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    Dragon's Maiden: Highland Dragon Romance
    Dragon's Maiden: Highland Dragon Romance
    Dragon's Maiden: Highland Dragon Romance
    Ebook97 pages1 hour

    Dragon's Maiden: Highland Dragon Romance

    By Michelle Fox

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Alana was just like any other maiden, waiting for her dragon to come... until Queen Elizabeth decrees that dragons and maidens in Scotland shall be destroyed. Now, instead of flirting with dragons in search of her mate, Alana is running for her life. 
     

    Disguised as a nun, Alana hides in a convent, watching as her future burns to ashes, but just when she thinks all the dragons are gone, a dangerous and destructive one strikes, laying waste to both the convent and her hopes.


    The maiden has finally been claimed, yet her captor is far from the dragon of her dreams. Her descent into danger has just begun, but unbeknownst to her, Alana's quest for her true mate has, too.


    A paranormal romance novella with a very different, very historically inaccurate take on Queen Elizabeth I and her rivalry with Queen Mary during the Enlightenment of the Renaissance. Here be dragons!

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichelle Fox
    Release dateNov 28, 2016
    ISBN9781540128935
    Dragon's Maiden: Highland Dragon Romance

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      Book preview

      Dragon's Maiden - Michelle Fox

      Chapter One

      Before we start... Be sure to subscribe to my mailing list for free reads, exclusive sneak peeks and giveaways. Get a free story just for signing up!

      ***

      Dragons started and ended in Scotland. Long the strength that held our moors safe from the avarice of the English, they folded under a magic greater than ours. Queen Elizabeth conquered Scotland and our own Queen Mary with dragons of her own. We'd thought to rise up and reclaim Scotland, but Queen Elizabeth's mages crafted dragons who could not be killed, placing England at the pinnacle of military prowess.

      The queen’s dragons had no weakness, and when the smoke cleared, she sought to lay waste to any who survived the uprising. She imprisoned Queen Mary and then came for the rest of us.

      The easiest way to destroy us all was to target the maidens, the women who anchored the Highland dragons’ magic, who cleaved to them as mates. They burned the maiden houses first, eradicating the places where unmated maidens had gathered for schooling and training in their power. Those of us who survived scattered like sparks in danger of going dark.

      Our married sisters were hunted as witches and burned at the stake when caught. Without their mates’ magic to balance their fire, the remaining Highland dragons burst into flame. Within days, the Scottish air was silent; bereft of the sound of a dragon’s wings and filled with the heavy quiet of death.

      The younger, unmated maidens found refuge where they could.  We had to be smart. We had to be sneaky. Many of us hid behind the church, posing as nuns. I myself picked up the mantle of Abbess and took over an abandoned convent, pretending I’d never heard of the old ways and the gods that oversaw them.  Like our Queen Mary, I became an exemplary Catholic.

      As the years passed, I thought I could keep us all safe. I believed all we had to do was read the Bible and pray and no one would spot us. I was wrong.

      Magic calls to magic, for good or ill. There is no denying its draw.

      ***

      Abbess! Alana, yelled Coira—one of the younger girls— as she picked up the skirts of her habit and raced toward me. A lock of blonde hair had escaped her wimple and her blue eyes were bright with excitement.

      What is it child? We’d just said our prayers for the night and my bed called to me. A heavy fatigue pressed on my back, making my shoulders ache.

      There’s a highland dragon. A big one, Coira panted. Fiona saw it and sent me to fetch you.

      My heart fluttered and I put a hand to my chest. A highland dragon? Truly? Fiona was no young maid like Coira, she was a seasoned maiden and not given to flights of fancy and yet...had she really seen one of our own dragons after all this time? I didn’t dare hope.

      Aye. Come see! With that, she picked up her skirts again and ran off, a trail of curious maidens hurrying after her.

      After a moment’s hesitation, I followed them, forcing my weary legs to stretch into a run. I’d spent the day in the garden, tilling soil and removing rocks bigger than my head so that we might plant more food before the growing season ended. Beyond that, I’d overseen the kitchen all day as well as our prayers. My body throbbed with pain, but there was a spring in my step now.

      Perhaps we weren’t alone.

      If even one highland dragon had survived the purge... I shook my head, refusing to hope. I'd seen the red dragons' destruction. They'd burned everything without mercy or morals.

      Outside, the late summer’s dusk greeted me with a swirl of wind and the scent of wildflowers from the meadow that ran beyond the convent’s property.  Everyone gathered in the courtyard, pointing at the sky and talking excitedly amongst themselves. I stood apart from them, arms crossed and squinted at the horizon which flared orange as the sun doused its heat in the cool night.  This far north the sun stayed up late in the summer months, almost but not quite burning away the night.

      A speck, small as a dove, flew toward us, growing larger and larger as it hurtled toward the convent. My heart raced and my stomach dropped as I saw what had come for us. This dragon was no friend to us. We’d been fooled.

      Run! I shouted at the girls, sprinting toward them and waving my arms.

      But it was too late. Too caught up in the dragon's appearance to pay any attention to me, the maidens didn't move. He was upon us a moment later, streaking down from the sky, a fiery death wind and his scales red as spilled blood.

      I shoved the nearest girl—Ina, who tended to the littlest ones like a mother— toward the convent entrance. She stumbled and looked at me, her mouth an ‘o’ of confusion just as a lance of flame pierced her chest. It didn’t stab so much as melt the flesh.

      He’s a red. He's England's dragon, not ours. He'll kill all of us, I screamed, giving up on Ina and pushing at more of the girls. They understood the danger now and most of them were moving, although a few stood frozen in place as they gaped at what remained of Ina.

      I raced to get to the other girls before the dragon could burn them. After he hit Ina, he soared upward again, preparing to rush back down for another strike. I took advantage of the lull and grabbed whoever I could—by the hand or the hair, whichever was more convenient—and did my best to force them to safety, but they were a dead weight of shock, and the dragon was fast.  There were more than I could save.

      For every maiden I shoved back into the convent, he set two on fire. Soon the courtyard flickered with light as the maidens burned like wicks. Flames crawled their bodies like demons, and they screamed as the pain possessed them.

      I retreated to the shadows, hiding behind one of the larger trees. I couldn’t save them, but I couldn’t leave them either. They were my responsibility, my maidens to guard, and I’d failed. All I could do was pray. The words sprang to my lips even as their flesh blistered, and their hair burned brighter than an angel’s halo

      When the dragon began to smash the walls of the convent and spit fire into any opening he could find, I ran forward and pummeled his tail with my fists, refusing to let my world die again. He didn’t appear to feel it at all.

      Thinking fast, I grabbed a thick but short stick and climbed onto the beast’s back, making my way toward his head. I had no hope that I could stop the dragon, but I could not stand by and do nothing. As I crept up his spine, he continued to spew flame, covering the convent with fire.  A chorus of keening wails ripped the night air, and my heart sank as I realized more maidens had been struck down. Would anyone survive this night?

      Reaching the dragon’s head, I grabbed his ear flap and yanked it back toward me. Jamming the stick into the dark ear canal with as much force as I could muster, I shouted, Leave us be. We are a house of God. There is no place here for demons of your ilk. I did my best to use

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