Dragon Mage Academy Box Set Read online

  Dragon Mage Academy

  Books One to Seven

  Cordelia Castel

  Contents

  Princess of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Poacher of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Plague of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Protector of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Prisoner of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Pariah of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Patron of Dragons

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Cordelia Castel’s Books

  Copyright © 2019 by Cordelia Castel.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.CordeliaCastel.com

  Princess of Dragons

  Dragon Mage Academy Book One

  Chapter 1

  The worst thing about failing the Magical Militia Academy was having the Witch General expose my shortcomings to Father and Queen Cendrilla. I trudged through the palace’s triple-height hallways to my doom, my black, leather uniform squeaking with each step.

  Ogre servants, some of them as tall as nine feet, eyed me as I passed. Those who only had one eye had to turn their heads, while those with four could stare with discretion. How many of them still recognized me? It had been years since I had visited the palace.

  None of them spoke a word of greeting, and I didn’t make the effort to crane my head to make eye contact. I didn’t live here. Father’s ancestral mansion in Mount Bluebeard and the Militia dorms were my homes. Although I held the title by royal decree, I certainly didn’t feel like a Princess. But being called Princess Alba was preferable to being called the illegitimate daughter of the half-ogre who had married the Queen for political gain.

  My apprentice staff slipped out of its holster and rolled across the marble floors, its quartz tip catching the light with each rotation.

  “Damn it!”

  Teeth clenched, I hurried after the pencil-sized object. The staff rolled so quickly, the runes on its surface blurred. How typical that the item that exposed my lack of magical prowess was now propelling me toward a meeting to discuss said inadequacies.

  It rolled into a cloven hoof the size of a serving platter.

  “Cubs should walk and not run in the hallways,” said a booming voice.

  I glared up, lips pursed, holding back from saying something immature.

  Oliveri, the royal butler, lowered his head to my level, nearly gouging my left eye with his brow horn. “You are late.”

  Bristling, I glared up into his beetle-black eyes. “I got caught in a dust storm. Can I use the washroom? There’s sand in my breastplate.”

  He scowled, lips thinning over lower tusks that stretched up to his cheekbones. “Her Majesty does not like to be kept waiting, especially now that Steppe is on the cusp of war.”

  My jaw dropped. Steppe was one of the strongest countries in the Known World. No one would dare try to attack us. “W-what do you mean?”

  He lifted me by the back of my leather armor and walked me through the hallway, hoofs clomping on the marble. A pair of Queen’s Guardsmen snickered. Sure, I looked ridiculous, hanging limp off Oliveri’s arm like a smilodon cub, but unlike the guards, I wasn’t the one glamoured to look less ogreish, just to please a monarch who preferred males her own size.

  “You can let go,” I muttered. “I’m seventeen, not seven months.”

  “Ogresses are already well-established by that age.”

  “But I’m not an og—”

  “And apparently, you’re not a witch, either,”
he said with a sigh.

  Irritation, hot as an army of fire ants, crawled over my skin. He didn’t need to make me sound incompetent. Queen Cendrilla couldn’t perform witch magic, either. She was my maternal aunt and the only ogre-fairy hybrid in the Known World, except for me. But where she was the beautiful and powerful offspring of an Ogre Queen and a Prince of the High Fairies, I was an illegitimate mix of high fairy, low fairy, ogre and human.

  “Her Majesty will be most disappointed.” He deposited me outside the royal study in front of four armed guards.

  They opened the double doors, and Oliveri gave my back a gentle shove into a marble room lined with horned servants all wearing the customary black-and-white uniform. Along the study walls stood half-a-dozen guards, who relaxed when they saw it was just the butler and me.

  Queen Cendrilla sat on her golden throne, honey-blonde curls flowing down the shoulder plates of her basilisk-skin armor, looking nothing like an Ogre Queen. Like me, she was only six feet tall with a lean, athletic form that curved like the heroine of a romantic scroll.

  Two dragonets, one’s scales the same emerald as her eyes, the other a deep crimson, perched on either side of the throne’s three-foot tall, diamond-encrusted crest.

  Beside Queen Cendrilla stood an easel holding a portrait of a brutish-looking man clad in iron armor, scowling beneath his bushy, blonde beard. He had the heavy features of a half-ogre and reminded me somewhat of Father.

  Queen Cendrilla glanced up from a parchment-strewn table and gave me her warmest, fairy godmother smile. “Good evening, Alba.”

  I jerked my gaze away from the monarch who had stolen Father. Her face usually fell whenever I ignored her, and right now, I didn’t need to feel any worse. Because of Queen Cendrilla, Mother had suffered the humiliation of being Father’s concubine, even though she had borne his only heir. Because of Queen Cendrilla, Father had spent most of his time away from home, supposedly busy with matters at the Ogre Senate. And because of Queen Cendrilla, Mother had left Steppe the moment I had joined the Magical Militia.

  The small, silver throne opposite her was empty. My heart plummeted like an iron cannonball. It had been too much for me to hope that Father would make the effort to attend a meeting to discuss my future.

  Between the two thrones sat the Witch General, her sharp, cerulean eyes ready to shred the last vestiges of my reputation. She wore the same black uniform as mine, but instead of my platinum blonde hair, hers was the color of crimson flames.

