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He looked into the mist again, growing quiet and intense.

My father was always like this on these adventures. Back at the castle and over meals, he was warm and affectionate, the best dad there ever was. But out here, he didn’t feel like my dad at all.

I guided us through the water for hours, constantly checking my compass to make sure we were on the right course. Based on my memory of other landmasses, I was able to circumvent a crash.

He didn’t address that.

The waves started to grow choppy, and the wind picked up, like there was a storm hidden behind the fog.

We’d sailed in a storm before, but this one seemed more intense than the others.

We’d been sailing for half a day and had another half to go. Dark came earlier in these winter months, so if we didn’t get to land soon, we’d have to sail in the dark, which was easy with the stars. Except, we didn’t have stars tonight.

We just had clouds.

He seemed to detect my unease because he said, “Nothing can happen to you while I’m here, Lily.”

My hand remained on the tiller as I looked at him, seeing the confidence in his gaze. “Why do you teach me these things?”

“I’m teaching you to survive. There may come a time when you’re without the protection of men and dragons. You need to learn that all you need is yourself.”

“Why would that time ever come?” I’d learned the history of the Southern Isles, knew that my father had reclaimed the kingdom that had been taken from him. But I didn’t know the specifics. “Peace has been restored to the world.”

“Peace is merely the pause between wars. It’ll probably be a very long time before our kingdom is challenged, but since we live forever, we need to be ready for it today…or in a hundred years.”

My father had told me I would fuse with a dragon when I came of age. Right now, I was far too young for that, far too young to be preserved in this small body.

“My father taught me this when I was your age, and it’s the reason I’m still here.” My father slowly came back to me, the man who wore his heart on his sleeve, who showed his love for me in just a look. “The reason I’m lucky enough to have you and your brother. My father’s legacy is the crown, but his true legacy is this, a legacy I will pass on to you.”

The storm hit.

It was just the two of us in that small boat, the wind nearly tipping us over into the cold waters. Rain splashed into my face and blurred my vision. I saw my father move around the sailboat and command the sails to remain in place when the mast nearly splintered in two.

“Dad, get Khazmuda.” Even though I was with the strongest man I’d ever known, I was still scared.

“We can do this, Lily.”

“I don’t know where we’re going.”

“You have a compass.”

“It won’t stop spinning!”

“Lily.” He came to me and grabbed me by the shoulder. “I know you can do this.”

A giant wave came over the side of the boat and struck me in the face. Ice-cold water poured over me. “Dad, I’m scared.”

“You know I would never let anything happen to you,Zunieth.” He squeezed my arm. “I know you can do this. I know we can do this together.”

I started to cry.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said. “But it’s never okay to give up.” He patted my arm. “Come on. Let’s do this.” He grabbed his compass and pulled it out, seeing the dial continue to spin as the boat was knocked around in the waves. “Hold the tiller still.”

I sniffled and gripped it hard, feeling it pull due to the power of the waves.

“See that.” The dial would move northwest before it would shift somewhere else. But it would always come back. “We’re on the right track. Hold the tiller and keep your eye on the horizon like I taught you.”

The next few hours passed in the same way, buckets of rain pouring down on us, the wind stinging our eyes, the boat shifting back and forth and nearly toppling over several times. I’d thought the fog was the bigger challenge, but that had been just a warm-up to this.