The golden light was so bright it felt like it was burning through his eyelids. He wasn't just a man; he was a force of nature. Standing on a throne made of what looked like solidified lightning, he looked down at millions of people. They were screaming his name, begging for a drop of his mercy. He felt a warmth in his chest, a heavy, vibrating power that told him he could unmake the world with a snap of his fingers.
"Dragon God! Save us!"
He started to raise his hand to answer them, but then the sky cracked.
WHAM!
The golden throne vanished. The worshippers disappeared. Instead of the smell of incense and ozone, there was the smell of expensive perfume and hotel bleach. A sharp, stinging pain exploded in his ribs.
"Get up! Get up right now, you disgusting animal!"
He rolled onto his back, gasping for air. His name was Ethan, and he definitely wasn't a god right now. He was a guy who worked three jobs to pay for his sister's hospital bills, and he was currently lying on a king-sized bed in a hotel room he couldn't afford.
He blinked, trying to clear his head. A woman was standing over him, her face red with fury. This was Lisa Mitchell. Even in her disheveled state, she looked like she belonged on a magazine cover. But her mouth was twisted in a snarl.
"Do you know what you've done?" she hissed, grabbing a heavy glass lamp from the nightstand. "I should kill you. I should literally kill you right here."
Ethan sat up, rubbing his side. "Hey, watch it with the lamp. You're the one who broke into my room last night."
"Your room?" She laughed, a shrill, hysterical sound. "I'm a Mitchell. I don't break into rooms of people who wear shoes from a discount bin. You followed me. You saw I was drunk, and you crawled in here like a cockroach."
Ethan looked at her, ready to argue, but then something weird happened. His vision blurred for a second. It was like a camera lens focusing. Suddenly, Lisa's skin seemed to turn semi-transparent. He saw a faint, pulsing black mist swirling around her heart, and her eyes had a tiny, flickering golden glow—like a candle about to go out.
She's dying, a voice whispered in the back of his mind. Not a real voice, but a feeling. The dragon sees the end. Her blood is cold.
"What are you staring at?" Lisa snapped, pulling the bedsheet tighter around her. "Stop looking at me with those filthy eyes."
"You should see a doctor," Ethan said, his voice sounding deeper than usual. "Your chest. It hurts sometimes, doesn't it? Especially at night when it's raining?"
Lisa froze. The color drained from her face for a split second before she masked it with more rage. "How do you—shut up! You don't know anything about me! You're a stalker. That's how you know."
"I didn't even know your last name until you just said it," Ethan muttered. He stood up, feeling a bit wobbly. He started looking for his shirt. "Look, I'm sorry about whatever happened, but I didn't plan this. I was out with my friend Royce. We were celebrating his new job. I came back here, I went to sleep, and then you showed up."
"You're lying!" Lisa screamed. She threw a pillow at him. "You're a liar and a predator! My father is Robert Mitchell. Do you have any idea what that means? You won't just go to jail. You'll disappear."
Ethan found his shirt on the floor. It was wrinkled and smelled like the club. "I have a sister in the hospital, Lisa. I don't have time to 'disappear.' Can we just forget this happened? You leave, I leave, and we never see each other again."
"Forget it?" Lisa pointed at the floor where her phone lay. "It's on the news! Someone took photos of us coming in here. My life is over! I was supposed to marry the heir of the Zhao family on Friday. Now he won't even look at me!"
She started to cry, but they weren't soft tears. They were angry, jagged sobs.
"I'm sorry," Ethan said. He actually felt a little bad for her, despite the kick to the ribs.
"Don't sorry me," she spat. "Just get out. No, stay here. If you leave, I'll tell the guards you ran because you're guilty. Just... stay in that corner and don't breathe."
She spent the next twenty minutes pacing the room, making frantic phone calls. Ethan sat in a chair by the window, watching the city wake up. He felt a strange tingling in his fingertips. It felt like a small electric current was running under his skin. Every time he looked at Lisa, that black mist around her heart seemed darker.
Eventually, there was a heavy knock on the door. It wasn't a polite knock. It sounded like someone was trying to punch a hole through the wood.
Lisa jumped. "That's them."
She opened the door, and three men in suits walked in. They didn't look like hotel security. They looked like professional killers. The man in the lead had a scar running through his eyebrow. He didn't even look at Lisa. His eyes went straight to Ethan.
"Mr. Mitchell is waiting," the scarred man said.
"Wait," Ethan said, standing up. "I can explain what happened. It was a mistake."
The scarred man walked over and grabbed Ethan by the back of his neck. The grip was like an iron vice. "Save it for the boss. Let's go."
They dragged him out of the room. As they walked down the hallway, hotel guests stepped aside, looking at the floor. They went down the service elevator and out a back door where a line of black SUVs was idling.
Ethan was shoved into the middle car. The seats were leather and smelled like brand-new money. He sat between two guards who didn't say a word.
"Can I call my sister?" Ethan asked. "She's in the hospital. She'll worry if I don't check in."
The guard to his left turned and looked at him. He didn't say anything, but he rested his hand on a holster under his jacket.
"Right. No calls," Ethan muttered.
He looked out the tinted window as the car sped through the city. He kept thinking about the dream. The Dragon God. It felt so much more real than this car or the men with guns. He looked at his hands. For a second, just a second, he thought he saw a faint golden scale shimmer under his skin before it vanished.
"Whatever you're planning, kid, forget it," the scarred man said from the front seat. "Nobody gets away from Mr. Mitchell. You're about to enter a world you don't belong in. And usually, people like you don't walk back out."
Ethan leaned back against the headrest. He should have been terrified, but he wasn't. That weird power in his chest was growing.
"We'll see," Ethan whispered to himself.
The cars turned off the main road and began climbing a private hill toward a massive gate. The Mitchell Estate was coming into view, and Ethan knew his life was never going to be the same.
Ethan knew one thing with certainty
The Dragon God had not vanished.
It had only been waiting.