Page 420 of Kingdoms of Night

The sailors were wide-eyed and stumbling backward, one bleeding profusely from his temple and the other with a broken leg.

Viridi lay still on the ground, jaw loose, unconscious.

“What happened?” she tried to say, but her mouth wouldn’t work and her thoughts were jumbled and incoherent.

Stepping toward Viridi, she halted, heart hammering wildly. Why was he so small or far away or…? She shook her head. She was so insanely confused.

Taking another step, she saw that her feet weren’t in boots. And they weren’t feet anymore. They were…

She had taloned toes. Emerald scales ran all the way up her legs. Stretching out her arms, she—

Wings unfurled from her body and she lifted her head, terror roaring from her lungs.

Mind whirling, she ran and leapt. Beating her wings, she rose into the air and flew higher and higher and higher, tears streaming down her scaled face.

Her thoughts scattered in the wind that dried her tears. Soon her mind was lost to watching the way the rising moon cast shadows over the island’s range of soft mountains and black cliffs, along the twisting pines that lined the golden coast.

She felt as though she’d always been a dragon flying over an island.

The ocean glimmered in the silver light and she inhaled, taking in the scent of salty water, flowers in bloom, and the unique incense of the ancient forest below.

A face flashed through her mind. A crown of branches. Wood-tipped and pointed ears. Dark eyes and a slanting grin.

Viridi.

She spun from the sky, panicking.How am I flying?Why was she a dragon? Her heart was pounding right out of her ribs. She was so stars-blasted confused.

Catching a wing on a tree branch, she crashed into the forest and landed on her belly. There was a bright flash of light and she was human, naked and shaking.

Another face blinked through her mind.Nico.

“Nico!” she stood on trembling legs. Her arms shimmered with emerald scales along the backs of her hands and then again near her elbows.

Part human. Part dragon.

How had this happened to her? Had someone cursed her?

Viridi came running out of the deeper forest, the trees bowing to him as he passed. He whipped off his cloak and threw it around her shoulders before pulling her close and kissing her head.

“You are magnificent. Did you not know you are a dragon shifter?”

The warmth and love pouring from him through the fated mate bond was the best feeling she’d ever had. She put her lips to his and he kissed her back. His pointed tongue dusted over hers and her blood rushed hotly, warming her heart and her belly and lower. Her hands were in his tousled hair and she couldn’t get close enough. The feel of his careful hands around her bare waist beneath the cloak was almost too much to withstand.

“Are you all right?” he breathed into her ear. “Did you not know?”

She pulled away, feeling whole again now that he was here beside her. “I didn’t … is that a thing people sometimes are? I heard that Prince Dorin of Balaur was a dragon shifter, but I thought he was the only one. They say his blood held dormant power that his close contact with the dragons and their magic had sparked to life and…” She swallowed, her throat raw.

“Here,” he said stepping back. He whispered in his language and waved a hand over a tangle of ivy at the base of a split pine tree.

The vines slid up Isa’s body, tickling, until they smoothed into what appeared to be some sort of cloth. The sides nipped in and soon she was wearing a long tunic with a vine belt and some leaf-green trousers.

“I saved these for you.” Viridi held out the two daggers that Rhianne had given her.

Isa took them and tucked them into her new belt. “Everything since the storm has been part nightmare, part dream.” She shook her head, unbelieving. “There is a part of me that knew this about myself though,” she said, her thoughts going to her many dreams of dragons and her lifelong curiosity about her homelands.

Viridi smiled sadly.

“Regardless, there is no time to ponder it now.” At least, she had more power with this wild development. “Nico needs us. Let’s go destroy Seigneur Brune.”

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