I let out a laugh as I kissed her forehead. “I’m glad you’re back, Rissa.” My smile faded when I looked over my shoulder at Nox and Rose. “But we have another problem to deal with.”
We stalked toward the two of them, a protective, possessive instinct in me rising and clawing at my skin as I watched Rose scramble away from him. If he so much astouchedher?—
“Leo!” she called out when she saw me, hurtling across the slippery sand and into my arms.
“Are you alright, sweetheart?” I murmured, grasping her face and examining her for any injury or burns.
She nodded. “You?”
“Better now.” Aiming a glare at Nox’s smug features, I snarled, “A dragon Shifter? What are you playing at?”
“I thought your kind didn’t exist anymore,” Rissa added, her tone level. She was always better at keeping a cool head than I was, even with her full Shifter blood racing through her, no doubt riling her senses.
Rose looked up at me from her tucked position at my side. “I didn’t even know dragons werereal.”
Nox chuckled darkly. “We’re very real, but as usual, history has been rewritten.”
It made sense now why I’d had such a strong reaction to his magic at the ball. Legend said dragon Shifters were the most powerful, most terrifying beings in the empire, back when the War of Beginnings ended and the magic had been dispersed. But there hadn’t been signs of them in over two centuries. Historical accounts claimed they had died out, their nature so volatile that they brutally killed one another out of a desire to be the strongest in the land.
“How is this possible?” I asked.
“You want to do this? Now?” When I held his stare, he sighed. “Yourhistory”—the word came out a hiss—“has painted dragon Shifters as violent monsters controlled by their baser instincts. But the truth is that the empire feared them. Feared their strength, their cunning and ambition. Those in power were threatened. They were convinced dragons would destroy the balance of magic and overthrow the throne. Two hundred and fifty years ago, the reigning emperor took matters into his own hand.”
Rissa stiffened next to me. “Did he have them all killed?”
The shrewd gleam in Nox’s blue eyes left, replaced with a pain I didn’t think I would ever understand. He cast his gaze over the rushing waves as he spoke. “In those days, the dragons wererevered. Celebrated. Not the mockery of a myth they’ve become. The emperor knew slaughtering them would have only made them martyrs. Caused an uprising, perhaps. He didn’t merely want them dead—he wanted them to have neverexisted. To eradicate any chance of their survival. He and his advisors conducted…experiments.”
Rose sucked in a breath at my side, but Nox ignored it and continued. “They created a toxin that suppressed a dragon’s Shifter half and made it impossible for the same gene to be passed onto offspring. This was during the darkest time of conflict between dragons and the throne. They knew they were on the brink of war, a war they couldn’t come back from. And the dragonsknew they couldn’t protect the rest of the Shifters from it. They allowed the toxin to be used on them in exchange for protection for their loved ones. Their people.” He swallowed hard, the column of his throat moving slowly. “They chose their own eventual extinction to ensure the empire never saw such violence again.”
The air was still as we took in his words. I struggled to comprehend his story that reshaped the history I’d so long believed. But I could tell he spoke the truth. His features were somber, his eyes hollow, his voice pained. Even after two centuries, he carried this burden of the dragons, thislegacythat had been tarnished by those in power.
On a much smaller scale, I could understand this burden, too.
“If that’s true, then how are you here? Are there more dragon Shifters that survived over the years?” Lark asked.
“If there are more, they’ve been silent,” he said. “I’m the only one of my kind. I don’t know how the ability passed to me. Perhaps someone escaped the terms of the treaty, or their bloodline was simply too strong to disappear. When my parents saw the early signs in my childhood and guessed what I was, they tried to hide me away. But young Shifters are…unpredictable. Unstable.”
I glanced at Rissa, knowing far too well what that was like. The torment and isolation she’d faced because of her lack of control over her Shifter form had been brutal. And to face that as adragon? With one hundred times the power?
“Word got out,” Nox said straightforwardly, not allowing room for questions, then inclined his head toward myself and my sister. “Funnily enough, you and I have something in common. My father is—wasthe governor of Drakorum. Imagine how our people felt when they discovered their leader was illegally housing something so forbidden.”
Rose was taken aback. “Your father is the governor of your province?”
“Was, darling.”
She pressed her lips together. “What happened?”
“The people were afraid. They accused him of experimentingon his own child to recreate the legend of the dragons and raise an army. He was eventually challenged for his position and lost.”
The crease in Rose’s brow deepened as she listened. “Where are they now? Your parents?”
A few steps behind us, Lark cleared her throat. “Rose, in Drakorum, a challenge is—it’s to the death,” she said gently.
Rose sucked in a breath and took a step toward Nox, her hand outstretched. “Nox, I’m?—”
“Don’t apologize. I don’t want your pity. I want yourunderstanding. I was taken from my home at fourteen years old and placed in an orphanage, but soon after, the one who’d taken my father’s place realized he coulduseme instead of restraining me. He brought me into his home, effectively a prisoner in a gilded cage. Anyone of importance who knew I existed was threatened into silence, and everyone else was…taken care of.” Rose winced, but Nox’s face remained unmoved. “They kept me hidden, tucked away as their little secret.” His lip twitched. “Until now. I told you once, Rose, that I had no choice but to come here. To compete in this tournament. They want me to win. They want me to take back the strength of magic for Drakorum that’s been dwindling for far too long.”
“There’s no competition, not against adragon,” Lark said incredulously. “You could win this with your hands behind your back, yet you’re tied for third place. It’s as if you’re not even trying.”
