Page 9 of The Dragon Queen (Ember: Queen Of Dragons #6)

EMBER

Not here," Rhiannon hisses. She tips her head to the side.

Rook's mouth draws into a thin line, but he allows her to lead us a little ways down the hall to what must be her room.

Amy tags along, her brow scrunching up. "What's going on?"

Giving me a despairing but fond look, Rhiannon asks, "Is there any point trying to keep this from her?"

I hug my arm to my chest, my wrist throbbing. I shrug. "It's not as if she isn't going to see my wrist eventually."

Sighing, Rhiannon nods. She unlocks the door and holds it open.

The room where Rhiannon is staying is laid out similarly to Mariutza's, but with the curtains all thrown open and the morning sun shining in, it looks completely different. Rhiannon gestures to a little sitting area set up by the fireplace, but I'm too unsettled to take a seat.

Lord Rook must be, too. "Well?" he demands.

Sitting down--and looking like she wishes she'd brought popcorn for this--Amy reiterates her confusion. "What the hell is going on?"

Ugh. There's no point trying to hide it anymore. I pull up my sleeve and show off my bare wrist to everyone. "This. This is what's going on."

"Oh, shit." Amy's eyes fly wide.

Rook steps into my space and grasps me by the forearm, inspecting the purple bruises still lingering on my skin. The ache of losing the bracer seems to reach right into my very bones.

His voice is clipped. "What happened?"

Pulling my arm back and hiding it under my sleeve again, I turn away.

Somehow, I manage to keep my composure as I recount those exhilarating last few minutes of the battle at Unity.

Followed by some of the worst moments of my life.

How it felt to have unlimited magical power crackling through my talons and wings--only to feel it sputter and then die.

My voice goes flat as I describe plummeting from the sky, and landing in my human form, the shattered remnants of the bracer scattered at my feet.

As I'm talking, Rhiannon crosses the room to open a dresser drawer. She roots around until she draws out the bag she used to sweep up the shards of black metal.

My heart clenches as she silently pours the broken fragments out onto the surface of a little table by the fire.

The first time I ever saw the bracer, it had a magnetism that entranced me. Its energy reached out and wrapped itself around my chest. I couldn't stop thinking about it, drawn to the black, electric fire of its aura.

Now I stare, unblinking, at what's left of it.

And I feel nothing.

Utterly numb, I force myself to look away. I walk over to the window and peer out. Rhiannon has a great view of the nearby sea, but the sight of the lapping water doesn't soothe me.

Behind me, Rook inspects the broken pieces. I can see a hint of his reflection in the glass. Like Rhiannon did when she scooped them up, he stops just shy of actually touching them.

His voice is cold when he says, "You knew."

I turn back around to see him addressing Rhiannon. She shakes her head, clearly not having any of it.

"This was Ember's story to tell, and in case you didn't notice, neither of you were in any position to be discussing it until today."

"I should have been informed," he insists. "This changes everything."

My stomach sucks in as he confirms what I already knew.

Rhiannon crosses her arms over her chest. "Exactly why we had to keep it confidential. This information cannot reach the Shadow King's ears."

"You don't trust me." Rook's eyes narrow.

Rhiannon takes a step toward him. "Of course I don't. After everything--"

Amy interrupts, asking me, "How is this even possible?"

"I don't know." A shiver runs through me. The bracer's rejection is a sword through my chest, but I already spent half the morning grieving its loss with my mates. I don't have the energy to revisit it again now.

Mariutza's words float back to me. You must fix what's been broken. I swallow hard. Nothing could be more broken than this.

I look to Rhiannon and Rook, unable to keep the plaintive note from creeping into my voice. "The question is, can it be repaired?"

Rook's jaw flexes under his beard. He finally reaches out and lets the edge of one finger graze the metal. He's braced for something to happen, but when nothing does, he grows more bold. Picking up one of the larger fragments in his hand, he holds it up to inspect it more closely.

"There's no trace of what it was," he announces. "All the magic is gone."

"I could have told you that," I mutter, but for all that I was the bracer's bearer, I understood so little of its history. I had no idea how it worked. All I knew was that it had stopped.

Following Rook's lead--but in a nonchalant way, as if she isn't willing to admit that he's actually leading--Rhiannon touches the inert metal, too. "Ember couldn't have possibly used up all of its power."

"Agreed," Rook says, eying me. "So some other factor must be at work."

"Can it be fixed?" I repeat.

Amy shrugs. "Someone's got to have packed a hot glue gun."

"Ha ha," Rhiannon says, utterly dry.

After a few more moments of consideration, Rook shakes his head. He drops the shard he was holding onto the table without any fanfare, and the room echoes with the dull, clattering sound. "There is nothing left to fix."

I shake my head, a hopeless pang firing off in my chest. "But--"

More gently, Rhiannon comes to me and takes my hand. "I fear it's beyond repair."

I pull my hand away.

It's as I feared. But I can't give up. Not yet.

"But there must be someone--some expert--"

Rook interrupts my babbling. "Even the Shadow King's sorceress was flummoxed by the bracer."

The corners of my mouth turn down, my forehead creasing. "She had a plan to take it off, though. She seemed to know all about it."

