Page 73 of Dragon Awakened

Intellectually, I know I'm stronger than that. I've grown so much.

But in my heart, I can't help but clutch the humming metal closer. I still wish I could figure out how to remove the thing--at least for a little while. I'd like to take a shower and wash my arm, if nothing else. But secretly, I'm also kind of glad I can't. No one--not even King Erembour himself--can take its magic from me.

Lowering her voice, Amy glances down the table, as if checking that everybody else is engrossed before meeting my gaze once more. "Speaking of Emerging..."

My heart rises into my throat. I nod to encourage her to go on.

"While you were dealing with all of your mate drama, my mom and I looked over some of that stuff you stole from the Citadel." She shivers and lifts a hand to fiddle with one of her necklaces.

"Yeah?"

"First off, a bunch of it was creepy as fuck. Like, my mom had to reassure me repeatedly that she doesn't sacrifice goats or draw sigils in crushed beetle goop."

"Ew."

"Right?" She shudders again, more melodramatic this time, but no less real. "But there was also stuff that was kind of like what she did with you and Grace the other day. With the locket."

My hand goes automatically to the pendant still hanging from my neck. Two portals barely drained a fraction of its magic, leaving it crackling with the soft buzz of untapped power.

"You mean combining witch magic and dragon magic," I surmise.

"Wait--what?" Brynn scrunches up her brows, as confused as the rest of us were when Rhiannon first suggested the idea.

"Exactly," Amy says. "Apparently the Shadow Dragon Emergence rites depend on a witch and a Shadow Dragon working together to create 'dark flames'."

Eagerness and wariness twine together in my gut. "Do you think you could do it?"

"Me?" Amy's eyes widen. "No way. I mean, I can barely get my magic to work at all."

"Amy's half Shadow Dragon and half witch," I tell Brynn.

"For now," Amy mutters.

I jerk around, almost spilling what's left of my coffee in the process. "Hold on--"

"It's nothing." Amy waves a hand dismissively, but I'm not fooled.

"It doesn't sound like nothing."

"It's just a ritual I found in one of those creepy scrolls." She twists her lip distastefully. "One of the ones that does contain crushed beetle goop, unfortunately."

"You want to do a Shadow Dragon ritual?" Brynn asks, trying to keep up.

"No," I say.

"Maybe," Amy admits at the same time. She narrows her eyes at me. "And don't pretend you're all anti-Shadow-Dragon rituals. You jumped on the locket thing pretty quickly, and you seemed more than a little interested in me trying their Emergence rites."

"That's different."

"Different than me trying to reach my full potential as a witch?"

I lower my voice to a hissing whisper. "By cutting out your dragon half."

Just the idea makes my skin crawl, a nauseating revulsion twisting behind my ribs. My dragon is even more disturbed. Her great wings flap in open agitation, and the taste of cinders floods the back of my mouth.

Brynn recoils, too. "That's a thing you can do?"

"Maybe," Amy says, tucking her hair behind her ears with practiced nonchalance. "To be fair, the Shadow Dragon scrolls seemed to view it more as punishment than progress, but it all jives with what Grace was telling me about the Sisters."

---