Page 108 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
I try not to be hurt by that, but it doesn’t work. “I have some things to talk about, and Azrael needs to be included, apparently.Come inside the cemetery, Gideon.”
His expression is defiant, his crossed-arms pose even more so. But I give him alookI remember Lillian giving us girls when we were being a little too rowdy.
He scowls more deeply but moves toward the cemetery gate.We all go inside the boundaries, and Gideon finds himself a seat. Right on poor Zachariah’s grave. He smirks at Zander, who is scowling at him.
But it has nothing on the scowl that currently graces Azrael’s face. I think he’d be breathing fire if he could. It’s a goodthing he can’t. Still, it’s best to get this started—and finished—before the chance for a fight breaks out.
“Gideon,” I say, almost formally, “your grandmother... she was a crow princess who fought with revolutionaries to end herfather’s rule.”
“I don’t know why you think old wars are going to solve the problems of now,” Azrael says darkly.
I want topunch him. “Maybe if you’d shut up and listen, you would.”
“Yes, this is my grandmother’s story.” Gideon sounds suspicious. “How do you know it?”
“I found a book. About the crow war. Written by your grandmother.”
Gideon looks affronted. “Witches should not have this book.”
“What about those who are onlypartwitch?” I ask him.
He blinks once, as if surprised by this revelation.
“And,” I continue, frowning at him, “I happen to believeeveryoneshould haveallthe books. Any book they want. If we are to learn as one unit, we must not have hidden pieces of our past. And it isourpast. Witches helped.”
“We would not all characterize it ashelp,” the Raven King says dryly.
I ignore this comment and push on. “The crow princess brought dragons and witches in to help with her revolution because shebelieved that in order to build a new, better way of life, weallhad to work together.”
“And then every last dragon who helped was slaughtered,” Azrael says with deep disgust. “What togetherness.”
“That’s an interesting way of saying the dragons betrayed our leader and were punished accordingly,” Gideon replies in the same tone. “And the crows have since learned a lesson about dealing with fabulaeorwitches.”
“Dragons betrayed your leader?” Azrael demands, a dangerous gold fire in his eyes. “Are you a liar or a fool?”
I stand between them and hold out my hands. The facts laid out in the book did not account for two different versions of thesame history, but maybe I should have foreseen that. Maybe it’s all... connected.
We cannot move forward if we’re always sure our version of the past is not justcorrect, but the only possible version. And maybe that echoes a little too closely to the fight Azrael and I have been having.
But I can’t deal with that now.
“Gideon, whose story do you believe?” I ask him. “Your grandmother’s, or your grandfather’s?”
Gideon refuses to answer this question, no matter how I glare at him. I decide we’ll come back to that.
“The book is clear,” I tell both raven and dragon—and everyone else. “We must learn from our history or we are doomed to repeatit, again and again and again. The humans are right about one thing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactlywhat the witches have done.”
“In the past, maybe,” Emerson says now, hotly. “But not now. Not us.We’renot about power.Weare about giving everyone a voice. That’s why we won the ascension trials.”
“But that’s just the witches,” I say patiently. “We have a whole world of magical creatures who we didn’t even know existed,so we couldn’t serve them. We couldn’t give them a voice. Now we all have to come together and build a new power structuretogether.” I look at Azrael and Gideon. And then at Frost. “You three represent old wars, but you need to understand that they—you—are what’s holding us back.”
It’s probably wishful thinking that I see some little hints of chagrin in their closed-off expressions.
“I will work night and day to undo this curse,” I promise Gideon. “I will not rest until you are all free. And when you are,we must all be ready to work together to defeat the darkness that has kept us apart all this time—cursed and ignorant.” Iturn to Azrael then. “You too. All of us meansall of us.” He starts to snarl something, so I raise my voice. “You do not have to hold hands and skip. You don’t even have to agree.But you must be willing to worktogetheruntil this is done. Until we win, once and for all.”
I glare at Frost too, since he’s part of this three-way ancient war. Hell, he was probably there too.
It must be a great glare, because Frost is the first one to give in. “There will certainly be noskipping, but I would sacrifice my life for this coven.” His brow rises. “As I have proven already. And as I will continue to prove,even if that includes working hand in claw with fabulae and crows.”
