Page 123 of The Dragon's Promise

“Khramelan!” I cried. “Take your pearl back!”

In a rush that made my stomach leap, he lifted me, dangling me before his broken eyes.

“Did you kill her?”

Her? Is he talking about—my stepmother?

“No, no!” I cried. “I’m her—”

“It matters not who you are.” His fangs grazed his bottom lip as he glowered. “You think because my darkness is lifted, I will take mercy upon you? Stupid, brazen girl. Never in all the ill-fated years of Lapzur has anyone dared bring another demon here.”

My breath caught. Of all the preposterous things—Khramelan thought Bandur and I were allies? “You misunderstand.”

“There is nothing to misunderstand. You are not the first to come here since her death. So long as I am guardian of this island, it matters not how darkly I see. I spare no one.”

“No!” I shouted. “I brought Bandur here to make him the guardian—and free you!”

“So you gave him my true name, which has allowed him to lead my own demons against me? Helpful indeed!”

“That…that was a mistake,” I admitted. “But if you reclaim your pearl—”

Khramelan’s demon eye glowed noticeably brighter than the dragon one. “The pearl won’t take me like this.”

Like this? What did he mean by that?

“Channari wanted me to give it to you,” I whispered. “She sent me. I’m her daughter.”

Khramelan flinched at the name. There was power in names. Channari’s still meant something to him.

“The pearl, Khramelan,” I cried out. “You need to get it before Bandur—”

“As I said,” he interrupted, “so long as I am guardian of this island, I will spare no one. Channari is dead. You will join her shortly.”

He dropped me into the sea.

It was a special kind of terror—knowing that within seconds, my bones would shatter into a million pieces and my entire life would be reduced to a bloody puddle. Even now, I couldn’t tell my gut from my lungs from my heart. My body moved faster than my thoughts, and all I could feel was the screeching panic that every moment might be my last.

“Kiki!” I wasn’t ready to give up. “Brothers!”

No response.

My satchel slipped off my shoulder. I watched in horror as it disappeared into the mist.

Needles of icy spray rained upon my skin as I plunged for the furious sea. It hurt like demonfire, but I couldn’t scream. My lungs felt like rocks in my chest, dragging me down, and all the air inside me had gone out. Even if I could yell, what use would it do? No one could hear or see me in this darkness.

I had nothing.

Nothing, except the magic in my blood.

It was excruciating, trying to concentrate while I fell. I stretched my senses, reaching out for something, anything: leaves caught in the fists of the wind, twigs from Lapzur’s shrunken trees, specks of stone. A slip of silk.

My heart leapt. It was red silk from my birthday robes. I reached out to it, wrapping the strands of my magic—my soul—around it, pulling it closer, closer. In my delirious state, I could almost hear the cranes embroidered in the jacket bellowing and squawking.

Against the roaring wind, cranes were bellowing and squawking. Real cranes, their wings batting Lake Paduan’s spray as they pierced the mist.

Could it be?

“Brothers!” I choked.

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