Page 99 of Born in Fire
Dragon?I look at Dorian, questioning.
“We have a lot to talk about,” he says softly.
I close my hand, extinguishing the flame. The power doesn’t disappear—it settles beneath my skin, warm and waiting.
“I want to know everything,” I say, my voice steady and certain. “About who I was. What I am. And why I came back.”
The three of them exchange glances—Dorian protective, Caleb calculating, Elena curious. And me? I feel something beyond confusion.
I feel purpose.
I may not remember who Juno Ashford was. But I’m beginning to understand what she—whatI—might be.
Powerful. Lethal.
And somehow, I know this is just the beginning.
Chapter 31
Dorian
The door closes behind Caleb and Elena, leaving a silence that feels like the first real breath I’ve taken in hours. The constant weight of Caleb’s skepticism and Elena’s analytical gaze has been like a stone on my chest. Now it’s just us—just Juno, sitting on my couch in clothes too big for her frame, looking simultaneously lost and more present than she’s been since I found her.
“They mean well,” I say, dropping into the armchair across from her. “Caleb’s just…”
“Protective,” she finishes. “He’s worried.”
I study her face—the same delicate features I’ve memorized, but with something new behind her eyes. A light that wasn’t there before.
“You’re handling this better than anyone could expect,” I say.
She shrugs, a gesture so familiar it makes my chest ache. “What choice do I have? Fall apart? Seems counterproductive.”
A laugh escapes me—rusty, surprised. “You always were practical.”
“Tell me what happened,” she says, leaning forward. “How did I die? Tell me everything.”
I hesitate, weighing how much to share, how fast. But the determined set of her jaw tells me she won’t accept anything less than the truth.
“There was an… accident,” I say, not sure if I can shock her with the truth about dragons yet. “You were in the Towers when a pillar collapsed. It nearly fell on me, but you pushed me out of the way, and it…” I swallow hard, “it crushed you.”
“Oh.” Her voice is small. “You were there. Whenithappened.”
“Until the end. Every moment,” I say, trying not to relive those moments. I don’t need to. She’s back.
“And I died. Really died.”
“Yes, Juno. It really happened.” I gather that she’s trying to come to terms with the idea, so I don’t try to sugarcoat it. “I watched you take your last breath. I placed you on the funeral pyre. I lit the wood that burned you. And I waited there until every last flame had died down.” I frown as I say this, remembering the strange figure that I thought I had seen. The one I’d dismissed as my imagination. Now, I’m not so sure anymore.
“Okay,” she says quietly with a small nod, as if she’s satisfied with my answer.
“What do you remember?” I ask, hoping we’ll get to the bottom of this somehow if we go through it again.
She closes her eyes, concentration furrowing her brow. “Ash. I was lying in it. Cold. Naked.” Her eyes open, surprisingly calm. “It was dawn. The forest was quiet except for birds. I knew I should be afraid, but I wasn’t. I just felt… new.”
My throat tightens. While I was drowning in grief, she was being reborn.
“A logging crew found me,” she continues. “One of them gave me a blanket. They thought I was a hiker who’d been attacked or had some kind of breakdown. They took me to a hospital in a small town outside Seattle.”
