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I opened my mouth on a scream that I felt like a current runningthrough me, rattling my fangs, vibrating my very bones—a roar louder than the rushing wind in my ears.

He was almost there. Almost gone.

I watched, transfixed, unable to look away from the horror unfolding, helpless to stop it, helpless to save him.

What was I thinking? I should have left him behind. He was a human. This wasn’t his world. He did not belong with me. Not anymore. Perhaps he never had.

He should have stayed in the Borg. It was his home. He had his warriors. They were family to him. They would never let anything happen to him. He could have withstood whatever the lord regent sent his way.

I’d brought him with me because I wanted him with me. Because I was selfish and scared and didn’t want to be alone. I could lie and tell myself he’d made me bring him along, but I could have left him behind. He was here right now because of me.

And I’d killed him.

Suddenly I couldn’t see him anymore. That speck disappeared in a bright flash of light.

I shook my head in confusion. Had he hit the ground?

Then I saw it. A dragon. Another dragon emerged from the burst of light.

I hesitated at the sight of a beautiful silvery creature, desperately scanning the ground below, searching for Fell’s broken body.

He was not on the ground. Pieces of him did not litter the earth. He was nowhere.

I continued my descent, approaching warily, suspicious of this new dragon after nearly being killed by those others.

He flew directly to me—for me. Close enough for me to see his eyes. Those familiar frosted eyes.

Fell.

WE FOUND A CAVE.

Together we had searched, losing the other dragons—or perhaps my fire drove them away. We flew into a dip, along the col oftwo mountains, sticking close to the sides until the mouth of a tunnel appeared among the dark, snow-speckled rock.

We dove into that blackness.

Unable to fly within the confining space, we moved on our feet.

The dark did not bother us. Our eyes possessed exceptional vision. We maneuvered expertly as though it were the middle of the day and not a sunless tunnel.

The danger was not gone. Dragons were out there, and here we were plunging into a tunnel, into the labyrinthine system of caves that made up the Crags... home to the dragon. And as we had just learned, not all dragons were friendly.

Apparently, being a dragon did not mean we were safe from other dragons.

But at least we were together. We had each other.

The tunnel dead-ended into a cave, a den...

I sank down on the mossy ground. It was surprisingly warm and yielding beneath me. I brought my knees up to my chest, hugging myself tightly. Fell was there.

Dropping down, he wrapped an arm around me. We sat like that for some time, our breaths falling hard and labored. Not a sound between us except our gasps.

I reached up to scratch my nose, and that was when I realized I was no longer in dragon form.

I was me again. The other me. The human me. I had changed back.

Turning, I looked at Fell and saw that he was himself again, too. Well. Not entirely himself. His hair was...

I reached out a hand to stroke the long strands. His hair was no longer dark as a raven’s wing. The color had bled from it. The strands were the same color as his dragon. A lush, iridescent silver.His dragon.