Page 47 of A Blaze of Fire
“Exactly.”
“So what happened to the last dragon?” I asked.
“It—”
“Lord Ansel, you should stop,” Rook cut him off. “She’s heard enough.”
I looked between the two of them, one bristling and the other defeated. “Obviously I haven’t, Rook, because I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with me.”
Ansel peered down at his hands and seemed to come to a decision. “The fire elementals have a prophecy, Vi.” He looked up and stared at me, his green eyes full of undisguised sorrow. “That the last dragon would someday return … reincarnated.”
“Okay …” I muttered and watched Ansel carefully, who watched just as avidly for my reaction. What was the big deal about this prophecy, anyway? They were waiting for a dragon to …
My eyes shot wide open and I hopped off the bed like it was made of lava. “What?” I shouted.
Ansel stood and tried to take my hands. “It’s all speculation, Vi. We don’t know if it’s true or not. Remember, these are just legends that have been passed down through generations.”
I snatched my hands away and stepped back. “This is absolutely ridiculous!”
“Shh,” Ansel quieted me. “Be quiet before someone hears you.”
I ran a shaky hand through my hair and laughed harshly. But it wasn’t a funny laugh, it was more of the hysterical variety. “I’m not a freakin’ dragon,” I mumbled.
“Of course you’re not, Vi, nobody thinks you are,” Ansel said placatingly.
“They just think the spirit of one has reincarnated inside you,” Rook interrupted.
I whirled on him. “Not helping, dude.”
He shrugged. “You wanted answers, you got them.”
“All of this because I breathed fire out of my mouth? Do you know how absurd all this sounds? Because it sounds crazy to me.”
“Alec hasn’t told you about the dragon because he doesn’t believe in these legends. He never has,” Ansel explained. “He didn’t want to get you worked up over it.”
I thought about it for a moment and nodded in understanding. I would’ve kept it a secret, too. It sounded ridiculous, even for a human girl currently residing in the fae realm. And frankly, if Alec didn’t believe in it, I shouldn’t give too much credit to it, either.
“Do … do you believe in it?” I asked Ansel hesitantly.
He shrugged. “I’m not a fire elemental. This stuff wasn’t ingrained in me since I was young, so honestly, I don’t know. But I do know what you did should be impossible.”
If there was one thing I’d learned since venturing into this new world … it was that nothing was impossible.
Absolutely nothing.
20
VIOLET
“So we’re taking midnight strolls now, are we?” Alec asked as he entered my room just as I finished getting dressed.
I glared at him. “Don’t you ever knock?”
“There’s no such thing as privacy here,Lady Violet, so you might as well get used to it.” He plopped down on my bed. “Hurry up, the King is waiting for us, and the Kingneverwaits.”
“I despise the clothes here. Why is everything see-through?” I grumbled.
“Are you really going to ignore my question?” Alec tilted his head to observe me. “Midnight. Stroll.”
