Even before I open my eyes I curse under my breath at the pain in my head and chest. As my senses came back to me, I noticed I was on a hard surface and not sitting in water. I open my eyes and see I was in one of our tents.

I sit up immediately and regret it just as fast as my head swims, I reach up and hold my head as I squeeze my eyes shut.

“You need to take it easy.” I slowly open my eyes when I hear Sunghoon off to my left.

“Did you get the stone?” That was my first concern other than beating the out of Jay.

“We did.” Sunghoon nodded. “What happened to you out there?”

I think over the pain I felt when the dragon died, I knew it had to be the curse. I was meant to protect all living dragons, yet I failed the first one I met.

“My family are protectors of the map and stones… but we were also sworn to protect dragons.” I look down at my hands remembering how close I was to touching a dragon, to gaining its trust. “My family was cursed in order for us to up hold our deal in protecting them. I guess what happened was the worlds way of reminding me what I was meant to do, but I failed.”

I hit the tent floor with the side of my hand as I get to my feet, ignoring the pain in my head and chest.

“Jay!” I yell as I make my way out of the tent.

“Seori, stop!” Sunghoon followed after me and wrapped his arms around my torso while picking me up from the ground.

“Let me go! I’m going to kill him!” I yell as I struggle to break Sunghoon’s hold on me. I could feel my chest pain growing the more I struggled.

“Let her go.” My eyes locked on Jay as he stepped into view. I narrow my eyes as I see him killing the dragon all over again. “Sunghoon, let her go.” He repeated as he stood a few feet away.

After a few moments of hesitation, Sunghoon set me back down on the ground and let me go.

I quickly close the distance between me and Jay, pulling my right arm back a little before I punch him in the jaw, making him stumble back a few steps.

“I almost had the dragons trust! Why did you kill it?” I ask the same thing I asked in the swamp, this time not leaving until I got answer’s.

When all he did was glare at me while he massaged his jaw, I grit my teeth in anger before I grab his arm and kick the back of his knee making him fall to the ground. As he rolled onto his back, I placed my knees on either side of his torso to hold him in place as I gripped his shirt and pulled his face to mine.

“Why, Jay?” I ask lowly as I try and to suppress the pain that was getting worse.

“Dragons can’t be trusted.” He said as he glared up at me, his jaw already starting to bruise.

“I had it under control! If you had just listened to me for once, I could have gained it’s trust. It’s my job to protect them, I have to.” My voice cracked a little as I felt tears rush to my eyes as I remember the promise I made to my mom. It was my duty as a Choi, I had to carry on my mothers wish.

“That’s enough.” I hear the king say quietly as he pulls me off of Jay, I shove him away and turn back to my tent. My blurry eyes meet Sunoo’s who holds his arms open, I hesitate for a second before I give in.

“Come on.” Sunoo whispered as he pulled me back to my tent, with Sunghoon following us.

“You need to take it easy, I can tell you’re in pain.” Sunghoon chided as we settled down in my tent.

“How long was I out for?” I ignore his question as I fiddle with a string on my shirt. “Wait, who changed me?” I just took notice that I wasn’t wearing the black pants and brown shirt I had worn for our trip into the swamp.

Sunghoon raised his hand an