Page 40 of A City of Flames

A lump forms in my throat, but I smile, picturing how he’d likely had made a quirky remark during that time.

“Your father was a man of great curiosity, Naralía,” she continues. “Whenever he thought there was injustice, he’d say it, but he also managed to lead so many to victory as a venator that he was a legend among us all.”

I laugh under my breath, gazing down at my hands. “He was far too modest with it though.”

“Not when it came to the love of his children.”

I look up with my heart pressing so hard against my chest, but Leira’s eyes darken in pools of fear.

“There is something that you should know about your father though,” she says as the saddened smiles I have on flatten into a straight line. “Weeks before I’d received the news of his passing, he’d become frantic, telling me there was something unsettling in Emberwell until, on the day of the venator trials for the new trainees, he’d spotted me from the crowds and told me he’d figured it all out.”

She pauses as if waiting for a reaction from me, yet I make no movement to say something; my face is solid stone.

“Confused, I’d questioned him,” Leira notices how tense I am as everything she says comes out carefully. “But he’d only said that when he’d return from his visit to his family, he’d explain everything... Except he never got to.”

Because that was his last visit to us, that was the week he’d died.

“Naralía,” she exhales, closing her eyes and wincing before she opens them and meets the blue shades of mine. “I think your father’s death was not an accident.”

Accident.

The word I knew she would say and something that she knew herself I would disagree with.

“My father,” my voice a quiet vex. “Was killed by a full-fledged dragon. He was attacked.”

“But during that time—”

“I was there.” A flicker of irritation in my tone. “I was there when my brother shot an arrow through that dragon’s back. I have the thick scar running down my palm and my arm from that day as a reminder.”

“But dragons—”

“I witnessed him die, Leira! I witnessed the dragon in front of me. I—” My hands pull back my hair as I shoot up from the chair. Leira rises, chary of how I’d just reacted as she slowly walks towards me.

“There is something off involving Emberwell,” she says, the lines of her forehead crease. “I mean the history behind it, these new creatures? It can’t be a coincidence that your father died right when he’d discovered something.”

I shake my head, and I sway on my feet. “Coincidence or not, he died in a dragon attack, nothing more.”

“Wait, Naralía—” She reaches for my wrist as I’m about to turn, and as soon as her touch connects with mine, her pupils fade to complete white before the words come out of her like a trance:

“The sun blooms again for she has found her moon,

Death, reign, and resurrection commence,

But he who shall bear thy wicked bite,

A beast no less, though a heart of gold—”

I snatch my arm away from her grip, and she stumbles back with a sharp inhale as if breaking through deep waters. Her eyes return to colors of greens and browns as we stare at each other. Frowning, I hold my wrist to my chest, and she remains speechless. Whatever that was, she sang it like a lullaby, a soothing melody, but the words were chilling.

Still keeping my wrist to my body, I rush out through the curtain door. I careen past the tables of people seated and out into the streets, never turning to see if Leira tries to follow me or not.

Stalking back into the barracks, my pulse beats alarmingly fast. I’d acted too harshly, leaving Leira when all she wanted was to aid and inform me of things I deserved to know. But nine years, I’ve seen in my nightmares how that dragon clawed at my father, nine years, I’ve carried this scar as a reminder of that day. Telling me that it might not have been the case challenges the beliefs I’ve had for so long.

“Nara.”

I freeze near the corner of the empty hallway, scrunching my face as I mentally curse, knowing who is behind me.

“Nara, you do realize not moving doesn’t make you invisible, right? I can still see you.”

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