Page 182 of The Night Firm

He shrugs. "The dragons follow their own rules. They always have."

"We'll just have to make sure she honors her word this time," I say. "Not just for my sake. We wouldn't be able to evacuate the entire population of this world in time, even if we started now." I pause, thinking. "Should we start now?" I ask. "Should we go public and encourage everyone to leave? To save as many as we can, at least."

He looks pained as he considers the possibility of failure. "If we did that, we would reduce our odds of finding the killer. They would leave, and we wouldn't have any chance of saving the world. And as you said, we still wouldn't be able to evacuate everybody. And where would they go? Not everyone here can pass as human, and even those of us who can would become targets in your world. It would lead to more deaths."

I sigh. "Yeah, I know. But I was hoping I was wrong. Because I'm worried about our odds. We have so little evidence to go on."

"We'll find more," he says. "We have to."

The carriage begins to slow and I look out the window, surprised to find we have already arrived at the cemetery where the morgue is located.

Unlike the first time I came here, today is a bright day with a light breeze that makes the grass covering the graves sway in synchronicity.

Mable stays with the carriage—presumably, I can't actually see her—and we walk across the cemetery towards the mausoleum when a thought occurs to me. "Are there ghosts here?" It seems the logical place for them.

Sebastian shrugs. "Most likely, why?"

"I just realized Mable might enjoy visiting with others of her kind. They must be a very underrepresented group in the Otherworld."

Sebastian tilts his head and looks around, as if seeing the area with new eyes. "I never actually thought of it like that before."

We approach the mausoleum— a towering gothic building that casts a long shadow over the cemetery with its clustered columns and sharply pointed spires. The stained-glass windows are filled with light today, as the brightness of the Dragon's Breath spills through them.

I pick up my pace when we are close, excited to see the gargoyles that guard the doors.

Okura comes to life first, her stone wings stretching and flexing as she flies down from her perch to land in front of us, a pouch at her stomach heavy with her baby, like a kangaroo.

"Okura!" I run up to her and hug her stony body.

She laughs, and the sound is much like rocks tumbling down a mountain. "It has been too long. And I have heard tales that your truth is finally known, Fate." She bows her head in reverence.

"Oh, please, not you too. I'm still just me. How's the baby?"

Akuro lands beside his mate and grins widely. "She is the sun and moon and the stars all in one," he says proudly as Okura pulls the sleeping child from the pouch and hands her to me.

My body sags under the weight of the baby, and Sebastian wraps his arms around me to help support us both. The child blinks, its eyes large and curious, and then she smiles and reaches out with a little fist to grab my hair.

I laugh. "It seems babies everywhere are all the same."

We spend a few more minutes visiting, with promises to get our families together soon, and they open the doors for us.

As we walk in, Okura says, "We are here if you need us in the upcoming struggles."

I turn towards her. "What do you mean?"

She closes her eyes. "A war is brewing. The Age of Dragon is coming to an end. Much will be decided in the coming days. Be well, Fate. Count us amongst your allies."

“Thank you,” I say, then Sebastian and I continue our walk through the dim halls, and today the smell of death and old flowers is even stronger than normal.

We stop before the large arched double doors I recognize from our first visit here, and this time I'm prepared for the scene as we walk in.

Since my powers have manifested so strongly, I'm no longer impacted by the heat and the flames dancing along the edges of the marble walls. It's a large room with dead bodies lying across tables scattered throughout, and long stretches of glass tubing connecting beakers of bubbling liquid in varying shades of green, orange, grey, and purple. I ignore the specimen jars that line the shelves. They creep me out.

Instead, I focus on the two men standing over a body. Both are ablaze in flames that would have seared me in the past. Now, I can walk right up to them and hug them if I want, though I might still burn my clothes off. So I wait for them to de-flame, which they do the moment they see us.

"Eve, Sebastian!" Ifi grins and throws himself into a hug, first with me, then with Sebastian, who looks a little taken back but recovers quickly enough and embraces the Ifrit. I smile at the exchange, glad we have these guys as friends.

While Ifi regales Sebastian with his latest drama, Elal hugs me, his golden eyes more serious. "Sounds like you have had quite a time with the dragons," he says.