Page 65 of The Book of Legends
“Nothing,” I whisper. “Everything. I don’t know.”
He joins me, his eyes fixed on the sky.
“You smell like ancient magic,” he says. “Like something buried inside you is beginning to rise.”
“I saw a golden city,” I tell him. “It burned like hell. And I wasn’t afraid. I was waiting.”
He says nothing for a moment.
“Dragons remember things others forget,” he says at last. “Through blood. Through dreams. You’re not one of us… but you’re close.”
“How close?”
He finally turns to me, and in his eyes, I see fire again. Not just recognition—but memory.
“There was once a girl born of flame,” Malachi says softly. “She walked with dragons. She was a princess to this world and was meant to marry a cursed king. The gods before me said she would burn to save it.”
“And you think I’m her?”
“I think history doesn’t die. It waits.”
My throat tightens. “Kainen doesn’t trust me.”
“No,” Malachi replies. “He fears that he does.”
I glance toward the castle. The windows are dark.
“I don’t want to be someone else,” I murmur.
“Then don’t be,” Malachi says. “Be both.”
The hallway crackleswith the heat of our voices.
"I asked for none of this!!" I yell and twirl on Kainen. "You treat me like a weapon ready for explosion—and maybe I am, but you don't get to decide."
His jaw clenches, black eyes flashing. "You are hiding something." From yourself if not from me.
"That is unfair—" fair.
"No," he says, walking toward me. "Watching you play at being powerless, about to break, is unfair."
I recoil like he’s struck me. The words land harder than they should.
I respond, firmly pushing past him, "I need air." I need to breathe.
Hedoesn't follow.
Good.
My skin is shocked by the cold outdoors as I run into the royal grounds. The trees, like shadows, calm and unusual; the night is foggy. I move fast, deeper into the dark. And then something changes.
A noise. A breath. A flicker of movement too fast for human eyes.
I turn, and they show up.
Not Fae. Not the Nightfallen. Figures from the shadows emerge with twisted limbs and overly big grins.
They rush me, and then fire erupts in flames. Their screams pierce my ears. A dam bursts in my chest; it's not from them, but from me. Heat burns the ground, flames whirl outward in a savage whirlwind. The flames do not cease even as the animals wail and flee.
