Page 115 of Entwined

You have much to answer for, winged human. Axel looks as though he has never seen me before. It appears that Freya’s little tests carried real consequences. It makes me wonder about the first one, though. That’s a fight I never even had—so how can the choice I made have any bearing? And I forgot to ask her about the people I saw standing around when I was a child, chanting. Next time Hyperion chucks me into the lava, I need to take a checklist.

“I’m ready to answer your questions as well as I can,” I say. “A lot of what happened doesn’t make sense, even to me.”

The crone’s watching us, her eyes wide and curious. Other earth dragons have noticed that Axel’s here, and they’ve begun to land all around us, slowly flapping their wings even once they’ve landed, as if they’re worried they might disappear if they stop using them.

“But maybe we should go somewhere more private,” I suggest.

The earth blessed will only follow me wherever we go. I can feel more of them approaching even now. You may as well speak openly here.

Nice try, Axel. The last thing I’m going to do is risk breaking down and sobbing around all the gathering dragons and a strange old woman who already knows too much.

Then something he said to me once surfaces in my memory. He told me that he’d first been drawn to me, because unlike the other humans, I wasn’t sobbing and scared. I had attacked him.

If I want to convince him to like me again, I need to channel that same energy.

Only, before I can even open my mouth, a gorgeous silver dragon lands next to Axel. Where’s Hyperion? I heard he took her to the volcano to throw her in.

Axel’s head whips around. Asteria? What are you doing here?

Asteria frowns. I’ve been here, idiot. Why would you ask me that? You should be answering questions, like what in the world is happening to all the earth dragons?

My eyes nearly bug out of my head when the bigger, burlier version of Axel shifts in a burst of red smoke into Azar.

Asteria, who until this very second believed Azar to be dead, nearly falls over backward, stumbling to get away from him. What’s happening?

I’m Azar and Axel and always have been both. Now that Axel’s no longer weak, I’m no longer going to hide it.

Asteria shakes her head, clearly struggling to process the information. But you died.

I most certainly did not.

I decide this is as good a time as any to sneak away and make sure Coral, Jade, and Sammy are doing alright. I launch into the sky, but I make it no more than two dozen yards before Azar flies up alongside me and plucks me from the air with one giant claw, his talons wrapping around me carefully. My brother plans to throw you back into the lava, but I have questions for you first, winged human. I’m not ready to part with you yet.

It’s hard, but as he flies away with me, I shove down the hope that starts to spring up in my breast. He’s not saying he won’t take me back to Hyperion because he cares about me. He just wants answers.

Even so, it’s a pernicious thing for humans.

Hope.

No matter how many times it gets squashed, it just keeps rising up.

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