I snapped at the air.Don’t know that I can talk you through it without being with you to see what you are doing. Why don’t you ask Tyrez?
Only Anna, and now you, know about this.He hesitated.I’d rather not have to explain it to others.
You’ll have to, Matt. No shame in being a Dragon.
There wouldn’t be, if I were really a Dragon,Matt pointed out.But I’m not. I’m some kind of weird mutant.
There is another,I said.
Yeah. That Dani woman.
You need to talk to her. And the first step is to start consuming crystal dust. It will help with the transformation.
A long pause.What if I don’t want to be a flipping Dragon?
My gut twisted.Not sure you’ll have any choice in that.
The mental equivalent of a sigh passed along the link.Have you found that Galeran bloke?
I swept away from the river, avoiding a small homestead, and then rejoined it. Ahead of me, the lights of Natik glowed against the sky.
I think I’m close.I tilted my wings to bank toward the town.
35
Anna
I walked through the woods.
Where was Matt? He seemed so much a part of me now that it surprised me to be alone. Yet I didn’t call for him. I sensed something. I was conscious of every sound I made as though it mattered. The path climbed, and fed out onto the plateau.
Sebastian sat cross-legged upon it.
His back was to me, but there was no mistaking the long, gray hair, and the stiff set to the broad shoulders above a body built to run. Which is what he would do the second he realized I was there.
I crept up behind him, my toes silent on the moss. But he heard me anyway. Or, more likely, sensed me.
He was on his feet in an instant and spun. His hair clung limply to his shoulders and lacked the usual silver luster. He’d dropped weight—I could see ribs beneath his muscle, and his cheeks were gaunt. But it was his eyes that truly horrified me.
They were a dark, ordinary gray. My heart twisted as he backed away. “Stop,” I said.
“You don’t own me, Anna.” But his feet froze, as though bound by my words.
“I know that.” It surprised me that he would think I did. I took a step toward him, and he tensed as though he might bolt.
His long mouth pulled straight. “You need to forget about me. Fate be wrong about us.”
“She wasn’t wrong. And I will find you.”
He shook his head. “Stop Galeran. That be what matters. It be too late for me. I be dying. You cannot help me.”
“Cara says we can reattach your horn—”
He barked a laugh. “Galeran will have given it to Isobel for her infernal potions. It no longer exists.”
“You do not know that!”
“He be not a fool. Reattaching a horn has not been done in thousands of years. It be never a sure thing, but Galeran would not take that risk.”
