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She was dimly aware of the doors opening behind them as air whispered around the massive cavern.
She dared not look, as she desperately held onto Jori.
A tall woman drifted into her line of sight, her gaze glued on the scene before all of them, her expression impassive.
Assessing.
She frowned. Confusion crept across her features, her lips thinned, brows furrowed.
Her lips parted with a gasp, and the concentrated frown sprang loose as her expression twisted back and forth between joy and pain.
Elora.
A thin band of metal hugged her slim throat.
Her eyes slid between Jori and the dragon, and rage descended over her as she drew breath. A ripple of power surged around them as Elora screamed words so ancient, Kymri had no idea what they meant, but her dragon reacted with shock, making her lose concentration on her thread.
Everyone seemed to be affected by the trigger of recognition, hearing words only their deepest dragon understood. It shocked the king, causing enough distraction to pull his attention from Jori.
The effect on Jori was instant.
Released from the onslaught, his body sagged.
Terror ripped through Kymri. What had Elora done? Had she killed him?
Jori didn’t fall to the floor, he caught himself on a knee, the air shimmering around him. It intensified.
A deafening roar emanated from a throat incapable of making such a sound.
It resonated through her, snatching an involuntary gasp of awe and desire. Her dragon was fully alert, straining against the magic of the shackles repressing her as Jori’s dragon emerged.
Oh.
He was magnificent!
The torchlight made the deep green of his scales shimmer. His claws were razor hooks. His opalescent eyes were otherworldly.
The crowd flowed away as he filled the space.
The dragon king stumbled into the cave wall.
Jori struggled to regain his breath, exhilarated and terrified by what was happening.
Kymri’s whisper in his head—I love you—had been replaced by the forced dominance of Richmund’s monstrous voice luring him into submission.
Then, he could have sworn he’d heard his mother; a rage-filled shout that struck his heart, and everything changed.
Released, the air around him changed and he was melting. Everything that he was, disintegrated, warped to make room for something else, adding to himself. Growing.
Was he having an out of body experience? Richmund had killed him, and this was Jori leaving his carcass behind as he floated upward like a helium balloon to the cave roof. When he looked down, he didn’t actually feel weightless. He was very solid, but so very high up.
He looked down on his father, the dragon king.
That pathetic little dragon had tried to suppress his will and make him subservient. How dare he? He deserved to be crushed.
Anger shot through his body, white hot. He felt a pull on his lower back, turning in time to see a heavy tail whipping through the space. His own tail lashed back and forth, expressing his agitation.
Then he noticed the little people staring up at him in awe.
