As the dying sun painted dramatic colors across the ocean, the canine-shaped cloud remained in the same spot. It hadn’t gone anywhere. The two hours I’d spent in Jade’s office meant nothing to the loyal cotton-candy creature. It floated close to the ocean’s surface, like its paws were skimming the water. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
What was it? What did it mean?
The arrow in my heart pulsed with a deep ache. I grunted, slapping my hand across my chest. Would this keep happening during the Games? If it was a medical issue, perhaps I could avoid the Games entirely.
But that meant admitting I needed help, and that was one thing I couldn’t do. No, I couldn’t tell anybody about the ache in my chest—especially not my brothers. I would weather this trial on my own, just like I always did.
Still clutching my chest, I faced the horizon. To my odd disappointment, the dog-shaped cloud was gone.
It was only a cloud, I told myself. They came and went. It was their nature.
Instead, I focused on the water. The far-off waves flowed rhythmically. Their existence usually calmed me, but something was different. It looked like something wasinthe water—trapped in the ocean current, being pushed and pulled in every direction, unable to break free.
Was somebody drowning?
The pain in my chest flared. Whoever it was, I had to save them.
My behemoth dragon tore free from the shackles of my human form. Pumping my wings, I flew towards the shape. Was it my imagination, or did it resemble the dog-shaped cloud? Panic flooded me.
I’ll save you, I promised silently.
I cursed my huge dragon body. We grew with age, and as the eldest, I was the biggest of us all. But my gargantuan size burdened me with weak agility. Would I be fast enough to save the drowning creature?
When I finally reached the turbulent waves, I banked my wings and stopped. I scanned the water frantically, but saw nothing. Where was it? Had it already gone under?
My mind went blank. I didn’t think—I only reacted.
I dove under the waves, snapping my eyes wide open. But where I’d expected to see a figure, a body, anything... there was nothing. Only water.
Had I daydreamed the canine shape in the ocean? Did I trick myself into believing it was there?
A strange mixture of feelings swirled inside me. Disappointment, relief, and emptiness.
I breached the surface and shot up into the sky. I wasn’t ready to return to my human form. Now that my dragon was free, he refused to be shoved back into a body based on logical thought. He thrived on instinct alone.
And his instinct was to fly.
To escape the island.
To go find... something.
Someone.
My mind went blank. The water beneath me rippled as the leathery snap of my massive wings propelled me forward. The urge to find my mate burned in my blood. I didn’t know who they were, but I sensed a great chasm of distance between us. I closed my eyes as the mental image formed in my mind.
They were on the other side of the water. On land, surrounded by sprawling architecture. The human city.
The place where—except in extreme circumstances—I’d forbidden my younger brothers to go.
But I was different. I was the eldest. If instinct summoned me to the city, I had to follow.
A sudden impact slammed into me. I spiralled, my balance thrown off. My eyes snapped open and my wings flapped wildly in an attempt to right myself. That collision was too large and precise to be anything but another dragon.
I looped around to confront the offender—and came face-to-face with the deep purple scales of my brother Viol.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he growled.
I was speechless, partly because of my shock, but also because I was deeply relieved to see him. I’d been worried ever since Crimson and Thystle said he was missing.
