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M y head rested on Asante’s chest as I listened to his heart again. It sounded different from when he was in his dragon form. Less of a thunder pulse and more of a soft drumming. Still, the warmth of his flesh melted the ice I’d built around myself. I realized, as I inhaled the mixed scent of salty air and the musk from his body, that I no longer wanted to leave Asante. But how could I not?

“We should head back now.” Asante’s voice startled me.

“I wish we didn’t have to.” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could process the thoughts behind them. I smacked my hand over my mouth.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.” He kissed the top of my head before sitting up.

I dressed as Asante headed outside to shift into his dragon. Again, with his clothing tied to my side, I climbed onto his back and let him carry me. Even after our intimate moment, I couldn’t show him my dragon and he didn’t ask. Maybe he thought in time I would soften to the idea. We had just taken a big step. How much longer could I keep that side of myself from him?

As he carried me back to his home, it became harder to deny how much I liked him. Especially after what we had done. It wasn’t often I let anyone touch me, let alone taste me the way he had. The longing to be with him was only growing, but that feeling was echoed by a thought that made my heart ache. How could I be with him if he didn’t know everything about me?

I made it into my room without being seen, or at least without being confronted. How long would it be before the walls were whispering about the couple running away from the palace? Were they already talking about how I freaked out about meeting the king and queen of Frostspire? Did it even matter?

After cleaning myself up, I lay in the bed and stare out the window at the sky.

How did it come to this?

A few hours later, when the birds were singing their morning song, Asante returned to me. I stood fully dressed, my apron already on, ready to head to my kitchen, when a sharp knock echoed at the door.

“What are you doing?” the prince asked me when I opened my door.

“I have to work. Remember, I must bake treats for the prince.” I winked at him. “It’s the only thing I do around here.”

“Not today.” He grabbed my hand. “You’re coming with me.”

“Don’t you have things to take care of?” I laughed. “You’re a prince with important duties to tend to.”

“What could be more important than this?” Asante lifted my hand to his lips. “I can’t think of one thing.”

As I followed Asante back to the serabringer stables, I decided to confide in him completely. It felt more important to tell him everything than to keep my secret. And maybe, if I explained it all, he would understand why I couldn’t stay with him, why the weight of unspoken words had become too much to bear. I only hoped that he wouldn’t hold it against me for not telling him earlier.

Either way, I would keep it together until our deal was done. Then I would leave him, just as I promised I would.

Asante pulled the same creatures from their stables and Synth greeted me as if we were old friends. She tapped her hooves on the ground and neighed softly as she nuzzled my neck.

“She really likes you!” Asante spoke.

“You think so?” I brushed her head with my hand.

“Yes, but I get it.” Asante stepped over to me and kissed me quickly on the cheek. “I do too.”

“You’re going to love our herd. They’re of the purest breed!”

I froze at the sound of the boisterous voice. He sounded just like Asante, his voice only more tinged by the weight of time.

Please, no. Don’t let it be! Panic seized me instantly; my breath hitched, and my mind raced. Footsteps approached as I searched for a place to hide. Asante, seemingly unfazed by my rising panic, continued on grooming the serabringer.

“Oh, he looks for any reason to show these things off!” Queen Toci’s unmistakable voice rang out.

“I’m proud of them. They deserve the praise. Besides, I know the serabringers in Frostspire differ from the ones we have here. How long has it been since you’ve seen our breed? We should exchange notes!”

Before I could run and hide, those voices were right on top of us. And a moment after my heart fell to my stomach, Queen Toci shattered my hopes for escape.

“Asante, there you are, my son.”

“Where did you get off to last night?” the deep voice of the king asked.

Startled, I slipped away from Asante and hid behind Synth. “Give me cover, girl.” I whispered to her.

Synth, who seemed to love me moments before, stepped away from me and I scurried closer to her. “Please. Remember, you like me!”

The serabringer huffed as if put off by my sudden display of desperation.

“I’ll bring you treats!” I offered the bribe I wasn’t sure would work and then, as if I’d uncovered the secret to her heart, she spread her wings as if she understood exactly what I needed.

“I had something to take care of.” Asante offered. “I apologize for not returning to the festivities.”

“It’s alright, things were pretty much done as it were.” His father sounded warm, less abrasive than his mother. “Is that your love?”

