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Azar? Hyperion sounds incredulous for some reason.
What was I doing in that strange place? Small creatures kept trying to gnaw on me, distressed as they were with the heat.
Hyperion’s mouth gapes open. And then he makes a strange, choking, coughing sort of sound. Flames and smoke spew from his maw.
What’s going on? Behind my brother, small humans are crouched in a large metal cage, hanging from a hook in the remains of a ceiling over the edge of the ledge on which we’re both standing.
Welcome back, brother. I suppose you were telling the truth.
The truth of what? I hate this disoriented feeling. When did you arrive? The last I remember was telling you farewell before departing for Earth.
You really must be both Azar and Axel, Hyperion says.
I’ve feared this moment my entire life—Euphrasia always impressed upon me the importance that no one ever discover that I have two affinities. Why would you say that? I shake my head. That’s insane.
You told me yourself. Hyperion steps closer, his head tilted sideways as he studies me. Do you not recall it?
Two loud crashes behind me have me spinning around as Gordon and Rufus come flying out of the same lava pool that I recently evacuated.
You’re alive? Hyperion looks as if he can hardly believe it. But where’s Liz? Is she not with you?
Liz? Who’s he talking about? Why would someone named Liz be with us? I wish I could even recall why I was in the burning place, but the more I think about it, the more blank it feels.
Prince Azar! Gordon slithers toward me, but as he approaches, I notice he’s bigger than I recall, and his legs are now massive. He’s still a bundle of dark brown coils, but his legs look as if they could propel him forward easily as well. When he stands, it’s clear that he’s definitely larger than he was.
Much larger.
And as he straightens, something unfurls behind him. Large, shining wings of walnut— darker even than his scales. And his face is now framed by dark, sharp horns. He looks less serpentine and more, well, more like a warrior.
What happened to me? Gordon asks. Did Liz do this?
My desire to rend something grows. Who’s this Liz? Why do people keep asking after her?
She’s your bonded. Rufus walks toward me, then, and it’s clear that he’s grown as well. Not by quite as much, but still to nearly double his former size. He too has wings, and his colors are both brighter and richer.
I can’t be bonded, I say. We’ve only just reached Earth.
He’s clearly lost part of his memory, Hyperion says. But don’t worry, brother, we’ll catch you up on things.
I turn toward him and snap, I don’t need you catching me up on anything. I’m fine.
Well, I’d still like to see it, Hyperion says. Shift for me, into your earth blessed form.
I want to refuse, but he already knows. It appears that I must have, inexplicably, confessed my biggest secret to these three. Instead of arguing further, I shift again.
But when I take the form of Axel, it’s different. I’m nearly as tall as I was as Azar, and like Gordon and Rufus, powerful wings unfurl from my back. I spread them and marvel a bit at their golden weight and length.
It looks like that little girl won you all quite the upgrade. Hyperion looks almost angry. Perhaps I should have leapt into the lava with her.
But where is this mysterious Liz, my alleged bonded? I’ve no sooner wondered about her when, from the depths of the lava, a creature erupts, exploding upward and outward, and then brilliant, feathered white wings spread out behind her, and she flies up, up, up into the air, rising steadily above the ridge of rock that curls around the top of the children and disappears from view.
“What on earth was that?” one of the small humans asks. “Because it looked a lot like Liz, but it had dark hair and wings.”
“That old woman who came to us just before the dragons took us was telling me a story,” another small human says. “She said that before, when the dragons were on earth, their bonded humans weren’t human.”
What were they? I ask, curious in spite of myself.
Gordon slithers toward the cage, but the children don’t shy back in fear. Instead, Gordon raises up and bites the door of the cage, releasing them. The children slide down his back like it’s some kind of game, the little male staying on his back while the others scramble off and rush toward Rufus.
