Chapter 39 Homecoming
Homecoming
Two weeks later, I creep into the orchard where Drako waits, his scales gleaming silver in the torchlight. I clutch a battered grimoire of fae lore, its pages promising answers I can barely focus on.
He rumbles a greeting that vibrates through my bones.
I sink down beside him, book in hand, and press my back against his warm scales.
I try to read, but every word blurs into Cassy’s face, her laughter, her scream.
My focus splinters again and again, a living nightmare replaying itself over and over behind my eyes.
Drako lowers his massive head until his nose brushes my arm, then nudges me gently. His molten gaze softens. “Put the book to rest for the night, little flame. Anxiety is clouding your sight.”
My heart sinks, and the book slips from my limp fingers, its pages whispering shut in the cool breeze. I press my face into my hands.
“Breathe,” he murmurs, his tail curling around me like a shield. An unnatural warmth fills me from the inside out—spreading from my lungs to my limbs until my shaking stills.
Finally, I drop my hands, chest easing. “What did you just do?” I whisper, staring up at him.
“Helped you breathe.” His voice is matter-of-fact but gentle.
“Yes, but how?”
“Dragons’ breath,” he explains. “A dragon can choose to share breath with another if they wish. It opens the lungs, restores calm. It can save those near death, drowning, or broken by fear. We can also influence emotion—to bring peace or provoke fury.”
“So… mind control?” I ask, suddenly aware of just how much he might have manipulated me already.
He chuffs, amused. “No. Influence, not control. I cannot create anything that isn’t already inside you, just amplify what’s already there.”
A small smile tugs at my lips. “So, dragons aren’t all bad, after all.”
“Indeed not,” he says, nudging me to my feet. His massive wings unfurl—an immense, beating shadow against the stars. He lowers his neck and forearm like a ramp, inviting me to clamber onto his back.
I climb up and settle at the base of his neck where the spines part, forming a natural seat.
“Hold on tight, little flame.”
I grip the ridges at his throat as we launch into the night sky. The wind roars through my hair as mist-shrouded waves gleam far below. Hills roll on seemingly forever into the moonlit dark, and freedom floods my veins.
“Where are we going?” I shout over the wind.
“You don’t need to yell,” he rumbles in amusement. “The wind makes no difference to me.”
“Sorry,” I mutter. “Then will you please tell me where you’re taking me?”
“To see your sister.”
My breath catches. Memories rush in—my mother’s laughter among roses, Kat’s golden hair flashing in the sun, the two of us chasing butterflies through the garden when we were little. My chest aches with the distance between then and now.
We land in a clearing in the forest near the city’s outskirts, his black scales blending into shadow. I slide from his back and onto an outcrop of dew-slick stone.
“You should wait here,” I whisper. “Humans haven’t seen a dragon in ages. They’d panic.”
“I’m not leaving you to wander the streets alone.”
“Don’t worry; I know this city like the back of my hand.” I instinctively pat his snout like a horse before I realize what I’m doing. My cheeks flush. “Sorry.”
Draco’s chest rumbles with amusement. He leans down and nuzzles me, firmly enough that I stumble and grab at his jaw to steady myself. Then he withdraws, plucks a scale from his chest, and breathes a flicker of fire over it. The scale glows blue-hot before fading to a shimmering onyx.
“Hold out your hand.”
I obey. The scale, surprisingly cool despite the flame, melts into my skin and re-forms as an ink-black sigil: a dragon curled around an hourglass, right next to Cassian’s bargain. It glimmers faintly as I move.
“You have until sunrise,” he says. “When the mark fades, I will come for you. No matter where you are.” His voice is fierce but not menacing. Protective. A promise. “Be careful, Selene.”
I nod and turn toward the city.
I slip through narrow alleys where lanterns gutter and salt air mingles with damp stone. Every step stirs a memory—vendors calling, Kat’s laughter over honeyed pastries, thriving summer roses scaling the walls of our garden.
Up ahead, raised voices break the silence. I duck behind a dusty barrel and carefully peer around the corner. Two men stagger from a tavern, dragging another between them. They toss him into the street like refuse.
Even half-hidden by shadow, I know that face.
“Tobias!” I cry as soon as the men leave. I rush forward, dropping to my knees beside him. The stink of ale and smoke clings to his clothes.
He blinks up at me, eyes hooded with drink. “Selene?” he slurs.
I clutch his shoulders. “What’s happened? Where’s Kat?”
His brow furrows. “She’s… gone.”
My pulse spikes and my heart sinks, imagining the worst. “Gone? How—how did she die?”
“Die?” He blinks, confusion piercing through the haze. His grip tightens on my arms. “No, she’s not dead. She’s engaged.”