  The Witch General pursed her lips. “Why did it take you an hour to make a five-minute carriage ride?”

  “Sorry.” I walked to the table and lowered myself to the hard seat opposite her. The Witch General would smack me over the head with her staff if I repeated the sandstorm lie I’d told Oliveri.

  Queen Cendrilla leaned forward, trying to catch my eye. A lump formed in my throat, and I swallowed hard. If I so much as glanced in her direction, my heart would melt, and along with it my loyalty to Mother.

  Blinking hard, I pictured Mother sitting in the gardens, head bowed, face hidden by a curtain of mahogany curls, pining for Father and wondering if he would return from the capital. It had always been hard to watch her lament that he preferred her royal, ogre-hybrid half-sister over the mother of his child.

  Oliveri brought a plate of raw beef steak strips. “I know how much you enjoyed feeding the dragonets.”

  I gave him a weak smile. “Thank you.”

  The two dragonets unfolded their thin, leathery wings and swooped from Queen Cendrilla’s throne with a whoosh. They landed, with cat-like grace, around the plate and chittered. Avoiding the tiny horns around its skull and spine, I stroked the delicate, little scales of the emerald dragonet, enjoying the warmth under my fingertips.

  The Witch General steepled her fingers. “Should we begin without the Prince Regent?”

  She was referring to Father. The way royalty worked, if a nobleman married a Queen, he was called the Prince Regent, and not the King.

  When Aunt Cendrilla paused, the Witch General added, “I cannot be kept waiting another hour.”

  If she’d been waiting that long, then Father wasn’t coming. Something inside me crumpled at the realization. I had joined the Magical Militia to gain his notice. Its headquarters were close to the palace and to the Ogre Senate, where he spent most of his time, and I had hoped he would pay me a visit. While I’d been growing up, those sensitive to magic had told me I was powerful. I’d thought that becoming a witch would make me worthy of him.

  A slow, sorrowful sigh slid from between my lips. “We might as well start.”

  Father didn’t care. Why would he, now that he was finally free to pursue Queen Cendrilla? He’d probably forgotten all about Mother and me, the illegitimate daughter he sired with his concubine. Shame slithered up my gullet, its ascent smooth and scaly and suffocating. I gulped it down and blinked away the tears stinging the back of my eyes, hoping this awful meeting would soon be over.

  “I’ll send a messenger.” With a flick of her wrist, Queen Cendrilla commanded the green dragonet to find Father.

  While the two most powerful women in Steppe discussed my lack of aptitude for witchcraft, I threw chunks of meat at the crimson dragonet. The kitten-sized creature blew a plume of yellow flames at the steak, cooking it to perfection as it flew through the air. Then it caught the bite-sized treat and chewed it between sharp, little teeth.

  The sight reminded me of happier times, when I would visit Aunt Cendrilla in the palace. When she was Mother’s half-sister, and my fairy godmother, and the most exciting person in the Known World. She would take me for rides on Fogo, her majestic, purple dragon and tell me stories of her adventures with Mother and Father. But now, she was the woman who had broken up my family.

  “Alba, what do you think?” asked the Witch General.

  Cringing, I mustered up a way to explain why I hadn’t been listening. “Actually—”

  The door slammed open, and Father swaggered into the room, his blue-black curls in disarray, and one side of his long beard missing. His torn shirt sleeve gaped open, revealing a thin, red scratch. He’d been dueling. Again. Magic crackled from the curved blade of his Sword of Lightning, scorching the marble floor.

  As an ogre-human hybrid, he only stood six-and-a-half feet forward, but that didn’t stop the ogresses in the room from sending him admiring looks. In Steppe, a person’s size mattered less than their power, and Father’s skills with the sword, along with his enchanted weapon, rendered him unbeatable.

  A jolt of excitement made my breath hitch, and warmth filled my heart. He’d remembered! The meat dropped from my fingers, and I pulled myself up on shaky legs. “Father.”

  His gaze skipped over me and landed on the Queen. “Cendrilla,” he growled. “What is the meaning of that portrait?”

  All excitement vanished, and I deflated onto the hard, wooden seat. After not seeing me since I’d joined the Magical Militia three months ago, he was too fixated with Queen Cendrilla to muster up a greeting. One would think he was a dragon, with the way his blue eyes burned at the sight of her.

  The crimson dragonet gobbled up the last piece of meat and flew away, completing the empty chasm in my chest.

  Father’s obsession made my chest ache. I glared at the painting, and the brute’s heavy, blonde brows furrowed. It was obviously one of those portraits that wasted magic and were meant to impress. He glowered back through eyes as turquoise and turbulent as the Cursed Sea. In the center of his metal armor was an engraving of a sun with a smiling face.

  “Who is the male in that painting?” Father snarled.

  “That’s King Magnar of the Savannah Empire’s betrothal portrait.” The Queen’s lips quirked into a smile. “He says that if I refuse his marriage proposal, he’ll declare war.”

  “Denied.”

  I rolled my eyes. Father was only the Prince Regent, yet he acted like he could tell a Queen what to do. According to my calculations, she was entitled to a husband fo
r each country she ruled. Since her dominion covered Steppe, the Glacier Islands, Tundra, and at some point in the future the Realm of the Fairies, she still had an available spot for King Magnar.