Chapter 10 - The Name He Should Not Know
Mara stopped breathing.
“How does he know her name?”
No one answered.
Elara had been named inside a guarded palace room.
Only Rowan, Lucan, Selene, and a handful of servants had heard it.
Mara looked at Rowan.
“Who told Isolde?”
“I didn’t.”
“Someone did.”
Lucan’s hand went to his sword.
Tessa watched the ravine entrance.
Then Brin spoke.
“The dragon king didn’t learn the name from Isolde.”
Mara looked at him.
“He learned it from Elara.”
“That makes no sense.”
“They’re already connected.”
Mara’s stomach turned.
“No.”
“Names are doors in old magic.”
Brin drew a circle in the dirt, then split it with a line.
“He called her daughter because he knew what she was. Now he calls her Elara because she has begun to recognize him.”
“She’s a baby.”
“To us.”
Elara stared toward the south.
Mara turned her face away.
“No. You look at me.”
The baby’s eyes returned to hers.
For a second, they were ordinary brown.
Then gold flickered through them.
A voice whispered inside Mara’s mind.
Mother.
Mara almost dropped her.
She staggered back.
Rowan caught her elbow.
“What happened?”
“She spoke.”
Everyone stared.
Lucan looked at the infant. “With her mouth?”
“No.”
Brin’s expression darkened.
Mara looked at Elara.
“Can you hear me?”
The baby blinked.
Then the voice came again.
Cold.
Ancient.
Not Elara’s.
Bring her home.
Mara’s blood froze.
She shoved the child into Rowan’s arms and stumbled away.
Rowan looked horrified. “Mara?”
Brin grabbed her.
“What did you hear?”
She could barely speak.
“He’s inside the bond.”
Another voice whispered.
This time directly behind her.
“No,” Selene said. “He’s inside you.”
Mara spun.
Her mother stood at the mouth of the cave.
Alive.
Pale.
A bandage wrapped around her stomach.
Mara ran to her.
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
Lucan stared. “How did you get here?”
Selene looked at Tessa.
“Friends.”
Tessa gave a small nod.
Mara held her mother’s face. “Tell me how to stop him.”
Selene’s eyes filled with sorrow.
“You can’t stop the bond.”
“Then what can I do?”
“You can choose who controls it.”
Mara frowned.
Selene reached into her coat and removed a small black scale.
It pulsed like a heartbeat.
“I took this from the dragon king eighteen years ago.”
Rowan stepped closer. “How?”
Selene looked at him.
“Because once, before Mara was born…”
May you like
She swallowed.
“…I woke him.”
