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T he goblins shrieked in the distance as they retreated.

The battle was over, for now.

“Care to tell me what that was all about?” Kai asked.

At first I thought he meant my ability to use the power of a Diamond Queen Royal’s soul, but his gaze tracked to a full-sized Solstice, instead.

“Right,” I said on a loose breath. “I guess I should fess up, I’m not actually from here.”

He gave me a raised brow. “No kidding,” he said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Yeah, I guess I deserved that.

Sighing, I hurried over to Solstice and began examining her for injuries.

“You need to revert to fledgling-size, girl,” I whispered to her. I said it aloud for Kai’s benefit.

She had cuts and deeper wounds all over her hidden underneath her scales. I could sense her pain when she moved, better understanding the pain she was in, even if she tried to hide it. The manticore had cut deeply within a short amount of time.

Solstice sent a soothing wave of reassurance into my mind, making my chest pinch. She was the one who was hurt, but she still tried to comfort me.

I didn’t deserve a dragon like her, but that was the beauty of fate. Luckily, we didn’t all get what we deserved.

Or unluckily, in cases like ancient evils such as Nera.

I had to believe she’d get what she deserved one day.

I had assumed her taken care of, but still, she proved to be a thorn in my side.

Her Corruption reached out like tendrils on a poisoned vine seeking the Lost Dragon Queens to sink her teeth into.

If she won, she’d come back stronger than ever before. The realms didn’t deserve what horror she’d unleash in the process.

The realms don’t deserve what she’s already unleashed, I thought grimly.

But I would fix it, because when fate didn’t want to cooperate, I would grab it by the shoulders and make it listen.

Solstice glimmered as faerie magic kicked in, sweeping over her in a wave of purple motes before she was small again. She fluttered to my neck and curled around my throat before settling in just underneath my hair.

I gave her a pat as I turned to Kai. He watched us with curiosity glinting in his gaze and I noted that the wariness I’d seen there before was now gone.

Probably because we’d just taken down a manticore, which I guessed was one of the larger Wrath Monsters in the Crystal Realm. Kai seemed to be the type of guy who was impressed by acts of heroism.

Like a good fantasy character should be, I mused, then mentally pinched myself for constantly comparing Kai and this realm to the books I’d read.

He was real. He had a family he sent money to, meaning they were in need and suffering because of the Corruption Nera spewed.

And given I was a member of Dragonrider Academy, and a descendent of the Goddess, it was in part my responsibility to fix it.

“I’m sorry, Kai,” I began, trying to decide how much I was going to reveal.

Violet had made a whole cover story for me, but lying didn’t seem to be the right course of action. Especially given that she was nice and cozy back at the Academy while Kai, Solstice, and I risked our lives for her sister.

Whatever her plan, I wasn’t going to go along with it anymore. Not when it all felt like a giant setup.

I would help her sisters. But we would do this my way.

Kai gave me a raised brow.

I bit my lip, then decided to just go all in. “I’m not a Companion Faerie,” I began.

He tilted his head, sending a tendril of red strands into his eyes. “If you’re going to try and tell me you’re a Dragon Faerie, I don’t think I’ll believe you.” He eyed Solstice now sleeping around my neck. “You’re something else entirely. Even if you do have an actual dragon.”

I rubbed the silver bracelet that now seemed hotter than usual while my birthmark throbbed. Apparently, holding onto a piece of Violet’s soul, and now a new Diamond Royal’s on top of it, was draining my Goddess magic even more than before.

Violet was giving me the burden of her curse while she walked around, doing whatever it was she was doing back at the Academy.

Her sister—the one whose soul I had just found—I imagined wasn’t in as good of a shape.

It would empower her to have the burden of her soul secured with me.

I could feel the drain as she kept her body alive within its real shell.

She was already taking slivers of what she needed to eventually free herself without going mad from the dark influence of Corruption.

But I wasn’t an endless battery for Royals to feed on. I couldn’t keep this up forever.

The drain was manageable, for now, but I needed to find Killian and get us back to the Academy to figure this out before I became too weak.

I refused to wonder if Killian had been dropped out in the wastelands, facing his own manticore problems alone, because no matter how capable he was, I still worried.

And if anyone was going to help me find Killian in this unfamiliar land, it would be Kai.

“I’m a Dragonrider,” I told Kai, deciding to be completely honest with him and hoping he would be honest with me, in return.

“Not a faerie. I’m human, or, er, well I thought I was human because I’m from Earth.

” I rubbed my birthmark. “I’m a lot of things, it’s complicated.

” Somehow, Avalon Enchantress, Goddess Conduit, and Dragonrider mutt didn’t quite have a ring to it, so I left it at that.

“Dragonrider,” he said as if the term had no meaning to him—which, given that dragons didn’t exist in this realm, probably didn’t. “There’s an Academy for people like you?”

