The egg was the size of a human child’s head, somehow small in Campos’s large hands. Thick, hard-ridged scales shimmered in gradient shades of red and violet with a distinct crimson glow emanating from its core.

The sight sucked all the breath out of Ava’s lungs. All her life, she had anticipated this moment. To see a real dragon egg with her very eyes. A pang coursed through her, knowing this egg would never be hers.

“It shines even brighter now,” said Campos, glancing from the egg to Malik. “You weren’t lying, shaman. There is a fierce potential—even a longing—for this bond. Of course, nothing is final, but…”

Campos extended the egg to Riese, who hesitated. The tall girl had the build of a warrior, muscles rippling down her shoulders and arms like mighty rivers of sinew and bone. A strength Ava envied, no matter the pride she took in her own mental and spiritual strength. Riese had the look of a Dragonmount, yet still, she hesitated.

Riese held out her hands, then, withdrew. Her fingers trembled.

“It is daunting to face one’s fate,” said Campos. “There is no going back from a bond, once it is fully formed.”

“When is it final?” Riese murmured.

“When the bonding rites have been completed, which, of course, cannot be accomplished until we reach Attica. You could walk away now, and this egg would bond with another rider. But if this were an Attican lottery, such potential for a bond would never be denied.”

“I don’t even know what it means to be Dragonmount,” Riese said.

Campos chuckled. “Nor do I, my dear. They are a mystery to all outside their ranks. The guardians of the world.”

“I’m not Attican.”

“You’e not thought of yourself as such,” said Campos. “But these lands are under Attican control and protection, whether you’ve known it or not. Your people have served the empire for many years. And the Dragon Emperor. Well, let’s just say the influence of the Dragon Lords has proved problematic over the years, and the emperor has chosen me to find riders who will serve him, not the interests of a gods-damned lord house. Two potential riders were chosen before we even reached these shores, and I’ve a third egg. So it would seem, our fates have entwined.”

“You don’t know me,” said Riese.

Campos nodded and gazed at the glowing egg. “I know who you are, Riese. And I am Fjuriin. I know a path when it’s let before me. Do you?”

Riese hesitated.

“My father taught me something, and I’ve always conducted myself with that teaching in mind. The world is a ruinous place for those that run from who they really are. Always stay true to your path.”

You speak the truth there, Consul, most certainly, Ava thought.

“But time is not in your favor,” Campos added. “You must choose now, Riese. Will you follow your path or flee from it?”

Riese took one long breath and released it, then she took the egg between her hands. Instantly, the glow surged, expanding from the core of the egg to cover its entirety.

“I believe that dragonling approves your decision. Now, two more.”

Campos reached into his satchel and removed a dark blue egg. Ava’s heart pounded, the pang raging in her gut as the egg glowed with an icy luminescence.

“Well, well,” he said, extending the egg to her.

Blood surged in Ava’s body. Energy surged in her mind, swept her straight back to her childhood—before the Fall of Valucia, and the toll the war took on her own young body—when Ava would race through waves of long grass with her parents. Soaring down hilly meadows, weaving amongst copses of elm trees and towering oaks. Running till her entire body was flushed and her lungs full and gasping, and all the world thrummed with the immediacy and fervor of life as it was meant to be.

Her fingers grasped that egg, and her spirit soared just the same.

All at once, Ava felt the rush of the wind washing over her. Magic surged through her spirit, the radiance of the Other filling her within and without, and she recognized her unity with that power behind the world.

The Other.

The shaman’s lesson appeared all the more obvious as she recognized that unity and separateness between her own self and the resonance radiating from the egg in her hands.

They were both separate and one, and Ava would never let anything come between them.

She looked up, and Campos was smiling.

“Yet another fierce potential,” he said. “And now, the third.”

Surprised, Ava glanced at Malik, who drew back, waving his hands dismissively. “Sorry, General, but I’m afraid I have no bond.”

“No, of course not, son.”

“He’s talking about me.”

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Ava glanced up at the feminine voice.

Iriana Thenius stepped from the path behind them. The girl had come alone, following the same path the four of them had taken, which surely meant that Campos had alerted his knight to this plan.

Three eggs, and she and Iriana were always his choice.

He never intended for Ruan to bond, she realized.

Iriana joined them, a thin smile on her full lips. The young woman was a more typical Attican noble. Tall and athletic and beautiful. Ancient blood, if from a middling house. But did she have the mettle of a warrior of the skies?

Ava had her doubts about the Skymount student.

“It is not my choice, in the end, Iriana,” Campos said.

It was talk. Whatever might be said of Campos, it was clear he knew exactly what he was doing. Ava hadn’t even needed to manipulate him about Malik and Riese. She suspected he’d planned this the moment he discovered the third egg, already with the potential to bond.

“Our own choice is only a part in this game,” Campos said, clapping Iriana on the shoulder, and drawing her over. He reached inside the satchel and withdrew the final dragon egg, a gorgeous golden one that seemed to be coated in an effervescent sheen. Ava couldn’t determine whether or not this was a glow, or the nature of the dragon egg itself.

But as Iriana took the egg in her hands, the egg shone perceptibly brighter.

Poor Ruan, Ava thought absently.

