Gabs had already left the dorm to go to breakfast, but Mel was dragging behind. She had told Gabs she would join her as soon as she could. Mel had been sleeping badly lately and was still pulling on her clothes alone in the dorm. She always seemed to have nightmares and even when she was awake, she heard the dragons speaking to her often. Like they were inside her brain, whispering things that weren’t true.

Usually, they told her that someone would die or that Aldrion would fall. But none of those things had come true, and Mel was sure it was just the dragons who wanted to stir things up. Why they were talking to her, she didn’t know. But Mel guessed it had something to do with her ever present great destiny. Like they wouldn’t let her forget that it was she who brought the dragons back.

Mel pulled on her boots and threw Gabs’ purple robe over her shoulders. The red one from the dragon cult she had left behind. It wasn’t safe anymore to show your affiliation with the dragons and Mel didn’t want to be close to them, anyway.

She grabbed the door handle, but stopped when a voice spoke in her mind. This time, it was raspy and dark. It wasn’t always the same voice, something that disturbed Mel more than she would care to admit.

“The flames are coming,” the voice said.

Mel dragged in a deep breath and sank her teeth into her lip. She knew that speaking back to the voices amounted to nothing. She had tried it before. But it was like the dragons couldn’t hear her speak or didn’t want to listen, at least.

“The dragon forge will crumble.”

Mel swallowed hard, willing her mind to discard the voice and not listen to its lies.

They stopped speaking, and Mel sighed in relief. She opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, walking toward the exit. She knew it wouldn’t happen, the dragon forge wouldn’t be destroyed. It was best just to ignore the voices all together and hope they would one day disappear just as suddenly as they had arrived.

When Mel thought about it, she knew she had believed the dragons had spoken to her in Windbrook. But it had sounded and felt different. These dragons, they had started speaking to her after the second attack. When the black dragon had first appeared. When she had brought it here.

Mel stepped out into the chilly morning air and unconsciously turned her head up toward the mountain. She saw a soft glow coming from the entrance to the dragon forge, but nothing more. It was burning inside the forge, but the forge itself wasn’t on fire.

Mel turned toward the dining hall and made her way across the path. Her stomach growled, and she longed for the apples grown in Windbrook, in the orchard close to her house. She missed home these days and even though she had always dreamt of fleeing from her hometown, Aldrion and its war had made her long for it.

A loud boom sounded over the sky, and birds flew away from the trees. Mel fell to the ground when the earth underneath her shook and her eyes lifted toward the sky. She searched the gray-blue heavens after the black dragon, but saw nothing up there above the clouds.

Her face felt hot on one side and she turned her gaze toward the mountain, seeing a pillar of black smoke rising from the dragon forge and flames shooting up from its entrance. Mel’s breath caught in her lungs and her mouth gaped open.

No, this wasn’t happening.

She hadn’t even been let into the dragon forge yet. It was her dream to work as a mage smith in there and now…

Mel whirled around, her mind dazed. She picked herself up from the ground and headed toward the dining hall. Her heart was racing and her breath came in shallow bursts.

Gabs and the other students were running out of the building, staring up at the mountain with horror written on their faces. Mel grabbed Gabs’ arm and leaned in toward her.

“They told me it would crumble,” Mel said.

“What?”

“They told me the dragon forge would be destroyed. I should have listened. I’m so sorry. I should have stopped this.”

“Calm down,” Gabs said.

She pulled her arm free of Mel’s grip and stared at her for a moment. Mel stared back, and the moment stretched between them. Eventually Gabs looked around at the other students who were watching them and then up at the forge burning in the distance.

Gabs grabbed Mel’s arm and dragged her back toward the dorms. When they were alone, far away from the others, Gabs released Mel.

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“What do you mean? Who spoke to you?” Gabs asked.

Mel stared at the dragon forge and saw guards in Aldrion blue making their way up the stone steps to where the explosion had happened only minutes ago.

“The dragons,” Mel said. “They speak to me sometimes, but it never comes true. What they say is always lies. But this time it wasn’t. It came true. They said the dragon forge would crumble.”

Gabs took a step back from Mel. Her face was concerned and her posture was hesitant. Like what Mel had told her was a threat.

Mel sank her head into her hands and groaned. “I'm so sorry. I never should have come here. This is all my fault.”

“Why are the dragons speaking to you?” Gabs asked. “You know how dangerous that is?”

Mel looked up from her hands and caught Gabs’ eyes. They were glittering in the morning sunlight. Mel wondered if she was making a mistake in telling Gabs the truth. But she didn’t care anymore. She couldn’t sleep, could barely eat and her stomach was constantly in a knot. She needed to tell someone.

