The Crown's Fire - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: First love
“I feel like my heart would burst at any minute just seeing you smile… It’s too beautiful and endearing, but suffocating at the same time.”

Tarah’s face turned crimson at what she just heard. She could feel the rapid beat of her heart, and the tingling that swept up the back of her neck and across her face as she stared back at Ezekiel was exhilarating. He was rubbing the back of his neck before cursing and tearing his gaze away from her.

She… didn’t know how to respond to that. She didn’t see that coming at all. It was a compliment, but obviously, he looked vexed with how he delivered it.

Tarah unknowingly bit her lower lip as she tried her best to suppress the smile forming on her face. It would’ve been awkward if he caught her smiling.

Still, it felt great hearing his words. Well, the word suffocating was more apt during the last part, but it didn’t matter. For her, it was still a compliment since she experienced the same thing whenever he was near her. He would always take her breath away, so in a way, it was suffocating in a good and overwhelming way.

“The kingdom needs your gifts so that we can win this war and prevent it from falling into enemy hands,” Ezekiel firmly remarked, almost reminding himself with his own words. “Our people… We need to save them.”

He then turned to her with narrowed eyes as he grimaced. “You’re my Seer, so I shouldn’t think of anything else but you being my Seer. Having this kind of feeling is insane!”

It was clear as day. They should just focus on what was destined for them and nothing else. But at that thought… For some reason, Tarah’s shoulders slumped, but she quickly forced a reassuring smile onto her face and told him, “I fully understand what you meant, Your Highness.”

“It’s probably the flame bond,” Ezekiel reasoned, his eyes focused on her. “Just like with werewolves, dragons could be blessed to have a destined mate…”

“A flame bond…” she breathed out.

She had seen that happening in Vulcan’s past. Some dragons experienced the flame bond upon meeting their twin flame, and the Dragon King wasn’t happy about it because it hated anything even close to being preordained. It hated the heavens’ will, which had a flame bond represented.

Like the devil and its followers, Vulcan, together with its followers, was cast out from the heavens because it desired to be a supreme ruler over all, even going so far as to be a sovereign against the Almighty. But while this happened, the Heavens’ mercy allowed them to retain their spirits where all their powers came from. They were also given the freedom to navigate their own lives on earth led by their souls.

“Don’t think. Just work on the emotions you’re having right now. Like I said before, I saw how Vulcan’s spirit is merging with your own spirit,” Tarah lengthily explained with a downcast tone. “That’s probably why the flame bond is strong right now given that Vulcan’s spirit is acknowledging me as its twin flame.”

Such a scenario made more sense, even if that wasn’t what she wanted to be the case. She knew that having a relationship was forbidden to her kind for Ebodia’s sake. However, deep in her heart, her eighteen-year-old dream of having a fairy tale love story with a happy ending still resided within. Ezekiel was still her first love, even if she hadn’t met him personally until now.

Sensing how intense Ezekiel’s gaze was on her, Tarah took a deep breath as she continued, “Maybe my dragonrider bloodline has something to do with it as well. I saw something in Vulcan’s past, even if it was a bit blurry, about his previous dragonrider.”

She then took another breath before adding, “She was a woman, and they had a very good relationship. I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that there was some kind of misunderstanding back then. She was executed… and after that, Vulcan wreaked havoc by killing all the Dragonriders.”

“I heard differently then, I guess,” Ezekiel scoffed. “From what I know, the story portrays Vulcan as being a naturally destructive creature who loves wreaking havoc whenever it wants. Eliminating all the dragonriders so that no one would have the authority over their kind was simply one of its wants.”

Tarah couldn’t help but nod. Honestly, that was also what she thought until she had a glimpse of Vulcan’s past through its soul.

“Then again, I suppose that what you saw is more reliable than words written in history books that might be tampered with,” Ezekiel hummed with a sigh. “For now, rest for a bit while we wait for Lurio. I’m sure he’ll be here before dawn…”

*******

Meanwhile, near the previous battlefield in the northeastern part outside of Ebodia’s borders, Zoran shook his head as he watched the horrendous sight before him from a safe area. Sibil had lost this battle. The Ebodian soldiers were closing in, and they were slowly getting driven away from the battle.

But just as he thought things could get worse, one of his men approached him with a handful of wounded Ebodian soldiers who were on the brink of death.

“Milord, we’ve gathered ten Ebodians…”

Hearing such news, Zoran didn’t waste any more time and performed a spell on the ten soldiers and bound them to Devon as the demon had requested of him. This time, he also added another spell hiding the Demon King’s mark on them. Even more, he then hypnotized and compelled them and said, “Go back to the battlefield and forget this encounter.”

Right then, the ten soldiers walked on their own back to the battlefield.

“Do you think this will work this time? I don’t get why our king is dying to plant spies just to monitor the Seer of Ebodia,” one of the sorcerers under him complained. “Why waste energy on this? Isn’t it better to just kill the new Seer like we did with the previous one?!”

Zoran didn’t comment and simply remained quiet. He didn’t care what the Demon King was planning. All that mattered to him was pleasing the bastard to ensure that he wouldn’t harm the woman he loved. Looking up, he frowned when he saw a dove flying off from the direction of an inhospitable forest.

“That’s unusual…” he murmured as he quickly gathered mana and threw a black misty tendril to grab the dove. Reeling it in, he saw the parchment it was carrying, and as he read it, a soft smile tugged itself onto his lips.

“What is it, Milord?” the sorcerer not far beside him asked.

Zoran didn’t respond and simply burned the parchment in his hands. He then cast a spell on the dove before letting it go. From there, it flew in a different direction, one where it wasn’t supposed to go.