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Her mask was gone.

It was the first time I had ever seen her smile and it was absolutely stunning.

“I know,” Calista said in response to my gasp, nervously moving her hand to touch the scars that had been left in its wake.“It is not pretty, but better than being trapped inside that golden prison.” I could hear insecurity tugging at the threads weaved into her words and I reached out to grab her hand, pulling it into mine and away from her face.

Her neck and the bottom half of her face looked as though it had been burned over and over again, the skin pulled tight with ridges of scar tissue strewn across the surface.

“No, Calista . . . this is the first time I have actuallyseenyou smile. You are beautiful—your scars are beautiful.”

A nervous smile spread across her face at the compliment and she cleared her throat, looking up at me with large eyes. I hadn’t noticed it before, how similar her eyes were to Pri’s. One a golden brown and the other a shade darker.

“How are you?” I asked, squeezing her hand before letting it slip from mine.

“I’ve been well,” she said with a soft nod. “The transition has been easy for me. After a century locked in that fortress I feel as though I have so much to learn about the outside world, but the Yaldrin have been kind to me.” In the distance, a dragon’s roar echoed through the air and Calista’s eyes drifted toward the sound.

“I know that you’ve only just started making a home here in Ithia, but would you want to come back to Locdragoon with us?” I asked, unsure how she would respond.

If the Elders agreed to our plans, we would be moving everyone out of Ithia anyway, but I wanted to at least give her a choice—she had already been stripped of so many in her life.

Her eyes shot back to me, locking onto mine.

“Really? Y-you want me there?” Her voice trembled with a mix of shock and disbelief, as if she couldn’t comprehend someone actually wanting her and my heart lurched at the sound of it.

“Of course I do. There hasn’t been a day since we met that I haven’t thought of you—of Cai,” I said with a reassuring smile. “I would be dead if it weren’t for you. You . . . you gave up everything to help keep me alive.” My voice wavered along the edges at the memory.

She was a friend to me when she didn’t have to be. She had saved me when she could have handed me over to the soldiers that hunted me and I didn’t know if I could truly ever repay that debt.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why did you do it?”

I had never gotten the chance to ask her, but the question had always plagued my mind. Calista let out a heavy breath as she turned from me and began walking toward the edge of the clearing. I strode alongside her, waiting for her answer.

“You were scared—in pain—and still you were kind to us when you had no reason to be,” she said, stopping at the edge of the field. I looked over the ledge, seeing nothing but clouds swirling in the late afternoon sun. “In the hundred years I served the House of High, not a single person asked me to have coffee with them, or even asked how I was. You treated us as equals, not like property. I knew then that if I was going to risk my life for anyone, it would be you.”

She glanced over at me with a soft smile, and as I opened my mouth to respond, the air filled with the song of dragons. Their roars vibrated the ground we stood on as a gust of wind pushed me backwards. I threw my arm over my face, my other hand clutching Calista’s wrist as Nithra and four dragons flew up the side of the mountain, their bellies skimming the cliff’s edge.

A laugh erupted from my chest as I watched them burst into view, one after another. I would never get sick of the sight of them, never get over the magnificent power they held as they soared through the open skies. Nithra circled over us beforelanding in the center of the field, her talons digging into the ground as she padded over to us.

Her nose brushed against my back as she began to speak down the fastening.

Thank her for me, child, for caring for my sisters.Her voice was so soft and sincere as she said the words and it dawned on me that she had not been back to Ithia since that night. She had chosen to stay with me, to stay by my side.

Today was also a reunion for her.

My heart swelled as I pressed my palm to her neck and looked to Calista. “Nithra would like me to thank you, for taking care of her sisters.”

Calista grinned, her eyes falling to Nithra before looking to the skies where the other dragons were now hovering above.

“They have become my closest friends here. They almost never leave my side—always watching over me,” she said softly. Excitement burst onto her face, her eyes widening as they shot back to me. “You can talk to dragons? Can you tell me their names?”

A chuckle reverberated in my mind, mimicking my own as we watched the joy seep into Calista’s features.

Cashe—she is the runt. Much like you, she does not know her own strength,Nithra started, and I rolled my eyes in her direction.Aldrax is the one with the arrowed tail, Melin has the three-pronged crown, and Lynna has the silver shimmer to her scales. She is the youngest and will not let you forget it.Nithra huffed and I looked over at her with a lifted brow.

Did I just hear you make a joke?I teased, a smirk sliding onto my lips.

I do not joke, child. She is insufferable.

A laugh rolled from my throat as the fastening went silent and looked to Calista who was anxiously waiting for a response, that same wide smile still glued to her face. I repeated back whatNithra had told me and she turned and sprinted away from me, running to her dragons to finally call them by name.