Page 46 of Dragon Fires Everywhere (Witchlore #4)

That feels awful , because of course she’s right. For their ten -year breakup full of anger and loathing—of themselves and each other—Zander and Ellowyn came together for the good of Emerson and then the coven. Over and over again.

Then there is a kind of crash at the window, and we all look over.

To see a very large violet-eyed crow.

Who caws at us imperiously and then flies away.

Ellowyn gives me a smirk as if to say, See , and she isn’t wrong.

So.

“I guess we need to go to the cemetery,” I mutter.

We gather and then head over to the cemetery. Ellowyn brings Octavius—who can apparently talk to Revelares or pregnant ladies or something .

Gideon is already there, though like the last time, he is standing outside the cemetery boundaries. He is not lounging quite

the same way. In fact, he’s holding himself almost stiffly—

And then I see a little trickle of blood coming out of his nose. I rush forward, compelled by a strange twist in my heart

I’m not sure I fully recognize or understand. “Your nose is bleeding,” I say, stopping myself just short of touching him.

He lifts a finger to the drip of blood coming out of his nose, then shrugs.

“Outwitting curses has a price.” Hurting is part of the price , I think then, remembering something Ellowyn said a long time ago.

“Is there a reason your cat wouldn’t stop meowing in my head until I had to accept that painful price? ”

I blink at Octavius in Ellowyn’s arms. So, not just Revelares or pregnant women, but crows ? And not me .

I try not to be hurt by that, but it doesn’t work. “I have some things to talk about, and Azrael needs to be included, apparently.

Come inside the cemetery, Gideon.”

His expression is defiant, his crossed-arms pose even more so. But I give him a look I remember Lillian giving us girls when we were being a little too rowdy.

He scowls more deeply but moves toward the cemetery gate. We all go inside the boundaries, and Gideon finds himself a seat. Right on poor Zachariah’s grave. He smirks at Zander, who is scowling at him.

But it has nothing on the scowl that currently graces Azrael’s face. I think he’d be breathing fire if he could. It’s a good

thing he can’t. Still, it’s best to get this started—and finished—before the chance for a fight breaks out.

“Gideon,” I say, almost formally, “your grandmother... she was a crow princess who fought with revolutionaries to end her

father’s rule.”

“I don’t know why you think old wars are going to solve the problems of now,” Azrael says darkly.

I want to punch him . “Maybe if you’d shut up and listen, you would.”

“Yes, this is my grandmother’s story.” Gideon sounds suspicious. “How do you know it?”

“I found a book. About the crow war. Written by your grandmother.”

Gideon looks affronted. “Witches should not have this book.”

“What about those who are only part witch?” I ask him.

He blinks once, as if surprised by this revelation.

“And,” I continue, frowning at him, “I happen to believe everyone should have all the books. Any book they want. If we are to learn as one unit, we must not have hidden pieces of our past. And it is our past. Witches helped.”

“We would not all characterize it as help ,” the Raven King says dryly.

I ignore this comment and push on. “The crow princess brought dragons and witches in to help with her revolution because she

believed that in order to build a new, better way of life, we all had to work together.”

“And then every last dragon who helped was slaughtered,” Azrael says with deep disgust. “What togetherness.”

“That’s an interesting way of saying the dragons betrayed our leader and were punished accordingly,” Gideon replies in the same tone. “And the crows have since learned a lesson about dealing with fabulae or witches.”

“Dragons betrayed your leader?” Azrael demands, a dangerous gold fire in his eyes. “Are you a liar or a fool?”

I stand between them and hold out my hands. The facts laid out in the book did not account for two different versions of the

same history, but maybe I should have foreseen that. Maybe it’s all... connected.

We cannot move forward if we’re always sure our version of the past is not just correct , but the only possible version. And maybe that echoes a little too closely to the fight Azrael and I have been having.

But I can’t deal with that now.

“Gideon, whose story do you believe?” I ask him. “Your grandmother’s, or your grandfather’s?”

Gideon refuses to answer this question, no matter how I glare at him. I decide we’ll come back to that.

“The book is clear,” I tell both raven and dragon—and everyone else. “We must learn from our history or we are doomed to repeat

it, again and again and again. The humans are right about one thing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly

what the witches have done.”

