Page 63 of Her Radiant Curse

I wake, gasping.

Above me, a young sun rises. Thank Gadda, it is whole and luminous, too self-important to care about some cursed girl’s nightmares. It warms the sand beneath me, but I’m still cold. I’m numb all over, and my veins are blue from clenching my fists. Deep in my chest is a sharp, biting throb where Angma tried to kill me.

It was just a dream, I tell myself. But I don’t believe it.

The taste of ash in my mouth is too real, and my ears are still ringing with the sound of Angma’s growls.

She spoke the truth in my dreams. Of that, my certainty is engraved in my bones.

I can’t have both, I realize with stinging clarity. My sister and my face. I can pick only one.

The choice is easy. I’ve spent seventeen years with a curse that would sap the hope of the strongest of men, nearly my whole life looking like a monster. It won’t be too different living the rest of it like this. I would happily pay that price to save Vanna’s life.

Even so, I feel a pang inside me that won’t go away.

For a few precious hours I thought I could have everything. The truth is like a bandage removed too soon from its wound. No balm will ever heal the scars.

Are you all right?

The voice startles me. At my side, Hokzuh blinks a bleary blue eye open.

Normally I can sleep through a monsoon, he says, but you…you were screaming.

He actually looks worried. The blue of his eye is clearer than the sky, and though his face is covered in sea-green scales, there’s something human about his concern.

Seeing it makes my stomach flip. I purse my lips tight. “It was nothing. Just a nightmare.”

“I’m no stranger to bad dreams,” he says seriously. His voice comes out hoarse. “If you want to talk about it, or about what happened at Bonemaker’s—”

“It was nothing,” I say again, more firmly than I mean to. I drop my shoulders then, and I add, softly, “Go back to sleep. You need it.”

Hokzuh doesn’t argue. He tips his head back into the sand and murmurs, “Just know you’re not alone, Channari.”

You’re not alone. I don’t expect such comfort from the half-dragon. I’m so startled I don’t know what to say. It doesn’t matter, because within seconds he’s snoring again.

I shake my head at him, partly envious, and partly touched that he asked after me.

A ball of dry moss tumbles over the sand, leading my gaze westward beyond the beach. As it wheels away, a little hope finds its way back into my heart.

Maybe the witch of Yappang will have answers. Maybe she’ll know how to defeat Angma.

I sit up slowly and dust sand off my belly. A spider is crawling over my lap, its fast, hairy feet prickling as it crosses the hills of my legs. I’m surprised it would dare venture so close with Ukar sleeping by my side, but that’s when I notice my friend is gone.

“Ukar?”

Here. He’s circling Hokzuh mistrustfully, his tail shaking every time the dragon whistles in his sleep. Even injured, the snake cuts a menacing figure.

How about I bite off a scale or two? Ukar asks. There’s bound to be a village on this island. We can sell his scales for a pretty boat, sail away—

“No biting. He’s hurt.”

Don’t defend him just because he’s the prophesied Hokzuh. My father wouldn’t send a dragon to aid you against Angma. It isn’t possible.

“Why not? You said yourself that dragons and serpents are related.”

That doesn’t mean we trust each other.

“Maybe it’s time to get rid of old prejudices.”

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