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SORA

TAMNEKI HARBOR, YUSAN

I ’m chained to the deck of Seok’s ship, human protection for the man I hate most in the world. If I could dive into the sea or put an end to my own life somehow, I would. Tiyung is confined to the galley below. He has been since he tried to unchain me not long after we set sail.

I’ve watched as Weian ships have caught fire and sunk, but this fleet keeps advancing.

We’re close enough now for me to see that the Weians are taking the beach.

I wonder if my friends are alive. I pray they are, but I don’t know how much longer they can hold on.

I also don’t know how much longer I’ll be a hostage.

I don’t think I’ll make it through the day.

Gambria walks up and stops beside me, looking out at Gaya. The guard assigned to me eyes her, but he says nothing because she’s Seok’s spy.

Disgust floods me. We trusted her.

“It was the only way to keep you out of Idle,” she whispers.

I laugh. “Yes, this is much better.”

I jangle the heavy chains attached to the metal handcuffs that bind me.

She stares out at the beach. “It is. Mikail and the others will move earth and sky to save you.”

I raise both eyebrows. “You’re on our side again?”

“Believe me when I say I am never on the side of Yusan.”

She speaks with such venom that I do believe her. Maybe that’s foolish, but it will hardly matter for long.

As she turns to leave, she slips a small switchblade into my palm. Is she trying to give me a weapon so I can take my own life?

“For me?” I arch an eyebrow.

“Stars, no,” she says. She meets my eye, and I know who it’s for.

I grip the weapon in my hand. It’s not much, but if Seok comes close to me, it could be just enough. She really is on our side.

As I think of him, the demon arrives on the deck.

“What a beautiful day.” He inhales and smiles, staring out at the destruction.

He didn’t ask a question, so I don’t have to reply. I flip open the blade in my hand and hide the weapon at my side.

I wish this chain were longer. I can’t reach my arms up high enough to strike his neck, and that’s the only fatal place I can hit with a blade this small.

“We’ll take the island by sunset,” he says. “Well…I will take it. You, my dear, won’t set foot on land again.” He turns to the guard he called Geon. “Kill her the second we make landfall and then dump her into the sea.”

Geon salutes him.

Seok turns to walk away. Fury rises through me like a ship bursting into flames. He’s not even man enough to kill me himself. I aim the blade. I can’t reach his neck, but there are organs in his lower back. I can get at least two jabs in before they kill me.

I’m about to stab him when there’s a fire in the sky.

No, that’s not fire. There have been plenty of flaming arrows—this is different. I stare up at the heavens as something impossible happens. A golden person levitates from the coast of Gaya, and then a red comet comes falling out of the sky.

The men all stop and stare. The blade clatters from my hand, falling onto the deck, but no one notices because both the person and the comet disappear into the clouds. Then, an enormous blackbird soars through the air. It’s like a hael but a hundred times larger.

The massive bird swoops down, flying low over the ships as if it’s searching for something.

Seok’s men are too startled to shoot at first, but then they recover.

The best of the Qali Palace archers are on this ship.

They aim for the bird, but the bolts and arrows simply bounce off the black feathers.

It’s a samroc.

This is exactly what Mikail and Euyn described—a bird with steel-like feathers. But it’s hard to think of why there’s a mythic creature overhead because…Kingdom of Hells…because I think Aeri rides on its back. I gasp. Yes, it’s Aeri, and she’s on fire—or at least glowing red.

Awe and terror fill me as I realize what she’s done. Oh gods, no. She’s become the Dragon Lord.

I drop down to one knee in submission but also sorrow.

“Lay down your weapons or die,” she says.

Says isn’t exactly right. She speaks in a god’s voice, and it echoes in my mind. I’m certain every soldier can hear her because they react immediately.

Most of the men drop their weapons and raise their hands, but flames rise from the ones who don’t surrender. A thousand flames go up at once on Seok’s ships and the Weian fleet. More on the shore.

The bird circles and then dives down on my ship.

I think it’s coming for me, but the samroc grabs Seok in its talons.

He screams as the claws dig into his skin.

My mouth falls open as the samroc lifts him up.

His heir’s crown falls off his head and lands in the sea.

I wonder if he’ll be eaten, but I don’t have to wait for an answer.

I watch as the bird drops him on the Gayan coast, behind enemy lines.

I exhale, my hands shaking. In just seconds, Seok was defeated. But what’s happened to my friends?

I’m still struggling to comprehend what I just saw when Aeri appears, flames emanating from her as she stands in front of me. I lower my head to the deck, bowing to her. I want to embrace her, but it’s not Aeri. Not really. She’s merged with the Dragon Lord, and I don’t think I can touch a god.

She smiles and then frowns at my chains. With a single motion of her fingers, my shackles fall off. Then she draws them to her and forms a ruby crown. A new crown of Yusan. She reaches forward to place it on my head.

Kingdom of Hells, she is trying to crown me as queen of Yusan.

I put my hand up. “No, please.”

I don’t want the throne. I never have. I hoped that if we won, I would live a short life. Now she is asking me to be the new ruler of the realm.

I couldn’t want this less.

“It has to be you,” she says. “Or nothing changes.”

“Aeri, please,” I beg. But I don’t know what I’m begging for. She’s saying my own words back to me. But it was supposed to be her. She is Baejkin. She had the blood and the relics. She was supposed to rule. She was the one who would change things.

But she won’t survive being the Dragon Lord. That is why she’s trying to crown me. I can read it in the kind sympathy in her eyes.

“I love you, Sora,” she says. “You are everything this realm needs. And nothing it deserves.”

Tears stream down my face, but even with tears in my eyes I see that she’s fading. Her flame is dying out. She gave her life to stop this war, to defeat Seok, to save me.

“I love you, Aeri,” I say. “Please don’t go.”

“I’ll stay in your heart,” she says.

They’re the last words she says to me before she vanishes. I hold in my breath and my scream of sorrow. She is gone. Yet another person I love is dead, and I’m still left here. Perhaps I deserve this. Perhaps living is my punishment.

My ship and the ships around us are silent. There’s not a sound on the water.

“Hail Queen Sora—the first Dragon Queen of Yusan,” Tiyung says. I stare at him as he emerges from the galley.

We survived, the two of us, against all odds, because in a world of hate, there was love.

He takes a knee on the deck. Everyone, as far as the eye can see, suddenly kneels to me. I raise my chin, ready to carry on.