Page 50 of Dragons Of Shadow and Sea

Because he really is talking about those old fairy tales. The stories about a dragon born of Stone, Fire, Water and Air, rising to lead the world of dragons.

They're just myths. Legends.

Or at least that was what I always thought. Since the moment I left the Air Dragon Kingdom, everything's gone topsy-turvy, though. Rhiannon herself hinted at the fact that my ideas about the world might not be true. That myths and legends were rooted in reality. High Priestess Fang gave me even more reason to believe in the ancient myths.

And let's be honest here. The fact that I mated to three dragon princes from three different dragon kingdoms has definitely opened my mind to the idea that I might be part of something bigger than myself.

But none of the legends--not one--alluded to five dragon kingdoms being united under one banner.

Oh, no. The entire point of the stories was that a leader would emerge to defeat the Shadow Dragons. Not to bring them into the fold.

King Erembour's lips curl up into a darkly menacing smile. The double image of his young face superimposed on his ancient, rotting one is even more jarring somehow, and my stomach turns.

"Are you really still pretending to be surprised?" he asks. "Considering who you are?"

I'm not about to ask him to clarify who I am. I won't give him the satisfaction. But being constantly bewildered by everything this madman says is starting to get old.

"There are four great dragon kingdoms," I remind him.

"Lies," he spits. "Corrupted versions of the true order of the dragon world. False prophecies. There have always been and always shall be five."

I shake my head, unwilling to listen to this. "There are four, and if the stories are true, they will unite to bring light to shadow--"

"They will bring Shadow to light," the king thunders. Darkness seems to pool around his feet, and my breath catches, a new bloom of terror erupting in my chest. "A true heir born of Shadow, Stone, Fire, Water and Air."

"No--" I can't help but flinch.

"But you are no true heir."

Of course I'm not.

Right?

A fresh kind of panic sends shivers racing up and down my arms.

Before the Great War, dragons from all four kingdoms lived in harmony. They intermarried and interbred; everyone has a little bit of every kind of dragon in their blood.

Except Shadow.

Or so I always believed. But I've now met Rhiannon and Amy and Jett.

I've felt the pull of the Shadow Queen's bracer on my own arm and on my soul.

Flashes of fragmented memory appear before my eyes.

My father stepping in front of me, and darkness eclipsing the sun. My father protecting me. Crackles of purple light, and a storm of shadows.

And light. There was always light.

But what if...

Could my father have been...

My breath catches, and I can't breathe, but it's not King Erembour's magic emptying my lungs this time.

Rhiannon and High Priestess Fang both implied that my heritage could be more complicated than I imagined, but I shrugged their suggestions off. What they were saying... It was impossible.

Except here I stand, the Shadow King himself ranting and railing in front of me. Despite the nausea and the revulsion, I force myself to look him in the eye.

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