“Your eyes,” he said. “They’re glowing. They’re…. It’s so pretty.”

I felt it coursing through me. “Red, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what that color is?”

“What?”

“I think it’s the color of your scales.”

He gasped. “Really? But it’s… it’s so. It’s so—”

“Beautiful,” I finished for him.

He reared up slowly, curling his body underneath him, eyes flashing in the dark. From the earth below that he’d created, those little lights began to glow again, flashing weakly at first, but then becoming stronger and stronger. He towered above me as the lights rose around us. Those musical notes I’d heard when they touched me before were louder this time around, more vibrant. More real. I didn’t know if they were in my head or if they echoed throughout the dome, but the song they sang was bittersweet and heartbreaking. I could feel Zero in them, feel his doubts and insecurities, his loneliness and desperation. I thought maybe this was a test, that he was showing himself to me, showing me all the different pieces that made the whole of him, the sum of his parts. And it made me wonder if he was seeing the same in me, if he was getting all of my pieces. If he was, what did he see? What did I show?

I was smart.

I did stupid things.

When I loved, I loved fiercely and with my whole heart.

I didn’t make friends easy. A lot of people liked the idea of me, but that wasn’t the same as liking me.

Sometimes I thought maybe Morgan had made a mistake and I couldn’t be what he thought I was.

I worried that I was going to disappoint my parents.

I was scared that one day Ryan would look at me and think he’d made a mistake.

I was angry at Randall, angry at Morga

n, and I didn’t know how I was going to get over it. But I had to. I knew I had to and that they didn’t deserve my ire. But I didn’t know how to get past it, even knowing what Morgan had told me.

I wanted to keep my promise and help Gary find his horn. I didn’t know how to do that.

I wanted to keep my promise to give Tiggy a family he could call his own.

I wanted to believe my grandmother, that I was chosen for a reason.

I didn’t know how to do that.

I wanted to believe that Myrin could be saved, that he could be the person Morgan and Randall had loved again. That he could be a brother again. A cornerstone.

I didn’t know how to do that.

I wanted to believe that I could do this. That I could save Verania. That I could save the world. That the faith the King and his son had in me were not misplaced, that any villain that rose in opposition would be struck down because it was the right thing to do, that good would always triumph over evil.

I wanted to do what was right.

I didn’t know how to do that.

“You’re very conflicted,” Zero said, eyes glittering in the light of his magic. “Is that how it is to be human?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never been anything else.”

“You’re very brave. Like a hero.”

Tags: T.J. Klune Tales From Verania Fantasy
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