The Dragon who called me king

The Dark Reflection

The sound of the heavy iron door slamming shut echoed through the circular stone chamber like a clap of thunder. I spun around, throwing my weight against the cold metal. I gripped the handle and pulled with all my strength but it did not budge. The lock was sealed tight by ancient magic.

"We are trapped," Zane whispered, his voice shaking violently as he backed away from the entrance. He held his hands against his head, staring at the glowing cage in the center of the room. "Kael, what is this place? Who is that boy?"

I turned my head slowly to look back at the cage.

The boy who looked exactly like me sat perfectly still on the stone floor inside the glowing white bars. His pitch-black eyes were locked onto my face, tracking my every movement. Seeing my own facial features staring back at me with such cold, lifeless energy made my stomach turn.

“Erebos, what is this?” I called out in my mind, my thoughts frantic. “Who is he?”

For the first time since the bonding ceremony, the ancient dragon soul inside my chest did not answer right away. I felt a heavy wave of fear and confusion ripple through my own core. Erebos was terrified.

“I... I do not know, Kael,” the dragon finally whispered, his voice trembling deep in my mind. “My memories of the royal bloodline are damaged. But I can feel a deep, dark resonance between your soul and his. He is connected to your crest, but his energy is twisted. It is wrong.”

The duplicate boy suddenly smiled. It was a wide unnatural grin that stretched too far across his face.

"You look confused, big brother," the boy said. His voice sounded like an eerie, distorted echo of my own voice playing through a long, empty hallway. "Did our father never tell you about the shadows hidden in the Ashford bloodline?"

I stepped toward the glowing white cage, keeping my hands close to my chest. "My father was Arthur Ashford. He never mentioned a brother. He never mentioned you. What are you doing down here?"

"Arthur Ashford was a fool," the boy spat, his pitch-black eyes flashing with sudden rage. "He thought he could hide the truth from the kingdom. He thought he could keep the power of the true crown locked away in a starving border village forever. But the Headmaster found us anyway."

He leaned forward, pressing his pale hands against the glowing white bars. The magical energy sizzled against his skin, emitting small wisps of black smoke but he did not even flinch from the pain.

"The Headmaster didn't build this academy to train dragon riders," the boy whispered, his smile returning. "He built it directly on top of this prison to keep me contained. He drains my blood to fuel the magical barriers of the upper school. Every dragon egg that hatches up there is born from my stolen energy."

Zane let out a small gasp, taking another step backward. "That's... that's impossible. The academy has been here for a thousand years."

"And how long do you think an Ashford can live when they are fed by the core of an ancient dragon?" the boy laughed, a sharp chilling sound that ringed through the stone room.

Suddenly, the royal crest on my chest began to burn violently under my shirt. I fell to my knees, clutching my heart as a sharp pain pierced through my core. The silver key in my boot grew incredibly hot, burning against my ankle.

Inside the cage, the boy began to float slowly off the ground. The pitch-black color in his eyes started to spread, veins of pure darkness crawling up his neck and across his face.

"The seal is reacting to your arrival," the boy shouted over a sudden rising wind that swept through the chamber. "The key you brought... it isn't meant to unlock the cage from the outside, Kael. It is meant to merge us back together!"

"No!" I yelled, trying to fight the pulling force that was suddenly dragging my body toward the glowing white bars.

The white bars of the cage began to crack and shatter like thin glass. The pure magical energy holding the duplicate boy inside exploded outward in a grand wave of blinding white light, throwing Zane across the room.

I blocked my face with my arms as the dark force slammed into my chest. The silver key flew out of my boot, floating in the air between me and the duplicate boy. It shattered into a thousand tiny glowing particles, forming a bridge of raw, ancient magic right between our hearts.

“Kael, hold on to your core!” Erebos roared in my mind. “He is trying to consume your physical body to escape!”

I gripped the stone floor, my fingers bleeding as I fought against the terrifying magical vacuum. The duplicate boy drifted closer, his hand reaching through the ruined bars, his fingers inches away from my forehead.

Then, the heavy iron door of the chamber blasted open from the outside.

A immense beam of sapphire fire tore through the wind, slamming directly between me and the boy. The impact broke the magical bridge, sending both of us crashing back to the floor.

I coughed, looking up through the smoke. Standing in the doorway was Lyra Voss. Her silver hair flew wildly in the wind and her blue sky-cutter dragon was coiled tightly around her arm, its jaws dripping with blue electricity.

She looked at the duplicate boy, then looked at me, her eyes wide with total shock.

But before she could speak, the duplicate boy sat up and looked at her with a cruel grin. He raised his hand, and the sapphire dragon on Lyra's arm suddenly turned its head, its golden eyes turning a solid pitch black. With a fierce roar, Lyra's own dragon bit down hard on her shoulder, pinning her to the wall as the duplicate boy stepped out of the broken cage.