Page 22 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
My God mourns with me. I feel it as readily as I feel my own heartbeat: the Great Weaver’s sorrow. It matches my own.
Hunching my shoulders, I drink deeply of the air, trying to steady myself, to staunch the flow of my traitorous tears before they drown me completely.
“Why?” That is the question I have always wanted to ask but have never dared to voice. Even now, the words stick in my throat.
But I have to know.
“Why did you make me so weak?”
A great king. That is the message Liora carried—news that I would be agreatking.
But I am not great. I could not save Aurelia. I could not save my father.
I cannot even save myself.
« Because, »the Aether whispers, the words thrumming through my soul with every beat of my heart,« My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is madeperfectin weakness. »
My eyes fly wide as visions flare into being and careen through the air. A thousand potential lifetimes. A thousand potential futures. They flicker past too quickly for my gaze to track.
But my mind absorbs them all.
In some, I live. In some, I die. But in all of them, the Aerie falls. Drakara burns. My people perish. I fail to protect them.
Every. Single. Future.
I fail.
Naei. It can’t end like this. I refuse to let it end like this.
“How?” My hands curl into fists. I grit my teeth and snarl, “How do I prevent this?”
Still, the visions flicker past. Death. Destruction.
Hatchlings wither in their eggs. Dragonesses shatter the skies with their pained screams. Pixies fall from the heavens. Dragons succumb to their Shades.
“How?”
Forests turn to ash. The very mountains crumble into motes of dust. Rivers evaporate into nothing.
A lone tear streaks down my cheek as I continue to watch. “How?” I rasp again. “Please. Please, show me how to prevent this.”
As swiftly as they began, the visions stop. Golden light floods the Vault of Kings instead. I narrow my eyes against it, momentarily blinded.
But when next I blink, I seeherstanding before me. Golden. Gleaming.
My heart catches in my throat. I am on my feet in the next moment, reaching for the vision before me. I know her before her eyes lock with mine. I know her even though it has been twelve years since last I saw her face.
I would know her anywhere.
She is my first thought every morning.
My last thought every evening.
“Aurelia.” Her name is but a breath on my lips as I stare into eyes the color of the clearest summer sky and try not to weep. My hands reach for her; they try to cup her cheeks.
But my fingers pass straight through her.
“Naei,”I whisper, shaking my head. “She is my undoing. I am her death. Shecannotbe the key to saving Drakara.” I deny it hotly. “I willnotendanger her now. Not after all these years of keeping her safe.”
