Please ensure that you have read Firebolt First; it's the first book in the Dragonian Series.

Venom is a small Novella after Firebolt and before Thunderlight, but not a must to read. Just for those that would like extra.

GORAN

CASTLE IN ETAN

ANGER, BETRAYAL, AND hate turned my stomach to acid. It consumed my mind, and I watched as bottles, papers, and books flew off the desk and crashed to the floor.

A maid rushed to my side. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes reflected fear in their watery depths. The dustpan in her hand trembled as she started to sweep up the jagged shards of glass. Rising, she began to straighten the books that had fallen to the floor in a heap. Every few seconds, her eyes darted nervously in my direction, as if a mere breath would make me lash out at her with my outstretched hand.

I touched her face gently until my hand reached her soft, shapely neck, squeezing slowly as my anger began to rise once again. My grip tightened as I lifted her from her position at my feet until her face was level with mine. Listening carefully, I heard her heart fluttering like a bird trapped inside a cage.

“How did I become this way?” I spoke, giving voice to my reality.

She stared at me with round, brown unblinking eyes sunk deep into the surface of her face; her cheekbones were sharply defined.

Looking at her sullen expression made me feel worse. I lifted my other hand and struck the woman hard across her cheek.

A cry left her mouth, and I threw her from me as if she weighed nothing. She skidded across the floor to land in a heap against a wall of cold, unforgiving stone. If I was a dragon, I would blast fire, reduce this wretched place to a pile of insignificant ashes.

Two other maids, hearing the startled cry, rushed into the room. Their eyes were wide as they took in the state of the room and the immobile heap near the far wall.

“Sorry, m’lord,” the older one said, her voice trembling. “She’s new; we will train her better.”

They picked up the maid who had come to and was sobbing. She clutched the side of her face, covering the huge, red handprint where I’d struck her.

I nodded. The old maid knew her place well; although I still didn’t care for her name, she knew where she stood.

I threw myself down onto the chair and closed my eyes. A silent roar growled inside of me, lighting a fire of rage deep in my core.

The girl had made it.

The Rubicon saved her life, so a part of him was still fighting me. I could still see her eyes searching mine. They bored into my soul, seeking answers. How is this possible! The Wall won’t allow any human to go to the other side.

Albert’s laughter echoed inside the castle, a startling reminder that good would always win. He would pay dearly for this. I would find a way, and I promised myself she wouldn’t live much longer.

I pushed myself up from the chair and rubbed my face hard. The anger escaped my lips, making a sickening sound. The rage that emanated from deep within me overpowered the haunting laughter and echoed throughout the entire castle.

“Master.” Cain’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Speak, my loyal servant,” I said. “What is the news?”

“Everything is in place. We won’t fail you,” he spoke in my head.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out hard. “We’ll see.”

TITH

ELENA

SUMMER WAS ALMOST over, but everyone’s spirits were high as Sammy searched for something in her room. I had recently arrived at the Leaf home after spending the first weeks of my vacation with Becky. Sammy was in rare form this evening as she bounced off the walls with barely contained excitement.

“Elena, cheer up! We’re going to the Warbel games, and I know it sucks that Lucian won’t be there, but I promise you’re going to enjoy it, okay?” Sammy spoke fast as I moved out of the way of one of her shirts sailing toward me.

“Sammy, it’s not like I’m trying to be like this. I just really miss him...” My lips puffed out a breath. “Tell me again why the Warbel games are so mind-blowing.” I tried to change the subject away from Lucian. He was still away on a hunting trip with his father, and the girls had decided the best way to brighten my mood was a sport that basically sounded like Greek warfare. I still had no clue what the Warbel games were about even after Sammy tried to explain it to me while searching for her favorite team's jersey. It sounded exciting as words like soldiers, attackers, and scorers made it into her lengthy description.

“Because it’s the Warbel games,” she said.

The only thing I retained was that Warbel was some sort of dragon and human sport that they loved to play on this side of the Wall. She also said that Dragonia had a similar game at the beginning of each school year, but it wasn’t as dangerous as the real one. I became even more confused when she started talking about raiders and incantations and couldn’t figure out how all of it came together.

Guess I’ll have to see it before I can really understand what it’s all about.

“The one thing you need to understand is that the game we are going to tonight is really dangerous,” she added as she continued to tear apart her closet, “and that the humans who participate are extremely well developed magic wielders, for their own safety as much as for winning the game.”

I still had no clue what the Warbel games were about. Okay, awesome.

Sir Robert had gotten five tickets for all of us from a friend who couldn’t make tonight’s game.

Lucille, Becky’s mom, had also gotten tickets for her, Becky and George, so we were all going to the game together.

I had spent the first three weeks of my vacation with Becky and Lucille, who was not a typical mother but was the most selfless person I’d ever met. She also seemed way too young to be Becky’s mom and looked more like Becky’s older sister. She hated it when I called her Mam or Mrs. Johnson and insisted that I called her by her first name. She was a lot like Becky in a sense — they shared the same type of fashion choices and clever comments — but she also had a love of art, which Becky didn’t. That part connected with me one hundred percent.

Becky and her mother lived in the totally opposite neighborhood to the Leafs, and they had more money than I could even dream of. I guessed it was why Becky was a bit of a brat. Staying with them made me realize what type of a person she could be sometimes. Having all that money made Becky bossy and turned her into someone I never thought I would be friends. But the thought of not having her around to give me her two-cent comments, especially when I didn’t ask for them, was unthinkable. She was also one of the bravest and fiercest girls I knew, and the best friend, apart from Sammy, a girl could ask for.

As we continued to look for the jerseys and get ready, Isabel came up to give us a five-minute warning. Blake had vanished around five, simply saying he would meet us there. Sir Robert had given him his ticket before he disappeared, so he would be able to find us.

Ever since that night at camp when he got wasted and put me under some sort of hypnotizing spell which almost made us kiss, which was seriously ridiculous as he despised me, he’d been acting like his old self: arrogant and a total dick. Something about Blake always wanting me when he was wasted made me wonder about the things he was hiding and if maybe those things only came out when he was drunk.

I shook my head, and the thoughts of Blake washed away as I grabbed my bag and followed Sammy to Sir Robert’s old sedan.

The drive wasn’t that long, and I gasped when Sir Robert pulled into the parking area in front of a giant mountain. There were at least a million cars already parked in neat rows and the noise coming from inside the mountain told me that it must be where the Warbel games took place.

Crowds wearing different colored jerseys, caps, and scarves huddled around. Some even carried flags, and I saw a yellow one with a huge hornet on top of what looked like a raider.

Raiders were flying devices that made me think of an enhanced skateboard.

Everywhere in Paegeia’s parks and ports, people flew on them. You needed a special license for one, and I tried so hard to suppress my laughter when Becky told me that her next try would be her fiftieth or so attempt to get hers.