Chapter 1 – You’re a Dragon

Elaria stood in front of the mansion’s iron gates for a moment.

The feeling that had led her here had not faded after she stepped out of the carriage.

If anything, now that there were no carriage walls between her and the mansion, it was even clearer than before.

Vaelor was inside.

She was as certain of it as she was of knowing which hand belonged to her.

So Elaria did not waste time checking the address on her documents again. She paid the driver, took her small bag, and walked straight toward the gate.

One of the uniformed men standing guard immediately stepped forward.

“May I ask your business here, miss?”

“I’m here to see Vaelor.”

The man paused.

“My apologies. Who did you say?”

“Vaelor.”

Elaria pronounced the name more clearly, in case her accent was too different from the people here.

But the guard’s expression did not change.

“Do you know his family name?”

This time, Elaria was the one who fell silent.

She had never asked.

Dragons did not use family names the way humans did, and for Elaria’s entire life, Vaelor had simply been Vaelor. There had never been any reason for another name to follow it.

“He doesn’t have one.”

“He doesn’t?”

“No.”

The guard glanced at the man stationed on the other side of the gate.

Elaria noticed the look but did not understand what was wrong. She had given them the correct name. If they needed more information to distinguish Vaelor from another person with the same name, she could provide a description.

“He’s much taller than I am,” she offered. “Dark hair, purple eyes, and—”

She stopped to think.

His appearance in human form might have changed.

Vaelor had rarely used his human form while he was still in Eryndra, and even when he did, dragons could alter certain details according to their preferences.

“It’s fine if he looks a little different now. I’ll recognize him.”

That explanation did not seem to make matters any easier.

“Do you have an appointment, miss?”

“No.”

“Does this Vaelor you’re looking for work here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is he a guest of His Grace?”

“I don’t know that either.”

The guard went silent again.

Elaria was beginning to understand where the problem lay.

“I only arrived in Aster today,” she explained. “All I know is that he’s here.”

The man did not look any more enlightened.

Still, he remained perfectly polite.

“In that case, would you mind waiting here for a moment?”

“Of course.”

Elaria obediently moved to stand beside the gate.

The guard disappeared inside while the other remained at his post. With nothing else to do, Elaria took the opportunity to look around.

The estate was larger than it had seemed from the carriage. The main residence stood farther back beyond the front gardens, with a carriage drive running across the grounds to a wide stone staircase. Tall windows lined the pale walls in neat rows, and several smaller buildings stood off to either side.

Quite a lot of people seemed to live here.

Elaria did not know why Vaelor needed a house this large.

But he had been living among humans for several hundred years. Perhaps this was normal.

She was still considering whether she should ask him about it when the same guard returned.

This time, another man accompanied him.

The newcomer was slightly older, his clothes immaculate from collar to gloves. His manner was composed, and unlike the gate guard, his expression did not openly show his confusion.

“Good day, miss.”

“Good day.”

“My name is Cedric Hale. I oversee the household affairs of House Edevane. I was told you came here looking for someone named Vaelor.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve checked with the household, but no one here goes by that name.”

Elaria frowned slightly.

That was new information.

“No one at all?”

“No.”

“Not even someone staying here temporarily?”

“No.”

“What about someone who doesn’t work here but visits often?”

Cedric showed no sign of impatience.

“Not to my knowledge.”

Elaria turned to look at the mansion again.

He really was inside.

She was certain.

So if no one named Vaelor lived here, there was only one reasonable explanation left.

“He must be using another name.”

Cedric was silent for a moment.

“That is possible. In that case, could you describe his appearance or tell me anything else about the person you’re looking for?”

“Yes.”

Elaria gave him all the details she knew, leaving out anything related to dragons as Maeryn had instructed.

Tall. Dark hair. Purple eyes. A calm demeanor. Not especially talkative.

And he probably held a considerable amount of authority, considering Vaelor had been the pack leader long before leaving Eryndra.

For that last part, she changed the wording to,

“He probably holds a fairly high position.”

Cedric listened without interrupting.

“About how old is he?”

That question required more thought.

Giving his real age would probably be a bad idea.

Maeryn had been very clear about that.

“In human form… he probably doesn’t look very old.”

“About thirty?”

Elaria tried to picture it.

“That sounds about right.”

Cedric studied her for a moment.

“Where do you know him from, miss?”

“Home.”

“Your home?”

“Yes.”

“And your relationship with him is…?”

That question was much easier than the one about age.

“He’s my mate.”

Silence fell between the three people standing by the gate.

Elaria waited.

Cedric blinked once.

“My apologies.”

“Yes?”

“You said just now that he is…”

“My mate.”