"She had a hope and a prayer and a chainsaw, waiting in the wings," Rook says drily.

That can't be right. "But she said she couldn't remove it while it was still connected to my life force."

"That was her theory, but she was flying blind." Rook's expression darkens. "No one has ever encountered an object of such power before. If they say they understand it, they are probably lying."

Rhiannon makes a little humming noise, and the two of them share a glance that makes me feel like I'm missing something.

"What?" I ask.

Rook huffs out a breath, and Rhiannon rolls her eyes.

Firmly, Rhiannon assures me, "Nothing."

"The Shadow Queen's Bracer is lost," Rook pronounces with finality. "You are not her heir, but you are still the heir. This only makes it more critical that we locate the Crown Of Cinders."

A black pit threatens to open in my chest. "And how are we supposed to do that?" I dart my gaze from Rook to Rhiannon to Amy and back again. "It's like you said. The bracer is lost. My magic is lost."

Amy looks at me with real empathy in her eyes, and I can't handle the kindness I find there. "It's really all gone?" she asks.

"I mean." I rake my hand through my hair. "I'm still a dragon. I--" I swallow, pushing aside my most visceral memories of flying with my mates this morning. The possessive heat and the rush of desire. "I tried out my dragon form earlier today, and I have some basic level of Shadow Dragon abilities."

I recount what I was able to do--summoning clouds of darkness and violet smoke.

"With my mates," I continue, "I could feel some of the other Elemental powers." I shake my head, my eyes stinging at the corners. Unconsciously, I rub at my wrist. "But it's nothing like it was before."

"And only in your dragon form," Rhiannon probes.

I nod. "Once I returned to human, I could..." I trail off, my cheeks flashing hot. How do I put this without getting X-rated? "I could channel some elemental magic in moments of intense connection with my mates."

Amy chuckles and mutters, "Bow-chicka-bow-wow," under her breath, imitating the soundtrack from adult films from the 70s, and seriously, that is not helping.

My face still burns, but for better or worse, the power I was able to summon while intimate with my partners is relevant to this conversation.

Gently, Rhiannon tells me, "That's good." She shares another one of those glances with Rook before returning her gaze to mine. "It's a start."

"But nothing else?" Rook asks.

Shame makes my insides clench. "Nothing."

In my human form, I'm currently useless.

I brace myself, ready for them to tell me as much. To berate me for being such a failure after raising everyone's hopes.

But instead, Rook's expression goes resolute. "So we train."

"What?" Rhiannon, Amy and I all ask at once.

Bristling, Rook waves a dismissive hand at us. "We train you. Rhiannon and I."

"Oh, do we now?" Rhiannon asks.

"It takes years for a newly Emerged dragon to fully control her powers," Amy recites.

"Well, we have a talented pupil in my niece," Rook says, puffing up his chest. "She's tasted power before. She can find a way to channel it again."

And oh, but the dark, calculating gleam to his eyes is pure Shadow Dragon.

But that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Rhiannon gazes at me in appraisal. "It's risky. We might not be able to teach you enough for you to overcome the Shadow King."

"But you don't have to," I insist, suddenly starting to feel hope again. "Just enough for me to be able to claim the Crown--if we can find it."

"And really," Amy interjects, "if you're going to be training her..."

"You can sit in." Rhiannon rolls her eyes.

"You can observe," Rook corrects, and really, that's more than I ever would have expected him to allow.

Amy must feel the same way, because she bounces, clasping her hands in front of her mouth.

Finally, we have some semblance of a plan. This is all a long-shot, but it's something, and that's infinitely more than I had when I woke up.

But I need to be sober and clear-eyed about this. Me training with Rhiannon and Rook, preparing to seek out the mythical Crown Of Cinders and praying that somehow, I'll be able to access a whole bunch of amazing powers again? It's a start, but it's not enough.

"We need to do more to prepare." I breathe in deeply. Yet again, Mariutza's words float back to me. For a moment, my vision unfocuses. "We need to gather our allies."

"Um." Amy glances around in confusion. "What allies? I'm not sure if you noticed, but we're kind of in a rogue, rebel outcast situation here."

I blink, and my vision snaps back into focus. I look to Rook. "The Shadow King must have other enemies."

"Only half the dragon world," he agrees. "But his reach is wide. He has operatives in every kingdom--at the highest levels."

"I know." I've been blown up, chased by armed guards, attacked by Shadow Dragons, and kidnapped, all while theoretically under the protection of the Four Great Dragon Kingdoms. "Believe me, I know."

But Rook presses on. "His embeds are activating. The closer we get to the Dragon Moon, the tighter he will close his fist."

I remain resolute. "Then all the more reason to seek out those who would oppose him now. While we still can."

"It's a good idea," Rhiannon allows.

"But how?" Amy asks. "You have to stay here and train, so you can't lead some expedition around the globe, looking for traitors to join our merry band."

My stomach sinks.

But the answer comes to me at once. Instinctively, I buck against the idea, but I can feel it in my breaking heart. It's right.

I glance out the window again, setting my gaze on the sky and the roiling sea. The stones of the shore and the fiery ball of the sun.

My voice is distant as I reply. "We're going to have to split up."