I nodded. “Yes, there are people from all over the realms that are drawn to Dragonrider Academy, a place where we bond with an egg and raise a dragon from a fledgling. Our job is to protect the realms. Which, is what I’ve been trying to do. But I can’t do it alone. I need my allies.”

He pulled his flute from his satchel, making me stiffen, then he sighed and sat on a rock as he toyed with it. “There are more of you, then.” He hummed. “We were only taught of the other realms recently, but I always knew they existed.

“You did?” I asked.

“Hmm,” he said, then added, “because of my dreams.”

Sitting on the ground next to him, I dared to hope that he’d be as honest with me as I was with him. Even if we’d just met, Kai felt like a kindred spirit.

And if he’d been dreaming of other realms, then it might not be a coincidence he was the first person I had encountered here.

My instincts were usually right. I’d grown a lot from my days at Oakland High where I’d been naive and taken advantage of more times than I could count.

That had been before I’d begun the journey of self-discovery and understood where I came from, who I really was and what I was capable of.

He gazed into the darkness. “My family is hanging on by a thread because they believed in the old stories—the ones that the gods had created the Maestros—male and female alike—and imbued them with power to run our villages and our realm. The Elders in my village don’t appreciate such outspoken opinions and…

” His jaw flexed before he met my gaze. “There are worse things than Wrath Monsters out here, Vivi. I believe you when you say you’ve come to stop the invasion we’ve experienced from other realms, but I don’t think you can help us with the true rot at the center of our people. ”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, not sure how to respond to that.

Fighting monsters was something I’d learned to overcome. Fear still festered inside of me, but I burned it out with dragonfire before it could even think of touching me.

The way Kai spoke was of a different kind of Corruption, though. One that even a Dragonrider couldn’t help with.

But I could help bring peace to this realm, at the very least, and give them the space to figure it out.

“Tell me about the old stories,” I suggested, instead of picking at the obvious wound of whatever these Elders had done to his family, I could learn about what I was dealing with.

I had a feeling that’s where we could build an understanding with one another. Maybe I couldn’t help with the power struggles within this realm, but I had a feeling there was another hero born to rise to take on the challenge.

Maybe that hero was Kai… maybe it was someone else.

Perhaps it was my Goddess blood giving me such certainty, but I felt a sense of peace when I focused on the things I knew I could control.

Such as the expulsion of Corruption where it didn’t belong.

Kai’s lips curled in a smirk as he gazed down at his flute, then back at me. “You really aren’t from here, are you? I don’t care how hard you hit your head. No one forgets the stories we were told as faelings.”

I hummed. “They sound riveting already,” I said as I tucked my arms around my knees and pulled them to my chest. Solstice squeezed over my collarbone and pricked my skin with her tiny claws, giving me a sense of nostalgia from the early days at the Academy.

I felt exactly like that bright-eyed newbie student again. Maybe it was something about this new realm and all its fascinating differences, but I had to be careful, or I might like it here.

And I knew I couldn’t stay. Not when there were other Diamond Royals to save.

Kai smirked again, then took on a somber look.

“The gods once favored us and gave us not only Maestros, but queens . The old stories teach us about the queens who ruled the land and guided our people into a glorious era of magic and overabundance, assigning a Maestro to every village to spread out their power and provide peace through strength. Our realm is called the Crystal Realm for a reason—everything used to be made of crystal. Magic was so thick, it sprung from the ground like glass and could be tapped into by simply reaching out one’s hand and touching it.

” Kai extended a finger, as if imagining one of the crystals, before curling it around his flute.

“It’s a nice story, but, it’s still a fairytale. ”

I rose an eyebrow. “Well, you are a faerie. How farfetched can it be?”

He chuckled. “You have a point there.”

“Of course I have a point. But, besides that, I thought that you said your village didn’t allow women to lead?” I asked as I tilted my head. “If they followed the old ways, wouldn’t they approve of women being in charge? Given there were powerful queens and also female Maestros that they selected?”

Kai’s lips twitched. “You’d think so, but no.

They say the lesson in those stories are about how they end—when the queens failed us and darkness descended on the land.

The gods sent their Wrath as a response, or perhaps as a test. Either way,” he waved out one of his hands, “this is the result. It doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong. This is what failure looks like.”

I thumbed the new gem on my bracelet as I surveyed the dried landscape. I had a feeling that the drain I was experiencing wasn’t secluded to me.

Violet and the Diamond Royals were from this realm, and just conveniently everything was dead or dying because of the “Wrath?”

I didn’t buy it.

Violet had something to do with the state of this realm, and it was time that she owned up to it.

“I’m not the only one who’s been lying to you, Kai,” I said.

His gaze snapped to mine. “What?”

I took a deep breath. “Violet,” I said. “There’s something you should know about her.”