Count the heartbeats. One… Two… Three…
“Yes,” I say, my heart sinking a little because I’m certain the dragons haven’t brought crimson coal with them—I can’t smell its honeyed scent on the air. “I need fire.”
Graviter gives me a solemn nod. “Then allow me to give you the flame you need. If you will step aside.”
The dragons stiffen behind him. Torva edges forward. “Graviter?”
He has already stepped up to the rock.
His scales ripple with an intense heat that sends me back a step and propels Torva away from him. A visible flame rushes from his chest through his throat, burning so brightly that it glows startlingly within his body.
It reaches his mouth, and I prepare for the burning heat.
He puffs out a single, perfect flame. It fills the concave section in the rock’s surface and then—impossibly—it stays alight, glowing serenely even as the wind rushes around it and the waves send spray into the air that would surely dampen it.
The other dragons give a collective gasp.
“Graviter!” Torva cries, jolting toward him again. “No…”
I cast anxious glances between them, aware of the way Erik has stepped up to my side. “What’s going on?”
Graviter takes a step back, stumbling a little, but quickly rights himself. “Every fire dragon has an eternal flame,” he explains. “It can only be given once, and once given, it will shorten my life by hundreds of years.”
He gives Torva a reassuring smile before he turns to Vargo. “I will live long enough for your son to be born, but I will not be able to teach him what he needs to know. You must do that.”
Vargo’s eyes fill with tears that leak down his crimson scales, but he gives a firm nod. “I vow it.”
Tears roll down Torva’s cheeks. “Graviter, your twin boys won’t be born until after Vargo’s son. They will never know you now.”
Graviter turns to the other dragons. “Which is why you must all promise me: You will watch over them.”
Words fail me. “Graviter…”
But he is already swinging away from me, this time toward the trees.
“I am not the only one who has given their life for this,” he says.
At the edge of the trees, Cailey appears, her silhouette bright again. Galeia is propped on her hip, not a small feat, given that Cailey is only small herself.
Galeia’s growls can be heard above the crashing waves, and with a quick glance at me, Erik hurries across the distance toward them, taking Galeia from Cailey before Galeia can leap from her arms.
Even with my power, I can’t hear what he says to Galeia—or if it’s spoken in growls or words—but she calms immediately. Even so, they stay at the edge of the trees while Cailey steps forward.
All of the dragons bow low to the ground, each one murmuring her name. “Caoilainn Liadan.”
Once again, I wonder,Who is she?
Torva edges toward me, her emerald eyes bright as she whispers, “She is your Celestial Star.”
My breath catches.
Oh… Of course.
She came to witness the making of my hammer. Then she stayed while I fought the Valkyries. She saw Erik revive. We were separated from her when she gave us some space, and then the storm hit us.
Graviter told me that she was as old as the Earth. She had seen the births of gods and titans and had, until now, watched over the Valkyries in the End Lands.
It makes sense to me now that the Valkyrie Queen reacted so intensely to Cailey’s presence.
