Page 105 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
Books have been our salvation time and time again in this long, strange year. They told us Emerson was a Confluence Warrior,Rebekah a Chaos Diviner. They introduced us to Revelares, and the cover on my fairy tale has warned us and guided us witheach of its changes. They have led us every step of the way.
The answer is inbooks—texts, written histories, grimoires and ancient spells and even fiction. Maybe especially in fiction. In the metaphors andtheemotionbehind what we’re doing here and why.
I close my eyes and wrap my hand around the dragon tear, letting myself reallyfeelthe power inside it. I think of Azrael and what it feels like to fly together, his hungry smile, the way he saved me, theway he held me when I cried over my parentage.
And still he took his ring back. Because we both have to do what we each think is right.
We are each drawn to complicated choices and harder sacrifices.
“Reveal to me what I must see,” I say again.
I feel something shimmer in the air—much like in the alley yesterday.
“Georgie,” Dad whispers.
I open my eyes to a room full of sparkling light. Sparkling magic. Like the alley, but more. Bigger, brighter, pulsing withits own power.
The magic of the books unleashed.
The two books in question hover above me. The pages are flying like there’s a great wind moving through them. Then they’re...merging, almost. A new book seems to morph together in the destruction of the other two.
It falls into my lap. The title is written in pretty gold script.
A Study of the Failures in the War that Came Before: A Case for How to Fix It
By Morgane Wulfram, the Raven Queen Consort
27
I speed-read through the book, knowing I’ll read it again and again, slower and more carefully each time. But right now, Ineed the gist before I take the information to my coven so we can put it to use immediately.
Every time I turn a page quickly, my father grunts from where he’s reading over my shoulder. But he doesn’t mount an argument.
It’s written a bit like an academic paper. There are sources cited—though they aren’t like any I’ve ever seen before, so Ican’t quite follow them. Some of the information is a repeat of what I just read. The events of the crow war, bringing thedragons in, a king’s betrayal.
And then, as I get toward the end, some of the writer’s emotions slip in.
We were so close to success. So close to peace. I have spent my days since the moment the king chose black magic over thepeace we fought for going over what we could have changed, what we needed that we didn’t have.
I watched the king fail, again and again. I watched my son learn from the mistakes of his father and do better, but he shut the world out. There must be more to this world than the machinations of crows, and now it is someone else who wields black magic against us.
We must stop it, so that my grandchildren have a choice.
I have witnessed much, and I have learned. I have dreamed of times before and the intervention of well-meaning witches. Myson has dreamed of times to come.
And so I put pen to paper, hoping that the right beings will find my advice, my belief, my lessons, learned the hard way.
In order to beat black magic, once and for all, we must first have agroupof leaders, not just one. Nooneleader can rule. Power is a dangerous drug that needs its counterbalances, or black magic will always filter into the cracks,drowning out whatever good was meant to be done. We must be ever diligent to fight the urge of ego, to remember the good ofall.
If there is any hope that we defeat black magic, it cannot be done in factions. It cannot be done separated from one another.I have seen it. It must be done through a group of powerful beings who embody the following:
A leader with unshakable belief and endless determination. Support from quiet, determined strength and power. Someone whohas dabbled in the worst that can be done and learned to do better. Someone who has lived apart and has returned with newperspectives. Someone who has a foot in multiple worlds. A protective presence with unbendable loyalty. Someone with an unquenchablethirst for knowledge and the creativity to apply it. And someone who has seen multiple lives and remembers them all.
Eight creatures, making infinity.
They will need to work together, love and live together, and then bring together all of us magical beings under one commonpurpose.
No one can be left out. No one can be locked away.
