I could hear her voice so clearly. So close, yet so far. So soft, yet so desperate. The way she called to me was torture, and I couldn't even see where she was.

Anais…

I turned towards the voice, but still saw nothing. Only the black recesses of my mind. I knew this wasn't real, that it was only a dream, that any moment from now I would wake up and the nightmare would be over.

Except that there didn't seem to be an end.

Anais….

"Mother?"

A pale hand reached out in front of me, the fingers grasping into the nothingness for her, but there was only frigid black. There was a cold sweat on my forehead and hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I was alone and helpless, with not a sliver of safety.

I heard the sound of my name one last time, a loud screeching resounding through the ebony abyss, and I was jolted awake from my slumber. I was still in my room, still chained to the floor by my hands and feet, still captive in London.

The past few months had been absolute hell. I had watched the downfall of my entire race, and the revival of said race had been put on my shoulders. My mother had stressed more than anything as she was dying that it was up to me to bring dragons back into the world. It was up to me to use magic to restore my kind.

A fairy road is what led me from my home to London. There were several to choose from, all in the same state. They were dark and overgrown, canopied by masses of dead trees with no sign of where they led. So I picked one at random and tredged the earthen path to London.

It didn't take long after leaving my realm for me to find myself in the hands of a human. The time I'd spent in captivity allowed me to think about what I planned on doing with my newfound destiny. The first few days away from home were spent undercover, looking for prospective mates, and when that didn't work, I began my search for magicians. I knew very little of their kind but since I was a magical creature and none of London's men appealed to me, I felt like asking for a magician's help was the second best option for me. I had asked around and learned about two magicians that had disappeared many years ago, and it was assumed that they were just dead. But no one actually knew.

A voice could be heard outside of the room where I was being held, and my ears immediately perked up. I dared not breathe in fear that I might attract the attention of my captor. His name was Christopher Drawlight, and he was the nastiest sort of human one could ever meet. Not the prettiest of men to look at and definitely not the type one would like to associate with, Drawlight had been the one to spot me on the street and drag me into this abomination of a position.

The jewel at my chest began to hum in response to the sound of Drawlight's voice getting closer and closer. He was walking this way, talking to someone else, but who that was I did not know. Not yet at least. Surely he was bringing a friend to my prison to show me off.

"I assure you, my dear friend, she is completely harmless. I managed to call upon Mr Strange at just the right time and he has placed a number of spells on the cage to prevent her from transforming. Although that would be most wonderful, to see her in her true form!"

"Yes, indeed," a soft, yet firm voice answered. I strained to hear what else the other voice had to say. "But are you certain that these spells are strong enough? What if she is waiting for the right moment to change form and attack? What if she is waiting for a day when you have many people in the room, so that it is easier for her to destroy more than one of us?"

The door opened and in walked Drawlight, chest puffed out more than normal and his attire chosen specifically to show how fashionable he thought he was. I supposed the choice of color and fabric was also to make people believe he had more money than he really did, since all the money he made off of me went straight to paying his debts. The other man was someone I had never seen before: A bit taller than Drawlight and substantially more handsome, wearing a much simpler getup that still screamed wealth and style. I lifted my head from the floor, ignoring the rattling of my chains as I tried to sit up. I was still weak from hunger and thirst, and couldn't even manage to push my torso any further.

The stranger gave me a pitiful look and continued to talk without taking his eyes off of me. The attire I wore was the same attire I was captured in, which was the same attire I left my realm in. A simple leather bodice of black and a skirt to match, embroidered with silver and gold flames. The skirt hung from my hips by a chain, and on my right hip sat a metallic dragon with red wings and eyes of onyx. What jewelry I had been wearing had been stripped from my person, aside from my heartstone, which couldn't be removed at all since it was part of me. It was the source of all my magic and my means of transforming, but my magic was limited when I wasn't in my realm. Which I currently wasn't. And to add to my woes, I was starving and parched beyond belief.

"Are you sure she cannot hurt us?" the stranger asked again. Drawlight only smirked and walked up to my shaking form.

"She is too weak, my dear Lascelles. Too weak to do anything." The wretch then lifted his walking stick and brought it down on my head, cracking my skull open enough for blood to escape in a torrent. It wasn't long before I had passed out, the last thing I remember being my tears clouding my vision.

When I awoke, the room was dark and I was still lying on the floor in my chains. My stomach groaned loudly and i licked my lips as i tried to make sense of what happened. Then I noticed the searing aching pain in my loins and quickly pieced together what must have happened. I just hoped the handsome fellow didn't take part in the pleasures offered by an unconscious woman.

