Page 8 of The Dragon's Promise

When I could breathe again—and I didn’t know how I was breathing without Seryu’s necklace—I deflated.

Demons of Tambu, how was I going to get out of this? I leaned my head back, banging the wall in despair.

Watch where you hit your head! Paper wings rustled in my hair, and Kiki crawled down to my ear. There are other ways to tell me you’re awake, Shiori.

“Kiki!” I was thrilled to see her. “What happened? Where am—”

You’ve been sleeping, she reported. You’re lucky, you know. The Dragon King’s daughter has come back several times to hack at your soul, but she couldn’t even snip a strand. Nazayun’s furious about it. He told her to wake you up. A gulp. He said he’d do it.

“When was this?”

Who can tell time in this place? Kiki shrugged. I was spying. I couldn’t ask what day it was. She thinks the pearl protected you. Her inky eyes bulged. Did it?

“Maybe. That must be why I still have it. Why I’m still alive.”

That was some comfort, but not much.

Kiki peered at the pearl as it wobbled to life. It was asleep, you know, same as you—until now. It’s almost like it has a mind, like it’s living.

“It’s a dragon’s heart,” I said. “It is alive, in a way.”

For a dragon’s heart, it isn’t very clever, said Kiki. It should find its own way home instead of making us do all the work.

Silently, I agreed. The Wraith’s pearl floated above my head, hovering near. I couldn’t decide whether I was angry or relieved to see it. What was becoming clear was that I couldn’t always count on it to come to my aid.

Look what you did, Kiki scolded the pearl. She sat on it, lounging in the crack between its edges with her wings spanned out. I could be back in Kiata, lolling on silk pillows and chasing fireflies. But look where we are! Shiori’s stuck in this horrible dragon dungeon—and you, you’re no closer to finding your owner.

The pearl let out a flare, illuminating our surroundings: a narrow cell that seemed to go on forever. But that was only an illusion. In reality, there were thousands of mirror shards bobbing along the walls, and their reflections made the room seem endless.

I shivered. “What is this place?”

Kiki shrugged again. I’ve searched a hundred times for a way out, but the mirrors—Shiori, they’re alive! They kept watching me. And there’s this eerie ghost—

“A ghost?”

Over there. Kiki pointed with a shaky wing. It tried to speak to me.

Darkness bathed the other end of the room, where the pearl’s light hadn’t reached.

“Show me,” I commanded the pearl.

With a hiss, the light bloomed brighter, illuminating a lone statue. And given the gurgling and mumbling sounds coming from its direction, a living statue.

A boy, it turned out.

He was stone from the neck down, but his head was still flesh. Uncommonly blue eyes, tan skin, and a shock of unruly black hair. It was hard to place where he was from, but he couldn’t have been older than twelve or thirteen. He looked like he’d been cursed in the middle of a grand throw. His right arm was extended in a dramatic flourish, his chin raised and left leg slightly lifted. His clothes were stone, along with the rest of him, but there was a bright splash of red silk over his mouth.

My stomach curdled at the sight. What was a human child doing in the dragon realm, let alone practically turned to stone?

“Kiki, help him. His mouth is gagged.”

But he could be a ghost! Or worse, a sea demon.

“Help him, all right?”

Obediently, my bird flew to the statue and untied the gag over the boy’s mouth.

He coughed and spluttered, then blew his hair out of his eyes with exaggerated gusto.

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