Dragon 6 Chapter 14 (Patreon)

“Wait!” Maeve grabbed my shoulder before I could attack the spider queen. “You have an agreement with her. If you hit her, would you void it?”

Ikta pouted. “You should just let him hit me. Come on, I know you want to.” She smiled at me. Her eyes swirled with wild magic as she opened her arms, inviting a punch and her spider limbs splayed out as well.

I paused in my step, now considering my next move. I couldn’t help but notice that she was fully recovered from our duel at the conclave.

The pale-skinned woman had the fae ears that pointed backwards, with just the tips coming out of her full mane of purple hair so dark it was nearly black.

Her smile always portrayed a bit of chaos, both enticing and spreading chills up my spine.

Shrugging when I didn’t hit her, she pulled her spider limbs back, standing on her human feet as the legs disappeared into her back.

Ikta had on a dark dress that hung off her hips, strips pooling down around her long legs and onto the floor as if she was some sort of queen of the nymphs.

“Ikta.” Maeve said scowling at the situation. “Did you do this to my mother?”

“So direct. Have you been spending too much time with dragons? Tell me, are you with his child yet?” Her eyes shifted to Evelyn. “Or maybe your nymph, a lovely nymph. Hello, do you want to join me, little nymph?”

Evelyn shrank behind Poly, not liking the attention from Ikta.

“She asked you a question.” I relaxed. Maeve was right. Ikta had wanted me to attack her.

Ikta and I had made a deal. She agreed to leave myself, mine and the dragons alone for a thousand years, and that was void if I had hit her.

Ikta sighed and sat down as a stump grew from the ground underneath her. “I have not done this to her, even if I wish I could claim credit.” She looked over her shoulder at the flower. “Maeve, are you aware of the stories of The Dreamer?”

If Maeve had been walking, she would have stumbled. Whatever The Dreamer was, she was clearly shaken up. “The Dreamer is responsible for this?”

“One of her buds.” Ikta explained with a smile and reached for one of the vines around Winter. She tried to touch the vines, but they moved away from her. “She’s active right now. Poor Winter fell into one of the traps.”

“What’s The Dreamer?” I asked Maeve.

“An ancient being in The Wilds.” Maeve shuddered and looked at the flower with horror. “A creature that is half plant. Its name is spoken in the same breath as the origin of the fae realm. People attacked by The Dreamer never even realize they’ve left reality, so powerful are its glamors, that with a touch it is as if you are eternally trapped in a dream. The flowers grow from its victims.”

I looked at the carpet of vines and the several small flowers that popped up amid them. “Then this is that?”

“A large creature was turned into the large flower.” Maeve replied, staring at the bloom. “It tempted my mother to it?”

“Yes, though it seems that she managed to freeze herself before it could claim her. But it is still trying to break through.” Ikta sighed and looked over at the block of ice. “As soon as a little nymph told me that Zach Pendragon was in my domain, I began scouring the area to figure out why.”

“She is one of my allies. You are in violation— “ I started, but Ikta turned back sharply to me.

“The fae and I go back far before our deal. Besides, you haven’t marked or mated either of the fae with you. Clearly, they aren’t with you either.” The spider queen smiled with her reasoning.

Helena scoffed. “Just tell us what you want, spider bitch.”

I sighed, Helena really needed to work on her people skills.

Ikta rolled her eyes. “There are a few things I could trade for helping Winter out of this mess. You see, I once made an agreement with The Dreamer.” She stood and walked amid the vines. They didn’t touch her; they appeared to move out of her way as she walked.

Ikta reached out, opening a portal to the side. A bird flew out and landed on a vine, only for a green shoot to attack it. The shoot went through the bird’s back, and its eyes went wide as it turned stiff.

The vine swallowed the bird, a pink flower blossoming in its place.

“The Dreamer won’t let anyone approach her. That bird didn’t last long. Someone like Winter will take years, but she’ll become a flower too. Once it gets a hold of her, it is just a matter of time.” Ikta sighed. “So, a trade.” She played with her fingers.

I sighed. “What do you want?”

“You, of course.” Ikta waved her hand to the right, and a portal formed. Inside was a hot spring full of waiting nymphs. “Just join them and I’ll free Winter. Alone, I might add. I’m sure you can handle a few harmless nymphs.”

I looked at the nymphs as they looked back at me through the portal. Their glamors didn’t reach me, but I knew that if I stepped in there, they would overwhelm me.

And Ikta knew it too. Whatever nymph had told her of my presence had likely also communicated that I’d been unable to break the glamor.

