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The dragon heads all snap toward his location, as if they too can hear but not see. Who’s with you? one of them asks.
“It’s my bonded,” I say, still in dragon-tongue. “He brought me here. We’re looking for something.”
What is it? One dragon, larger than the rest, has shoved the others back. He’s flanked by two largish dragons and hordes of horned demon-people. What do you seek?
First, tell us how to free you, Azar says. What would my bonded have to do in order to release you?
The large dragon disappears and there’s more frantic churning. Horned people appear, disappear, and reappear. And finally, the large dragon returns, his lackeys alongside him yet again. We’re being punished here, punished for past sins that we had nothing to do with.
That’s a weird reply. “But what do you need me to do?” I ask.
Your death will free us, he finally says. Gullveig must die to break the barrier.
She’s not Gullveig, Azar says. You’re mistaken.
She’s marked. Her death will free us, the demon dragon says again.
Absolutely not, Azar says. You can burn in there forever. He extends my cloak to me, held carefully between two talons. Put this back on.
What we seek is called the heart, Hyperion says. Do you know anything about it?
The large dragon smiles, and it sends a chill up my spine. The heart is the barrier keeping us here, and she’s marked because only she can remove it. Free us, and that barrier is yours.
17
Axel
I snatch Liz, my talons wrapping around her shoulders and underneath her armpits securely before vaulting into the sky.
I know Hyperion won’t be far behind, but I have legitimate concerns that my idiotic bonded might walk right into the lava if I don’t stop her. She had that look on her face, the one she gets when she’s ready to sacrifice herself for someone else.
“Azar,” she shouts.
No. I can’t bring myself to say anything else.
“Azar.” Now she’s beating on my claws with her tiny, soft hands. The ones that would melt into goo so easily, that would never move again if she walked into that lava.
What do the dragons in that place know? They would say anything to convince us to sacrifice her if her death is what they believe will free them. They didn’t even tell us what the ‘mark’ means or why they think that makes her this Gullveig person.
Azar. Hyperion’s bearing down on my flank hard, and for the first time, I’m a little nervous he may not be on my side. We need to talk about this.
My concerns double. They’re criminals. I fling Liz into the air and swing around to catch her on my back before Hyperion’s close enough to try and snatch her from me. We can’t believe a thing they say.
Agreed, Hyperion says.
Oh. He agrees with me. I slow, allowing my brother to slide in beside me.
We certainly aren’t chucking your bonded in there because some trapped devil dragons are demanding it.
The tight feeling that had taken over my entire body begins to ease. Of course not, I say. We have no way to know whether that’s even true, that the heart is the barrier. They jumped right to offering us the heart—which conveniently happened to be the thing standing in their way—far too fast.
Somehow it’s all connected, Hyperion says. They can see her. She can see them. They freak out when they see her birthmark, but that doesn’t mean we should listen to them and free all the dragons that have been stuck here in a burning fire all this time, who clearly speak the same language as us.
Now I’m uneasy again. It feels like he’s agreeing with me, but only to play devil’s advocate. Hyperion, we can’t trust them.
Agree completely. We can’t. We can test some things, however. When you took Liz and left, another beastie snuck through.
My blood begins to boil, and I turn to head back toward the volcano.
