“Brother—”
I whipped around, finding the massive draken right behind me. Canavar did not look like me! He towered over me by at least a head, with long, red dreaded hair and silver scales.
“I see it. The bridge of the nose, the arch of the cheekbones,” Wren said softly.
I kept staring at him and Kaida. My nose recognized her if not him, even if my eyes didn’t.
I had scented it when he first arrived, and not recognized it. It has been so long since I had a living blood relative.
Cousins.
“This is Nasi,” Kaida offered again, grinning at her mate. “You are?”
“Benedict and Kieran,” Kieran offered, leaning forward happily. “Hey, Vilhem and Meckar had gold coloring. Do you think Nasi is one of their lines?” He strode up to Nasi and inspected him like a prize piece of game.
“Kind of has Vilhem’s chin?—”
Nasi growled and swiped Kieran’s hand away. Kieran blushed and backed off.
“Sorry. I went centuries without seeing a new draken male, and now drakens are falling from the sky,” he offered sheepishly.
I flinched at the reminder of Veskor.
“Kavni,” I whispered instead, almost like a prayer. Enya had known. Enya had seen it right away.
Kieran went still.
“What was that?” Wren asked, her small hands fingers wrapping around my hands.
“You’re from Kavni’s line. My aunt. My mother’s sister,” I babbled out like a simpleton.
Kaida smiled and something I hadn’t realized was broken mended. After my father died in my arms, watching my brother bleed out, and the agony of learning my sister Baila had been captured, then sacrificed. And who could forget the pain when the volcano had killed everyone on Lyoness, including my mother and my aunt, and my grandmother.
And everyone else.
Or so we’d thought.
Clearly, Wren was right and some drakens had survived the eruption. Perhaps they’d made it to the water and were washed ashore who knew where.
Kavni had survived long enough to give birth to Kaida. Now we knew there were more survivors than we’d realized, and their descendants were starting to come home.
And now another remnant of my bloodline stood across from me with my mother’s eyes and my aunt’s sass.
“Your wings are shaking,” Wren whispered to me.
“I—I?—”
The world was shrinking. Somewhere behind me, Kieran swore softly.
Nerissa’s gaze darted between us. “Kaida,” she warned.
But Kaida didn’t stop. She studied me like she was cataloging proof. “I’ve been searching for you for years. I knew there were more of us, more survivors. Like we survived.”
“How?” I croaked out, my voice unrecognizable.
Her tone wasn’t reverent. It was wounded, and a little accusatory.
“You are king. Could you not feel us?” she begged,voice breaking slightly. “I’ve been tortured for years thinking we were forgotten and alone.”
