When She Reigns by Jodi Meadows

Author:Jodi Meadows
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

I’d been dreaming of the first dragon, because I was the last. And when I found her bones and took her home, I would entreat the gods on behalf of the humans. I would take her place. My shadow soul—my dragon soul—would reign.

But I’d have to sacrifice something dear. For my dragon self to complete its ascension, I’d have to leave my human self behind.

PART FOUR

LOVE SURVIVES DEATH

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

EVERY MORNING FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS, WE returned to the library and searched the books of our gods, as well as the histories of the Algotti Empire, but we discovered nothing new.

At least, they didn’t. The more I read, the more I was convinced that the sacrifice described would save the Fallen Isles, but I didn’t tell them. I couldn’t.

Guilt needled me whenever we came back to those passages, and the truth almost spilled out a few times, but I knew how that conversation would go. Hristo and Ilina would drag me into the ocean and swim me back to the Fallen Isles themselves if it meant they didn’t lose the human part of me. They would prevent me from finding the bones of the first dragon and entreating the gods, because they’d rather have me as me than have the rest of our world.

Ours was a powerful love, built over time and trials, and I had no doubts that they’d try to save me above anything else, because I would do the same for them.

And then there was Gerel, who’d say I made the worst plans, and Chenda, who’d quietly agree, and Zara, who couldn’t lose more family than she already had, and Aaru . . .

Aaru, who slept across the small cabin from me every night, who reached for my hand and held on like he needed me, who talked with me until we both mumbled and lost track of our thoughts and fell asleep. I’d promised he wouldn’t be alone. I hadn’t meant to break that promise so soon.

So I made it my secret, and hated myself for keeping it, but if this was the only way to ensure the Fallen Gods remained on Noore—

I started looking for alternatives. Other interpretations. And in the back of my mind, I prepared to keep track of my lasts, because by the final day of our journey east, I’d found nothing else that would save the Fallen Isles.

My dragon soul would consume all the human parts of me, giving everyone else—even the people who’d hurt us—a new chance to live. I’d always wanted to be a dragon, hadn’t I? And come the eclipse, I’d get that wish, but now I had so many reasons to want to stay human.

It seemed vastly unfair.

“WHAT ARE YOU thinking?”

It was the night before we were supposed to reach the empire, and I wasn’t doing a good job hiding my fear. Not from Aaru. And not from LaLa, though she tried to reassure me by showing me how fun it was to be a dragon. She

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