About the Author
Other Books by G. Bailey
Bonus read of Court of Dragons and Crowns by G. Bailey
24. Bonus read of Court of Dragons and Crowns by G. Bailey
25. Bonus read of Court of Dragons and Crowns by G. Bailey
Quote
For everyone who has chosen the wrong person to be their forever.
The right person is waiting in the shadows; look for them.
Description
Dragons don’t exist anymore. Neither do their legendary fae riders…until I stumble into a mansion full of them.
It turns out the last of the dragon rider fae have been locked in a trap, a mansion with no doors, no way to leave for five hundred years, and I’m the first fae to enter. The dragon fae riders know nothing of the world outside or the vampyres who have taken over in their absence, and most don’t trust me.
Especially not Ziven—king of the forgotten Moon Dynasty.
The gorgeous but cruel king demands I enter the Decidere, a ritual for all fae over the age of twenty. It’s a deadly trial in the dragons’ caves below the mansion, and if you’re weak, you’re dead. Ziven marks me as a traitor, and he doesn’t believe anything I say. He wants me to lose. The Sun Dynasty king takes me in, helps me and is kind. With his help, I might last a week.
With Ziven doing everything he can to end me, my ability to escape the mansion seeming impossible, and dragons literally burning the ground at my feet, I don’t know how I’m going to live through this.
You need to be brave. You need to be a warrior…or the dragons will know.
My name is Story Dehana, and I escaped the vampyres, only to find myself trapped once again with a new enemy who might be worse.
A Vow of Dragons and Storms is the first book in The Lost Fae Riders Series. This is a full-length fantasy, dragon-rider romance with an enemy who might become a lover, found family, the best romance tropes, and a main character who loves reading almost as much as you.
Chapter One
Page One.
To my reader—
I was a dragon rider, and if you’re reading this, I must be dead.
When a female seeks revenge, society often labels her a monster. I’m the monster in the vampyre society, but they won’t cage me ever again.
The wind and rain whips through my red and black locks of hair as I run, strands lashing my bruised cheek and cut lip every so often. They are nothing compared to the burning of my broken ribs from the rock I just fell over, but I use the pain to fuel myself. The damp moss on the surrounding trees is all I can smell as I run, my legs aching with every slam of my bare feet on the forest floor.
Keep running.
Don’t let them catch you.
You are never going to be a slave to them again, Story Dehana.
Tears fill my eyes as it feels like he is right at my side, whispering encouragement in my ear. My best friend who always believed in me…but he is gone now, and if they catch me, he died for nothing. Narrowly missing a tree, I turn to the left and stumble onto an old stone path, parts of which look like they have been well hidden under years’ worth of plants and dead leaves. In uncovered parts, the soggy mud between the massive stones threatens to pull me in, but I can’t stop. I won’t.
An unnatural silence fills the air, and my heart races.
The vampyres have found me.
I stop, spinning around, breathing heavily as sweat drips down my neck. I have to hide until they pass. I pray to the deities for a safe haven, even if they have shunned me for as long as I can remember. My eyes frantically search for somewhere to hide, somewhere they wouldn’t sense me. My heart leaps with hope when the moonlight shines down through the thick green trees, illuminating the spiralling towers of some kind of house.
If the house has thick enough walls, they might not be able to hear my heartbeat. If I could find a basement… I smile for the first time since entering this forest. Running here was never the plan, but it all went wrong. I might be able to hide from them in there, at least long enough for the vampyres to pass through this part of the Hydra Forest. I blow out one shaky breath before leaving the stone path and running straight towards the spiralling towers that climb higher than the trees themselves. That’s saying something, as the trees around here are gigantic, taller than any building I’ve ever seen, taller than the vampyres’ mighty castles.
Nearly tripping over several logs, I focus on the ground as I run until the forest floor changes to a marked stone pathway. The path leads up to massive metal gates, which are swung open, held in place by thick ivy that has grown over the gates and broken them in parts. At the bottom of the path is a mansion, sitting in the forest, like the deities themselves dropped it here for me. It’s old, mostly derelict, and I bet it’s close to falling down. Four towers mark the corners, with a triangular pointed roof in the middle. A colossal round stained glass window is in the middle of the building, but it’s too dusty and covered in dirt for me to see what is pictured. There are hundreds of triangle windows around the dark stone building, and its massive front doors look slightly ajar. There’s no light coming from inside, just pitch darkness from what I can see. It’s creepy, but I don’t have a choice.
I don’t know what this mansion is doing out here; I wasn’t even aware there were buildings inside the Hydra Forest, and I would know, as I’ve looked over the maps in the weapons room a hundred times. It’s meant to be empty, abandoned to the world. But right now, that mansion is going to be my salvation.
The unnerving silence fills the cold air, like a mist crawling through the forest floor that promises death. A silence that’s only brought by the vampyres when they’re hunting their prey. I need to move. If the birds, rabbits, foxes, and all creatures go silent, then death is not too far away. Death would be a mercy for what I will get if they manage to capture me. I sprint as fast as I possibly can down the path, which is remarkably solid considering that this place must be hundreds of years old. It doesn’t look like a single soul has walked here in a long time.
