The second target rises, and my world tilts sideways. Green fletching against a blue background—my personal nightmare made manifest. I hesitate, squinting and trying to focus on where the center should be. The colors blur together like watercolors in rain, indistinguishable and mocking. I hear my arrow hit something. The impact is hollow and wrong, but I have no clue where it landed.
The third target appears—red against white. I strike the center without hesitation, muscle memory and training taking over where vision serves me well. The arrow flies true and strong, embedding itself with precision that proves my skill when I can actually see what I’m aiming at.
The fourth and final target rises, and I know it’s over. Blue—that cursed color that turns my world into impressionist chaos. Closing my sapphire eyes, I shift my vision to my dragon’s sight, desperate for any advantage. It’s still no help. The enhanced predator vision that should give me every advantage fails me completely when confronted with this specific combination.
I aim the best I can, using memory and instinct rather than sight, and let the arrow fly. The string snaps against my leather bracer with finality.
I’m fighting the tears that want to roll down my cheeks, hot and shameful. My disability has been exposed like a festering wound laid bare for all to see. The shame almost consumes me, a black tide of self-loathing that threatens to pull me under. I lower my head and close my eyes, hearing my heartbeat thunder in my chest like war drums.
The sound of approaching footsteps comes from my left side—the only direction I can hear them from. It’s not until I feel a warm hand on my right shoulder that I turn to face them, finally catching the words they’ve been saying to my deaf ear.
Fuck.Both secrets exposed in one devastating moment.
Corvis’s silver eyes search mine with an intensity that makes my breath catch. Without warning, he pulls me into a hug, his arms strong and warm around my trembling frame. His scent surrounds me—baked bread and ancient stone and something uniquely him that makes my dragon purr despite my misery.
That simple act of acceptance makes the dam break free. I cry against his shoulder, my tears soaking into his shirt as weeks of fear and shame pour out of me. The sobs wrack my body like physical blows, releasing everything I’ve been holding back. Between the terror of being discovered, the crushing shame of not being perfect like Mom, and now everyone knowing I have disabilities, I don’t feel fit to have a mate.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Corvis whispers next to my good ear, his breath warm against my skin. His voice carries hurt and concern in equal measure.
“I may as well be euthanized. I’m damaged.” The words taste like ashes in my mouth as I pull away from his comforting embrace. I look intomy mother’s golden eyes, expecting to see disappointment but finding something else entirely. “I can’t see blues and greens in combination. I’m deaf on my right side. I don’t deserve to have a mate or the crown.”
My eyes find Klauth as he steps closer, his massive frame moving with careful grace. The afternoon light catches the silver threading through his dark hair.
“I can’t see oranges and yellows,” my birth father says quietly, his voice carrying the weight of shared understanding.
“I’ve been deaf on my left side since I hatched,” Klauth adds, and it’s only now that I realize he does what I do—positions himself so his good ear faces the crowds. The revelation hits me like a physical blow.
“How long?” Mom asks as she moves closer, her movements predatory grace disguised as maternal concern.
“Always. Orpheus figured it out first when we were children.” The memory is bittersweet, of my brother’s patient understanding when I didn’t respond to calls from my right side. “Then Thorne, when I didn’t hear her approach from my right side during training. The color thing has been just as long.” I glance down at the stone beneath my feet and exhale roughly, the sound scraping raw in my throat.
“She can’t be sent to a fort with her disabilities,” Abraxis says, and the words hit like a death sentence. I wrap my wings tighter around myself, creating a cocoon of black membrane and despair.
The practical implications crash over me like an icy wave. No military service means no honor, no purpose, no way to prove my worth. I’m a dragon princess who can’t fight properly, an heir who’s fundamentally flawed.
I turn to my birth father and take his large hands in mine, feeling the calluses from decades of sword work. “Tell my mate he deserves better than me.” The words break something inside my chest as Ispeak them. I kiss his bearded cheek, tasting salt and sorrow, then launch up into the air.
My wings carry me higher and higher, each powerful beat taking me further from the shame and judgment below. When I’m high enough that I’m just a speck against the clouds, I shift. My skull dragon explodes into existence, black scales gleaming in the afternoon sun. I roar my pain into the sky, the sound echoing across the landscape like thunder. The raw anguish pours out of me in waves of sound that speak to every heartbreak I’ve ever known.
I didn’t tell anyone, but weeks ago I dug myself a den behind the oasis Dad gifted Mom. It’s my secret sanctuary, carved into the rock where no one thinks to look.
It feels like forever to reach my hidden refuge, my dragon form cutting through the air with desperate speed. I shift before landing so I touch down gently on human feet, my boots silent against the sandy ground. The oasis blooms around me in a riot of colors and scents—jasmine and honeysuckle masking any trace of my presence.
I walk into my den, the cool stone welcoming after the heat of flight and emotion. When I reach the far back where it opens into a natural cavern system, I shift again. My dragon form fills the space perfectly, scales scraping against stone worn smooth by centuries of water flow.
I lay down in the mineral-rich waters of the hot spring, letting the heated liquid envelop everything but the tip of my muzzle. The water smells of iron and earth, ancient and comforting. The heavy mineral scent will mask my presence completely, and being this far underground means my scent won’t carry or linger in the oasis above. The flowers will see to that, their heavy perfume disguising any trace of dragon.
Good luck finding me here, hidden in the bowels of the earth like some mythical creature from old stories. Taking a nap while submerged sounds like a wonderful idea—a chance to escape consciousness and the crushing weight of my revealed inadequacies.The warm water laps at my scales like a lullaby, promising temporary peace in the depths where no one can judge me for being less than perfect.
I don’t knowhow long I’ve slept, but I’m awakened by the sensation of someone or something entering my sanctum. The subtle shift in air pressure, the barely perceptible change in the cavern’s acoustics—all the signs my dragon senses have learned to recognize. I breathe in deep, tasting the familiar minerals and earth on my tongue, then fully submerge in the deep, dark waters. The liquid embraces me like silk, warm and comforting against my scales.
Black dragons—or as I prefer to call myself, a skull dragon—used to live in and hunt in swamps. The murky depths are our natural element, where we’re most dangerous and most at peace. This underground spring feels like coming home to something ancient and primal.
“Her dragon was here.” I hear Mom’s voice filtering through the water, the sound distorted but unmistakably hers. The mineral-rich liquid conducts sound differently, making everything seem distant and dreamlike.
“She’s still here.” Dad’s deeper tone carries more clearly through the water, vibrating through my bones. “Leave her to me.” The authority in his voice brooks no argument, and I feel the vibrations of at least three sets of distinct footsteps retreating through the stone passages.
When I’m certain it’s just Dad and me, the cavern holding only our shared presence; I rise out of the water. Droplets cascade from my massive form, creating ripples that echo off the cavern walls. I look down at him—so small from this perspective, yet radiating the power that marks him as one of the most dangerous beings alive.
