1
The rock was stillwarm from the day’s sun, even as evening crept in and painted the sky in soft bruises of purple and gold. Edith curled her tail tighter around her feet and adjusted her wings, tucking them neatly against her small, scaled body. The sea stretched endlessly before her, restless and glittering, tiny waves rolling into the cove of Krakens Hole with a rhythm that felt almost like breathing.
In. Out. In. Out.
She matched it without thinking.
A salty breeze brushed over her snout, carrying the scent of seaweed, distant storms, and something older, something that hummed in her bones in a way she couldn’t quite explain. She tilted her head, watching a particularly large wave crash against the rocks below, sending a spray of foam high into the air.
“Show-off,” she muttered under her breath. But her heart wasn’t in it tonight. Because she shouldn’t have been thinking about her past. She had been doing so well.
Truly… she had tucked it away, folded it neatly into a corner of her mind labelledDo Not Touch Under Any Circumstances, and for the most part, she’d left it there.
Until the bar. Edith’s claws tightened against the stone. The memory rose again, harsh and unwelcome.
The low hum of conversation. The clink of glasses. Binky laughing at something ridiculous, probably at Bas pretending not to enjoy the revelry, if Edith were being honest. And then the door had opened.
Cold air. Two figures had walked in, both hooded, and their presence felt wrong… but also a tinge of recognition hit her. It wasn’t them as beings but their aura, like a signature that preceded them.
Edith’s stomach had dropped so fast she’d been surprised she hadn’t physically toppled off the table. She hadn’t needed to see their faces. Hadn’t needed to hear them speak. Some things you just… knew.
The way they moved; too precise, too controlled. The way the room seemed to shift around them without anyone quite noticing why. Twin shadows. Twin hunters.
The kind you didn’t mistake. The kind you didn’tforget.
Edith swallowed hard, her throat tight, even now.
She had ducked her head immediately, forcing herself still, willing herself to be nothing more than what everyone believed she was. A small, unremarkable dragon with no secrets worth chasing.
She hadn’t looked again. Couldn’t. Because if she had, if she had confirmed it. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to stop herself from running.
Even now, perched safely on her rock, miles from that moment, the fear sat low and heavy in her chest.
“There are only a few reasons they’d be here,” she murmured, her voice barely carried by the wind. And none of those reasons were good.
Edith exhaled slowly, a faint curl of lavender-tinted smoke slipping from her nostrils.
“They wouldn’t come for nothing.” They never did. Which meant…
Her claws scraped faintly against the rock.
“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head as if she could physically dislodge the thought. “No, it could be coincidence. It could…”
It wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. Her luck wasn't that perfect.
Hunters like that didn’t wander into places like Krakens Hole by accident. And they certainly didn’t do it together unless the job mattered. Unless the target mattered.
Her.
The word echoed, cold and unwelcome. Edith squeezed her eyes shut.
You can’t stay like this forever.
Her claws tightened. “Yes, I can,” she whispered fiercely. “I absolutely can.”
The sea, as always, offered no opinion. Her gaze softened as she stared out at the horizon, but the calm didn’t quite reach her chest anymore. Not now. Not after tonight. Because the past she had so carefully buried… had just walked through the front door.
Suddenly, all the reasons she had run… all the reasons she had hidden… all the reasons she had chosen to stay small came rushing back. She hadn’t always been small. Hadn’t always been this.
