“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are we here?”
Kull moved back so I could see Silvestra. She stood over me, tall and imposing, her odd, colorless eyes seeming to look straight through me.
Of all the places we could have gone, this was the last place I would have chosen, but then I remembered something someone had said—something about my stepfather.
“Fan’twar?” I asked.
“We saved him,” Kull said, squeezing my fingers.
Hope filled my heart, but something had to be wrong. The egg had been ruined. How could we have possibly gotten him back?
“I never wanted the egg,” Silvestra said.
“She wanted what was inside,” Kull answered.
Silvestra moved aside, and I saw a sight that took me a moment to register. My stepfather lay sleeping beneath the enchanted ceiling, and curled near his tail, so small it could have been my cat, lay a tiny, black-and-gold-banded dragon.
“It hatched,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Silvestra answered. “The queen stole my egg many years ago, and she took it to a place where I could not find it, though I never stopped searching.”
“During the sacrifice,” Kull said, “the queen forced the egg to hatch, and she used the baby dragon’s first breath to initiate the spell.”
That explained the burn marks I had seen.
“But I don’t understand. She didn’t kill the dragon?”
“She had no need to,” Kull answered. “The queen only needed the power from its first fire. She had no use for it after that, so she returned the dragon to us.”
“But why didn’t she kill us? How did we escape her?”
“We didn’t all escape with our lives,” Kull said, his voice somber.
“Maveryck?” I asked, my heart sinking.
Kull nodded.
“How is Heidel taking it?” I asked.
He frowned. “Not well. She refuses to accept that he’s dead, although we both watched the elves murder him. I know his death must be especially painful for her, but she acts as though nothing happened.”
“That’s not good. If she can’t accept that he’s dead, then she’ll never be able to move forward and heal. Is there anything I can do to help her?”
“No, not now. She won’t see reason. When we went back for his body, we couldn’t find it. It was most likely removed by the elves, but she is certain Maveryck must have arisen and walked away.”
“But even if that were true, if by some miracle life could be restored to the dead, then wouldn’t he have come back for her? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I agree. I fear Heidel has endured too much trauma during her life. To be subjugated by Geth, raped and beaten, and then to lose not only him, but Maveryck as well, is too much for her. She cannot allow another traumatic event to enter her life or it will break her.”
“Sadly, I have to agree. There’s nothing anyone can do to help her until she accepts the truth. Perhaps given a few weeks, she’ll be ready to move forward.”
Poor Heidel. She seemed destined to lose the people she loved. It appeared her luck was worse than mine, and that was saying something. My heart hurt for her.
“What about my stepfather?” I asked. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine now, although if we had arrived any later, that wouldn’t be the case.”
I glanced up at Silvestra. I would never be able to forgive her for almost killing him, yet I knew that someday, I would. I would forgive her because Fan’twar wanted it. I had to remind myself that while she appeared human, she had a dragon’s heart, and dragons lived by their own code. It was well within her rights to kill the sky king, and while I wanted to be angry with her, I’d been raised by dragons and knew that lashing out would only cause more pain—an emotion I never wanted to deal with again.
“Can I speak to him?” I asked her.
She nodded and moved aside. As she turned to leave, her wraiths followed. Kull helped me stand up. Walking the path to Fan’twar on my shaky feet took longer than I liked, yet I couldn’t have been happier that he was alive.
We’d lost Maveryck but saved the sky king. One life for another. One taken, another saved.
Fan’twar cracked open his golden eyes as I neared him. I sat on the floor beside him, spent after crossing the room and too dizzy to stay on two feet. Kull knelt beside me, and we both glanced at the hatchling sleeping by Fan’twar’s tail.
The baby dragon had a short snout and glossy scales that sparkled with gold and black bands. I wondered at what she had already endured in her short life—to be hatched by the elves, her first fire used in a spell that would ultimately result in the planet’s destruction.
“You came for me, young one,” a deep, familiar voice said.
“Of course I did,” I answered, running my hand over the smooth scales covering his neck. His skin was uncharacteristically cold to the touch, even to my frigid fingers. I realized he still needed time to heal.
“You did well,” he answered.
I glanced at Kull. “Maybe. We still lost Maveryck, and the elves called Theht back. I’m not sure I count it as a win.”
“But Theht does not have the power to destroy our world. Without the sword, the elves will not have the power to control the goddess, and she will be forced to abandon our world, for she does not have the power to stay here.”
My stomach knotted. “Not yet. There’s something I have to tell you.” I glanced at Kull. “I have to tell you both.”
“Go ahead,” Kull said.
I exhaled deeply, wondering if I would be able to admit what I knew. “I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before Theht has the power she needs. She used my magic to put an asteroid on a collision course with our world. It’s only a matter of time before it gets here. As soon as the asteroid collides with our planet, she will use its energy to cross from her world to