“Um,”

“Love is a big statement to make when they haven’t even declared it.” His mother corrected his father’s assumption. Of course she would. She didn’t think I was deserving of her son. “We must be interrupting. But since we’re here, dear the Queen and King of Frostpire would love to meet you,” she said. “This is the woman who crafted those delicious treats last night.”

“Oh, I would love to meet her.” Hiding behind Synth, I heard a voice I hadn’t heard since running away from home. Soft, motherly, and it made my heart break. It was my plan to never see her again, to never face her disappointment.

There was nowhere to go, though. And before I knew it, Asante’s mother had shuffled around Synth, grabbed my arm and pulled me out of hiding. Synth stretched her wings, trying to keep me hidden but it didn’t work. And the moment I was in clear view, the queen of Frostspire clutched her chest.

“Oh, it can't be.” Tears instantly flowed down her face, and I reached for her but pulled back. It was not my place to comfort her.

“Kiala?” The king of the ice dragons stepped closer to me. “Is that you?”

I said nothing.

“You know her?” The king of Starwell asked. His eyes darted between Asante and me. “Asante?”

It wasn’t Asante who answered the question.

“This is our daughter.” My mother reached for my father, pulling him back from me.

“We met your daughter last night. You said you sent her home ahead of you.” Asante’s mother looked furious. “What do you mean, this is your daughter? Are you playing some kind of joke on us?”

“This is our eldest,” my father said softly, then his tone changed to anger when he spoke to me. “We thought you were dead! What are you doing here?”

Panic had me choking on my words, and foolishly I looked to Asante for help. He looked just as hurt as everyone else.

“Is this true?” He asked me.

“I can’t do this.” I tugged on Synth’s wing pleading for her to cooperate with me. She did not.

“Kiala?” Asante stepped closer to me.

“Don’t do this, Asante.” I tried again to get Synth to take me on her back, but she moved away from me, further exposing me to the people who surrounded me.

“You’re just going to run away?”

“I would if Synth would cooperate!” I nudge her. “Come on, girl.”

“She’s not going to because I haven’t told her to.” Asante asserted. And it was like Synth took that as a challenge. Hers was a spirit wanting to be free, just like my own.

Synth lowered her wing, an offer of help in protest of the man who claimed to tell her what to do. I placed one foot on the wing, and she lifted me onto her back. With a last glance back, I found Asante’s face. He looked more confused than anyone else there. “Go.” I whispered to Synth, and she took off running.

Synth’s footfalls were echoed by another’s. I didn’t have to look back to see who it was. Every time Synth sped up, so did Kune. He was like her shadow, matching every stride she took. And when he caught up, pulling his rider to my side, I kept my eyes forward. I couldn’t look at him.

Asante didn’t call out to me. He rode alongside me in silence until Synth came to a stop just beneath the same tree she did the last time I rode her. I hopped from her back and ran for the path into the wooded area where I fell into Asante’s arms.

“Kiala, stop!” Asante chased after me. But I ignored his call and ran until my lungs burned from the effort.

“Why are you doing this? Stop running!”

“I can’t I have to keep running.” I doubled over, gasping for air but keeping my back to him. “No, I can’t stop.”

“What is this?” He demanded. “Tell me they’re wrong. They have to be mistaking you for someone else.”

“If I told you that now, would you believe it?”

“You’re really their daughter?” I heard him move closer to me, but he stopped. “Kiala, just tell me, please.”

“Asante, please.” I wanted him to leave me alone with my shame, but he refused.

“Talk to me, Kiala. Help me understand this.” He tried to mask the pain he felt, but his voice trembled in an unfamiliar way. This was the first time I’d heard him be truly unsure of himself.

“I am the promise born.” I turned to face him as I spoke. “That’s what they call it in Frostspire. First born to the king and queen, next in line to rule.”

“You are?” there was hope in the question. He wanted me to tell him I wasn’t who they said I was. This was the last grasp at preserving what reluctantly grew between us.

“Yes.” I crushed that hope.

“Why would you hide something like this?” Asante stepped back from me. “How could you lie about who you are?”

“You talked about how it sucked to be second born. How your brother overshadowed you. Did you never think about running away from that?” I swallowed my emotions. “I was first born, Asante. Thrust into a life predetermined for me. Nothing about my life was a choice I could make for myself. From how I spent my time as a child to who I would eventually marry. My parents had it all mapped out before I said my first words.”

“You could have told me.” He shook his head. “I would have understood.”

