“It’s the end of the beginning.” Mother’s voice was strained. “Supernaturals won’t be able to walk in plain sight forever. And dragons, well… You aren’t exactly going to be able to hide in small spaces.”
Vargo gave her a nod, his shoulders hunched. “We feel our mortality more keenly than ever.”
She took a deep breath and I heard the determination in her voice. “I left a thread of dragon within my medallion,” she said, holding it up to the light. “When I pass, and Graviter is gone, please use this medallion. Protect all dragons. Give them the ability to hide among humans.”
Vargo’s eyes had widened. “The gravity of your gift is not lost on me,” he said. “But without a Blacksmith’s heart to power this metal—and one as powerful as yours—it may as well be a trinket.”
Mother gave him a soft smile. “Perhaps, one day, there will be a heart strong enough to overcome that difficulty.”
Vargo gave her a nod, his expression deeply contemplative as he flew away.
As for the books, there’s a part of me that vehemently disagrees with Mother’s decision to create them, but I can’t do a damn thing about it.
Those books can only be opened for the first time by a Blacksmith.
She and her siblings will make that choice.
Once opened, the books will take on lives of their own.
They will become powerful receptacles of magic, recording history as it happens, but their real purpose…
Within generations, the books will extinguish all knowledge about Blacksmiths.
Not too quickly. A little at a time. Until everything about my mother and her family and their ancestors is forgotten.
It will be as if they never existed.
I shake off my foreboding, turning away from the room with the statues, and slip down the staircase, heading for the back of the tower.
I’m meant to be joining my brothers already, but I don’t follow the rules, so if I changed my behavior today, it would only alarm them.
Well, that’s my reasoning.
I slip through a concealed door at the back of the tower that sits close to the cliff’s edge, only to find Mother staring out across the ocean.
Her hands are folded in front of her, her golden medallion catching the light, while her forehead is lightly creased.
It isn’t the first time I’ve found her standing here like this, as if she’s trying to remember something.
She senses my presence right away and flashes me a smile, her eyes lighting up. “Daughter.”
I slip one arm around her waist. For a moment, I consider asking her about Thaden Kane Ironmeld, but I want to focus on her.
She looks so… lost.
“You needed to escape?” I ask her.
She sighs. “No blood can be spilled while I’m here; I’ve made that very clear. I created every safety precaution I could think of, and still?—”
“They look at you as if you’re going to eat them.” I bare my teeth dramatically.
Oh, those humans and supernaturals have no idea.
I’mthe one they should be afraid of.
It doesn’t escape me that Mother takes the brunt of their fear, bearing the weight of it so that I can live free of it. Well, mostly.
“This alliance will make things better,” I say. A hopeful statement more than a certain one.
