Page 38 of Beneath Scales and Shadows
SORA
Sora jerked awake with a gasp, her lungs burning as though filled with icy water. The nightmare clung to her consciousness—phantom hands shoving her forward, cold water closing over her head, a familiar face watching impassively as darkness claimed her.
“Sora?”Ignis’s voice cut through her panic, low and concerned. “Sora!”
“A dream.” She struggled upright in her silken bed, hand at her throat. “It was just a dream...”
Only it wasn’t. No matter how much she tried to convince herself it was. The details were too vivid, too specific. Drowning. Being watched. The face observing her demise with cold calculation.
Ignis was instantly beside her, his scaled form gleaming in the prismed light. He knelt beside her bed, wings open as if to shield her from the world beyond, careful to maintain enough distance not to overwhelm her with his presence, though warmth radiated from him like a hearth fire.
“Tell me.”
The command carried no alpha compulsion, only genuine concern. Sora drew a shuddering breath, the terror receding beneath his steady gaze.
“I’m drowning in a frozen lake. The water fills my lungs, and I can’t breathe. Someone watches from above, someone with familiar eyes. The same dream, over and over.”
Ignis’s crimson eyes narrowed. “How long have you had this dream?”
“Since arriving in Artania.” She massaged her temples, trying to grasp details that slipped through her memory like smoke. “Maybe it’s just my subconscious processing this impossible situation.”
“Or maybe,” Ignis suggested, his voice deepening, “it’s not your imagination at all.”
A chill crept up Sora’s spine that had nothing to do with the cool mountain air. “What do you mean?”
“The baker’s daughter—this body you inhabit. She was found nearly drowned in a frozen lake—and yet you live. What if you’re not seeing a nightmare, but her final memory?”
“You think someone tried to kill her?” she muttered, understanding crashed down on her. “That her death wasn’t an accident?”
“I think,” Ignis said carefully, gently cupping her face, “that coincidences rarely exist in prophecy.”
The implications threaded through Sora’s mind, connecting fragments she’d dismissed. The strange looks from Princess Jewels. Morgana’s suspicion. The royal soothsayer’s performance at the ball.
A wave of dizziness swept over her as the temperature of her body suddenly spiked, heat cascading through her core. She clutched the silken sheets, alarmed at the intensity of the sensation.
“What’s happening to me?” The words emerged as a gasp.
Ignis’s nostrils flared, his pupils expanding until crimson was nearly swallowed by black. “Your transformation is almost complete,” he murmured, voice deeper than before. “The dragon blood in your veins knows its own, responding to my presence.” He hesitated, claws flexing at his sides. “You’re nearing your first heat.”
That word again. Heat. Everyone kept using it—Lyra, Zalaya, now Ignis—yet no one had properly explained what it meant in this world, in this context.
“What does that mean exactly?” She pushed herself upright, the sheet pooling around her waist. “I understand the concept biologically with animals, but...”
Ignis combed taloned fingers through his crimson hair, turning away to pace the perimeter of the chamber. His wings twitched with agitation, catching the luminous light in hypnotic patterns.
“Perhaps this should be a conversation you have with Ember,” he suggested, voice strained. “Or Zalaya. She has explained these matters to many over the course of generations.” His tail lashed behind him, betraying his discomfort. “There must be books on the subject in the library—”
“I want to hear it from you.” The words emerged with surprising firmness. “No one else.”
He stopped abruptly, head snapping toward her. His nostrils flared as he inhaled her scent once more, something feral shifting behind his gaze. In three fluid strides, he returned to her bedside, pressing a scaled palm to her forehead with unexpected gentleness.
“You’re burning,” he murmured, frowning.
“I need air.” She pushed aside the covers, the silk sliding against her heightened senses like water over stone. “I’m too hot.”
Ignis stepped back, giving her space. “The balcony. The night air might help cool your blood.”
She followed him through corridors to a wide balcony overlooking the central cavern. Above, apertures in the mountain’s peak allowed moonlight to stream down in silver columns, illuminating the dragon city below. The cool mountain air against her heated skin brought immediate relief.
