Page 132 of Fire to the Stars

“Thank you for coming back for us,” Abel tells Noctu. “I thought you’d Ascended for good.”

“I am not finished with your realm,” Noctu replies, then looks to me. “I still wish to speak with Claire Belgard.”

After a bit of reassurance from me, Abel steps outside to help Marshal Payen take stock of the damage. Lyle remains, but only to bandage my palm with a strip of linen. The tight knot makes me wince, but the bleeding stops. I hide it beneath the folds of my silverwolf pelt.

“That should hold for now,” he says. “I’ll bring you some spare clothes. The sooner you dress, the sooner we get you home.”

While he’s gone, I join Noctu in the deepest recess of the cave, taking in the remains of his prison with my human eyes. The icy floor bites into my bare knees as I kneel, then run my fingertips along the melted ore. It doesn’t glow anymore, but the surface is still warm.

“Are you certain you do not want eau de vie to heal your hand?” Noctu asks. “The magic will not linger after I am gone.”

I shake my head. “I’ve had enough magic for a lifetime.”

In the sunslight outside, Abel directs Lucy to devour the last flickers of fire. Lyle and Marshal Payen sort through the supplies.The surviving gendarmes—freshly healed, after lining up in the cave to accept Noctu’s offer for treatment—search between the trees, collecting evidence. Cloaks, masks, sickles…and the bodies of their gendarme allies. They wrap the latter with the canvas of their tents.

“You wanted to talk to me?” I say.

“I assume you have questions. I owe you answers.”

I clench my injured hand against my chest, pressing my fingernails into the fresh bandage on my palm until I wince. Wet spots well beneath my fingertips. Only then do I take a deep, steadying breath.

“Why did Diu choose me?” I ask.

“Diu chose his dragons,” Noctu says, “for their courage.”

“Courage?”Of all the reasons to set me on such a painful path, that’s the last answer I expected. “Why?”

“Diu believed that courage was necessary to dismantle the lies written inThe Tale of Stars.” He gestures to me. “He was correct.”

My mind gallops, aimless and confused. I wasn’t a uniquelycourageousperson before I turned. Quite the opposite. I was kind and compliant, shaped by sermons. Not bad, but hardly courageous.

“But I obeyed the scripture. I only questioned itaftermy first Ignition,” I protest. “Besides, I’ve met people much braver than me who were never cursed.”

Like Abel, who defied the Slayers Guild. Lyle, who told the truth in the face of extortion. Anne-Sophie, who smiled in Étienne’s face while he dragged her daughter off in chains.

“The purest form of courage is not reactive to one’s circumstances,” Noctu explains. “It is proactive. It lies in the unprompted recognition that change is good.”

“What did I do that was so proactive?”

“You prayed to me.”

The stars in Noctu’s black eyes transport me back to Sellecastel, under the light of the full moon, where sparks from our bonfire mingled with the constellation in the sky. The owl watched while Papa and I, with our neighbors and friends, spoke our gratitude to the vengeful War-Torn God of the Moon.

Tears edge my lashes. “You heard us?” I whisper.

“No mortal had spoken kindly to me in centuries until your father started his stargazing tradition,” he explains. “I looked forward to those hours of quiet, where I listened to the stories from your life and the small things you were grateful for.” He dips his head. “Thank you for trusting I was still worth talking to.”

My chin wobbles. “But that was Papa’s idea. He was the courageous one.”

“He was. But it was you who normalized it.Youwho drew the crowd.Youwho had the courage to try something different and share it with others, not because you felt it was necessary, but simply because you could.”

When he phrases it like that, it starts to make sense. Every dragon I know about proactively stood up to societal expectations in some way. Micah Estellio denied the family legacy. Leah Travers, despite her young age, stood tall as a Dame Blanche. Even Gérard Dupont—in defiance of his pampered upbringing—had taken his sister fishing for her birthday when he turned.

Such simple acts. But enough to reshape their perception of the world.

“I am sorry for your town’s suffering, Claire Belgard,” Noctu says, “but of all the dragons Diu could have sent to rescue me, I am glad that it was you.”

The surge of validation drops me to my knees. My tears finally spill over, but then comes a burst of the purest, most catharticlaughterI’ve ever felt.