Page 111 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

“Why should I tell you something like that?” He arches a dark eyebrow at me. “We’re enemies, aren’t we?”

I heave a deep sigh and rake my fingers through my hair. He has a point. But I’m suddenly tired. Tired of… everything.

So while I start walking again, I reply, “Because we almost died. And I just want to…” I sigh again. “Just tell me something true. Something real.”

He walks in silence next to me for a while. Just when I think he’s not going to answer, he finally speaks up.

“So you know how the shifter who inherits the clan magic becomes the leader?” he asks.

I nod. “Yes.”

“Our previous leader died when I was thirty-seven, and Azaroth chose me for some reason. So I inherited the magic when I was quite young, which meant that I could start developing it from an unusually young age.”

“So that’s the secret? A lot of time to practice?”

“No.” A soft chuckle rumbles from his chest. “The secret is a grumpy as hell old dragon.”

Blinking, I look up at him in surprise.

There is a wistful smile on his lips as he gazes out at the forest before us while we continue walking.

“One day,” he begins, “when I was out on one of our islands, practicing with my storm powers, this huge gray dragon showed up.”

“Gray?” I stare at him in shock. “There aregraydragons too?”

He shakes his head. “Not on this continent. But she wasn’t from here. She said that she was on vacation, of all things.” Another one of those soft and absolutely incredible laughs ripples from his chest. “Anyway, she saw me trying to practice. And shelaughedat me.” With that smile still on his lips, heshakes his head. “I was so offended. Because, back then, I was arrogant and cocky?—”

“As opposed to now?”

He rolls his eyes and gives me a soft shove in the shoulder.

But because I wasn’t prepared for it, I stumble sideways and almost crash into a strange tree with a very thin vine-like trunk. The top of it is shaped like an upside-down bell, and it sways when I hit the soft vine that holds it up. Thick pale green liquid sloshes over the edges of the bell and splatters the ground. I leap out of the way before the sticky substance can hit my boots.

Narrowing my eyes, I glower at Draven.

He just grins, looking entirely unapologetic.

Blowing out a long breath, I shake my head and then move back to his side as we start up along the river again.

“Anyway, I was offended and cocky, so I challenged her,” Draven picks up. He lets out a low chuckle and shakes his head. “She mopped the fucking floor with me.”

I raise my eyebrows at him, surprised that he would admit something like that.

He just shrugs, as if he isn’t even embarrassed about it. “She was incredible. The best storm wielder I have ever seen. And by some stroke of insane luck, she decided to spend her vacation on our islands. So she trained me. She taught me things about storm powers that none of our previous leaders even knew.” He sighs. “I still don’t know exactly who or what she was, but I got the feeling that she was old. Really old.”

“Was?” I ask softly. “She died?”

“No.” He chuckles again and shakes his head. “Like I said, she was just on vacation. So after a few years, she went back to her home. Wherever that is. She said that she had to go back and make sure that the troublesome underworlders hadn’t burned everything down.”

“What’s an underworlder?”

“No idea. But I assume that it’s some kind of vicious demon or something.”

“Huh.”

“But, yeah, that’s the secret behind my power.” His golden eyes glint as he glances down at me and shoots me a mischievous smile. “No grand birthright. No divine fate. Just an old, grumpy as hell, steel gray dragon on vacation.”

“Wow.” I watch him, my eyebrows raised. “That was so not the answer I was expecting.”

---