He gestured to the ground, and Francine looked down. She’d thought they were standing on ice. Now, shielded, she could see what had been hidden by the dragons’ power.
A black stone door was set into the side of the valley. Its surface gleamed with strange carvings. It was at least ten feethigh, and more across; large enough, Francine thought, for a dragon to walk in with its head held low and its wings drawn in.
“It’s still secure.” Julian’s voice cracked. Holding Francine steady, he stepped forward and pressed his hand against the door.
The black stone turned to mist. Julian walked through it, half-carrying Francine, into a corridor that was flooded with warmth and light.
“Welcome to my home,” Julian whispered. “The ancient hall of the shadow dragons.”
26
Julian
Every breath he took felt like another betrayal.
I left. I left, and now I’m all thatisleft.
Francine was warm and heavy against his side. Too heavy. She was staring around the entrance hall in wonder, but her eyes were too glassy, her breathing too uneven.
His dragon rippled beneath his skin.
She’d ordered him to leave her to die in the snow.
After everything they’d been through together, she thought she had failed him and deserved to be abandoned. So he could save himself.
As though that would ever be an option, without her.
And now she was going to discover the truth about what was waiting for them here.
“The hall of the shadow dragons?” Her voice shook, and even with his telepathy blocked, he felt how she hated that sign of weakness.
“Indeed.” He couldn’t bear to look around. Even the amazement shining in Francine’s eyes hurt. “The hidden fortressin the ice, a monument created by magic kept secret for hundreds of years. But for me, it is simply…”
“Home.”
The word made the silence filling the hall louder.
“Where are—” Francine’s feet slipped on the stone floor. Irritation flashed in her eyes—and behind it, the beginnings of panic. She thrust her shoulders back, jaw tight. “We need to tell your family—”
Grief and guilt thudded in Julian’s chest. “That can wait.”
“No, it can’t, we need to—”
“You’rehurt.” The words came out too harsh.
“That’s irrelevant.”
“You—” He bit the sentence off. “Do you still have my scale?”
Francine’s hand flew to her breastbone. He saw the outline of the small velvet bag behind the fabric of her dress as she touched it.
She’d been wearing it all this time, so close to her skin. Heat gathered in his chest.
“You’ll need to put it to your skin before we go any further into the hall,” he said, not allowing his voice to betray anything. “The vestibule—this entry room—exists in the light. If you release my magic, you’ll find yourself in an ice cave. But the rooms beyond are of the shadows.”
Francine’s brows knitted together.
Julian tsked himself. “I mean—”