While it may wear off after a few months, I wouldn’t disappoint my women by missing the wedding. I told them I would be back.

“No.” I stated it firmly, but I cast Maeve an apologetic glance.

“It’s okay. I understand. I wouldn’t want to be the one to explain to your mates that you were fucking nymphs for several months and they needed to reschedule the wedding either.” She swallowed loudly at just the thought.

Ikta pouted. “I want more dragons. Have you noticed the ones in the wilds yet?”

I glared at the Spider Queen. “Yes, I have. Do you have something to do with that?”

“Nope!” She clapped excitedly. “But they are wonderful. So much rich mana pumping into the wilds from them. I want more dragons. A whole jungle of them!”

“Is there anything else we can give you for your aid?” Maeve asked the absolutely giddy woman as the portal closed on a spring of disappointed nymphs.

“Well…” Ikta thought about it for a moment, squinting at Maeve and then at her nymph. “I could ask for your first born dragon… or maybe you to swear fealty to me… no…” She mumbled to herself before she snapped to attention and pointed at Maeve. “I’ll ferry you, your mother, and the nymph out of the Wilds. But once I do, you and your people cannot enter for a few months.”

The crazy woman turned to me with a wicked smile.

“You’d ask us to abandon him in the middle of the fae wilds?” Maeve clarified, turning to me with her brows pinched. “I cannot let him take that risk. Even if he were to try to follow his other mates’ marks, I have no doubt you’d keep him trapped in here.”

Ikta pouted. “I’m afraid that’s what it would take to get your mother back. You can take her and go off to save the world from a scorching summer. All I want is some time with the lovely Dragon King here.”

“Glamored up and rutting for who knows how long.” Evelyn scowled from behind Polydora.

“Exactly.” Ikta gestured at the nymph. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want. He’ll put so many dragon babies in me. I’ll go on to lay enough eggs to be called the Dragon Queen.” She sighed blissfully. “They’ll produce so much mana that the fae world will be bursting full of mana and it will spill onto Earth. I only want to help paranormal life thrive.”

I was getting annoyed at being talked around and started eyeing the vines. I could feel my fire starting to lift in my throat.

“Don’t provoke The Dreamer.” Ikta was in front of me in an instant, having moved too fast for me to track as she put her hands on my chest to stop me. “That’s how you die. I very much don’t want that.”

I smiled, deciding to use that against her. I stepped to the side and pushed forward. If she was going to keep me from dying, maybe I could get all the way to Winter.

“I do this to protect you.” She snapped her fingers, and I found myself falling through a portal.

Fuck.

She couldn’t harm me, but if I was going to endanger myself, she could justify this as saving me.

I tumbled through the air until I splashed in a stream.

Thankfully, there was no bevy of nymphs nearby.

I had no doubt she would have used them if she could. My rejection of them must have made them, being present, break our deal.

I stood up, looking around as I cursed Ikta. I needed to stop trusting the fae quite so much.

***

“Zach!” Maeve shouted, but a dragon rushed past her as the portal snapped closed. Trina pulled herself up short from falling into The Dreamer’s vines.

The Fall Lady looked up from where Zach had disappeared to Ikta, the ancient evil she’d been told of growing up.

The wilds were something used to terrify young fae, and two of the worst stories were in front of her.

Ikta and The Dreamer.

“Let’s bargain. You have my mother and Zach. We can come to some terms.” Maeve wasn’t going to let Zach wander the wilds on his own.

A single nymph could bring down the great dragon king. The man might be smart, but his dragon was greedy and a collector of things, especially beautiful women. Maeve had a feeling the dragon didn’t care much to fight the nymph control, even if the man would have chosen differently.

Maeve was fae and had always considered herself quite sexual, but she was starting to question if even her libido could take on the Dragon King.

“Why would I bargain with you? I have what I want.” Ikta shrugged.

“I have much to offer that you want, including myself. And let’s not ignore the fact that you have done some wrong to him by transporting him away against his wishes.” Maeve stood her ground while she argued with what equated to the boogie man in her mind. She was a fae princess and born to negotiate.

Ikta grinned back in response. It somehow was both a sweet and vicious smile. “I saved him by creating a quick portal. It was so sudden, I didn’t have time to control where I sent him.” She batted her eyelashes at Maeve, as if she was innocent.

It took everything Maeve had not to scoff at the ancient trickster.

“My cooperation must be worth something here.” Maeve tried. She was the heir to the winter throne, not some random paranormal.