“Engaged?” I stare down at Tobias’s hand, expecting a wedding ring, but there’s nothing. “But you…”
He nods miserably. “Edric Grey.”
The name hits like a blade. My blood turns to ice, stealing my breath.
He stumbles upright. “Your father arranged it after… after the fire.”
My throat closes. “What fire?!”
He nods again, eyes glassy. “ A massive fire burned the Grey family estate to the ground. Everyone died except Edric and his younger brother.”
My mind whirls. A mysterious fire. Everyone dying. Tobias starts to slump over again.
I reach out to steady him. “Tobias, focus. Please… When did this happen?”
“Just before fall,” he says, head bobbing forward.
I feel like I’ve been punched. Fury burns cold in my veins. So, Keiren sent Drako to kill Edric, after all. He ignored my wishes. And how many innocent people died as a result?
“Where is she?” I demand.
“At your father’s estate,” Tobias says softly. “If you see her, tell her I said congratulations.”
I run so fast that it feels like my heart’s about to burst out of my chest. The street blurs beneath my feet—wet stone, golden light, salt wind.
I reach the high wall of my father’s estate just as the first tendrils of dawn begin to stain the horizon.
Hauling myself up, I balance atop the fence, my breath ragged, before dropping down on the other side.
The gardens below lie still and ghostly in the pale light.
A low rumble vibrates the air: Drako circling above, unseen but near. I close my eyes, draw strength from the echo of his power, then drop silently into the courtyard.
Kat stands there—gaunt, pale, eyes hollowed by sleepless nights sitting beneath the giant oak tree.
“Kat.” I approach slowly, afraid to startle her.
“Selene,” she breathes, crossing her arms as if defending herself. “How are you here?”
I pull her into a fierce embrace. “I’ve missed you so much, sunshine.”
Her body trembles in my arms before stiffening. She pulls back, studying me like a ghost. “I thought you were gone forever.”
“I’ve only been granted one night,” I whisper. “I had to see you.”
Her expression hardens. “Well, you’ve seen me. And now you can go.”
“Kat…” I hesitate. “Tobias told me you’re engaged to…” I can’t bring myself to say his name. “Why? To him, of all people?”
She flinches but doesn’t look away. “Edric Grey isn’t who he was before your horse sent him into a coma. He brings me gifts and promises safety. Father says the match will secure my future.”
“I secured your future,” I say, the words scraping my throat raw. “On the ranch. With Tobias.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “It wasn’t the life I wanted. I belong here—in the city, in society.”
The rage that follows isn’t immediate. It rolls in slow and suffocating, crushing my lungs as the truth sinks in.
I see every choice I made for her laid bare—every compromise, every promise, every piece of myself I carved away so she wouldn’t have to live under our father’s shadow—discarded with a single sentence.
And with it comes the sick, unbearable realization that I wasn’t protecting her from him at all. I was protecting her from becoming exactly like him.
“You sound just like Father,” I whisper, heart cracking. “You don’t love him.”
“Love isn’t what ultimately matters, Selene.” Her voice wavers but stays sharp. “Father felt it could be a powerful alliance, restoring the Greys’ name and raising ours. And I said yes.”
“Kat, he tried to rape me!” The truth tears free at last, the long-unspoken words lifting a crushing weight from my chest.
She recoils as if struck. “Impossible.”
“It’s true. He’s a monster. You have to believe me—”
“I don’t.” Her voice shakes. “You twist everything. You always have.”
The air leaves my lungs.
“What’s become of the ranch?” I ask, pivoting—grasping for something, anything.
“I sold it.”
“What? Why?” The betrayal stings hot. I sacrificed myself to save my sister. I outsmarted our father. I nearly died—only for her to throw everything away.
“All you ever cared about was that stupid ranch,” she says. “It was your dream, not mine.”
“That’s not true. You loved the ranch. The good times we had there—”
“Yeah, well, times change.”
“And so do people, it seems.” I stare at my sister, searching for the carefree girl I helped raise. The girl I tried to shield from our father.
“Go,” she whispers. “Before Father returns.”
“Kat—”
“Go!” she screams, whirling back towards the mansion.
I stand frozen, heartbeat pounding in my throat. As dawn breaks, I turn and stumble out of the courtyard, grief clawing at my chest.
Drako waits in the tree line outside the city. I press my forehead to his cool scales.
“Selene,” he murmurs. “We must go, before we’re seen.”
I nod, my words lost to the wind. As his wings unfurl, I climb onto his back. With one powerful beat, we’re airborne, leaving behind my sister, my home, and everything I believed I could save.