Page 375 of Kingdoms of Night

“You think you know more of ruling than me, Son?” Father stepped closer, his breath hot on Viridi’s face.

The danger in those eyes told Viridi to watch his words. Father wouldn’t kill him; he was too useful. But there were ways to control a person—he’d do something to Viridi’s friends or some such awful thing. Dew and Felix were going to meet Viridi here soon. He hoped they wouldn’t arrive until after Father left.

In order to protect them, Viridi swallowed his retort and pushed back at the magic flowing from his heart. Not yet. If he could help it, he wouldn’t shift fully until he knew more about why the jeweltrees felt so…wrong.

“Of course not, Father,” he gritted out. “I would never question you. But I do wish you would consider leaving. The Pearl Isles would be perfect for our people. Then if I am wrong about the danger I pose in my fully shifted form, I will join you or send word for you to return. Please, consider it.”

“I will not. And I won’t hear you bring it up again. I will never leave my island. I own this land and everyone in it. No one is leaving. That conversation is closed.”

Viridi pressed his eyes shut, wishing Father would consider it. Maybe if Felix found something in the scrolls to point to Viridi’s concerns…

“Viridi. Shift. I command you as your king.” He struck him with his staff and pain lanced across Viridi’s arm as he opened his eyes to see Father’s glare. “Show me your loyalty by shifting now. Now, Viridi.”

You’re the monster, he longed to say. But he wouldn’t because that might mean the end of his friends’ lives. “I’m trying, but I cannot,” he lied.

Father stared for a moment, then his shoulders relaxed as if he’d given up. “Fine. But you must do so and soon.” He turned to leave, but stopped and raised a finger. “I have a surprise for you tonight. Make certain you aren’t late to the festivities.”

Viridi bowed his head slightly, and at last, Father walked away.

For several minutes, Viridi worked to calm the Thorned One power until finally he felt like himself once more. He breathed deeply, and an unusual twinge of excitement fluttered across his heart.

Dropping his hands to his sides, he stared over the starlit ocean. Even with his excellent eyesight, he saw nothing but the black expanse. No lightning-fed cloud banks. No large swells.

There had been ships in the past, pirates and adventurers who had heard of their rare and valuable jeweltrees with their pearly leaves. His people had successfully warded the island from sight and killed any who’d managed to find a way through the magical barrier. The jeweltrees were sacred; they couldn’t be risked for any reason.

But Viridi didn’t spot any sails or dark crafts on the starlit horizon.

So what was this strange anticipation inside him?

He touched the jeweltree beside him and the tree’s leaves shivered in delight as his magic and the tree’s melded and spun back into them both equally. The tree was honored to have housed him during that day—he could feel the truth of it. Where was the evil whispering now? He shook his head. It didn’t make any sense. One minute, the jeweltrees were fine and the next, they wanted Viridi to destroy everyone.

A snap in the forest behind him had Viridi turning around. Felix walked into view and waved.

“What do you see out there?” Felix’s pale eyes were bright in the deepening dark.

The familiar feeling of wishing he fit in washed through Viridi. Since birth, his pointed ears had been tipped in wood instead of flesh like all the other dryad elves’ ears. From the first day, everyone had known Viridi was different.

But he could live with being different as long as he managed to truly protect his people. He only had to figure out what was happening with the jeweltrees.

Viridi and Felix turned from the softly cresting waves of the broad ocean and took up the fern-bordered trail toward their village, one of many on the island.

“Father encouraged me to fully shift into my Thorned One form.”

“Tonight?” Felix looked around as if Father might spring from the stars’ shadows. The scar that ran across the left side of his mouth reflected the scant moonlight.

“Yes. You just missed him. Thank the gods.”

A thin sliver of moon shyly cast its own glow as the night progressed. The oaks and pines shuffled in greeting as they passed. Felix asked for details about Viridi’s conversation with Father and he told him everything. Since they were younglings, they’d been close, keeping nothing from one another. They walked the winding trail toward the village, keeping to the route that skirted everyone’s home trees and the more commonly traveled paths.

“I read over the scrolls about other shifter beings,” Felix said. “They were mostly focused on dragon shifters.”

“Of course.”

“I have only been able to find mentions of the two Thorned Ones with no detail beyond what you already know.”

That the Thorned Ones of the past could shift and unshift at will. “Maybe I will gain better control as I age.”

His mind whirled with possibilities on how to solve the puzzle of the jeweltrees. He wished Mother hadn’t died from the skirmish with the cliff tribes. She would have had ideas on how to help him learn about his fate and how to conquer its challenges. Viridi had thought Father would aim for peace after Mother’s death, but that thought had proven very, very wrong.

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