strength left me, and I instantly knew that today, I wasn’t going to make it out of here alive.

 

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