Charlian turned back to the staircase and took a few deep breaths of the coffee, pine and chocolate scented air. He didn’t want to go down there, but this was his duty.

  “Come on Mr Pathetic-O’kin,” Aleshia said.

  Charlian frowned and took his first step down into Mount Flame. But even the stairs felt strange, from granite he was expecting something hard, unbreakable and uncomfortable.

  Yet as Charlian took more and more steps down into the mountain, the more spongier the stairs got, they didn’t feel like they were made from granite. They felt more like a new technology called memory foam, at least that what was Charlian had read in some new journal at the university.

  Then slowly the sunlight coming in from the entrance at the top of Mount Flame got dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.

  Charlian spun around.

  The top was sealing back up.

  Charlian ran back up.

  Screaming filled the air.

  And as Charlian stood there in the pitch black as the last of the granite regrew to cover up the opening, he knew that the two interns he had wanted to protect were now dead.

  Charlian placed his hands on the regrown granite and it was almost burning hot, clearly all that remained of those interns were now charred husks of nothing.

  His stomach tightened even more painfully now and Charlian really wanted to escape from here, but he had to find out the reason for all of this, and if there was a larger threat to the Realm.

  “I cannot come to you without him!” Charlian heard Aleshia shout into the staircase.

  It was moments like that that made Charlian wonder if she was really gone, or maybe the woman he married managed to regain control for short periods of time in-between Mount Flame’s corrupting influence.

  Then tiny lines of fire spread along the smooth black granite walls of the staircase and Charlian could once again see perfectly. He could see every little detail of each granite step and Charlian got the feeling that the mountain really wanted him to start hurrying up.

  Charlian nodded, as if in some kind of gesture of respect to the mountain, and then he started to walk down the stairs again, quicker than last time.

  Charlian wasn’t going to risk the mountain turning its fury on him, so he hurried and hurried and hurried.

  After a few minutes of quickly walking down the steps, he started to see the bottom of the staircase and his wife.

  But Charlian almost second guessed himself, Aleshia didn’t look like herself for a moment. Each time Charlian blinked, her form flickered from the beautiful woman he married to something else.

  Charlian had no idea how to describe it but it was horrific. Aleshia’s hair was long jet black with barred wire lovingly twisted into it, and her face was scarred and there was something dark in her eyes, like she was possessed.

  Despite his years of experience telling him people couldn’t be demonically possessed in one blink then not in the other, Charlian was really starting to doubt how much he knew about the world.

  When he reached the bottom of the staircase, Charlian’s eyes narrowed on the box-like chamber they were in. The chamber was easily three metres by three metres, but the strange part was everything looked to be made out of volcanic rock.

  That was beyond strange for the region because all Charlian’s and Aleshia’s research showed that none of these mountains were made by volcanic eruptions. The chamber he was in said differently.

  Charlian focused on each of the little fiery lines that illuminated the chamber for him and that’s when he noticed how strange the lines themselves were.

  When Charlian really focused on a particular line, he saw hundreds, maybe thousands of screaming faces in-between each of the flames.

  He even thought he saw the faces of the two interns who had died only moments ago.

  “Beautiful isn’t it?” Aleshia asked.

  “You aren’t my wife,” Charlian said coldly, “Who the hell are you?”

  Aleshia coughed a few times and pointed to a massive stone wall that Charlian had completely missed. The wall was nothing special but it didn’t have any little lines of fire, and it was covered in little symbols and carvings of some kind of animal.

  Charlian didn’t know what kind. The creature in question looked to be a mixture of lion, dragon and human. Nothing in the history books even came close to describing such a creature.

  Aleshia touched the door and smiled. “I am home again my love. Let me in,”

  Charlian wished he had had time to get a knife or something, because he really had the urge to stab whoever his woman was now. There was no way his wife would have known about touching the door, Charlian had to act.

  But he had nothing to act on.

  The door melted away.

  Aleshia ran off inside.

  Charlian followed her.

  He had to see this through.

  CHAPTER 11

  As a professor of Pre-Realm history, Aleshia stared in wonder at the amazing volcanic rock cave they were in. It was stunning how the massive cave had rough walls and the little lines of fire lit it up perfectly.

  There was nowhere else she would rather be, it was just breathtaking and there was even something shimmering over on the other side of the cave.

  Aleshia didn’t hesitate as she started to walk over to it, she was a little surprised at how hot it was in the cave. She could feel tiny drops of sweat start to roll down her back, and considering she was inside a mountain that was inside a frozen mountain range. That was strange.

  But as the glorious chosen of Mount Flame, this was heaven and her chance to prove herself for her rightful accession into the true heavens where she could see Mount Flame and be rewarded for her courage.

  If the mountain had chosen anyone else, then it would be gravely disappointed, but Aleshia was mighty, grand and powerful unlike her pathetic husband so it was only right she was here.

  She was more than glad Mount Flame had taken its sacrifices in the form of those two pointless mortal interns. They were clearly unworthy and now Aleshia had to kill her weak useless husband when the time was right.

