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“No,” says Hokzuh. “She’s a witch. The demon in her name’s meant to mislead and instill fear. As it has.” His red eye glints, and something tells me to trust what he has to say about demons.

I dig my nails into the sand. “Then how does she wield such power? You saw how she mesmerized the court, how she controlled Meguh. I’ve never heard of a witch with such ability.”

Hokzuh splashes his face with water, rubbing his eyes clean before he finally answers: “Your Angma has something that belongs to me. It’s given her great power, though not without great inconvenience.” He smirks. “She can’t sustain a human body for long. I’ll bet she was fond of Ishirya’s, but now that’s a pile of dust—thanks to you. She’ll be a tiger until she finds a new one.”

He wrings his long hair dry, and it flares behind him like a flame. “That must be why she wants your sister,” he says. “A younger, fresher body. And soon to be a queen, or so I hear.”

I ball my hands into fists. “That’s not going to happen. Once your wings heal, you’re taking me to her.”

“Am I, now? Shouldn’t it be you who’s in my debt?” Hokzuh’s gaze bores into me. “I saved you from Angma. If not for the mess you made, I’d know where my pearl is by now.”

“Your dragon pearl?” My eyebrows knit with revelation. “You don’t have one?”

That explains much, says Ukar with a sniff.

I glare. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

All dragons have a pearl, Ukar insists. Unless they’ve been exiled from the sea and the heavens.

Hokzuh’s red eye glows. “Mine was taken from me at birth. Split in half and tossed to the far ends of Lor’yan.”

Split in half? Ukar shoots out his tongue like an arrow. Impossible.

“You think I lie?” Hokzuh’s eye flares bright in challenge.

No, no. Ukar backs off, his tail curling in. But secretly he and I exchange a look. We are thinking the same thing: that Hokzuh is only half-dragon, and half something else entirely.

“Are you saying that Angma has part of your pearl?” I ask.

“She found it over a century ago. It fused with her heart and has given her great power.”

Impossible, says Ukar again. My kin have known Angma for generations, since…since—

“Since I was born,” interrupts Hokzuh. “Angma isn’t nearly as old as stories make her out to be.”

“But she is immortal now, isn’t she?” I ask. “Or is that part of the legend wrong too?”

“Depends on how you look at it. Angma wished to be immortal, and my pearl made her so, but not exactly in the way she envisioned.” Hokzuh smiles balefully. “Seems it has a sense of humor, like me.”

I shudder, remembering how Angma ate human flesh and blood to regain her strength. If that is the price of immortality, I’d happily pass.

Still, a flare of hope rises to my chest. If Hokzuh can take his pearl from her, the damage she’s wrought with it will be undone. That means Vanna will be safe—and maybe…maybe my own curse will be broken.

I turn to the dragon. It takes all my restraint to sound indifferent, to act as if he needs me and not the other way around. “You’ve been searching a hundred years for your pearl?” I remark. “That’s a long time. Doesn’t seem like you’ve made much progress.”

Hokzuh sends me a glare. “I’ve been searching for seventeen years. I slept a century after I was born; I awoke only shortly before my dragon half found its way to earth.”

Seventeen years. I shiver without knowing why.

“Even so,” I say. “It sounds like you could use help. How about you take me to my sister, and in exchange I’ll make sure you get your pearl back from Angma.”

Channi! Ukar hisses. Do not make a deal with a dragon.

I kick sand over the snake. Hush.

Hokzuh’s reaction gives away his thoughts. For me, a puny human, to ask such a favor is ludicrous. But then his brow creases. He’s remembering the potency of my blood….

“Your blood,” he says. “It works against her?”