Marked By Pain (The Marked #2)(51)

As war looms heavy over Dragca, Isola is catapulted out of her pretend human life and thrust into a world, she knows little of. One life-threatening accident, when she loses control of her dragon, ends up with the whole of Dragca Academy hating her.



When the four most powerful dragons in history are ordered to protect her, they find themselves with an awkward problem. Her family cursed them centuries ago, relegating them to slaves of the throne and they hate all royals. Especially an ice dragon princess with no control over her powers that can kill fire dragons. Which the whole school is full of.



What happens when fire falls for Ice?





Wings of Ice Prologue





Everything inside me screams as I run through the doors of the castle, seeing the dead dragons lining the floors and the sight making me sick to my stomach. I try not to look at the spears in their stomachs, the dragonglass that is rare in this world. Where did they get it? The more and more bodies I pass, who are both dragon and guards, the less hope I have that my father is okay. No, I can’t be too late, I can’t lose him too. The once grand doors to the throne room are smashed into pieces of stone, in a pile on the floor, and only the hinges to the door hang off the walls. I run straight over, climbing over the rocks and broken stone. The sight in front of me makes me stop, not believing what I’m seeing but I know it’s true.

“Father…” I ask quietly, knowing he won’t reply to me. My father is sat on his throne, a sword through his stomach and a wide mouthed expression on his face. His blood drips down onto the gold floors of the throne room and snow falls from the broken ceiling above onto his face. There’s no ice in here, no sign he even tried to fight before he was killed. He must have never saw this coming because he trusted whoever killed him.

“No,” is I can think to say as I fall to my knees, bending my head and looking down at the ground instead of the body of my father. I couldn’t stop this, even when they warned me and risked everything. I hear footsteps in front of me as I watch my tears drip onto the ground, but I don’t look up as I know who it is. I know from the way they smell, my dragon whispers to me their name but I can’t even think it.

“Why?” I ask as everything clicks into place. I should have known, I should have never had trusted him.

“Because the curse has to end. Because he was no good for Dragca. Our city needs a true heir, me. I’m the heir of fire and ice, the one the prophecy speaks of and it’s finally time I took what is mine,” he says and every word seems to cut straight through my heart. I trusted him.

“The curse hasn’t ended, I’m still here,” I whisper to the dragon in front of me but I know he could hear my words like I just spoke them into his ear.

“Not for long, not even for moment longer actually. Your dragon guard will only thank me when you are gone. I didn’t want to do this to you, not in the end, but you are too powerful. You are no use to me anymore, not unless you’re gone,” he says. I look down at the ground as his words run around my head and I don’t know what to do. I feel lost, powerless and broken in every way possible. There’s a part of the door in front of me that catches my attention, a part with the royal crest on. The dragon in a circle, a proud, strong dragon. My father’s words come back to me and I know they are all I need to say.

“There’s a reason ice dragons hold the throne and have done for centuries. There’s a reason the royal name Dragice is feared.” I say and stand up slowly, wiping my tears away.

“We don’t give up and we bow to no one. I’m Isola Dragice, and you will pay for what you have done,” I tell him as finally meet his now cruel eyes, before calling my dragon and feeling her take over.





Wings of Ice Chapter One





“Isola!” I hear shouted from the stairs but I keep my headphones on as I stare at my laptop and pretend I didn’t hear her shout my name for the tenth time. The music blasts around my head as I try to focus on history paperback that is due in tomorrow.

“Isola, will you take those things out and listen to me?” Jules shouts at me again, and I pop one of my headphones out as I look up at her. She stands at the end of my bed, her hands on her hips and her glasses branched on the end of her nose. Her long grey hair is up in a tight bun, and she has an old styled dress that looks like flowers threw up on. Jules is my house sitter, or babysitter as I like to call her. I don't think I need a baby sitter at seventeen, not when I'm eighteen in two days anyway, and can look after myself.

"Both headphones out, I want them both out when you listen to me," she says and I knew this was coming. I pull the headphones out and pause the music on my phone.

"I did try to clean up after the party, I swear," I say and she raises her eyebrows.

"How many teenagers did you have in here? Ten? A hundred?" she says and I shrug my shoulders as I sit up on the bed and cross my legs.

"I don't know, it’s all a little fuzzy," I reply honestly. My head is still pounding and I know it was the wine, or the tequila shots. Who knows? I look up again as she shakes her head at me, speaking a sentence in Spanish that I can't understand but I doubt it’s nice. I don’t think I want to hear what she has to says about the party I threw last night anyway. I look around my simple room, seeing the dressing table, the wardrobe, the bed I’m sitting on. There isn’t much in here that is personal, no photos or anything that means anything to me.