Page 139 of Thief of Hearts

I became aware of more blue light, even brighter than it had been in the last cavern.

We edged closer and closer to it. I wondered what horror we would find here.

After two turns, the light became nearly blinding, it was so bright. I had to blink several times before moving forward. Zain stood at the edge of the hallway, through the opening.

He wasn’t moving.

What did he see?

I stepped around him and almost gasped. There sat the biggest red dragon I had ever seen in my life.

It rumbled in its chest and then rose to its full height.

I had thought Lia’s dragon was big. But this one was three times Luna’s size.

“Is that a fire dragon?” Zain asked in panicked awe.

It wasn’t—it had wings. I had seen fire dragons in person and they did not. “No. But we are so dead.”

He gulped and nodded.

Then a rusty voice spoke in my head.

Greetings, True Heir, Child of Invara.

Chapter Forty-Two

“Did you hear that?” I asked Zain.

“Hear what?”

“I think the dragon just spoke to me.”

He looked at me as if worried I was going mad.

Maybe I was. Or maybe Lia had somehow infected me by always being in my head, and now I could speak to dragons.

Or perhaps I could only hear them. “Greetings,” I said.

The dragon seemed to nod, as if acknowledging me.

“Uh, what is your name?” I tried.

Graarvin.

“His name is Graarvin,” I told Zain. It sounded like a roar.

Zain put his head in his hands. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”

“Neither do I. But he doesn’t look like he wants to eat us.”

The dragon made an amused snorting sound.

You are both so tiny that you aren’t worth the effort it would take to clean you from my teeth.

“Oh. Good. Thank you.” My heart began a more normal rhythm now that I knew we weren’t dinner.

The dragon looked at me expectantly. I couldn’t keep trying to make small talk with it.