She pronounced it more clearly, just as she had with Vaelor’s name.

Cedric remained still.

Elaria began to wonder whether the word Maeryn had taught her was different from the one people used in Aster.

“I mean, he is my partner.”

Cedric’s expression changed only slightly.

“Your… partner?”

“Yes.”

“Your fiancé?”

“No.”

“Your husband?”

“No.”

“Your lover?”

Elaria considered that.

It was closer than the other two, but it still was not quite right.

“My mate.”

Cedric went silent again.

This time for even longer.

The gate guard deliberately turned his face in the other direction.

Elaria did not understand why something so simple was proving this difficult to explain.

In Eryndra, if she said Vaelor was her mate, everyone understood immediately.

But of course, humans did not have the same system as dragons.

Maeryn had already explained that.

So Elaria should not expect humans to understand without being told.

“He’ll know,” she concluded. “If you bring him here, he’ll understand.”

Cedric regarded her thoughtfully.

“But I still don’t know who he is.”

Right.

Elaria turned toward the mansion again.

“The person I’m looking for is inside.”

“You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“Even though you don’t know the name he currently uses?”

“Yes.”

“And you don’t know what position he holds in this household?”

“Yes.”

Cedric paused.

“How do you know?”

Elaria was about to answer, Because he’s my mate, but realized that would only bring them back to the same question.

So she chose a shorter answer.

“I just know.”

Cedric did not respond immediately.

Elaria could see some sort of thought process behind his composed expression. He did not believe her, but he did not seem to think she was dangerous either.

At least no one had told her to leave.

That was good.

“Please wait here a little longer.”

Cedric went back inside the mansion.

This time, he was gone longer.

Elaria remained exactly where she was, not particularly worried. If Vaelor was using another name, then naturally it would take longer to find him.

She had already waited several hundred years for him.

A few more minutes were hardly a problem.

Cedric was the one who came back.

But this time, he was not alone.

The moment the mansion doors opened, Elaria stopped looking at everything else.

The young man walking beside Cedric was noticeably taller than the people around him. His dark coat was impeccably tailored, with no unnecessary ornamentation. Black hair that caught faint traces of blue beneath the light had been neatly arranged, and deep violet eyes swept toward the gate.

He did not look exactly the same as before.

It did not matter.

Elaria knew who he was before he even descended the first step.

The feeling that had drawn her across the sea had finally come to rest directly in front of her.

A smile appeared on her face before she realized it.

“Vaelor.”

The man stopped.

Not because he remembered the name.

Only because a strange young woman standing by his gate had just called him something that was not his name.

But Elaria did not know that yet.

She took two steps toward him, then remembered the human rules about personal distance and stopped herself.

Up close, it was even clearer.

It really was him.

The core of a person was not something that could be changed by a different hairstyle, different clothes, or whichever form one chose to wear.

Elaria looked at him with satisfaction.

“I found you.”

His dark violet eyes regarded her calmly.

There was no happiness in his expression.

No relief.

Not even the sort of surprise Elaria had expected after they had not seen each other for so long.

There was only the polite caution of someone assessing a stranger.

“Have we met before?”

Elaria paused.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

For the first time, the question genuinely stopped her.

“At home.”

He did not respond.

Elaria looked into his eyes, trying to determine whether Vaelor was teasing her.

He was not.

She knew his personality well enough to know he was not the sort of person who would make a joke like this anyway.

“You don’t remember me?”

The man in front of her shook his head slightly.

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

Elaria thought.

His journey had lasted much longer than anyone had expected. Perhaps there had been an accident, or he had been affected by some kind of magic. Humans did have magic, although it was uncommon. Maeryn had taught her that much.

So damage to his memory was possible.

And if he truly could not remember, that would also explain the different name.

“That’s all right.”

Her answer seemed to surprise him slightly.

“It is?”

“Yes. If you’ve forgotten, I can explain everything again.”

Elaria understood that the problem was larger than she had expected, but that did not mean it could not be fixed.

She had found him.

That had been the hardest part.

“First of all, your name is Vaelor.”

He was silent for a moment.

“My name is Valerian.”

“Now?”

“Since birth.”

Elaria frowned.

That answer was wrong.

Not wrong because she had forgotten his name, but wrong on a level she knew with absolute certainty could not possibly be true.

Vaelor had already had his name long before he ever came to Avelorne.

“No.”

“Pardon?”

“Your name is Vaelor.”

“I believe I would know my own name.”

His tone remained polite, without any sharp sarcasm, but Elaria could tell he was beginning to find the situation strange.

She was beginning to feel the same way.

“You might not remember.”

“I remember my life perfectly well.”

“But you don’t remember me.”

He paused slightly.