The tears began again and I couldn't' stop the onset of horrible sobbing. I was absolutely helpless and miserable and there was no one to save me. My eyes shifted left and right and all around the room in hopes of finding some means of escape, but as always, it was no use. I couldn't reach anything outside of my cage, with the exception of a few candles at the edge of my restraints.

And then I heard another voice. A very familiar voice that I was certain I had never heard before. But it was still so familiar. I couldn't place where I'd heard the voice before, and what it was saying was even more of a mystery.

Light the candle…

What candle? Any candle?

Light the candle…

I shook my head to try and stop the voice, but it didn't work. It still rang in my head, telling me to light the candle, without being exactly specific of which candle I needed to light. It just kept on about the candle.

Light the candle…

I let out a loud scream of frustration, crying harder and punching the floor. There was silence afterwards, followed by the scraping of a chair on the floor above me and footsteps leading across the ceiling to the stairs. Drawlight was coming.

"Shit!" I yelled from behind bared teeth.

Light the candle…

"Fine!" I clawed my way across the floor as far as the chains would let me and up to a desk, reaching up to swipe a candle off the surface. Setting it on the floor, I blew a weak flame to light it and waited for something to happen.

At first nothing happened, except Drawlight standing by the door to listen. He didn't come in, so I assumed that he was just eavesdropping. I blocked the light of the candle as best I could, since I didn't want him to have a reason to come in, and eventually he left. I let a sigh of relief escape my lungs and looked back up, startled to find someone else standing in front of me. I screeched and scrambled to the other end of my restraints, my chest heaving wildly. A few sparks flew from my heartsone and it began to burn the flesh that surrounded it. I couldn't find a voice to speak up, so I looked the stranger up and down to gather my bearings.

He was yet another new person that i'd never met before, but he looked...different than the other Englishmen that came around. He was pale as paper with hair like thistledown, and he wore a suit of summer leaves. He was very handsome, more handsome than Drawlight's friend, Lascelles, and I had half a mind to kiss his shoes.

"Who in the world are you?"

My eyes shot open at the recognition. He was the source of the voice in my head telling me to light the candle. He was the one telling me to light the candle. The stupid candle…

I shook my head again and sat up, the sound of the metal rasping across the wooden floor. I gathered up whatever strength I had in me to sit up on my knees, giving me a better view of the gentleman before me.

"Who...are you?"

He did not much like my answer, since it was another question, and his face shifted slightly to show his irritation. "I asked you first."

"Well, this is my…" I looked around and frowned. "This is my room. And you are trespassing."

This time the gentleman looked around, then focused back on me. "This is hardly the proper room for a beautiful lady such as yourself. Besides, you are the one that summoned me here, are you not?"

I raised a brow. "Am I? I do not recall ever summoning anyone to my chambers. In fact, I would desire anything opposite of that."

"Is that so?" The gentleman took a few steps closer and began to play with the wick of another candle. "Well then I suppose I am in the wrong. If you wish me to leave, I shall do just that. If you would like me to leave you here alone with no chance of escape, then I will."

My heartstone began to whir and burn again, and the thought of an eternity suffering in this room was more than I could handle. I wasn't even sure how I summoned this...person. But he was my only chance at escape right now and I wasn't going to allow this chance to slip through my fingers.

The gentleman turned on his heel and was about to walk out of the room, but I was quick enough to get to my feet and yell after him.

"Wait!" He stopped. "Take me with you. Please." It was pathetic, my plea, but it was all I had at the moment.

The gentleman turned to face me again, but didn't come any closer. "Well, this is most interesting indeed. If I am to relieve you from this prison, what might be my reward?"

Reward? I looked him up and down and thought to myself that he would make a pretty decent mate, whoever he was. The candle flickered and i glanced over to it, thinking about what I should say next.

"I do not know. I know nothing about you. I do not know who you are or where you came from. Are you a magician?"

The gentleman shook his head slowly and lifted a hand, and I noticed his nails were a little longer and sharper than most humans. With one swipe of a finger, my restraints snapped and fell to the floor with a loud and heavy bang, startling me and most likely alerting Drawlight once more. I looked over to the gentleman again, this time with fright and worry.

"We have to leave now. Before he comes back."

A small and very slight smirk played at the corner of the gentleman's perfect lips, and he reached a hand out to me. "Then we shall go. I will take you away from this horrible place, from that horrible man, and you will be safe with me."

I hesitated a moment, my eyes darting from the man in front of me to the door, but as soon as I heard Drawlight struggling with the lock on the door, I made my decision and grabbed the gentleman's hand.

And then we weren't in London anymore.