Chapter 6 - The King Who Was Buried AliveThe crack ran from one end of the black egg to the other.

Lena grabbed Alona.

“Do not go near it.”

“That's my father?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

Lena looked at the egg.

“Your father was an Alpha king.”

Alona stared.

“What happened to him?”

“He discovered the throne had been corrupted.”

Ronan's voice suddenly sounded through the stairway.

“Lena!”

Everyone turned.

King Ronan descended into the crypt surrounded by guards.

He saw Lena.

His face went white.

“You.”

Lena glared.

“You finally came.”

Ronan looked at Alona.

Then at the black egg.

“I knew you would.”

Alona stepped forward.

“You knew?”

Ronan slowly lowered his sword.

“I knew there was a child.”

“Mine?”

He nodded.

“I tried to find you.”

Lena laughed bitterly.

“No. You tried to find the egg.”

Ronan's face twisted.

“That is not true.”

“Then tell her.”

Silence.

Ronan looked at Alona.

“Your father discovered the royal bloodline was weakening.”

“And?”

“He believed the dragons were rejecting the throne because the bloodline had become corrupted.”

Alona stared.

“So he searched for another heir?”

“Yes.”

“And that was me?”

“No.”

Ronan glanced at the eggs.

“That was never the plan.”

Alona felt cold.

“Then what was?”

“The fourth dragon.”

The chamber fell silent.

Ronan continued.

“Your father believed he could hatch an ancient dragon powerful enough to restore Frostmir.”

Lena whispered.

“He was wrong.”

“What did he do?”

“He sacrificed himself.”

Alona looked horrified.

“To hatch a dragon?”

“To bind one.”

Another crack.

Black light spilled through the egg.

Lucien stepped backward.

“The seal is breaking.”

Lena nodded.

“It shouldn't be possible.”

Ronan whispered.

“Unless Alona is here.”

The fourth egg cracked open.

Darkness poured from it.

A shape emerged.

Not a baby.

A full-grown dragon.

Massive.

Its scales were blacker than midnight.

Two gold horns curled backward.

Its wings scraped the crypt ceiling.

And around its neck…

was a broken royal crown.

Alona couldn't breathe.

The dragon looked at her.

Then lowered its enormous head.

A single tear fell from its golden eye.

The tear hit the stone.

The dragon whispered inside her mind.

Daughter.

Alona cried.

“You're my father?”

The dragon closed his eyes.

Lena sobbed quietly.

Ronan looked away.

The dragon spoke again.

I was human once.

A memory entered Alona's mind.

She saw her father.

A young man.

Handsome.

Kind.

Holding baby Alona.

Then the royal council surrounded him.

They demanded he kill the dragons.

He refused.

They betrayed him.

He used forbidden magic.

He transformed himself into the fourth dragon.

His purpose was to protect Alona.

But the transformation trapped him beneath the palace.

Forever.

Alona screamed.

The vision ended.

The black dragon touched its forehead to hers.

The palace above them began collapsing.

Lucien shouted.

“We have to leave!”

Ronan ordered everyone upward.

But the black dragon roared.

The sound split the mountain.

Frostmir's walls began cracking.

Alona turned.

“What did he do?”

Lena whispered.

“He has remembered why he was trapped.”

“What?”

“He wasn't only imprisoned.”

Lena looked terrified.

“He was guarding something.”

The black dragon's gaze shifted toward the far wall.

A massive ancient seal appeared.

Alona approached.

The mark on her palm flared.

The seal opened.

Beyond it was a tunnel filled with thousands of dragon bones.

At the end stood a throne.

And on the throne sat a skeleton wearing a crown.

Darius stepped forward.

“This is impossible.”

Lena shook her head.

“No.”

She stared at the skeleton.

“This is the first Dragon Mother.”

Alona stepped closer.

The skeleton's empty eyes suddenly filled with blue fire.

Then a voice echoed through the chamber.

The throne is not yours.

Ronan froze.

The voice continued.

It never was.

The three baby dragons screamed.

The black dragon spread its wings.

The crypt began to collapse.

And from somewhere beyond the bones…

another dragon answered.

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Then another.

Then hundreds.