Page 215 of Tears for a Broken Sky
My mother’s hand on my cheek, whispering my name.
Finn’s voice, whispering through the bars.
And secret whispers in a room. A room I was never meant to enter.
“Dante’s vision was clear. The dragons have chosen her. They will answer to her. If she can find them”
I remembered.
I rememberedeverything.
My shadows were alive, like spirits seeking vengeance.
Vael writhed on the ground, blood spilling fast—but still alive. Still watching me.
I stepped forward, shadows writhing around my hands like living fire.
“I was never yours,” I said.
And I raised the shadows again.
Darkness blasted upwards like an inferno, up and up and up, through the roof through the skies. It wasn’t just magic it was primal. It was more.
The amulet around my neck burned like fire on my chest. A shape burst out of me, massive. Opaque.
Serpent-born from shadow.
A shape coiled behind me, spreading wide across the sky.
A shadow dragon rose from my back—horned, winged,magnificent—its eyes glowing bright, fierce andblue.
Like the sea.
Like home.
I knew her.
Not by name, but by heartbeat. She had always been there—just waiting for me to remember.
Vael looked up at me from the blood-slick floor, his chest heaving, eyes wide with something that almost looked like wonder.
His lips were stained red. He smiled through it.
“I knew it,” he rasped. “You are a goddess.”
For a moment, silence stretched.
Thick. Electric.
And then Istepped forward, shadows licking at my feet.
My heart was cold.
Colder than it had ever been.
Because this wasn’t justmeanymore.
Iwas the dragon.