“That does not mean I’ve forgotten my own name.”

That was reasonable.

From the information he had.

So Elaria did not argue with that particular point.

Instead, she tried another way of confirming it.

Her gaze moved from his face to his hands, then back to his eyes.

A human body was not his true form, but changing one’s appearance did not change what existed underneath.

The closer she stood to him, the less doubt she had.

“You really are Vaelor.”

“I’m not sure where you received that information.”

“I didn’t receive it from anywhere. I know you.”

“But I don’t know you.”

“Because you forgot.”

“And you traveled all the way to my home without knowing the name I use, without knowing my position, yet you are certain I am the person you were looking for?”

“Yes.”

Valerian looked at her in silence.

Elaria understood that, to a human, it probably sounded difficult to believe.

But the truth did not stop being true simply because it sounded unbelievable.

So she decided she should give him more information he could verify.

“You’ve been away from home for several hundred years.”

Cedric, standing to one side, immediately looked up.

Valerian remained calmer.

“Several hundred years?”

“Yes.”

“How old do you believe I am?”

Elaria remembered the warning about age just in time.

“I’m not supposed to tell humans that.”

Silence fell again.

Had she said something wrong?

Elaria quickly reviewed her own sentence and found the problem.

Humans.

She should have said other people.

“Let me correct that,” she said. “I’m not supposed to tell other people that.”

Valerian stared at her for a little longer.

“Do you believe you aren’t human?”

A very direct question.

Elaria liked direct questions.

They were easy to answer.

“Yes.”

Cedric became completely silent.

The gate guard some distance away seemed even more determined to stare straight ahead.

Valerian, on the other hand, did not look shocked. He simply continued in the same calm tone.

“And what do you believe you are?”

This time, Elaria did not answer immediately.

Maeryn had been very clear.

Do not tell humans you are a dragon.

Do not reveal Eryndra’s location.

Do not reveal your true form.

But the person standing in front of her was not human.

He was Vaelor.

So that rule should not apply to him.

The problem was that Vaelor did not remember who he was.

If she told him, perhaps he would remember.

Elaria considered every part of the situation and could find no reason why hiding the truth from him would be useful.

“A dragon.”

No one spoke for several seconds.

Valerian was the first to respond.

“A dragon?”

“Yes.”

He looked her over from head to toe. Not rudely, but as though checking whether anything about the young woman in front of him might support what she had just said.

Of course, there was nothing.

Elaria’s human form was complete.

“You mean that metaphorically?”

“No.”

“Or as the name of some group?”

“No.”

“You mean an actual dragon?”

“Yes.”

He went quiet.

Elaria felt that now was probably the right time to explain the most important part.

“And you’re a dragon too.”

Valerian’s expression changed very little.

But this time, Elaria clearly saw his thoughts come to a halt for one beat.

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“A dragon?”

“Yes.”

“You’re certain?”

“Absolutely.”

Her answer came without the slightest hesitation.

Because this was not something she needed to guess.

Valerian glanced briefly at Cedric.

Cedric said nothing, but his expression made it clear that he could offer no explanation for the situation either.

Then the man in front of her looked back at Elaria.

“Miss…”

“Elaria.”

“Pardon?”

“My name is Elaria.”

He acknowledged the information with a slight nod.

“Miss Elaria, I believe there may be some misunderstanding.”

“About what?”

“About your belief that I am someone named Vaelor.”

“But you are.”

“And your belief that you are a dragon.”

“I am.”

“As well as your belief that I am a dragon.”

“You are.”

The conversation stopped there.

Valerian looked at her.

Elaria looked back.

Neither of them moved even slightly from what they considered to be fact.

Finally, he let out a very quiet sigh, as though choosing how best to explain something that should have been basic knowledge without embarrassing her.

“Miss Elaria.”

“Yes?”

“Dragons aren’t real.”

Elaria went still.

The wind swept through the mansion gates, stirring her pale blue skirt. Somewhere along the distant road came the sound of carriage wheels.

Everything around them continued as normal.

Only the sentence he had just spoken was not normal at all.

She looked at Vaelor again.

It was not merely that he had forgotten her name.

It was not merely that he had taken a new name.

It was not merely that he had forgotten home.

He was looking at her with the expression of someone who truly believed what he had just said.

Slowly, Elaria began to understand that, throughout the two years Maeryn had spent preparing her, there had been one situation no one had ever thought to teach her how to handle.

Because no one had imagined it could happen.

Vaelor had not simply forgotten her.

He had forgotten what he was.

Elaria thought about this in silence for a moment, then gave a small nod.

“Oh…”

Valerian waited.

She looked up at him again.

“You think you’re human.”