It had been a whole day since Thorn put the pearl in Leila’s mouth. The sphere was slowly melting and growing smaller due to her body heat. But there was still no sign of her waking any time soon. “You should rest, my prince.” Healer June stood up from bed. She lit a new candlestick and disposed of the old, melted wax. “You’ve barely slept since she…” “I’m fine,” Thorn cut in. He hadn’t shaved for days. His eyes, however, were distinctly sparkling with hope. He stretched his long legs and leaned in toward Leila, gently stroking her hair. “The pearl is smaller now.” June observed the red dust in Leila’s hand. “Be patient. It’ll work its wonders after it completely integrates with her blood. Look.” She showed Thorn the red dust; its movement seemed much less volatile and its hue wasn’t so aggressively red. “The serpent blood dust has been affected by the pearl already.” Thorn nodded with great relief. Ula didn’t lie to him—the pearl was actually working. But he wondered about the oth

Simply killing June was much quicker than fighting or arguing with her. As soon as Amaya took the stone, who would suspect her of killing a random healer?She walked towards Leila. The stone was laying right on her neck, shimmering darkly. It had the same sheen as the stone Tora owned before.Amaya reached over to grab the stone off of Leila. A fierce pain precisely stung her fingertips; it was a freezing pain, colder than ice, and the chill soon spread across her whole hand. She pulled her hand back at once, as if she had waited one more second, it would have fallen off.Astounded, Amaya quickly ran over to the cluster of candles placed beside the terrace and put her hand over the flame. The sharp, icy pain was mitigated by the fire, but it wasn’t enough to heal it fully.Right then, she spotted Thorn’s little sidekick running towards the bedchamber through the garden.Hugo had received a crow without a note this morning. He knew Thorn urgently wanted his attention at the palace. The

A cluster of white daisies were clutched in the dragon prince’s hand. Thorn walked through the grand hall of the gallery. Recently, the adjacent volcano had made the subterranean floor extra hot.There was a time, long ago, when he resisted coming here. He especially avoided the top floor, as the air lingering there stirred up a deep fear in his heart.But as time passed, the fear had gradually become mourning. which he found easier to handle. He started to come once a month, just to get a bit of alone time. Thorn pushed on the obsidian button on the gallery wall and got into the tomb. His footsteps echoed around the dried stones of the earthen walls, as though the spirit in the vault could hear a living being approaching.He glanced over the vault. Everything was exactly the same as before. Dust floated through the air under the blueish, slanted beams. He put the delicate flowers before the statue of his mother, Tora, the previous dragon queen. She died when Thorn was young. He sat

Long before any creature could remember, tall, rough pine trees had been densely rooted in these evergreen hills, solemnly guarding the quickly flowing river traversing the mysterious land. Thorn fled low upon the dark green, needled canopy. The deeper the Misty Mountains he went, the faster and more relentlessly the stream rushed. The color of the trees became even darker and the mist grew thicker, making it blurry even for a dragon’s eyes.The wound left by the sharp arrowhead had left him helpless. After it had ripped off one of his scales, rope detached, the deadly weapon was still buried deep in his flesh, inches away from his heart and dipped in some sort of poison. Thorn could feel the poison coursing through his body quickly, creeping along his veins. The pain was sharp, and he felt a deadly ache deep in his dragon bones. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as the anguish at losing Leila.When he finally made his way back to the sky, Leila had already disappeared into the rushing wate

Ben finally found the sack of seeds stored in the ship’s hold and brought it to the deck, where the dragon stood.They were a fascinating flower seeds and had to make sure that they were kept away from any exposure to rain.Extraordinarily, these plants wouldn’t flower in any season. Water could even damage their seeds. Only one element could make them thrive and bloom - dragon fire. Therefore, they were given the name fire dandelions. Ben swayed the seeds up to the sky. The dragon patted the wings and breathed out a gush of fire right to it. Fluffy puffs popped out of the dark brown seeds and flowered in full. Each dandelion bloom was as bright red as the kernel of a flame.The chromatic blooms floated in the air and carried away by the oceanic winds. They attracted a cloud of black ravens. They circled in the sky, blocking the sun’s rays. But not a single bird cawed or made a noise, as if they knew that they were conjured to complete a secret mission.Each black raven carried one