Dragon King's Harem Chapter 519. Goodbye

Dragon King's Harem Chapter 519. Goodbye

“You’ll die of frostbite.”

“But I’d die sexy.”

She huffed. Quiet laughter behind tightly pressed lips.

I stepped close, just enough to lean my forehead to hers. We stayed like that for a heartbeat. Maybe two.

“I’ll miss you,” I admitted. Quiet. Stupid. Too honest.

She didn’t pull away. “I know.”

Jyne appeared beside me, her nine fluffy tails swaying slowly in the wind. She touched my arm gently. “We should go before the ice hardens again.”

Sela followed. “Or before you have to stay another week.”

I kissed Kaelen’s head one last time and stood.

“Next time, I’ll bring you a sword of your own,” I said. “Dragonforged.”

His eyes lit up. “With a name?”

“Only if you earn it.”

He saluted. Badly. But I returned it with pride.

The wyverns roared once, wings flapping. The sky carriages lifted slowly as the reins were tugged taut.

The transformation came easily now.

Fire rising from beneath my skin.

My spine stretched, tendons pulling tight like they remembered how to be wings. My arms elongated into clawed forelimbs, bones shifting, muscle flexing. Horns curved out from my skull, majestic and brutal, and black obsidian scales rippled down my back, catching the sunlight with an ember-glow sheen.

One breath.

One pulse.

And I was a dragon again.

A full one. Not the humanoid half-shift I usually showed off during ceremonies. No. This was my true form. My shadow fell over the palace courtyard, massive and unmistakable. My wings flared wide, stirring snow into small cyclones. My tail curled like a storm waiting to break mountains.

“Dad…?”

The voice stopped everything.

Kaelen.

He took one hesitant step forward. Then another.

I blinked. Lowered my massive head slowly, carefully, like approaching a frightened deer.

It was the first time he’d ever seen me like this.

Truly.

Wholly.

The beast beneath the king.

He didn’t run.

Didn’t flinch.

He reached up, tiny compared to me, and rested his gloved palm on my nose.

“You’re so warm,” he said softly.

My snort rumbled the ground, smoke curling from my nostrils. A dragon’s smile wasn’t charming, not in the traditional sense. It was sharp teeth, glinting fangs, a monstrous grin that scared kingdoms. But in that moment, I tried to smile for him.

He giggled.

The sound cut through the cold like spring.

And then…

He hugged me.

Just like that.

His little arms wrapped around the tip of my snout, squeezing tight.

“I’ll miss you, Dad,” he whispered, his voice muffled against my scales. “Please don’t forget to visit us.”

A slow blink.

Dragons don’t cry.

Not really.

But something in my chest, deep behind the flame and fury, ached.

Ached like a wound I didn’t want healed.

Kaelen pulled back and gave one last smile, cheeks flushed from the cold and emotion.

He stepped away.

And I raised my head again.

High.

Proud.

Marked.

Maria’s voice carried through the wind, steady and formal, but soft with something gentler underneath.

“Please have a safe journey, my King.”

I nodded once. A motion so subtle for my size, but heavy with everything I couldn’t say out loud.

Then I turned toward the horizon.

Spread my wings.

And leapt.

The air caught me immediately, slicing across my face like cold knives. I surged upward with a beat of wings strong enough to shake the sky carriages. The palace shrank below me, a white gem nestled in mountains.

I looked back once.

Kaelen waved.

Maria stood beside him, unshaken.

Even now, even after everything, she looked like a damn queen, bare shoulders wrapped in that fur-lined coat, chin high, arms crossed, eyes following me like she could still see past the scales and wings and fire.

Like she could still see me.

I roared.

Loud. Deep. Long.

Letting the sky crack with sound.

It wasn’t goodbye.

Not really.

Not forever.

But it was something.

A mark. A promise. A flame carved into the wind.

Then I turned my eyes forward and beat my wings harder, slicing through the clouds like they owed me space.

The convoy followed close behind, half a sky carriage pulled by armored wyverns. My guards. All flying with that proud, rigid posture like they were in a painting.

Except for one.

Because of course.

Al.

That bastard grinned as he kicked his wyvern into a faster glide and rode up beside me. He leaned low, practically horizontal in the saddle, wind pushing his hair back, his voice carrying through the air like it belonged there.

“You’re crazy, Your Majesty!” he shouted, laughter already curling at the edge of his words. “You just married a queen! You do remember the law, right? The whole only one ruler per kingdom crap?”

I turned my head slightly.

Smoke curled from my nostrils, thick and slow and deliberate.

The way my dragon lips curled? It was a smirk, make no mistake.

“Law,” I rumbled, my voice like an avalanche in the wind, “isn’t really for me.”

A pause. A breath. Then I added, dry as ash, “As long as I can find a loophole.”

Al barked out a laugh, the sound bouncing off the cliffs below us.

“See? That’s the reason I prefer you over that damned ex-king of mine,” Al said, grimacing. “Bastard never let us breathe without permission. Always quoting doctrine and purity and the divine this and that. You? You marry a snow queen, piss off ice lords in a week, and then fly off with smoke in your teeth.”

I almost laughed. Almost.

The sound that came out was more like a low dragon chuckle, deep, rough, and halfway to a growl.

I guess between me and that Witch King, there would be... continuations. Loose threads. Old debts. Tensions that refused to die quietly.

But first...

I just hoped they didn’t add more trouble before anything had a chance to settle down.

Let me handle one crisis at a time, damn it.

Because I already had a mountain of homework waiting.

Literal and political.

And help me, most of it involved nobles with too many titles and not enough common sense.

-          The Snow Queen and The Fire King Arc End -