Jodi named her daughters Ember and Ava.
Ember came first, screaming so powerfully that a glass jar shattered across the healer’s room. She had silver hair, golden eyes, and a line of tiny black scales down her spine.
Ava arrived seven minutes later. She had dark curls like Jodi and green eyes that turned gold whenever she became frightened or excited.
Behind each girl’s left ear rested a faint symbol: a flame wrapped around crossed blades.
The twins carried dragon blood and dragonslayer blood.
Jodi understood what that meant.
A dragon born with a slayer’s resistance might survive ancient weapons. A dragonslayer who inherited dragon fire could become more powerful than either race.
If the wrong people discovered them, Ember and Ava would never be treated as children.
They would become weapons.
Jodi concealed the marks with herbal dye and told everyone their father was dead.
With nowhere else to go, she returned to her home village.
Elara allowed her to stay in an abandoned cottage beyond the family orchard but refused to let the twins sleep in the main house.
“We do not know what they are,” Elara said.
“They are your granddaughters.”
“They have dragon blood.”
“They have mine too.”
Rowan called them abominations. He believed their existence would draw danger to the family.
Paul, now married to Melody, visited only once.
He looked at the infants and laughed.
“So you abandoned me for a monster.”
“You abandoned me before I ever met him.”
“I made the correct choice.”
Ember sneezed.
A spark flew from her mouth and burned a hole in Paul’s sleeve.
Jodi considered it one of her daughter’s earliest accomplishments.
For five years, she raised the twins alone.
She treated sick villagers, hunted in the forest, repaired clothes, and prepared herbs to trade for grain. Ember and Ava learned to conceal their powers before they could read.
“Never show your fire,” Jodi warned.
“Why?” Ember asked.
“Because some people will fear you.”
Ava touched the crimson mark across Jodi’s face.
“Like they fear this?”
Jodi did not know how to answer.
Her mark began changing after the twins’ birth. The dark skin slowly faded into thin silver lines. As it disappeared, her face changed with it.
Her cheekbones sharpened. Her eyes became brighter, and her brown hair deepened to glossy black.
By the twins’ fifth birthday, villagers who had known Jodi since childhood sometimes passed her without recognizing her.
Elara called it the dragonslayer awakening.
“You knew this could happen,” Jodi said.
“I knew enough to fear it.”
“What else did you hide from me?”
Elara refused to answer.
Despite the hardships, Jodi built a life with her daughters.
Ember was fearless, stubborn, and incapable of whispering. Ava was quieter but possessed an unsettling ability to know when someone lied.
At night, they asked about their father.
“Was he handsome?” Ember said.
“Yes.”
“Was he brave?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did he love you?”
Jodi looked at the fire.
“I believed he did.”
“Did you love him?”
“That is enough questions.”
Ava watched her carefully.
“You still do.”
Five-year-olds, Jodi discovered, could be merciless.
On the evening of their fifth birthday, a shadow passed across the moon.
Ember ran outside.
“A dragon!”
Jodi pulled both girls into the cottage and locked the door.
The creature never landed.
At dawn, Jodi found a black feather on the windowsill.
The enchanted raven had returned.
She burned the feather and spread salt across the window ledge.
Three nights later, Ember and Ava disappeared.
Their bedroom window stood open. Silver ash covered the floor, and the raven’s mark had been burned into the wooden frame.
Jodi touched the ash.
A vision exploded through her mind.
Her daughters stood inside the Burning Citadel. Melody held their hands.
Behind them, Nick screamed inside the blue fire.
Jodi packed before sunrise.
Elara blocked the cottage door.
“You cannot return.”
“My daughters are there.”
“Then they may already be lost.”
Jodi drew a knife.
“Move.”
Elara looked at her transformed face.
“He will not recognize you.”
“I am not returning for him.”
“The dragons will kill a slayer.”
“Then they can try.”
The Ashen Gate opened the moment Jodi touched it.
The realm beyond had changed.
The red sky had darkened to the color of dried blood. Entire villages stood abandoned. The magical rivers flowed slowly, and green flames burned between the trees.
Nick’s curse was killing the kingdom.
At the first settlement, Jodi heard that the mysterious slayer woman had fled five years earlier after trying to poison Lord Nicholas. Some believed she had deliberately intensified his curse.
Melody returned to court months later and called herself the final loyal descendant of the dragonslayers.
She promised she could break Nick’s curse if he married her.
The marriage had never taken place because her touch could not stop the fire.
Jodi entered the Burning Citadel disguised as a traveling healer named Joan. Her mark had faded, her voice had deepened, and the years of survival had changed how she moved.
No one recognized her.
Not even Nick.
She saw him in the throne room.
He looked thinner. Silver hair fell past his shoulders, and cracks of blue flame glowed beneath the skin of his hands and throat.
He sat on the obsidian throne while Melody stood at his side wearing the colors of his realm.
Varos announced that two strange children had been captured near the Ashen Gate. Melody claimed they were dragonslayer spies.
Guards brought Ember and Ava forward in chains.
Jodi nearly drew her blade.
Ember’s face was furious. Ava appeared frightened but held her sister’s hand.
Nick leaned forward.
“Who are your parents?”
Ember lifted her chin.
“Our mama is stronger than everyone here.”
Melody struck her.
Jodi moved before thought could stop her.
She crossed the throne room and caught Melody’s wrist before a second blow landed.
Every guard drew a weapon.
Melody stared at the unfamiliar dark-haired woman.
“How dare you touch me?”
Jodi released her.
“Strike that child again and lose the hand.”
Nick rose.
Fire rolled across his shoulders.
“Who are you?”
For five years, Jodi had imagined standing before him again. She expected anger or recognition.
His eyes showed neither.
“My name is Joan. I am a healer.”
“You threaten my intended consort in my court?”
“I stopped an adult from striking a chained child.”
Ember stared at Jodi.
Recognition flashed across her face, but Ava squeezed her hand, warning her to remain silent.
Nick descended the steps.
His golden eyes moved across Jodi’s transformed features. Something beneath his human form reacted.
The fire bent toward her.
His dragon stirred so violently that the chamber shook.
Nick stopped inches away.
“Have we met?”
Jodi’s heart broke a second time.
“No, my lord.”
He raised one hand toward her cheek.
Before he could touch her, Melody stepped between them.
“She carries dragonslayer scent.”
“So do you,” Jodi said.
Melody’s expression tightened.
Varos ordered guards to arrest Jodi.
Nick raised his hand.
“No.”
Everyone became silent.
He looked at the twins.
“Take the children to the east nursery. They are not to be harmed.”
Then he faced Jodi.
“You claim to be a healer. Tonight, you will enter the burning chamber.”
Melody paled.
“My lord, she could be dangerous.”
Nick ignored her.
“If she is what my dragon believes, the fire will reveal it.”
That night, guards escorted Jodi to the chamber where everything began.
Nick stood chained inside the circle of blue flame.
“Come closer,” he commanded.
Jodi entered.
The fire wrapped around her without burning.
Nick’s eyes widened.
“Only one woman has ever done that.”
Jodi placed her palm against his chest.
The fire vanished.
Nick fell into her arms.
His face rested against her hair as he inhaled the scent his mind had forgotten but his dragon remembered.
“Jodi,” he whispered.
She closed her eyes.
“You are five years too late.”