  A wave of discomfort raised up within her at that idea, but she quickly forced it back down. She didn’t need any of those weak human emotions.

  She only needed the mountain.

  As Aleshia went over to the shimmering object on the other side of the cave, she heard the awful breathing of Charlian. She wished he would just stop breathing and fall down dead.

  She pinched herself.

  That idea was flat out wrong of her, it was never up to her when these people died. That divine honour was up to the mountain and the mountain alone.

  Aleshia bit her tongue hard to punish herself for those disgraceful thoughts.

  When she reached the other side of the cave, Aleshia’s eyes lit up in happiness as she saw the most amazing thing ever. She stared at a solid square mass of something covered in a thick layer of ash.

  The more she stared at the solid mass of something, the more she felt like this was her ultimate desire. If she touched, freed and served whatever was inside then all her wildest dreams could and would come true.

  She needed to serve the Master who was clearly inside this amazing sexy mass of something.

  Aleshia went to wipe it away when Charlian grabbed her arm and pulled her close.

  “What are you doing?” Charlian asked.

  Aleshia just wanted... the mountain to kill him. “I am serving the Master!”

  Charlian just shook his head. “There is no master!”

  “There is!”

  “No. There. Is. Not,”

  The solid mass of something became engulfed in flames. Charlian didn’t even react.

  “You see the flames!” Aleshia shouted.

  Charlian pushed her away and started laughing.

  “Babe there are no flames. There is nothing here but your delusions,”

  Aleshia frowned. She hated the sound of his laughter. He was just weak, pathetic and an embarrassment.

  “Kill him please!” Aleshia shouted.

  But nothing happened. Aleshia took a deep breath of the wonderfully warm air and she knew, just knew that Mount Flame was correct. It wasn’t time for her husband to die, he was going to die when the mountain was ready and not her.

  For she was only Mount Flame’s obedient servant.

  Aleshia went back over to the solid mass and started to brush the thick layer of ash away. She wasn’t sure what it revealed because the surface underneath was nothing more than volcanic rock.

  Aleshia was at least expecting it to be glassy or something, or even see through so she could see her Master.

  Then she got the urge to water the rock with blood. She looked at her husband who was standing behind her with a concerned look in his eyes, and now she understood why the glorious Mount Flame hadn’t killed him.

  The mountain needed him.

  Aleshia looked around for a weapon or something sharp to cut him with but she couldn’t see anything. Then she heard something break and she found a large shard of rock in her hand.

  She didn’t know how the mountain put that in her hands but clearly the mountain wanted her to use it.

  Aleshia pointed it at her husband.

  “Give me your hand,” Aleshia said firmly.

  Charlian simply stood there shaking his head. He was really that pathetic. “This isn’t you,”

  Aleshia chuckled and walked towards Charlian. Even now he didn’t move.

  “I love you Aleshia. Wake up. This isn’t you,”

  If she had known how strange and weird he was when Aleshia married him, she would have stopped the wedding immediately. Ever since she had been a little girl, Aleshia had wanted to be married to a rich man with power, money and someone who could give her more pleasure than she could ever wish for.

  Until now and the shard of rock that started to send more and more pleasure into her mind, Aleshia hadn’t realised how much time she had wasted on this low life man she called a husband.

  He wasn’t even worthy of that honour.

  When Aleshia went over to him and stopped, she gripped his hand tight and he didn’t even try to stop her. Aleshia was about to slice into his beautifully flammable flesh when she stopped.

  She felt as if there was something pulling her away from the deed. For a moment she really didn’t want to do this, Aleshia knew this was flat out wrong and an immense wave of pleasure came from the rock and she knew, just knew this was the right thing.

  Aleshia sliced into Charlian’s hand, he hissed and muttered something and then she made sure to get as much blood as possible onto the rock shard.

  And to her amazement all the blood was instantly absorbed into the shard of rock.

  For a moment Aleshia wondered if this would alert Charlian’s stupid dragon to something being wrong, but even if that was the case there was nothing that dumb dragon could do. The glorious Mount Flame would easily defeat that useless lump of scales.

  Aleshia kicked Charlian to the floor and she grinned as she watched the solid mass of volcanic rock turn blood red before turning to ash and crumbling away.

  Revealing the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

  The first ever man to ride a dragon was there.

  Her master was lying there.

  Ready to be awoken once again.

  CHAPTER 12

  Charlian flat out hated Mount Flame.

  Even if annihilating Mount Flame was the last thing he did, Charlian was going to wipe the mountain, its corruption and whatever foul creature in front of him from the face of the Realm, and any damn maps that dared to even hint that Mount Flame had once been here.

  As Charlian stared at the utterly disgusting corpse covered in ash and his strange wife Aleshia who was smiling at it, Charlian couldn’t understand who this person was. That was a lie. Charlian knew exactly who it could be, but that was impossible.

  Charlian focused on the male corpse’s smooth skin, thick golden armour and the massive red sword that he held across his chest.

  If being a professor (even a fake honourary one) had taught him anything, it was that this corpse was dressed identical to all the myths, legends and rumours surrounding the first ever human to ride a dragon.

