“We landed first, didn’t we, DJ?” Stone argued.
“Yeah, just cause we didn’t touch her doesn’t mean you get to keep her,” DJ growled.
“I could share— for the low price of a gold coin,” Roo added, a sly grin appearing on her rosy lips.
Stone’s jaw dropped. “That’s not fair!”
“That’s robbery! Dad—” DJ growled, glaring at his little sister.
“Fair’s got nothing to do with it. It’s business. Isn’t that right, Daddy?” Roo huffed, lifting her chin.
Theron, Drago’s second-in-command, snorted with laughter. “Careful, Drago. At this rate, Roo’s hoard will rival yours.”
Drago shot him a dry look. “Don’t remind me.”
Phoenix giggled at the little girl’s calculating expression. Amber and Jade would totally love Roo. The memory of where she was, what she had done, and her fear for her friends turned her giggle to a choked cry of distress.
She looked up at Drago, a silent plea in her eyes for help. He returned her gaze before he looked down at his three children who were bickering with each other about the price of spending time with their newest ‘discovery’.
“Let’s take this somewhere less public,” he suggested.
Phoenix nodded and bit her lip. Roo slipped her hand into hers and gripped it tightly as they moved through the main plaza, climbing wide cobbled streets carved with golden veins. Phoenix frantically tried to keep up with the rapid-fire questions the kids were asking her.
“Does it hurt when your wings catch fire?” Stone asked.
“Can you really turn into a bird and burst into flames?” DJ inquired.
“How did you get your wings and tail to change like that?” Stone asked, pushing against his older brother to walk beside her.
“No, it doesn’t hurt when my wings and tail are on fire. I don’t burst into flames—well, not like the bird phoenix does. I was born this way. I don’t know why I’m different. Spring, my twin sister, and my friends who are dragon shifters have wings like yours,” Phoenix explained.
“You mean there are more of you? Here? Where are they? Can we meet them? If we do, I claim them too,” Roo asked in an excited voice.
Phoenix hesitated, staying silent when Drago looked over his shoulder. She wasn’t sure how much she should share—yet.
Roo and her brothers began arguing again about whether Roo could claim the other dragonlings if they showed up. Phoenix fingered the hem of her shirt. She missed them.
With a sigh, she focused on where she was going. The streets climbed higher, offering glimpses of the ocean far below. Stone bridges arched over waterfalls, market stalls gave way to lush gardens blooming with impossible flowers—ruby red, sapphire blue, petals glittering like gemstones.
The castle loomed ahead, carved into the very mountain. Spires reached for the sky, windows glowing with warm golden light.
It really does look like a fairytale castle from the picture books mom read to us, she thought with more than a touch of awe.
“Welcome to the Isle of the Dragons,” Drago said softly, as if sensing her wonder. “Let’s see what fate has in store for you… Phoenix Reykill.”
Chapter Seven
Drago led Phoenix through the towering gates, his senses sharpening as he listened to his children’s rapid-fire questions, their voices bright with excitement. Despite the seriousness of the young girl’s unusual sudden arrival, a wry smile tugged at his lips. Leave it to Roo to claim the girl as her own before anyone else could.
He stole a glance at Phoenix from the corner of his eye. She was… nothing like he’d expected. Nali had spoken of her—the girl who saved Asahi Tanaka, the one who freed the Goddess Aminta from death itself.
Yet, standing beside him was a young female, barely out of childhood, with wary eyes that shifted color like a prism, catching light, and long midnight hair that gleamed like spun silk.
Beautiful. Alien. And terrifying, in the way fate could be.
Drago’s jaw clenched. He hadn’t missed the way the portal tore open the sky like a wound, nor the burst of energy that had sent every instinct screaming at him. He and his guards had been mid-flight, performing a routine sweep of the cliffs when the sky ripped open.
The vision of the black dragon with flaming wings emerging from that swirl of color still burned in his mind. The image had been seared into every scroll of Arkla, the city of the Ancient Dragons, their first home. A dragon of flame and shadow, soaring across the stars.