Sure, she’d used him to get here. But it didn’t mean she felt good about it. She kept telling herself she’d make good on it, when everything came together. Yet, she hadn’t invited Ruan to join this little charade anymore than Campos had.

Because you didn’t want him to get hurt, she reminded herself. Tried to convince herself. No, because you didn’t trust him. Even after all he’s done. Despite his goodness, and his knowledge about the true ways of the world. Still, you feared he would choose ambition. You feared he would turn out just like you.

Iriana’s cheeks flushed as her mind made contact with the spirit within that sacred shell. Iriana closed her eyes, and Campos smiled.

Ava seethed inwardly.

Perhaps this was for the best. Iriana’s presence already complicated things enough.

As for the Faltari, well, she’d see if she’d chosen the right path soon enough.

The clearing was cast in darkness as the moon slipped behind a large shadow.

“We should be going,” said Campos. “You’ve all made contact. So long as you remain near the eggs, another will be unable to form a bond, and the lottery will go as we please, so long as no one knows how it was accomplished, it will appear a random selection. But for now, the eggs must remain in my possession, until this game is complete. Baro?”

“Of course, master,” the manservant said. He turned to Iriana, and set the satchel upon the ground in front of her. She reached down, hesitated only a moment, then set the egg inside.

As she rose, there was a meaty crunch as Baro seized the girl’s head between his hands and wrenched.

The girl slumped to the ground in a heap.

Campos cried out, horrified.

Malik and Riese both staggered back, clutching their eggs. Fear and shock overwhelming them.

Ava leapt into action.

This was the moment she’d waited for, trained for, spent all her life pandering to the fucking Atticans.

And she would not fail.

Campos lunged at Baro, rage and terror and confusion distorting his face.

He did not even glance at Ava. She pressed the secret lever located in the head of her cane.

The Faltari hadn’t even taken it from her while they’d checked her.

Oh, the poor, poor cripple. Be gentle.

Grimacing at the quick motion, Ava whipped the concealed weapon around, a razor-sharp Kirithian blade the length of her hand now jutting from the end of her cane.

With a perfectly executed flourish, she swept it across Campos’s throat before.

His skin spread like the peel of a fruit against her runemarked blade. Her father’s gift to the Atticans would be their gods-damned demise.

Campos dropped to his knees, clutching his throat, blood gurgling over trembling fingers. Desperate intakes of breath mixed with a gruesome croaking sound.

Though it was her first kill, the gore had no effect on Ava. Ava had seen more horrors by the age of seven than most academy girls would ever see.

Or perhaps, now, they would.

There was crunch and thud behind her.

Ava spun, senses focused, searching, holding the cane before her. The act sent a pang up her side, but she had never felt more alive than this.

Baro’s body slumped against the back of a tree, unmoving.

For a moment, she didn’t understand. Neither Malik or Riese had brought weapons, she’d watched them both too carefully.

Magic…

Ava’s insides knotted as she faced Malik and Riese. The shaman’s spirit pressed against her own. With horror, she realized she could not move, though she felt no pain.

Malik’s face contorted with rage and fear and sorrow.

“What have you done?” he demanded.

Riese took the cane from Ava’s frozen grasp. She hurried over to investigate Baro’s body.

A Valucian servant, earning his way into the good graces of one of the most powerful men in the empire for decades. Serving him however he required. Biding his time.

Riese checked the manservant’s pulse and shook her head, returning to Malik’s side.

It was a good death, Ava thought. A path of flames.

But her own mission was not done.

“Malik, Riese, I need you to listen to me. I mean you no harm, I promise you. And neither did Baro.”

Malik shook his head, huffing with uncontrolled laughter, surveying the carnage.The Consul General twitched on the ground. Unconscious, at least, as he neared death.

“Oh, well, that’s comforting.” There was no tremble in Riese’s hands as she held the cane blade up to Ava’s throat.

Ava felt the release of the shaman’s magic, but she did not dare move.

“Give me one good reason not to slit your throat,” Riese said.

“I’ll give you three,” Ava said calmly, glancing down at the dragon eggs on the ground.

Malik knelt at the general’s side, tore a long strip of cloth from his own tunic and wrapped it around the man’s throat, whispering words in a language Ava did not recognize. A death rite, perhaps. Her blade had struck true. The general would be dead any moment. She was sure of it.

Campos remained still.

Malik stood and faced her. “Where are the others?”

“Others?” she asked.

“You weren’t sent here alone,” Riese said. “Who sent you?”

Ava rolled her eyes. “Are you going to stand there and tell me you’re Attican loyalists now? I saw the way you looked at us when we arrived, shaman. And you, Riese, I know why you hesitated. Whatever bargain your ancestors may have struck, Attica represents the exact opposite of this place. You’ve been forced to serve. We all have. But the time has finally come to—”

Riese struck her shoulder with the broadside of the cane, sending piercing pain shooting down her spine and into her leg. Ava dropped to the ground, body drawing inward.

“Answer the question,” Riese said.

Ava bit the inside of her lip, and forced herself to ignore the pain, as she had so many times in her life. “Don’t you hear them?”

They all went quiet.

There was commotion on the air. From this distance, it was difficult to distinguish from the din of the festival. But the sounds had changed.

The ground trembled beneath their feet, and flames erupted from the direction of the harbor.

Ava smiled. “They’re here.”