Page 88 of Dragon Awakened

"You can conjure the flames of Emergence--all on your own."

"Grace says--"

"Grace was wrong," Sister Grace says, her teeth gritted in pain, her whole arm blistered and bruised. But her eyes are clear as she beholds Amy. "I didn't know anything about Shadow Dragon magic."

Amy gestures around at the carnage surrounding us. "And now you do?"

"Your mother taught me. And you have taught me, too." Grace reaches for Amy and grasps her other hand. "The dragon inside of you is strong."

"She's weak. She's stuck inside me--holding me back--"

"You're holding you back," Grace says, and her eyes shine. "I love you."

Amy's mouth falls open, her eyes flaring wide. "Grace--"

"All of you," Grace insists. "Witch and dragon."

"But--"

"I love the person you are, in your heart."

"I love you, too," Amy whispers, her voice shaking and her eyes wet.

"Then trust me." Grace clutches her tighter. "Embrace the parts of you that you would have pushed aside."

The truth of her wisdom reaches deep into the very marrow of me. My dragon stretches her wings, and the bounds of my chest are almost at a breaking point.

And Amy is, too. Cracks appear in her resistance, but she's still wavering. "I'd need help--"

"Then you shall have it," Rhiannon's warm voice interjects from behind me.

I glance over my shoulder to find her standing there, her dress tattered, her gray hair in disarray. Soot streaks her cheeks. Rook and Mariutza are behind her, looking equally distressed, and I don't know where they've been, or what injuries they've sustained in the fight. I don't know how they materialized exactly at the moment when I needed them.

"I'm here," Grace assures her.

"I need another witch or wizard or--" Amy's eyes flare wide. "Or..."

She tugs her hands free of both mine and Grace's, diving for a bag she's been lugging around with her for the past couple of days. She reaches into it.

I don't know what I'm expecting, but the stormy, black orb she pulls from the bag's depths is definitely not it.

The deep power of the Soul Sphere crackles through the air, creating an aura that raises the hairs on my arms and on the back of my neck.

She looks to me. "Can you release him?"

Is this the time? Or the place?

My own life-changing conversation with my parents' spirits flashes back to me. I was so overwhelmed by their presence, their love, their story.

"Amy--you won't have--he'll only be here for a few moments." The preternatural calm that's guided me for these last few minutes threatens to falter. "And that's if it's even..."

The sphere spoke to me at the Citadel, refusing to be released, whispering the name Amethyst into my head. I'm sure it's the spirit of her missing father, trapped within the glass, but there's no way of knowing.

But Amy seems certain. "It is. And a few moments...it's enough."

I want to argue, to second-guess, but Rhiannon nods. "She's right. Ember, please."

My heart aches for the stifled emotion in Rhiannon's voice. It's Amy's father we're talking about releasing, but it's also Rhiannon's romantic partner--one she lost in the Great War, so many years ago.

---