Page 2 of The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit Duology #2)

He crouched in front of me, so that we were eye level through the bars. “From one prisoner to the next—” He tilted his head, his amber eyes seeming to absorb the flickering firelight. “If you lose your will to live, it’s simple. You die.”

With that, he rose to his feet. “Do you want to die? If you die, they win. Remember that.”

I started eating again. The food upset my stomach, forced me to use my broken hands, and heightened my lixia cravings, but at least I started to feel strong enough to stand again.

To take a few steps around my cell. To think beyond the span of a day.

Two days, a week—that was the limit of what I could take.

The warden’s questions kept coming, though they were no longer accompanied by torture. Vaguely, I wondered what Sky had done to achieve such a feat—what he might have bargained with. For there was always a price. I hadn’t known that the first time.

“Though you were initially accused of black magic practitioning,” said Warden Hu, watching me, “it seems now your accusers have retracted their allegations. Any guesses as to why?”

I shook my head.

“Let’s say you did know a thing or two about black magic,” he said. “How might one access such a power?”

I told him nothing more than what was common knowledge.

“But why can only some access such a power?”

I said I didn’t understand.

“Why are some stricken with seizure and lunacy when confronted with spirit power, while others retain clarity of mind?”

For the first time in a while, I recalled that strange, rippling haze outside the inn in New Quan. The bandits who had wandered near were drawn by the lure of spirit power, moving toward the portal as if in a trance.

“ It is a tear in the veil ,” the dragon had told me. “ So that any human, not just those with seals, can enter our realm. But only those with strong enough spirit affinity can survive such a place. The rest… ”

The rest lost their minds.

“Are more gates appearing?” I asked, raising my head.

“Gates?”

“Portals into the spirit realm,” I clarified.

“What are they caused by?” asked the warden, more urgently now. “Why are they forming?”

“I-I don’t know,” I said, taken aback. “But I wonder if it has something to do with overuse of lixia,” I added quietly, thinking of a similar rippling haze I’d once found in my mother’s chambers, which were now sealed and boarded up.

If there were more gates appearing, that meant there were more spirit summoners at work. But who? Chancellor Sima was dead. I was locked away in an iron dungeon. Could there be someone else? Someone who’d been biding their time?

Lately, I’d begun to feel a prickling to my senses, though I’d chalked it up to lixia withdrawal. An uncanny sense, as if the spirit realm were somehow nearing. As if the worlds had begun to merge.

Before I could respond, the passageway door burst open. Sky raced toward us, his face alight with undisguised joy. “Father’s agreed!” he exclaimed, skidding to a stop in front of my cell. “Meilin can go free.”

I blinked at him, unable to process his words.

“Did you hear me?” he asked. “You can come out with me, now. Your maids are waiting for you—they’ll help you wash and prepare for court.

I asked Mother to set aside a few dresses for now, but once we get your measurements I’ll send for…

” He trailed off as he took in my expression. “Meilin…why are you shaking?”

I could not answer. Cold fear coiled around my neck like an insistent noose.

Sky tried to enter my cell but found it locked. He impatiently motioned for the key before barreling inside. But I shrank from the proximity of him.

“Meilin, what’s wrong?” asked Sky, kneeling before me, and his voice was so tender it made my eyes sting. I tried to push him away, but my broken hands were useless, unable to do what I wanted from them.

He caught my left hand and I gasped in pain.

Immediately he let go, as if my touch burned him.

“Meilin. Speak to me, please.” His eyes were wide and filled with feeling.

It broke something within me, to see myself through his eyes.

A pitiful creature, better left alone in the dark. “Don’t you want to be free?”

I was sobbing so hard now that I could not form words. He gave me his handkerchief, but my fingers would not close around it, and the fine cloth fell uselessly to the floor.

“Meilin, I made a promise to you. I want to marry you. Did you think I would go back on my word?”

He tried to draw me into his arms, but I flinched away again. Hurt flashed across his face as he backed away, raking his fingers through his hair. “Please. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I-I can’t. I can’t go to court,” I said, and I meant it. I couldn’t imagine myself in fine dresses, eyes painted like a doll’s, and—like a doll—face vacant but smiling, sitting silently by Sky’s side as I’d seen the warlord’s consorts do. “I want to…to leave this place—”

“I’ll take you out of the dungeons,” Sky said, but I shook my head.

“No,” I rasped. “I want to leave the…palace. The city.” The world.

His face fell. “My father’s terms were for you to remain within the Forbidden City,” he admitted, “and to return to the ways of womanhood.”

The noose drew tight around my neck. So it was the old offer, made again. I would have to relinquish my sword, my freedom, my knowledge of the world beyond. I could be Sky’s pretty ornament, or nothing at all.

Yet memories of the outside world, however undesirable, still called to me.

I missed the morning sunlight and the reflection of the moon upon water.

I missed my family and the ability to run with the wind at my back.

When the Imperial Commander had first offered me this choice, I hadn’t understood the stakes. I understood them now.

But there was a third factor I hadn’t weighed. Here in the dungeons, I was suffocated by iron. There was no possibility of the dragon’s presence, his influence, his sly whispering voice in my head. The last time I’d seen him, he’d tried to kill me. Just like he’d killed my mother.

Perhaps once I was freed, he’d finish the job.

“Meilin? Do you want me to call your maidservants here?”

I shook my head. “Can you…can you give me some time?”

I could feel his sadness like a millstone, dragging me beneath its weight.

“I’m sorry, Sky,” I said, and the sound of his name hurt us both. “Please go.” When he didn’t move, I turned my back on him. Eventually, I felt the strength of his presence recede.

I didn’t know myself anymore. The girl he’d loved…

I didn’t know if she still existed. So many conflicting desires battled within me at once, until I couldn’t make sense of any of them.

I wanted to be free—of my loneliness, of my captivity, of my weakness.

I wanted to be confined—I couldn’t be trusted with power, with responsibility, with choice.

And all those people above, judging me, mocking me, wanting something from me…

the thought made me want to hide forever.

Who was I anymore? And if I couldn’t trust myself, who could I possibly trust?