Page 65 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Lightning cracks. Thunder booms. In the brief flash of light, I spot something in the near distance flying toward us fast. Something large. Something deadly.
Another dragon.
Long-dormant Jewel instincts awaken inside me and scream at me to flee. To let go. To allow Bene—or Brisa—to spirit me back down to Spindleton on a gust of Air. Dragons mean death. They know nothing but how to conquer and claim. This new one will be no different.
I can flee to Cindralune with my family. I can change my name. I can mask my glow. I can pretend as if I am nothing more than a mere human. As if I know nothing of my true identity.
I do not have to be the daughter of Liora—the last living Jewel.
I do not have to be theTherya Drakara.
I do not have to face whatever comes next.
Mere moments ago, I was comforted by my new identity.
But now that the doubts have begun, they do not stop, as if some dark part of my heart desperately wants me to choose the coward's path.
Selfishness.
How am I supposed to be this powerful Jewel, and yet I cannot weave? How can I help Bene if I cannot even defend myself? I cannot doanything.
Liora’s prophecy clearly wasn’t meant for me.
It was meant for some other Jewel.
A Jewel long since dead and buried.
“Go,”Bene whispers to me, his voice breaking even within my thoughts. Flattening his wings against his sides, he plummets back toward the earth, taking me with him.
I swallow down my scream as we approach Spindleton at record speed, narrowly avoiding another projectile that zips past.“You must go. Now. Before it is too late.”
His thoughts quiver, swiftly fracturing beneath the great burden he carries. Beneath the curse twisting his heart. Beneath the Shade whispering to his soul.
“Bene!” Velda calls out over the latest boom of thunder. “We must leave Spindleton! It is not safe for the people here!”
“Go!”he snarls, flinging his wings wide to slow our fall and draw us up short. More cords of Air whip around my waist, seeking to pry me from his back.“It will be a short fall.Thalra, Na’therya. Na velar sha. Tir’anor.We will be together again one day. At the Eternal Springs.”
A sob catches in my throat. My Draconic fails me. I can’t make sense of Bene’s parting words.Naei,I whisper across the bond.No, I can’t.Even though I so desperately want to run. Even though fresh waves of fear seek to choke me with every ragged breath I take.
I still can’t bear to leave him now. To let him shatter beneath this burden alone.
With an effort, I silence the fearful part of me. The part that wants nothing more than to be a coward and flee.
Seventeen years I have known Benevolence of House Radiata, and if I know one thing about him, it is this:
If our roles were reversed, he would never leave me to suffer. Not even if the stars fell from the heavens. Not even if the earth opened up and tried to swallow us whole. He would be there. The moment I needed him. The moment I called.
“Naei!” I shout again, this time aloud. Tightening my grip on the harness, hunching my shoulders against the Air trying to rip me from his back, I will myself to be strong for him now. He has saved me once already this night.
I will stay with him, through whatever comes next.
In the hope I will be able to play whatever part my birth mother foresaw in her vision.
In the hope that I will now be able to save him.
“NasolTherya’kai.”
A defiant roar splits the heavens in reply to my words. But it is not a roar that originates frommydragon. It comes from the other.
