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Unable to bear not knowing, convinced that my family will be fine and this is all just some horrible mistake, I keep my gaze fixed on the ground as I approach the home that I grew up in. Then I lift my eyes and see Ma, her green eyes dead and staring and her hair rippling in a faint breeze. Blood oozes from the corner of her mouth. I turn toward the other spike, and a cry so filled with pain it barely sounds human rips from my throat. Waylen. My brother’s skinny, still childish body has been viciously impaled through the back and up through his fragile chest. Hisface—
I can’t linger over the expression of misery and pain etched on his babyish features. I turn and fall to my knees and start to sob. This is not what I saw. This isn’t my vision. This is a nightmare.
Dad and Anise were inside our cottage. I merely glimpsed them, but I heard their happy voices. I turn and look over my shoulder as tears pour down my face, but nothing moves inside past the open cottage door, and Dad and Anise wouldn’t laugh while Ma and Waylen were impaled on spikes.
“Dad. Anise,” I call, my voice cracking between sobs.
But they’re not here. As my eyes travel around the square, I realize that everyone I saw in my vision is dead. People I merely glimpsed or heard are nowhere to be seen.
Something butts against my shoulder and gives a sad cry. Esmeral has crept closer, her body low to the ground, her head bowed in grief. There’s so much sadness filling her beautiful turquoise and golden eyes, as if she’s lost her family. My hands are limp and useless in my lap as I gaze at her. I can’t feel anything but the pain in my heart. What has been the point of all the weeks of hope and worry only to discover that Ma and Waylen are dead? How could I have cried in the dark for them for a whole year while the Brethren beat me, only to never hug Waylen again? Feel Ma’s arms around me. Listen to her voice. I’ll never get to talk to her again. I’ll never laugh with Waylen or chase him around the kitchen table as I threaten to tickle him.
Esmeral lifts her head and makes a loud, keening wail, as if all the pain in the world has suddenly been heaped on her back. It sounds like she’s crying. Esmeral suffering with me. I wish I wasn’t hurting her with the misery in my heart. I try to turn away from her, but she fastens her teeth on my sleeve and pulls me back. Esmeral unfurls her wings and wraps them around me. Holding me. Protecting me. At the same time, she enfolds her consciousness around mine. I attempt to shield her from what I’m going through, but it’s too late. She’s everywhere, and I’m not strong enough to push her away.
The grief rises up in a huge wave. I lean against her breastbone and sob into her neck. I cry so hard that I don’t know if I’ll ever stop. I cry for my family, dead and lost. I cry for Dad and Anise, who must be in the same pain as I am, or they will be if they ever learn Ma and Waylen’s fate. I cry for Ma’s pain, and the terror poor timid little Waylen must have felt all this time. They’re gone, and I’m alone.
Only I’m not. Warm, leathery wings surround me. Turquoise and golden flames dance behind my closed eyes. I can feel Esmeral everywhere. I can’t tell where I end and she begins.
I open my eyes and touch her throat. “I pushed you away as much as Zabriel. I’m so sorry. I don’t deserve you.”
Esmeral chitters angrily and buffets her head against my shoulder. I can feel her telling me not to be so stupid.
“You are my dragon, aren’t you? And I’m your rider. You and I are like Zabriel and Scourge. Stesha and Nilak. Tish and Damla.” Meant to be together. Meant to die together.
Esmeral ducks her head and rests her cheek against mine. The capricious, excitable creature I first came to know is as steady as a rock as she protects me. Comforts me. Lends me her strength.
Whole oceans of strength. I feel them coursing through me. This is what a dragon is. Pure, tempered strength.
“What are we going to do now?” I whisper.
Esmeral trills softly and wraps herself even tighter around me. Whatever we’re going to do, we’re going to do it together.
“Isavelle?” a tentative voice calls across the square.
Esmeral’s wings unfurl a little and I peer out.
A lone figure is standing on the other side of the square, a young woman with dark brown hair and a horsey scent about her.
Surprise sweeps over me. “Odanna? What are you doing here? How did you even get here?”
Esmeral opens her jaws in a soft, warning hiss. I glance up at my dragon and see that her burning eyes are fixed on the young woman. Odanna isn’t looking around at the dead villagers in horror. She’s only looking at me, which is so strange that my neck prickles in alarm.
She hurries forward, her expression desperate. “Isavelle, you must go. Leave now. He’ll take you. He’llkillyou.”
I curl my fingers around one of Esmeral’s talons, holding on to my dragon as my heart pounds in fear. I have no intention of following anyone’s orders except my own, Zabriel’s, my dragon’s, or Scourge’s. They’re the only ones that I trust.
“Who’s going to kill me?” I gesture to all the dead villagers. “The Shadow King? Did he do all this?”
Odanna finally looks around her. Her fingers twist together, and she shakes her head like she’s confused. “I don’t know. I…”
“Odanna, what are you doing here? How did you even get here?”
“I…” she says but trails off again.
Esmeral hisses again, and there are rumblings inside her as she prepares to breathe fire.
I watch Odanna through narrowed eyes. There’s no innocent reason for her to be here. She must have been following me, which is alarming, or working for the Brethren, which means she’s the enemy when I thought she was a friend. “I had a vision that everyone in my village was safe and happy. I thought my visions showed me things that are happening, but instead, I found this.”
Odanna clenches her fists and shouts, “No. It wasn’t a real vision. It was a trick.”