“In the past, maybe,” Emerson says now, hotly. “But not now. Not us. We’re not about power. We are about giving everyone a voice. That’s why we won the ascension trials.”

“But that’s just the witches,” I say patiently. “We have a whole world of magical creatures who we didn’t even know existed,

so we couldn’t serve them. We couldn’t give them a voice. Now we all have to come together and build a new power structure

together .” I look at Azrael and Gideon. And then at Frost. “You three represent old wars, but you need to understand that they— you— are what’s holding us back.”

It’s probably wishful thinking that I see some little hints of chagrin in their closed-off expressions.

“I will work night and day to undo this curse,” I promise Gideon. “I will not rest until you are all free. And when you are,

we must all be ready to work together to defeat the darkness that has kept us apart all this time—cursed and ignorant.” I

turn to Azrael then. “You too. All of us means all of us .” He starts to snarl something, so I raise my voice. “You do not have to hold hands and skip. You don’t even have to agree.

But you must be willing to work together until this is done. Until we win, once and for all.”

I glare at Frost too, since he’s part of this three-way ancient war. Hell, he was probably there too.

It must be a great glare, because Frost is the first one to give in. “There will certainly be no skipping , but I would sacrifice my life for this coven.” His brow rises. “As I have proven already. And as I will continue to prove,

even if that includes working hand in claw with fabulae and crows.”

I look at Azrael. He looks away.

He huffs out a puff of smoke. Everyone is looking at him now, and he is staring at his own terrifying statue. “I fought with

the crows once and was rewarded for my sacrifice with a knife to the heart.” His hands clench into fists. “I mean that literally.”

He turns that dark glare on me. “This curse, and the people who used black magic to imprison my people, are my only enemies

still living. I will see them all dead this time or die trying.”

“What a rousing vow of fealty,” Gideon murmurs, earning a sharp glance not just from Azrael, but from me as well. I soften

almost at once, because the trickle of blood has not gone away. If anything, it has intensified. He needs to return home.

I cross to him. I put my hands on his shoulders, and I see a baby in my arms suddenly. I feel an overwhelming wave of warmth

that I shouldn’t. I don’t know what he sees or feels, but he looks at me with a deep suspicion, so I know it’s something .

“There is no fealty here, Gideon,” I tell him. “There is only cooperation. There is only working together to end the curse that holds your people even now.”

I feel the dragon tear heat against my skin, and I somehow know my next steps. I take the dragon tear necklace off. It was

his grandmother’s. A symbol of her love that was taken away from her. But she did not crumble. She did not give up. She loved

her children and her grandchildren—something I think is evident in the way Gideon speaks of her now. And something I know

is evident in the hope she had for the world, for our future.

The words come to me as if they have lived my whole life right there on my tongue, waiting for this moment. “We cannot always

change the world. Sometimes we must change ourselves, and our own bitter hearts, and hope that in so doing, we plant the seeds

that will change futures we can never see.”

Gideon’s face shifts, into something not quite wonder. Not fully hope. “My grandmother often said those words to me in her

last days.”

I nod. I may not remember my past lives, but there is a knowing inside me. A piece of my soul was there. A piece of my soul loved him as a little boy. I put the necklace around his neck.

“Go home and stay there. Do not hurt yourself anymore. We will free you when we can. And when we do, Gideon, you must be prepared

to work with us. Because you’re not alone anymore.”

He stands very still. His eyes are a gleaming black.

And my heart aches, an echo of the soul I once was.

At last he steps away from me, the dragon tear sparkling at his neck. “You do not rule Crow Island, Riverwood coven. But we will work together for the best of all, even so.”

He slides one last look in Azrael’s direction, then nods.

“Even dragons,” he says quietly.

Then a gust of wind moves through the cemetery, and he is a giant raven in flight, winging his way toward the river and the confluence. A sparkling dragon tear hanging around his neck.

I’m not the only one who watches him go.

“So we’re working together,” Rebekah says. “We’ve got dragons and crows, and once we figure out how to uncurse everyone, a

whole slew of magical creatures. Do you really think that will just... erase black magic? That it’s really the answer?”

“No,” I say, because unfortunately, I don’t think that. “But I believe the answer will find us. If we take the right steps,

if we believe. If we work together.” I turn to Azrael then, chin lifted. “You’re the lone holdout, dragon.”

He sneers when I call him dragon .