Artemis didn't know how night had befallen them so quickly. In her sorry and exhausted state, she hadn't noticed the time go by. She supposed she was having trouble understanding how bad things had gotten since the day before, and her mind played her naivety and regret on a loop she got lost in.

Now she sat chilled to the core on the inside of the dark, tilting lighthouse, half wishing it would just collapse on her but then remembering she wouldn't die. It was maddening, and her own sighs were starting to annoy her.

Her head thumped gently against the wall as she leaned back, miserable. "How did this happen to me?" she asked hopelessly, reaching up and pressing her palms to her forehead as if to push the answer out. Despite the cold, it felt sweaty and feverish.

Ashent, the son of Eques. What were the chances?

She was sure the circumstances couldn't get worse, and yet somehow, they had managed to right under her nose. The dragon she was bonded to was heir to the empty throne in the far west, the prince, and had somehow survived the cleansing that saw his father and all the other Black Dragons dead. 

How was it possible that her luck could be that bad? Why couldn't he have just left her family alone? Black dragons had been culled for a century, long before she and Lane were ever born. Why did he expect retribution for this particular death?

Or was it simply a matter of getting caught?

Over the hours she had searched for a desperate sliver of light in this sudden quicksand of chaos but found little in the way of comfort. 

He tricked me! Artemis thought, frustrated and dismayed. Why wouldn’t he mention that he’s the prince? Razorit couldn’t wait to announce his title.

The more she thought about it, the more the idea haunted her. She served him now. But perhaps the secrecy was more to ensure his protection than an attempt to trick her into a pact with him? Or, maybe, he thought her too below him to worth mentioning it? With how proud he was, that didn’t seem unlikely.

Artemis folded her arms around her knees and squeezed, bracing against her next inclination, a small snake slithering into a lush garden.

Why, Lane? Why did you have to go?

No...it wasn’t right to blame Lane. He was only doing what any pact partner would, trying to help his dragon earn a title.

But now I’m going to be hunted for the very same reason, she thought. 

That was the gist of it. As much as she yearned for there to be more to her fate. Hunted until a spear went through her heart and another dragon ripped out his, or vice-versa.

The other dragons had never forgotten Eques's betrayal that fateful night nearly a century ago, when the other Great Ones had forged a bond with humanity. Eques had refused; burning his lands and himself, ordering his kin to fight, and leaving them without the power to become human. 

Her father had told her it was this potent mix of events that truly united man and dragon and carved the black dragons away from any place among their brethren. People simply said that the black dragons had no humanity, and that wasn't such a far stretch for Artemis to believe after meeting Ashent.

She slouched and stared bleakly out the front door of the light house. It had long ago lost the actual door, and was now nothing more than an arching hole in the wall. The moon beyond the door was bright and round tonight, but she took little pleasure in that as every time she might have thought it was a beautiful sight, the dark prince would pass right in front of it like a streak of ink, souring the view and her mood. 

He had been circling for a just a few minutes out over the water, but it was long enough for her to catch herself wondering what he was doing.

Then he folded in his wings and dropped headfirst out of sight. She crinkled her brow and listened for the splash, expecting him to hit the water, but there was no disruption to the soft rhythm of the waves.

"Human!" He loomed up in front of the door so quickly that she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Come quickly." 

He zoomed off, unapologetic.

Artemis considered staying where she was simply out of spite, but the curiosity after many moments overwhelmed her. Slowly she rose onto her cold feet and crossed the uneven floor to the doorway. The edge of Ashent's wing flashed under the moonlight before disappearing under the edge of the cliff.

Artemis stepped outside onto the grass and inched forward to the edge of the cliff, trying to bring him back into view. When the edge was only a pace away Artemis planted her feet and peered over.

Glowing like a huge pearl in the water below, under the rippling rays of the moon and water, was Eques's sentia; the final, dying sentiment that the Great Father had left for his only son, who circled lonely above, waiting for Artemis to climb down and retrieve it.