Lichgates: Book One of the Grimoire Saga (an Epic Fantasy Adventure) by S.M. Boyce Read Free Book Online Page A

flourished his hands and lectured about duty and obligation, but Braeden tuned him out.
    A red lizard darted toward Kara. The new Vagabond stared at the crowded hall, her grip tight on the stone and her knuckles white. She didn’t move. He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing.
    Another flash of color captured his waning attention span as a second, green lizard scuttled behind Carden’s throne. It slithered around the other side and paused, its beady eyes glistening as it looked out over the room.
    “It’s time for you to embrace what you really are!” Carden said, loud enough now to catch Braeden’s attention. “Our kind was eternally banished for a failed coup thousands and thousands of years ago. We are still hunted by the other kingdoms, forbidden to travel through Ourea as they do, out of punishment for an act we did not commit! Did your twelve years with the enemy make you forget your own heritage?”
    Braeden could only shake his head.
    “I taught you what it means to rule, boy. I built the foundation that made you what you are today. I taught you how to do what must be done to protect your people.”
    Braeden glared up at the king. “Is that why you killed Mother?”
    “None betray me, not even those I love,” Carden said, so quietly that Braeden had to strain to hear him.
    “You—!”
    “You have a rare opportunity,” Carden interrupted. “Because you were just a child when she stole you away from me, I will give you a second chance. Don’t repeat your mother’s mistake.”
    The king returned to his throne and bellowed his next words so that they reverberated off the walls of the cavernous hall.
    “Stand and accept what you were born to be, my son.”
    “Never.”
    “Like I said, it’s not a choice.”
    Carden reached toward him and clenched his hand into a fist. Braeden’s stomach tightened, as if his father had reached into his gut and squeezed. He curled over himself, stifling the agonizing yell in his throat.
    The king twisted his hand and opened his palm, where sparks snapped and fizzled. Braeden’s muscles tore at the movement. Popping noises surged along his biceps and neck. His veins chilled and slowed. He unconsciously stood at a twitch of Carden’s finger. Braeden’s grip on his form was slipping. Smoke escaped his pores. Organs shifted. He screamed in pain until a heavy weight fell on his chest and closed his throat.
    “Screams are for the weak,” Carden said.
    The weight eased off Braeden’s lungs, letting him sink back to the floor as the internal tearing and popping stopped. The staggering numbness returned. His cuffs twisted as he moved, and searing fire coursed through his veins. Tremors pulsed through him.
    Carden scowled from his chair, and the green lizard from earlier peered from the shadows beside the throne. Its outline blurred for a moment, but returned to normal so quickly that Braeden questioned what he’d seen.
    It flickered again, more prominently this time.
    Dark lines melted around its face. It grew taller, its skin stretching and pouring into the space around it. In a matter of seconds, the lizard filled the massive hall as it transformed into a dragon.
    Braeden’s mouth went dry.
    The dragon reared its head above the stunned hall and roared. The creature’s tail landed squarely on Carden’s chest, sending him flying into a support column by the main entry. The pillar crumbled on top of the king, burying him, and the dome it supported shattered. The dragon thrashed its wings against the walls by the thrones. Chunks of black marble pummeled downward, cracking the polished floor. Glass rained down on the cloaked subjects. A stampede began for the door.
    A new, shriller roar echoed through the great hall, shooting chills through Braeden’s body. A red dragon with a long black stripe down its spine stood over Kara, baring its thick teeth. One dragon was bad enough, but two would be unstoppable. He tried to stand, to run, to possibly escape and at minimum