Chapter Thirty-One
The Docks of the Giant’s Capital
* * *
Stone towers pierced the horizon, reaching into a sky brushed with gold. Dockworkers bustled across the pier, hauling crates the size of their treehouse back home while ships of all shapes and sizes bobbed in the harbor. Everything was impossibly large. Even the ropes securing the ships looked thick enough to tether a leviathan.
Phoenix stood beside Alice, watching the surreal bustle with wide eyes. Behind them, Zohar leaned against a stone pylon, arms crossed, head tilted. Bálint and Adaline whispered quietly behind her, the wind tugging strands of Adaline’s braid loose.
Ahead, King Drago and Orion exchanged words with Koorgan, the King of the Giants, who had shrunk down to their size but was still a giant of a man. His laughter boomed like thunder, shaking the docks as he clapped Orion on the back hard enough to rock him forward a step.
But Phoenix wasn’t listening.
A strange weight pressed against her chest. Heavy. Wrong.
Her smile faded.
She turned, lifting her head and closing her eyes. She listened.
Spring…?
A breath. A whisper.
Then—a whimper.
Agony.
Fear.
Pain.
Her twin’s cry.
Her eyes flew open, glowing with sudden alarm. “Spring,” she gasped, already moving. “She’s in trouble.”
“Phoenix?” Alice stepped forward, confused.
But Phoenix didn’t answer.
Her dragon surged upward—a wave of flame and fury.
A flash of light consumed her.
Her clothes vanished, replaced by black scales and fire, wings unfurling like living banners of flame. In the space of a heartbeat, the girl was gone.
And in her place—a dragon with burning eyes and wings ablaze.
Gasps rang out around the dock. Someone screamed. Children pointed. A startled horse reared.
Phoenix launched into the sky with a roar that rippled across the city.
Zohar reacted instantly.
“Adaline—” he began.
But she was already turning into mist, her body dispersing into golden vapor as she streaked into the sky after Phoenix.
Bálint roared as he shifted mid-stride, his scales erupting in a cascade of purple and gold shards. Alice sprinted forward and vaulted onto his back, gripping his shoulders as he surged upward with a mighty beat of his wings.
