Page 48 of Dragon Blood

Releasing Kai’s warm fingers, she strode through the meadow toward the river, glittering beyond the trees.

At the bank, the wind swirled around her from across the water; the sun kissed her face in welcome.

At this junction, the Black River flowed out to meet the great St. Lawrence River, its opposing banks curved in and around a mound of earth, supporting a solitary twisted tree.

The Nexus.

She’d sailed past it, her ship too far out to pay much attention, though she was aware of its existence. Her mother had at least ensured she knew about it, before Astred set her sights on horizons as far from Aeleftheria as possible.

It was exactly the type of tree she loved to climb as a child. Crooked and twisty, with deep undulating roots and a high arching canopy to lose yourself in.

Astred closed her eyes. Beneath the sensation of the wind brushing her skin and hair was the rippling power, teasing her dragon to the surface.

Similar to what she’d felt the few times she’d accompanied her mother down into the bowels of the Citadel where the sacred chamber protecting dragonkind’s most precious treasure was concealed.

Regina had never told her what slept behind that door. She waited for Astred to ask.

Astred never did. She feared she hadn’t needed to.

She saw it once—and only once because it had been too much for her young mind to grasp what she’d glimpsed.

Deep within, sheknew. And that terrified her, shying away from any sort of confirmation.

Oracle of the Mother.

As she stared at the tree, serene on its lonely clump of rock, that fear crept toward her with seeking fingers.

The Nexus was going to rip away her childish veil, a thin sheet against night terrors, and show her what she already knew.

Her mother’s crown, Astred’s unwanted inheritance, was much more than a symbol of rule.

It was the deepest connection to dragon divinity.

And that was what scared Astred the most.

Sacrifice.

All her life, Astred held tight to her identity, molding it from the depths of the seas and wildest of storm fronts. What she feared most was having it ripped from her so that she was nothing but a vessel for something other.

‘Which is silly. The queen isn’t an empty vessel.’Her dragon whispered.

Astred rolled her shoulders, displacing the icy fear creeping through them.

‘We will stop running from them,’her dragon asserted, lifting Astred’s head, sniffing the air.‘This Nexus will tell us why.’

Odson’s retellings rolled through her mind as her heart pounded, eyes locked on the tree nestled in the gentle flowing waters of the Black River.

I don’t like this.

‘We don’t have to. But we will do it, anyway.’

Astred’s gaze found Kai watching her, expression grim.

‘We should claim him.’

I can’t. They won’t let us. Besides, it’s too late for that, nor is it the time.

Astred’s dragon snorted, giving her a shake.

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