  Charlian couldn’t understand how the man had been preserved for tens of thousands of years so perfectly, he had heard of magic, immortality and powerful artefacts in his military days, but surely none where powerful enough to keep this man alive for that extreme period of time?

  Unless it wasn’t magic that kept him alive.

  Charlian really, really wanted his beautiful dragon Octon to hurry up and help him. He didn’t even know if she was still alive, the bastard Mount Flame could have murdered her.

  That idea scared Charlian a lot!

  Then Charlian looked around at the perfectly formed cave around them that was made from volcanic rock. And it all made sense.

  Charlian knew that none of the mountains in the range around Mount Flame were made from volcanic eruptions, they were all made through the smashing together of rock, sand and tectonic plates over millions of years. Volcanic rock should have been impossible.

  But there was one explanation that made perfect sense to Charlian.

  He couldn’t even begin to amount the rage pumping through the dragon’s system, but the myths always say the first dragon rider’s dragon roared and unleashed torrents of flames into the mountain, to make sure the man could never live again.

  What if the dragon had been horrifically wrong? What if the dragon had killed itself trying to melt the corpse, rock and the mountain in some failed effort to make the man from living again?

  Charlian nodded as he realised that the dragon had made the volcanic rock and killed itself in the process.

  A tiny part of Charlian wanted them to be able to resurrect the dead dragon in some pointless attempt to help him, because surely if the man’s corpse survived then maybe the dragon’s corpse could too?

  But Charlian doubted it. He was alone with a scary corpse, his corrupted wife and with no backup.

  Aleshia’s body made a hissing sound and when Charlian looked at her, he gasped as he watched his wife change.

  Her hair grew longer, blacker and her eyes became bloodshot and filled with immense evil. Now Charlian knew for sure that his wife was gone.

  “Beautiful, isn’t he?” Aleshia said in a strange voice that wasn’t her own.

  “Who are you?” Charlian asked.

  Aleshia tutted. “You humans are just as stupid as always. I thought you might actually grow more intelligent in ten thousand years, but you’re just the same,”

  For some reason Charlian recognised who was speaking, it definitely wasn’t his wife, he could always, always recognise her words. But this person inside Aleshia wasn’t unfamiliar, it was like... like Charlian had been learning about the speaker for decades.

  “First Dragon Rider?” Charlian asked.

  Aleshia turned to face him and smiled. “It wasn’t that hard to figure it out. Maybe you aren’t so stupid after all,”

  Charlian cocked his head. This was beyond strange. “If you’re in my wife, then who’s the corpse,”

  Aleshia hit her palm against her forehead. “Seriously!”

  Charlian shrugged. He really hoped all he needed to do was try to buy Octon as much time as possible for her to save them, but Charlian doubted anything could be done now.

  But if he was going to die then he had to find out everything he could first.

  “Come on now human, your wife’s mind was fun at first. It was open, playful and so, so curious. It was easy to influence her,”

  Charlian felt his stomach tighten into an extremely painful knot.

  “Your wife was as pathetic as they come. She looked into Mount Flame one day and I quietly asked for her permission to enter her mind. She never resisted, not even for a second,”

  Charlian shook his head. “When was this?”

  Aleshia smiled and her entire face twisted and popped and broke with the growing smile.

  “Stop that!” Charlian shouted, as cold fearful sweat rolled down his back and forehead.

  “Humans,” Aleshia said, “you never could appreciate the world. I have been influencing and fuelling your wife’s obsession for decades,”

  Charlian nodded. This was perfect, it was starting to make perfect sense. It was obvious that his wife had been corrupted for ages and her obsession with the place had never made any sense until now.

  There was so many questions Charlian wanted to ask, but it was clear that his corpse wanted to be resurrected and walk free again. Charlian had to stop that. He just didn’t know how.

  +Return to me!+ Charlian shouted inside his mind, hoping Octon would hear him and come running.

  Aleshia started laughing. “Dragons. I do love killing them. Especially when their bodies drop out the sky and splash onto the ground. It’s like popping a balloon,”

  Charlian forced himself not to dart forward and kill the corpse and Aleshia. He had to try to keep her alive now he knew she wasn’t crazy or doing this willingly.

  “Why now?” Charlian asked.

  Aleshia charged.

  Her hands grabbed him.

  Wrapping round his throat.

  “Let me show you!” Aleshia shouted.

  Ice grew over his body.

  And Charlian’s world went black.

  CHAPTER 13

  As soon as Aleshia woke up she instantly hated this place. She hated Mount Flame. She hated every single damn fucking thing about this place!

  Aleshia looked around and hated how everything was bright white like she was floating in the clouds. She had read some silly books about magical prisons before and now she was in one, she wanted to burn down the mountain.

  This was absolutely ridiculous and now she realised what had been going on for decades. Aleshia wasn’t obsessed with the mountain, Mount Flame and that stupid Master.

  Mount Flame had been using her!

  Well that was going to end now, somehow Aleshia was going to break out of here and she was going to make the mountain know how much she hated it. She would happily bring it all crashing down.

 

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