Page 56 of Dragon Awakened

STORM

Ididn't think it was possible to get more confused or overwhelmed. But as Ember recounts what's happened to her since she left the Air Kingdom, I'm proven wrong, again and again and again.

I'm a roiling pot of emotions, my stomach clenching with anxiety for her as she tells me about the Shadow Queen's Bracer choosing her, then my entire body burning with jealousy when she describes meeting her first two mates. The love in her eyes when she talks about Rafe and Jianyu washes a bitter taste across the back of my mouth.

That's the way she used to look at me.

As much as I want to tear out into the other room and beat the two men to a pulp for so much as touching her, I can't help the wave of gratitude that tightens my chest.

They were there for her when I couldn't be.

When I chose not to be.

When I failed her.

But Ember's always been stronger than anyone could imagine--including me. She tells me about the bombing at the summit, and about the magic she discovered. The magic she shares with her mates.

"Does that mean--" I interrupt, my senses tingling. The air around us is still, but there's a simmering energy waiting just behind that stillness.

"That we can do Air Dragon magic together?" She nods. "Probably."

The possibility alone stirs the breath inside my lungs.

But then her voice drops, and she tells me about being attacked by Shadow Dragon forces in the Crimson City.

Guilt sinks my stomach to the floor.

"I didn't know," I promise, digging my nails into the meat of my palms. The impotent rage I felt at being sent to lead a squadron of Air Dragon soldiers against some Shadow Dragon enemy floats back to me. "That you were the target."

Only that isn't completely true, is it?

"I knew you were a target," I admit, self-loathing turning my stomach to acid. "But I didn't know why--or that you were who we were attacking."

"I believe you." Her hand inches closer to my knee on the bed, and I want nothing more than her touch, but I haven't earned it.

Can I ever earn it?

"Once I recognized you, I was ready to burn it all down." I would have, given the chance. "But then you were...gone." I knit my brows together. "How, Ember?"

"Magic." She lifts her hands into the air in a self-deprecating gesture, twinkling her fingers outward from her palms.

The energy coming off her bracer glows in the dimly lit room, though. I can feel it, tugging at my bones.

"I prayed for the magic to take us somewhere safe," Ember tells me. "The next thing I knew, Jianyu, Rafe and I were in the Water Dragon Kingdom."

That's about when my jaw hits the floor.

The Water Dragon Kingdom. That entire nation of dragons was lost to us in the Great War. Wiped off the map.

And yet... There was something familiar to her third mate's features. And to the glowing tattoos running all up and down his arm.

She confirms my suspicions, but there's hardly time to dwell on the fact that her third mate is a long-lost royal from a hidden kingdom.

The sour pit in my abdomen twists, a needle of pure ice lancing my spine as she recounts being kidnapped, and awakening in a cold, dark cell in the Shadow King's Citadel. I listen intently, my heart in my throat as she describes the black walls and the dead magic and the terror of meeting both King Erembour and his Sorceress.

As focused as I am on what happened to Ember, I can't help but think about my sister, who's been trapped in that awful place for months. "Did you see--" My voice breaks off.

She looks over at me, meeting my gaze, and nods. "King Erembour introduced Princess Aria as his betrothed."

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