“It started after the second attack. When Marcus was in the hospital. Just from nowhere, I heard voices in my head. They said Aldrion would fall. Then after that, they speak to me often.”

“What?” Gabs said, taking another step away from Mel.

“I’m not speaking back to them,” Mel said, reaching her hand out toward Gabs. “You have to believe me.”

Gabs’ face was now white as a sheet and her voice came out in a low tone. “Why would they be speaking to you, Mel?”

“It’s my destiny,” Mel said. “I told you I have a great destiny. I told you that the first day we met.”

“Yeah, but you never told me what it was.”

”It’s to bring back the dragons,” Mel said. “And now I’ve brought them back. This is all my fault.”

Gabs shook her head. “No… no…”

“I’m so sorry,” Mel said. “I didn’t choose my destiny. None of us do. It's the dragons who choose.”

“So you came here to destroy Aldrion?” Gabs asked.

Me shook her head furiously. “No, not at all. I came here because it was my ticket out from Windbrook. Because I wanted to attend Falden and become a mage smith. It’s the entire reason, I promise. I never wanted a great destiny. I never wanted to be the one who brought the dragons back.”

“But why did you then? What did you do, Mel?”

“Nothing,” she said. “I swear. I didn’t do anything.”

A frown descended onto Gabs’ forehead and she paced back and forth between Mel and the wall of the building. She let out a deep sigh and stopped after a while, observing Mel with hard eyes.

“Why then do you think that you brought the dragon here? If you haven’t tried to fulfill your destiny or whatever. Why do you think it’s come here because of you?”

“I came here,” Mel said. “I brought the dagger here and put you all in danger. I knew my destiny was to bring back the dragons, and they told me to go to Aldrion and attend Falden to do so. And now the black dragon is here. Of course I brought it here.”

Gabs shook her head. “People have been wanting to bring back the dragons for centuries. There have been other people from the dragon cult in Aldrion, right? And they probably have tried all kinds of things to bring them back, right?”

“Yeah, Ben Ramsen was here a decade before me. We think he died in the wastes, in search of some secrets he was tasked with finding. His parents never got his body back or a confirmation of anyone finding it. But he has been missing for a really long time.”

Gabs dragged a hand through her hair, untangling invisible knots. “Don’t blame yourself just yet. Not for bringing the black dragon here, at least.”

Mel’s gaze met Gabs’ and she seemed to have calmed down. Mel wondered why she seemed to believe her at all. Mel wasn’t so sure she even believed herself.

“I think you should focus on the dragons who seem to be speaking to you and the fact that they were right.”

Gabs brought up her hand and pointed at the still burning forge in the distance. The guards had now almost made their way up the stairs to the forge and Mel worried about what they would find there. What if the dragon stones were destroyed?

Mel nodded, letting it all sink in. “Do you believe me then?”

“I believe that someone is speaking in your mind and that what they said came true. I believe that you didn’t bring the black dragon here.” Gabs turned to Mel and her eyes had grown hard again. “But I don’t want you to hide these things from me again. I want to help you, but I can’t do that if I don’t trust you.”

“I promise, I won’t hide anything from you again,” Mel said. “And I won’t bring the dragons back. I know it’s my destiny and that the cult wants me to. But I promise you that I will never try to bring more dragons here, any dragons. In fact, I will try to make the black dragon go away.”

“I know,” Gabs said. “I know you aren’t a bad person and I know you are suffering as much as anyone. I don’t think you brought the black dragon here. But you need to believe that too. If you go around telling people this is your fault, they will blame you. The governor, the Tavecks, and the army are all looking for a scapegoat. Don’t make yourself into one.”

Mel nodded. It felt like a weight had finally lifted from her shoulders. Telling Gabs had been the right thing to do. Mel had needed to hear this. Needed to know that Gabs didn’t blame her even when she knew what Mel’s destiny was. Even though she wasn’t happy with what Mel had hidden from her.

But she trusted in Gabs’ judgment and she wouldn’t tell anyone else. It was too dangerous. People wanted to blame her and Marcus simply because they were from the dragon cult. If people knew she could hear the dragons speak to her and that her destiny had been to bring them back all along. She could be in serious trouble.

“Gabs, will you go with me back out there into the wastes? To find the ruins of Bahlan and search for the truth?”

Gabs put her hand on Mel’s shoulder and looked into her eyes. “Yes, I will come with you. But only because I want to see it for myself. Whatever the truth may be that we find out there. I want to see it with my own eyes.”