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I dropped, diving down, thrusting my talons into the water and catching something solid. Fur and armor. The sense of weight. I yanked up, wings flaring, water streaming off my front legs. Down below, the bear was shouting something I couldn’t make out.

They’re saying thank you, right?

Let’s hope so, Pendragon muttered.

I beat my wings, flying across the cavern one last time. The tunnel mouth rushed to meet us.

This was it. I had to land while carrying a Bearkin and without scraping Pendragon against the roof of the tunnel like smeared jam. Or tossing Neville from his little nest like a smashed egg.

Shit, I murmured. Here we go.

It seemed like no one had realized the huge, red dragon was eventually going to have to make a landing. As they saw me coming, there was a lot of shouting. Then everyone started to run deeper inside the tunnel opening. I came in a little too hot, my wings flaring wide. The tips scraped against the side of the cavern, and I swore.

Hawl swung beneath me like a pendulum. I managed to lift my legs and toss the bear forward. They hit the tunnel floor with a thump, rolling inward. Then my own body was hitting the rocky floor with a jarring thud.

You all right up there? I asked anxiously. I hope you’re ducking.

I’m ducking. I’m all right. So is Neville.

I felt Pendragon moving. Then she was sliding from my back, fluffin under one arm.

Neville didn’t want to get off, she said, looking up at me. You going to, you know … ?

You want to get some clothes ready for me? I said, suddenly realizing I was about to be naked with everyone staring at me. And maybe—oh, I don’t know—ask everyone to turn the fuck around?

“Blake’s going to shift back,” she bellowed loudly. “Everyone turn around unless you want to see dragon ass.”

For fuck’s sake, I muttered. Thanks a lot, Pendragon.

I mean, I want to see it. She waggled her eyebrows at me with a grin.

Oh, you’re going to see a lot of it tonight, I promised her.

And then I was shifting back as Pendragon rummaged in my pack, which Sankara had kindly carried over for me. I grabbed a pair of trousers as she tossed them and started pulling them on before anyone could decide they wanted a full frontal peek.

I’d done it. Everyone was alive. No one had fallen or been squashed or drowned. “I didn’t kill anyone,” I said aloud.

Pendragon moved toward me, her eyes soft. She wrapped her arms around my waist, hands flat and warm against my bare skin. “I’m proud of you. Do you hear me?”

I felt proud of myself. No burning. No destruction. I’d saved.

Behind us the water was rising. Pendragon grabbed my hand with one of hers and reached for my pack, hoisting it onto her shoulder. She tugged me along, and we followed the others deeper into the tunnel. I looked at the people I’d rescued and then down at my girl. Maybe my heart wasn’t quite as black as I’d once thought.

“I think you tamed this dragon, Pentagon,” I murmured. She squeezed my hand harder.

For a few moments, I let my mind wander away from the vault that was trying to kill us and the Mortis squad up ahead. I thought about my mother. I’d spent years afraid that she’d chosen to leave. That she’d stepped into the Sanctum because she loved the Blood-maiden more than her own children. It had been a convenient lie, a way for me to stay numb and detached. To keep not caring.

The truth was both better and worse. She hadn’t left because she didn’t care. She’d left because she did. She’d given her life to protect me. Now I’d accepted something: My mother was gone. I would never see her again. And if that were true, then her sacrifice was real, and I owed her more than my anger. I owed her proof that her sacrifice meant something. That the life she’d given hadn’t been wasted on me.

I thought of all I’d lost. My mother, Aenia, any chance of a healthy relationship with Marcus. My belief in my father’s goodness. The Peacebringer was a myth, but one Drakharrow had been good. That wasn’t a lie. And another thing: I still had people I loved to survive for. People who needed me to make better choices. Who needed me to protect them.

I thought of Theo, so brilliant and brave. I thought of Visha, who’d become my closest friend these past two years. Sure, she could stab you and smirk while she did it. But the point was, ultimately, she cared. Even about the people she sometimes pretended to hate.

I thought of Pendragon—my true fire. My rider and my reason for going on. The girl who had seen me at my worst—and stayed. Love wasn’t a choice, she’d told me. Like always, she’d turned out to be right.

There were others, too. People who cared about me and who I cared about. Sankara, Rodriguez, Magda, and little Neville. Even that fucking murder bear.

This was the life my mother had bought with her own. Not a throne like Viktor wanted. Not power like Elaria Avari secretly craved. But a chance to make a better world. A chance to choose to be a better man.