Ikta eyed Maeve, tisking at her. “You gravely overestimate your value. Compared to the dragon king… you are nothing. You only had value with your relation to him.” Ikta smiled before she was yanked off her feet by an angry female dragon.

“Trina, don’t!” Maeve knew that Trina was angry, but Ikta was a queen of the wilds for a reason. She played games, and they were in her territory. They could only outplay her. They couldn’t win a direct flight. “She’s still under the promise to your king to not harm him. If you hit her, she can go hunt down Zach and force him to do whatever she wants.”

The copper dragon froze. She looked like she was fighting against an invisible force as she struggled not to smash the spider queen’s face in.

“Give me back my king.” Trina growled before putting Ikta back on the ground unharmed and somehow looming over the woman even though the copper dragon was shorter.

Ikta turned to focus on Maeve, angering the dragon further. “You know, you should have taken the offer to abandon him in the wilds. As far as I can tell, the dragon king is quite forgiving.” She clutched her cheeks like a blushing bride. “Do you think he’ll forgive me in time? Oh, I bet if I give him all of the driders and nymphs in the wild, he’ll eventually forgive me.”

Maeve studied Ikta, wondering if she was trying to anger Trina enough to hit her or was playing at some other tactic. Her logic was so fuzzy it was hard to predict what she would do next or what she ultimately wanted.

But Maeve couldn’t ignore the offer. There was some truth to what Ikta said. Zach was forgiving; he would likely understand with time that she needed to protect her mother.

But that would only work if the three he traveled with made it out okay. And there was a good possibility that left to wander, they’d end up split up and unable to take what existed in the wilds.

Every fae instinct of hers had told her to take the deal, but she had put those instincts aside. If she wanted to be with Zach, she’d just have to find another way to solve the issue.

Maeve had never expected to actually care for another like she did for the dragon king. She’d been raised to select partners based on the children they’d have or the political power such a union would bring. She’d barely even seen another option as the fae courts played out.

But she couldn’t ignore how different it felt with him. He was both powerful and able to help her bear strong children, but that wasn’t what made her want him. He warmed her heart and made even the frozen winter court feel cozy when she thought of him.

“Mistress.” Evelyn whispered in her ear.

Maeve leaned over, ready to listen to her closest confidant. She put aside the frustration she still felt over the nymph trying to warn Zach off.

The nymph’s manipulations seemed to work. Zach was pushing harder for them, seeming to realize what they had.

“We have three of his marked here. Either use one for a bargain, or we should use them to draw him back where we can meet him.” Evelyn whispered, and Maeve considered the information.

Turning, Maeve looked at the others, making up her mind. Though Evelyn had given her two valid options, it only served to highlight the only real answer. Nymphs were a little tricky like that even her Evelyn often said the wrong things just to get the right reaction.

“We are leaving.” Maeve said.

Helena raised an eyebrow with her arms crossed. “Care to explain?”

“She’s mad. If we want to make a deal to save my mother, we need to make it with The Dreamer herself.” Maeve explained.

“The plant is a person?” The angel asked, surprised. “And… it’s a girl?”

“It is. Or at least, that’s what the stories say. Although she is partially plant.”

“You are going to go all the way to The Dreamer?” Ikta jumped in. “Shame. I guess I’ll just wait here for my dragon king to return.”

Maeve did her best not to smile, and Evelyn schooled her emotions too.

If they traveled together, Zach would chase down his marked women. He wouldn’t return to the same location.

But she could find him, modify the silver device to their connection and track him through the wilds.

“Trina.” Polydora snapped. The older dragon could really command the others when their king wasn’t around. “We leave. Come.”

The copper dragon huffed purple smoke from her nose and stomped away from Ikta hard enough to make the ground quake.

Maeve shook her head. None of the dragons had an ounce of subtlety.

Ikta knew it too, laughing at them as Trina’s stomps only grew in intensity.

“Mind telling me the plan? We must reconnect with our king as quickly as possible.” Polydora glanced down at Maeve.

“Let’s get out of earshot of a certain nefarious spider woman. Then I’ll tell you everything I have planned. But we are going to find him and get my mother out of that frozen cage.” Maeve was feeling a renewed determination to restore her mother so that she could spend time with a certain dragon king that had started to dote on her.

As she thought about him, warmth spread through her.

Walking forward, she squared her shoulders. She wouldn’t let Ikta or The Dreamer take Zach away from her, even if they were the beings of her childhood nightmares.