The words slid directly into my mind, warm and ancient, threaded with a presence that felt undeniably feminine.
Why do you come?
I stood still, heart beating hard enough to feel it in my throat. Even though this wasn’t the first time she’d spoken to me, it still stunned me every time. The clarity of her words and the intimacy of her thoughts were braided into mine.
“I needed to breathe somewhere that isn’t full of people watching me decide their fate in real time.”
A soft exhale curled from the dragon’s nostrils, smoke that smelled faintly of rain on hot stone filled the den.
The bronze dragon nearby, who was larger, shifted his weight, but didn’t come forward.
The silver dragon kept her gaze on mine.
You seek clarity, but that alone is never enough.
“I know,” I whispered. “Trust me, I know. I just watched my mom willingly walk with the Priestess.”
My gaze slid to the young dragons again. To the newest, tucked deeper in the alcove, chest rising and falling in tiny, steady breaths. I refused to feel the panic when thinking about keeping them safe…everything safe.
I watched them and thought about their future. I felt like I was looking at hope with claws and wings.
The den didn’t react to my revelation about my mom the way a room full of humans would. There weren’t any gasps or sympathetic noises, and certainly no immediate panic. I just felt their undivided attention.
Gone. A choice.The silver dragon’s gaze remained on mine, and for the first time, I fully accepted that it was my mother’s choice, but it didn’t mean it had to be mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The bronze dragon’s eyes glinted brighter, like embers fanned by wind.
The Priestess.
The name felt different inside the den. It wasn’t just a threat, but something the dragons recognized as old.
The silver dragon’s tail flicked once, slowly.
“My grandmother is planning something that I can’t even wrap my head around.”
She hasn’t been the first to try, and she certainly won’t be the last. But you’re in a unique position, Maeve.
“I’m at a loss.”
A ripple of thought moved through the elder dragons. It felt something like understanding.
I feel anger coming from you, but it’s in the form of devotion,the silver dragon murmured.It means you believed there was another path.
I let out a breath that felt like it came from the bottom of my lungs. “Yes. Absolutely, I believed there was another path. One where my mom didn’t willingly play into the Priestess’s hand.”
What if the Priestess played into your mom’s hand?
The question shocked me and took the wind right out of me.
“I don’t know…” I said, shaking my head. “I never thought of it that way.”
We all have a part to play in the world, Maeve. That doesn’t mean choices are right or wrong. They simply are…
I thought about that for a second and nodded slowly.
“I’m worried that something has started that can’t be undone. The Academy seems awake in different ways, and even those that started this game seem to be…turning.”
