Crown Tournament 3 [Chapter 2]

Hey peeps!

This will release in late May. I'm still heavily editing it, but this SHOULD be mostly typo free.

Can't wait!

Shami

Chapter 2

Aziel sauntered from the room, his twilight dragon trailing behind, dragging Roux like a prize. It was a petty thought, nothing more than a flicker of defiance, but for once, thinking of him as Aziel instead of my father felt right. That man had done nothing for me. Elias was my real father.

Roux’s soft voice whispered in my mind, steady despite her captivity. “Follow them, partner. We don’t have a choice. You were wise to surrender… We couldn’t win a fight, even if we tried.”

I didn’t need her to tell me twice. I broke into a brisk walk, following Aziel into the main hall.

Wordlessly, his twilight dragon fell into step behind him, its two heads smiling. Kismet, his own kirin, walked close at its heels. The rest of Aziel’s entourage followed. They were his so-called “Claws.” The orochi arcanist and Tyson, the cliffside dragon arcanist, cackled amongst themselves, leering at the serving girls with sneers etched into their faces.

The bone dragon arcanist was another matter entirely. Silent as a grave, he followed Aziel with an eerie calm, pausing only to scratch a glowing marking etched into his neck.

Dario nudged me, his jaw tight as a war drum and his sun-kissed skin uncharacteristically pale. “Amir… do you think they’ll take Yumi with them?”

“What?”

“Yumi. Do you think they’ll take her with them? Orochi are known for their… rituals. And that arcanist? That’s Stefan Oleander. He’s infamous in both mystical and human circles for his cruelty.”

I hadn’t even considered that. “I… um…”

My throat tightened. I wanted to offer him comfort, but his fears were valid. And I had no words.

Dario’s second nudge came harder. “Seriously, what do you think will happen? You know more about humans than I do.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “These aren’t ordinary humans. They’re dragon arcanists… Madmen chasing power. There’s no telling what they might do.”

Dario’s teeth ground together. His eyes scanned the corridor for any leverage, but there was none. We were boxed in. Trapped.

“Who is that guy?” I asked, nodding at the bone dragon arcanist. Dario seemed to know far too much about Aziel’s team, and none of it was good.

“His name is Edgar. That’s all Yumi could dig up. Two years ago, Aziel’s team was supposed to have a typhoon dragon arcanist. But when they arrived at the Winner’s Ceremony… they had the bone dragon instead.”

The Feng household’s grand room gleamed like a golden shrine. Even the walls shimmered. Crystal chandeliers shaped like caladrius in their true forms hung from above in opulent clusters. The extravagance only made everything feel more surreal, more like a dream tipping into nightmare.

Yumi knelt by Master Elias on the central sofa, golden healing light flowing from her hands. Despite the chaos, she worked with the discipline of a seasoned healer. Most of Elias’s wounds were mended, but the most grievous remained: the gaping hole Aziel had torn into his chest.

His breathing was shallow, his skin waxen.

Elias was still alive… but barely.

“Oh, that’s enough of that,” Aziel said with a sneer.

With a cruel swing of his arm, he struck Yumi aside. She skidded across the marble floor with a choked cry.

Dario moved to rise, but Edgar turned with inhuman speed. One blade kissed Dario’s throat, just deep enough to bleed. Another blade hovered menacingly before Yumi.

Message delivered. Loud and clear. We were all hostages.

I raised my hands and stepped forward. “I’m not… I’m not going to fight. I just want to see him.”

Whatever Yumi had done, it had stabilized Elias. But he was still unconscious, hovering between this world and the abyssal hells. All my strength, everything I had worked for, meant nothing if I couldn’t save him.

What was the point of growing stronger if I couldn’t save the one person who mattered most?

A massive gray broadsword dropped in my path. Aziel chuckled darkly. “That’s far enough, kid… or should I say son?”

Dario stiffened, his eldrin growling low. I said nothing.

Aziel continued, unbothered. “Why mourn this pathetic relic? Elias, the great Red Wind, barely held himself together when we last fought. Of course he’d fall now.”

The words slipped out before I knew I’d said them. “He adopted me. He is my real father.”

For a moment, something in Aziel’s expression faltered. His eyes flicked to Elias, and his blade quivered slightly. But the moment passed.

