The room is empty, but I can feel danger in the air. Whoever took me from the forest can’t mean well. My heart pounds as I realize I’ve been undressed and tied to a bed in a stranger’s house.
A sound escapes me before I can stop it—a rough gasp that hurts my throat.
No. No, no, no.
Not again.
I search for the golden hum beneath my skin, the thrum of rune-light along my ribs, any sensation of my magic.
Nothing.
The emptiness feels wrong, like reaching for a limb that isn’t there. Dread rises in my throat, sharp and hot.
Then the sound of heels clicks across the stone, and I turn toward the doorway.
She enters like a burst of fire, graceful, terrible, made of sharp lines and colder intentions. Tall, silver-haired, and wrapped in layered robes of flame-colored silk, she looks like an empress sculpted from glass. Her eyes are amber, slitted, and narrowed. They settle on me with curiosity… and something more.
Possession.
“You’re awake,” she says, voice silken and precise. “Good. We were worried you might miss everything.”
I don’t answer. I watch her instead, listening to the weight of her steps, to the way the tether hums slightly as she nears, recognizing her.
Runes pulse on her arms, like Kelan’s, Ronyn’s, and Darial’s.
She’s a dragon.
The moment I meet her gaze I understand that she isn’t here to comfort me.
“Where am I?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she says, gliding closer. “You’re where you’re supposed to be, about to fulfill your destiny.”
“I’m not—”
She lifts a finger. “Oh, but you are. The goddess has chosen you. You carry her light in your womb. You will carry the future of our kind.”
Her words have the same cold zeal as Gregory’s before he hurt me. I shiver and flex my tied hands, wishing my magic would come back and protect me.
I pull hard against the tether. It bites into my wrists. The heavy cloak tightens.
I yank again, harder, desperate, the bed creaking beneath me.
Nothing gives.
“Whatever you think I’m here for—”
“It isn’t what I think, girl. It’s what I know.”
“You’re keeping me prisoner?”
“We are keeping you safe,” she replies. “Your power is wild. The cloak suppresses it for your own good. If we wished to harm you, we could have let your magic destroy you in the forest. But we didn’t. We rescued you.”
Her voice is full of fake kindness.
Rescued.
My stomach lurches. I drag my feet back beneath me, bracing as if I might lunge. If I could reach her—
