Chapter 23

EMBER

I 've stood before the flames at the Emergence ceremonies in the Air Kingdom so many times. I've felt the blistering inferno; I've felt my dragon stir, only to remain locked inside the prison of my chest. I've heard the cracking of bones and the rustling of newborn dragon wings rising all around me.

This is not that.

The black flames are alive with crackling heat, but they don't burn. Their consuming hunger engulfs me, reducing me to ash.

Revealing what was always within.

My bones break in a cacophony that wants to rupture my ears, my flesh melting away. Deep inside me, though, my dragon unfurls, rippling muscle and scale bursting forward. Dark clouds of smoke obscure my vision, turning the world purple and black.

But it's luminous. Bright gold and crimson and silver and a blue so pure it shatters my heart.

The threads that tie me to my mates yank at the very center of me, freeing me. I feel the gusts of wind blowing at my newly opening wings; I'm anchored by the stability of the stone beneath my talons. Flames rise in my throat, and the very water of my blood is boiling with magic.

I am Shadow and ash, my bracer molded into my flesh and rippling with dark violet, electric waves of power.

My dragon roars .

And just like that, I can hear my mates. I choke on dragontears, swallowing an inferno as Malik's dragon loops through the desert air.

There you are--

Mate-- Jianyu's voice is pure relief in my head.

Fuck, yeah , Rafe whoops

Ember.

I turn, and there's Storm, hobbled and bleeding, but our eyes connect.

This is what I always wanted. And now it's mine.

All around me, the black flames of the Emergence rites are still rising. A cry pierces the air.

Amy's dragon spirals into the air, and my heart is too big for my chest. She's beautiful--gleaming black and white with a pink underbelly, sinuous and magical and strong.

Blinking hard, I spread my own wings wide. My scales are gleaming ebony, run through with purple streaks. But their undersides are mother of pearl, scintillating with colors in every shade of the rainbow, and I feel whole . For the first time in my life, I know who I am.

And I know what I'm here to do.

The bracer that made me who I am draws the Shadow Dragon energy around me into my being. Just like before, I feel it fill my lungs as my dragon launches into the air. It burns within me, growing in intensity.

I unleash it at the Shadow Dragons attacking Malik and Jianyu, and it pours out of my mouth and my heart as pure light.

Black dragons fall out of the sky, while others turn tail and run.

Jianyu falls into formation beside me, and his power is a calming balm, manifesting my own.

The broken pavement below us is soft taffy as I drag my talons through the rubble. I fling it upward, and one after another, Air Dragons are dropped out of the sky. I inhale the winds they've created and turn them back on the attackers. Malik's scales glow with aquamarine light, and the air may be dry, but there's enough water in it to boil.

I hurl my own scalding cyclones out into the world, swooping and diving and knocking Shadow and Air Dragons from the sky.

One by one, they fall or flee, clearing a path until Fury's ice blue dragon is before me. Injured as she is, Jasmine has rejoined him, and Storm is fending off their attacks and hurling Air Dragon magic of his own at them.

I reach out for him, and our gazes connect.

And it's lightning in my soul. Like they're a part of me--and they are, Gods above, they are --I pull all four of my mates and their magic into me. Jianyu's steadiness and Rafe's fire and Malik's flowing waters and Storm's--

Storm's monstrous, roiling gale.

As we surround Fury and Jasmine, the black skies open, revealing the blinding sun. Its brilliant light channels into me, only to explode outward, singing dragons of Shadow and Air alike.

An inhuman voice gathers in the echoing hollow of my chest.

"The Gods reject you," the voice says through my mouth. "Your corrupted kingdom will fall."

I bellow black flames on Fury and Jasmine, and the catharsis is me being born yet again, entirely anew.

I'm no reject. I'm not defective.

My dragon is risen of earth, air, fire, water and all-consuming shadow. Together with my mates, I bring light to the places that have dwelled too long in darkness.

Magic burns in my veins as Fury and Jasmine's scales melt away. They tumble to the ground, human and broken, and a slithering voice in my chest tells me to finish the job. My dragon could sear them to a crisp and feast on their bones.

But no--

No .

My beast has been awakened, my destiny made clear.

But I am still myself.

There's an ear-splitting crack, and I falter as a scale on my left arm shatters. Wrongness floods me, and darkness recedes from my wings, leaving them silvery pale and gray.

What--

The attackers are gone. Fury and Jasmine are defeated, crumpled--if still breathing--wrecks on the ground. The sky is bright and silent.

The magic that had been holding me aloft shivers and then fails.

I fall.

Twisting and turning, my mates screaming for me as they follow me down to the broken earth.

Where I land. Human.

My dragon roars with pain inside me, and I hold up my arm. My wrist is black and purple, and crackling with the memory of dragonscale.

But it's bare.

My gaze drops to the ground.

Where I find the Shadow Queen's Bracer, cracked in half.

Dull.

Lifeless.

Shattered .