“Well,” he muttered, “your real father is dying. So you might as well—” He cut himself off, narrowing his gaze at Yumi. “Impressive. You kept him alive even through a ghoul-infused blast. And your caladrius is true form…”

Elias…

My chest ached.

Aziel turned to his men, laughing. “If only she’d been there after the battle. Two of our members are dead. Now we’re in need of new blood.”

Disgusting. Even the death of his own men meant nothing to him.

Aziel turned to me and Dario. “Two capable arcanists. We can’t let them keep their kirin. That’s too risky. But separate them? Give them dragons instead? Maybe.”

My stomach turned. He intended to imprison Roux and Lux. To force Dario and me into joining his cursed team. And if I bonded with another creature, Roux would fade. Wren would die.

“Never,” I spat.

Dario said nothing, but his rage burned hotter than ever.

Aziel shrugged. “A shame. Well, death it is then.” He raised his hand. “Lear. Kill them.”

“No!”

Yumi’s voice cracked through the air like lightning. She threw herself in front of us, bowing low in desperate submission. “Please! Spare them! I’ll join you. I’ll heal your dragons! Whatever you want!”

Mika, her caladrius, turned to her in horror.

Yumi didn't flinch. “Dario means everything to me! I’ll do anything if you spare them!”

Aziel chuckled, amused. “Young love. So tragically foolish.” He studied Elias once more, then grinned.

He turned back to Elias’s body and grinned. “It’s not a bad suggestion. I’ve always wanted to build a mighty team of dragons, but our foolish mistakes have shown that we also need someone to keep them alive. And I suppose birds have claws too, just as dragons do.”

Yumi shuddered, her face twisted in a mix of fear for herself and relief for us. “You’ll… you’ll spare them? Really?”

“Of course,” Aziel replied. “After all, what is a kirin arcanist without their kirin?”

The orochi lunged with blinding speed, its eight heads striking so fast they blurred into invisibility. Haoyu cried out in rage, trying to block its path, but the serpentine heads were too swift. When the orochi reared back, it held a struggling Lux clenched between three of its eight jaws.

Meanwhile, my father’s dragon, Lear, already had Roux.

“No!” Dario shouted. “I—”

Edgar, the bone dragon arcanist, raised his weapon again, aiming it squarely at Yumi. Dario fell silent, eyes locked on Lux, his expression both furious and terrified. Even from this distance, I could tell Lux was speaking to him telepathically.

“You know, Lord Aziel…” the orochi arcanist said with a nervous chuckle. “Perhaps we should kill the kirin here. End the threat to your victory.”

Aziel snorted. “Stefan. Think deeper. How do you think she’ll react when she finds out we had two perfectly good kirin and killed them?”

“But kirin can only bond with one person,” Stefan whispered.

“Well, as you know, she hopes to break that limitation. If anyone could, it’d be her. And if not, perhaps she can turn them into artifacts.”

Aziel raised his voice, letting it echo through the hall. “As you’ve all seen, your little princess is joining me of her own volition. I have no interest in making enemies of the Feng Family. So long as you respect her decision to join my team, we’ll have no trouble. If not… well, who knows what might happen to her in the heat of battle?”

He turned to his men.

“Let’s go.”

The dragons and their arcanists launched into the sky, taking our kirin with them and leaving us alone in the aftermath.

I stood frozen, staring helplessly upward as the kirin magic in my veins began to fade, growing weaker with every wingbeat that took Roux farther away.

Then, a whisper echoed in my mind.

“Amir, you’ll be able to save Elias at the kirin village. There’s someone there who can heal wounds even Yumi cannot. It lies far to the south, beyond the Sunset Desert. Find the Falcon at the Lightning Straits. She will guide you.”

The Falcon?

Who was that?

I wanted to shout after Roux, to beg for more answers, but she was already so far away, and I couldn’t risk Aziel overhearing. My magic dimmed to a flicker. Then, one last time, her voice came to me.

“If you follow my words, you will meet your friends again. They will help you too. Don’t worry, Amir. I know we’ll meet again.”

She spoke with such unwavering confidence that I had to believe her. Kirin and their arcanists carried destiny magic, sometimes even glimpses of the future. But now her voice had faded, and the last of my magic vanished.

I no longer had my kirin bond. No destiny magic. No guiding aura.

Only her words.

And I would have to trust they were true.