Page 118 of Court of Secrets and Flames

Childe of dragons

but no one’s childe.

Not of Tirene

Nor Aclaris.

A dragoncaller buried alive,

Unearthed only to die.

Forged in fire,

Reborn from ashes,

The lost heir will break the worlds

And save the worlds.

When I read the words, I’m positive my jaw hits the floor. I review them once more before returning the paper to the king, who reads the passage out loud.

Why? Why has King Jasper kept the first part of the prophecy to himself? None of this makes sense.

I give the king a moment to finish. Then, at the risk of irritating him, I say what’s on my mind. Based on my earlier encounter with these horrible creatures, time is not on our side.

“Your Majesty, there’s something I don’t understand. If you’ve known about the whole prophecy, about the drachen, why haven’t you informed the kingdom?”

He heaves a sigh, and his shoulders droop. For the first time since we met, he doesn’t exude royal, healthy airs. Instead, he could pass as a weary, elderly man stripped of all pretense. “It was just a suspicion, one I hoped I was wrong about. If I was, then I would have caused widespread panic and confusion among the people.”

A valid reason, but I still don’t understand. “Okay. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but if you knew about the chronicles, why didn’t you read them?”

“What I’m about to say does not leave this room.” He meets each person’s eyes in warning. “The book is warded, protectedby ritual magic. It’s penned by the daughter of Queen Aero, an ancient queen of Tirene. Only her descendants can touch the book.”

“That means…Lark is her descendant.” Bastian vocalizes my own thoughts, and my mind is blown at the implication.

I’m the descendant of a queen.

“Why ward it so only those of her lineage could read the book, though?” Bastian wonders aloud.

“Due to their dragoncaller lineage, it was Aero’s family who fought the drachen and were nearly obliterated long ago. The crown princess wrote the chronicles, masked the collection as fiction, and somehow hid it in the Royal Archives to gather dust and be forgotten. Waiting for the day one of her descendants would find it and read it if the drachen ever…reemerged.”

I still have a lot to process and far too many questions. “These shadow creatures…the drachen. How can we defeat them? The book doesn’t say.”

“I don’t know yet,” Jasper tips his head in a surprising respectful gesture, “but I think as a dragoncaller, you’re the key to their downfall.”

Sterling opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, pandemonium erupts outside the chamber.

Shouts and screams of despair reverberate through the night air, starting from outside the windows and trailing into the corridor. The rattle and scrape of metal on stone echoes around the suite door.

I stand, heart pounding a relentless warning.

The door bursts open under the force of a handful of guards, who literally trip over themselves to get into the room. Their faces are ashen, their eyes wide with horror, and their armor spattered with blood.

“Your Majesty, they’re dead,” one gasps, fighting for breath. “Half a dozen…throats torn out…”

I swallow hard to keep the bile down. Throats…that’s what’s on his armor. Pieces of someone’s…

Deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths.

---