Page 39 of Beneath Scales and Shadows
“Better?” Ignis asked, remaining a careful distance away.
“Yes.” She leaned against the balustrade, watching dragon forms move through the cavern below. “Now tell me... explain what’s happening.”
Ignis positioned himself beside her, careful not to touch, his gaze fixed on the activity below rather than on her face.
“You stand between worlds,” Ignis observed. “Earth memories in an Artanian body, human mind housing dragon blood. Few could maintain sanity through such transition in history, and yet, you are… pretty effortlessly, I might add.”
The casual compliment to her mental fortitude warmed her in a way different from the heat of transformation.
“Moments like this are what makes believing all of this is real more difficult.” She looked up at twin moons hanging in the star-strewn sky. “That I died on Earth and woke here.Thatdoesn’t just happen. That I’m becoming something not fully human, enhanced by the dragon blood in this body’s veins. That prophecies and magic and creatures of legend and myth exist. Then add this whole second gender hierarchy that determines where I stand…” She turned to face him, vulnerability winning over caution. “What scares me most is how right it feels. Being here, in your mountain, among your people. As if some part of me recognizes this as home.”
The admission cost her, exposing a fear deeper than physical danger—the fear of losing herself, of surrendering the identity she’d built over a lifetime of academic pursuits, on Earth, where she may never be able to return to by the sounds of it.
And even if there was a way for her to do so, what sacrifices must be made for her to do it? She would be foolish to believe that there would be a body for her mind—her soul—to return to, knowing that she physically would be six feet underground.
“And that frightens you.” Not a question.
“If I accept this new reality—this destiny everyone keeps claiming—what happens to who Iwas?” Her voice cracked. “Dr. Sora Valerith, historian, researcher, scholar. Does she just... disappear?”
“Why do you assume you must abandon one identity to embrace another?” He gestured to the night sky, where the White Moon was starting to dance away from her Blue Knight. “The twice-born are powerful precisely because they carry wisdom from beyond our world. Your beautiful mind, your academic knowledge—these aren’t weaknesses to discard, but strengths to integrate.”
His insight struck her silent. She’d been viewing her arrival as something lost when it wasn’t… It was a second chance atlife…
“The prophecy doesn’t erase you,” he continued, moving closer, wrapping a wing around her. “It explains what you are—and gives you a chance to help us.”
She shook her head. “You make it sound so simple.”
“Not simple. Inevitable.” His wings shifted, drawing her closer, moonlight shimmering across iridescent patterns. “Fighting your nature only prolongs the discomfort.”
Another wave of heat surged through her, more intense than before. Silver scales rippled across her skin wherever moonlight touched, shimmering with metallic luster.
“What if I’m not good enough?” The question escaped before she could contain it, exposing her deepest fear. “What if I accept this role, this... queenship, and fail? So many depend on the prophecy, on me fulfilling this cosmic plan.”
“Good enough?” Ignis’s voice carried genuine surprise as he gently gripped her chin, guiding her gaze to his. “You crossed worlds at death, awakened dragon blood dormant for generations, read ancient draconic without training, and provided tactical insight that my centuries-old advisors missed. Yet you question your worthiness?”
He stepped closer, heat radiating from his scaled form, easing the discomfort of her transformation rather than intensifying it. His scent—an intoxicating blend of midnight and fire—wrapped around her like a protective cloak.
“You are enough, Sora Valerith. More than enough. Your mind’s strength rivals your dragon blood’s power. Your compassion balances your growing magic. Both parts of you—Earth scholar and Artanian queen—create something greater than either alone.”
His words settled into her bones with comforting weight, easing fears she hadn’t fully articulated even to herself.
Another tremor raced through her, this one bringing not pain but awareness—heightened senses, deeper connection to the mountain’s heartbeat beneath her feet, to the crystal energy flowing through stone walls, to the dragon king standing before her.
“You can feel the pull... so why fight it?” Ignis asked, the question surprisingly gentle. “Why deny yourself what your soul clearly seeks?”
“Because I’m afraid.” The admission felt like release. “Of losing control. Of surrendering to something I don’t fully understand.Of wanting you.”
The last words hung between them, charged with implications neither had directly addressed since their kiss at the Selection Ball.
“Did our kiss mean something to you?” she whispered, finally asking the question that had lingered since their flight from the castle. “Or was it just alpha instinct claiming what you believe is yours?”
Ignis’s expression shifted, something ancient and powerful moving behind his crimson gaze. “That kiss meanteverything. It wasn’t merely instinct, but recognition. Not just alpha claiming omega, but soul finding its soul’s match.”
He took another step forward, now close enough that she could feel the heat of his body, see the faint pulse of fire beneath his scaled skin.
“I have lived for a century, Sora. Ruled alone. Watched generations pass and my clan’s population slowly dwindle. Nothing in that existence prepared me for you. For the hunger that goes beyond flesh, beyond instinct, to something I cannot name except to call it destiny.”
His words resonated with a truth she couldn’t deny, matching the growing certainty within her own heart.
