Page 35 of The Dragon 2
In the Kingdom of Hareef, Lowlys had no name.
No rights.
No history.
No future.
In the rest of the kingdom lived the Nobles—pale skinned people with golden silky hair and blue eyes. Anyone that appeared different from that, was considered a Lowly.
Pale skin, yet dark hair—Lowly.
Golden hair, but dark skin—Lowly.
And she was the very opposite of all—dark brown, brown eyes, thick curly black hair.
To the Nobles, she was nothing.
But tonight. . .the nothing had stopped a god and saved them.
I really did! I just wish. . .I knew how to do it again. . .
Sol flicked her eyes to the sky.
Above her, the heavens had begun to clear—dark velvet stretching wide, punctuated with a scattering of stars.
The moon hung low and bruised, haloed in ash.
But not all was still.
The dragon had left his mark.
A trail of glowing orange vapor arched high across the stars.
It was an enchanting slash in the sky—the last breath of his fire lingering in the upper winds.
Wisps of black smoke drifted through the glow, twisting like serpents around the embers, refusing to vanish completely.
Where the stars should have gleamed clean and cold, some pulsed behind the haze—dimmed, shivering beneath the heat Korin had carved through the atmosphere.
She stared at that molten streak—his path—still fresh, still crackling with memory.
Her breath caught, the cold of her magic curling inside her chest as her pulse rose again.
Korin had flown there, and now the image of him lingered behind her eyelids—a creature so vast he swallowed the stars. His body had shimmered with layered black and gold, each scale a weapon of beauty, each wingbeat bending the heavens to his will.
She remembered the way his claws sliced through the clouds-like knives through silk, the way his fangs gleamed like ivory spears.
He had been terrifying, yes, but also. . .magnificent.
A god of fire.
A beast of ancient hunger.
Where others had ignored and avoided her, Korin had seen her.
That thought alone made her shiver.
She hadn’t run.
