Page 208 of The Night Firm

Then she returns to her dragon form and flies high into the sky, her wings expanding to cover so much of the Dragon's Breath I can barely see anything beside her as she uses her magic to tear a hole in the fabric of this world and disappears.

I half expect the storm to stop the moment she's gone, but it continues to rage around us, and the Darkness Dragon slumps against his sister.

"Fate, before you leave, I must speak with you. Privately," he says, glancing at his sister who seems to know what this is about and nods.

Sebastian looks reluctant to let me go, but he waits with Brock as Ra'Terr and I walk to a corner of the Cathedral where there is a bit of shelter from the rain.

We both sit, our backs against a wall.

"There is something you should know," he says, his voice sounding weak.

"What is it?"

"I am dying," he says bluntly.

"What? How?" My mind tries to wrap itself around this news, but I am too stunned to make sense of it.

"In the darkness of my own cave, I was attacked." He pulls up his shirt to reveal a deep wound that is turning black at the edges. "Whatever did this to me, it left its poison in me and I will not last much longer."

"Did you see what attacked you?" I ask, my heart sinking with the answer I know is coming.

"A monstrous creature, though I only saw it for a moment."

Ana.

Gods. That means… The Mother of Dragons is going to lose her shit when she realizes Ra'Terr is dying too. There will only be one of her children left then.

And Brock'Mir will have to live the rest of her long life without her siblings. The truth of that crushes me.

I don't know the Darkness Dragon well at all. He is like a shadow, dark and mysterious. He keeps to himself. But I take his hand nonetheless, and let my dark magic flow into him, but I wrap it in light, because the two cannot exist without each other.

Cole taught me that.

His ebony eyes fill with tears, and I have a feeling this isn't a man who cries often. "I have not told anyone this, not even my sister, but since the attack…I have felt fear. It is the first time in my long life I have felt such a thing. The darkness used to be my haven, my element, and now I find myself scared of the dark." He chuckles, but it is a humorless sound of self-deprecation. "How silly is that? For a being of darkness to fear the dark?"

"None of us are made of just one thing," I say. "There is light in your darkness, just as there is darkness in light. Maybe it is time to step into the light, just a little. My father used to tell mein lumen et lumen.To be in the light and of the light."

His hand squeezes mine. "I have spent millennia in the dark. I do not know what to do with the light."

"I spent so much of my life fighting to live in the light, that when I found out I had darkness in me, I feared it," I confess. "Perhaps we all have to face the parts of us we fear and embrace them. This could be your time to do just that."

We sit there in silence a moment, then Ra'Terr stands, and I join him. "Thank you, Eve, Maiden Fate. You have brought me hope."

We walk back to Brock and Sebastian and Brock rushes to her brother. "I must get him home," she says, reaching for Ra'Terr. "Let us meet soon to discuss next steps." She pauses, looking at me carefully. "But before we go, I must say this. I know you have Ava'Zara, my sister's daughter."

I open my mouth to say…well, I'm not really sure what I'm going to say, but she holds up her free hand. "Wait. I understand why you took her. I believe you have a good heart, Eve Oliver. And you didn't know which amongst us you could trust. You were keeping her safe."

Relief floods me at her words.

"Are you going to take her away now that you know?"

She hesitates. "I want to. You are not equipped to raise a dragon. I do not know how you are even feeding her."

"Cooked shark is her favorite," I volunteer.

She raises an eyebrow. "Be that as it may, you are not wrong that she might be safer with you for now. As dragons are being killed off, we cannot be trusted to keep her safe. So take care of my niece, but when the time is right, I will bring her home."

My heart tugs at that. Ava'Zara has already become so close to Alina. The two of them are nearly inseparable. But Brock is right, we aren't in a position to raise a dragon. She will quickly outgrow our space and she needs her own kind to teach her their ways.