My heart races as I shove through bodies, pushing and shoving to wedge my way toward the gate.

Papa.

Papa’s out there.

I reach the gate with a surge of bodies, and I must use my staff to push through the mass that has gathered to see the hysteria beyond the walls. I finally manage to shove free, rushing out past a guard who shouts at me to stop. I break through the perimeter, looking around desperately for any sign of my father.

Then a distant scream ruptures the air.

I press ahead toward the sound, my heart pounding in my ears as I climb a grassy incline. I reach the top of the knoll, my heart stilling at the view above. Eyes wide in horror, I watch as a group of rangers scramble against the force of a large dragon, their whips snapping, staffs and swords wailing at the beast. The dragon screeches, snapping at them with long, salient teeth that clamp sudden and hard.

Hard enough to crush a man’s skull in one go, Papa always says.

I find my balance and steel myself, gripping my staff for protection, just as he taught me. Then I force myself to move closer, to approach the situation without garnering the dragon’s attention.

But as I near the beast, there’s a flash within its scales. The colors of opals and starlight, shimmering and lustrous in the sunlight.

My stomach sinks, and a sick feeling weaves up into my throat. It’s not just a dragon.

It’s Solie.

Solie is the one attacking them. Solie is the one they’re trying to kill.

I’m so stunned that for a second, I don’t move.

Then a booming voice grips my attention, and I look over at my father, who is stepping toward Solie with despair in his eyes. “Stop this madness! What is wrong with you?”

Darian surges to the front, pulling my father back by the arm. “It isn’t safe, Thaddeus! Fall back!” But my father’s never been a man who let fear control his life. He stands large as a mountain, shrugging Darian off like he’s nothing.

“It is my duty to control him. If he does not stop, they’ll kill him. I—”

Suddenly, the dragon rears back with a snarl. It bats at the air, long talons striking Darian in the shoulder and knocking him to the ground.

Then it lunges at Papa.

Solie lets out a screech—the thin, sharp sound like metal grinding metal. It swings at my father, long talons hungry for flesh. He shouts out a strangled cry as he is struck by the heavy claws of the beast and slung to the earth beside Darian.

My blood goes cold.

I charge the beast, my staff held high in attack. The dragon looks up, catching my eye…and in that moment, I can’t look away. Those are not Solie’s eyes. They are dilated, wild things—empty and unrecognizable. This is not Solie at all.

Something is wrong. Very wrong.

The beast turns his gaze from me back to my father, who lies injured on the ground. He scrambles to get away, but with one fell swoop of Solie’s claws, Papa’s blood spatters the earth. It happens so suddenly, and yet I watch it as if time is moving slow. Droplets of blood hit the ground like the sanguine petals of a rose.

My father goes still where he lies.

“Papa!” I scream, my legs finally working.

I start running out to him, but then something hits me hard. I tumble to the ground, tangled in Darian’s arms. “It’s too late, Arla. Enough!”

I struggle to break free from his hold, but his arms are bound tight around me. He’s too strong, and I am far too weak to break his vise. The rangers have managed to get ropes around Solie’s neck, and they subdue him with their whips and swords until the dragon cowers away, pulled taut by the binds.

On the ground, my father lies, bloodied and unmoving.

“Take her!” Darian is shouting to the others. “Get her out of here!”

I feel hands on my arms, pulling me up out of Darian’s grip. But the moment they drag me to my feet, I strike the ranger with my staff and break into a run, collapsing to my knees at my father’s side.

Just feet away, Solie is letting out an earsplitting screech as nets are tossed over his head and he is bound down tightly against the earth.

My sight is shrouded with tears as I stare down at my father. Blood has tainted his clothes and the earth beneath him. I have never seen so much blood—and for the first time in my life, my father looks…weak.

Weak.

I cover my mouth with a trembling palm and choke back my tears. A ranger pulls at my arm, trying to drag me back, but I tear free and shove the man away with a volatile hiss. “Don’t touch me! Get the fuck away!”

Papa’s eyes flutter open, and I feel his hand wrap around my wrist, gentle and damp with blood. “Ar—” he begins, but blood begins to bubble up in his throat. Papa turns his head to the side and lets the blood leak from his mouth with a small, difficult cough.

I shake him by the damp linens of his shirt. “Papa—Papa, no. You’re okay.”

Then I feel another hand on my shoulder.

I’m about to reel around and send my staff into the ranger’s face when I realize it isn’t the ranger at all, but a healer who’s come to help.

“Quickly, we need to get Thaddeus to the infirmary,” she says. “We can’t help him here.”

Finally, I sit back on my haunches and allow others to tend to my father. I feel entirely useless, watching the healer take his pulse. Watching the ranger hoist him onto a stretcher.

Watching. Watching. Watching.

I race alongside them as they carry him swiftly back toward the village, his hand cold in mine.

Once we reach the gate, the throng of villagers parts at either side of the entrance, creating an aisle for us to pass through. I struggle to keep up with the rangers, stumbling over my own feet as I clutch on tightly to my father’s hand. “Hold on, Papa. It’ll be okay. Just hold on, please.”

But I’m not sure he can hear me. I’m not sure I can even hear myself. His clothes are shredded, and blood pools in his wound, deep and black. I can’t see his wounds through such a dark stain. I can’t know how bad they are.

How could Solie do such a thing to him? He has always been a well-mannered dragon. And Thaddeus Severn is a Dragon Master, for god’s sake! It doesn’t make sense that his own dragon would act out like this. Certainly not the prized dragon he raised from a hatchling.

I feel the hot sting of tears prick my eyes as I try to unwrap it all. Try to understand. Solie isn’t a wild dragon. He was never a wild dragon. All his life, he has been domesticated by my father.

Something’s terribly wrong.

We arrive at the infirmary, and the doors open to a vast room with rows of cots. A voice from behind us shouts, “Quickly! The Dragon Master’s been wounded!”

Healers and aides leave their positions to flutter toward us. We are directed into a private chamber where Papa is placed atop a cot, and the healers gather around him to assess his wounds.

I stand by, still clutching his hand, yet again feeling utterly helpless. Then I feel his fingers twitch gently in mine. I look up, catching the flutter of Papa’s eyes as they open slowly. As he looks around the room, his gaze settling on me. His eyes look so lost, so unseeing…but then his lips lift into just a semblance of a smile.

“I’m sorry,” he says, giving my hand a soft squeeze.

The tears, which have been building and building since this whole ordeal began, finally start to fall. They sting as they roll down my cheeks, wetting my face in streaks. “Why are you apologizing?”

He coughs—the sound thick and wet in his throat. “I always dreamed of this moment,” he whispers. “The day you would take my place as Dragon Master. I just never thought it would be like this… I never thought…” He coughs again and winces. “Never thought I wouldn’t get to see you live out your destiny.”

My throat tightens, and a sound slips out—something between a choke and a sob. “Don’t say that. I’m not ready, Papa. You’re going to be okay.” I look up to the healers, pleading for their confirmation. Desperate to hear the words come from anyone else. But the look in their eyes says that the promise I want to hear won’t come. It’s too late.

They can’t save him.

My father lets out a suffocating gasp, and his grip on my hand tightens. “You will learn to do what you must. Remember all I’ve taught you, Arla. You will become the greatest Dragon Master the world has ever known.”

I can’t speak past the pain in my chest as the tight, suffocating sobs escape me. I shake my head, desperate to hold onto him for just a moment longer, but my father is fading. His eyes close.

And slowly, his hand lets go of mine.

And I let out a scream. A scream louder than any dragon.