Page 46 of Dragons Of Shadow and Sea

As inconspicuously as I can, I graze a fingertip against my bracer. It hums brightly, my whole arm tingling with warmth. Whatever power it's given me swirls through my veins, more vibrant than usual. But that's offset by the fact that I still feel cut off from the other elements my mates have awakened me to. The stone beneath my feet and in the walls remains dead and hollow. If there's any heat anywhere in this building, it's a muted flicker. I swear that I can feel water, somewhere around me, but I can't pinpoint where.

My dragon twitches in my chest, antsy and disoriented. The strength of my bracer's magic in this place only makes her more unbalanced.

In my head, I give her an unimpressed look. If she wanted to miraculously Emerge right now and blow this place to smithereens before flying us the hell out of here, that'd be great.

Considering she doesn't volunteer to do anything of the sort, I swallow her agitation and straighten my spine. I hold up my hands and wiggle my fingers. Yay, look at me. I'm standing. Humorlessly, I murmur, "Ta-da."

Lord Rook is not impressed. "Come, then. You have an audience with the king."

That stops me cold, jolts of ice flashing through my veins. I can't help the way my voice cracks. "The king?"

"Who did you think was calling the shots?" Li asks.

Lord Rook cuts him off with a glance. Towering over me, he addresses me with a gravity that only deepens the chill in my bones. "We have little time. So listen well. Everything you believed to be true is false." He lifts his hands as if to encompass everything around us. "The Shadow Realm thrives. And King Erembour is very, very much alive."

My eyes threaten to bug out of my head. Panic claws at the inside of my chest, and I've lost the restraint required to try to keep it to myself. "But--he--all of you--the Shadow Kingdom--"

"Was defeated in the Great War, yes, I'm well aware of the propaganda you in the other kingdoms were fed." One corner of his mouth lifts. "In fact, I daresay I planted some of it myself."

My stomach clenches, and I have to fight not to visibly recoil. "And King Erembour..."

Just the name sends a shudder racing through me.

He was a cartoon villain in my youth. A literal and figurative shadow that hung over everything and everyone. He wanted utter dominion over the entire dragon world, and he was happy to burn the entire earth to the ground in a haze of black fire to get it. He tortured, murdered, raped--and ordered the Shadow Dragons under his command to do so as well.

When the Shadow Kingdom fell, a wave of relief swept across the whole of dragonkind. King Erembour was dead. We were free.

The urge to be sick rises in my throat.

We were free to begin squabbling amongst ourselves, was what we were. The three remaining kingdoms remained unified for all of three minutes. And then they were immediately at each other's throats again.

I was a child, still grieving my father, abandoned by my mother. I had no idea what was going on. But even I felt the disappointment. The rage.

I want to deny what Lord Rook is saying. But deep in my heart, isn't he only confirming what we already knew?

A decade ago, some force turned the remaining dragon kingdoms against each other.

More recently--someone planted Li and Atina in the Stone and Fire Dragon courts. Someone enabled Gethen to become the Fire King's eyes and ears.

Someone let Li into the Water Kingdom.

But the idea that King Erembour has been pulling the strings this entire time...

Lord Rook smiles more fully, revealing sharp, stained teeth. "King Erembour," he says, "does not like to be kept waiting."

"You heard him." Li gathers a ball of darkness in his hand and gestures toward the open door of my cell.

I flex my own fingers. The bolt of black fire I was able to hurl at him back in the Water Kingdom was a bit of a disappointment; he deflected it too easily. But now that I've managed to use my magic to attack someone, there's a hot prickle tickling just beneath my skin, reminding me that I'm not helpless.

One glance from Lord Rook and I curl my hand back up into a fist. His dragon leaps close to the surface of his presence, that old, dark power serving as a warning.

I may not be helpless, but in my battered state, there's no way I could take on both Li and Rook. Besides--even if I did, where would I go?

Warily, I follow Lord Rook as he leads me out. I flinch when the old woman in the cell across the way reaches through the bars for me.

"Oh, there you are, dear--I was wondering when you'd be back."

My brows draw together. "What--"

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