“I was going to tell you, Asante.” I paced. “If this hadn’t happened, I would have told you myself.”

“When, Kiala? When were you going to tell me?” He turned away from me for a moment, as if regaining his composure. When he looked at me, I could see the hurt he tried to bury behind a mask of anger. “You know it is impossible for us to be together. Fire dragons and ice dragons aren’t supposed to do this! Why would you let me share so much of myself with you?”

“I didn’t ask for this, remember? You forced me to be here.”

“Right, so I’m to blame for your dishonesty?”

“That’s not what I mean. The point isn’t to place blame.”

“You’re to blame, Kiala. Do you not see how you’re accountable for this? Your people thought you died! Your family, your sister!” He shouted. “Did you ever stop to think about her? Did you think about how she would feel without you? Have you imagined what her life must have been like without her brother there by her side?”

“Her brother?” I frowned at him and then it hit me. Asante’s rage wasn’t for my people or my sister, it was for him. For the loss he felt when his brother died. “Asante-,” I stopped when he held his hand up to me.

“Prince Asante.” He corrected me. “To you, I am Prince Asante.”

“Wow. So, everything just stops now?” My eyes burned with unshed tears. “I understand that you’re hurt right now. And I get how this makes you feel, especially after everything you’ve been through. I should have seen that before, but does that erase everything? How you felt about me? That ends?”

“You’re not who I thought you were.” His jaw tightened as he looked at me. “The person I thought you were would never lie about something like this.”

“You knew nothing about me.” I pointed at him. “You saw me and decided I was the one for you before you even knew my name. You held me to a standard in your mind long before I would have ever been able to show you who I am. And now, because I made a choice to take ownership of my own path, you’re judging me again? You don’t know what my life was like. You have no idea how hard it was for me to walk away from everything! How can you stand here and talk to me like this?”

“I should have let my mom continue with her search.” It looked like Asante was ready to cry but he held it back.

“What do you mean?”

“I stopped her. Caught her aides leaving your room with things and I told her to back off.” He paced for a moment. “She was going to have my uncle look into you. That’s what he used to do, find the things no one else could. If I hadn’t talked her out of it-,”

“You did that?”

“Yes, because I felt you deserved your privacy. Had I known this is what you were hiding from me, I wouldn’t have stood in the way. You should have told me!” He swallowed back his emotions. “This wouldn’t have been this way.”

“Don’t say that.” I corrected him. “If I had told you before, you would have judged me just like you are now. You would have sent me back to Frostpire to build a bridge with my parents. Right? Isn’t that why they’re here now? Do you think you would have hesitated to use me as a pawn in this?”

“Don’t do that. Don’t tell me what I would have done. I told you I knew you were for me before you first spoke to me. I wouldn’t have sent you away like that!”

“If it was me, if what you felt was real, wouldn’t you offer me some understanding now instead of treating me like this?”

“Release me from the promise.” He didn’t bother answering my question.

“What?”

“Release me, Kiala.” He repeated. “I made a promise to you. I can no longer keep that promise. It is not fair to lay my life down on your lie.”

“Okay. You’re right.” I looked down at my hand and for the first time in years, I spoke to my dragon. She responded eagerly and the familiar sensation of tingles spread across my hand. Within moments, my fingers stretched and the dragon claws appeared. With teary eyes, I bared my chest and looked Asante in the eye. “Prince Asante, I release you from your dragon’s promise.”

I dragged the tip of the claw across my chest, spilling my own blood.

With a tightened jaw, Asante turned his back to me. “There is no need for you to stay here anymore. Everyone knows you’re a liar. Just go.”

And then he walked away.

I stood there, watching him until he was out of sight. And then I heard the hooves of one serabringer leave. After my tears stopped, I returned to find Synth waiting for me. She lowered her head to nuzzle my chest, where the wound healed slowly.

“You like me again?” I patted her head, and she snorted. “Alright, let’s go back. I have to face this.”

Synth lifted me to her back. That could have been my chance to run away, to leave the stench of betrayal and the weight of guilt behind. But how many times would I have to do that? And my family knew I was alive now. I knew my mother would search for me. I had to face this, if only for a chance to end it the right way.

Before we made it there, I looked up to see Asante flying above me.

“Follow him.” I whispered to Synth.

It was good I did, because it wasn’t long after we started trailing him that the large boulder ripped through the air and hit Asante, knocking him from the sky.