"What?!" Ro shouted, his knuckles turning white as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. "Alex, no! You cannot be serious!"

  "You heard me. Untie the ropes," I repeated.

  Na-Ya's face dropped. "But it's a monster!"

  "He's not a monster." I met Dhurak's eyes. "He's a person. He has a name. Dhurak, He Who Grinds the Hills."

  "Is that name supposed to comfort us?!" Na-Ya shouted.

  "It's poisoning your mind!" Ro shouted as he lifted his sword, aiming for the raw flesh where Dhurak's throat had been torn open. "For your sake, as well as the sake of the people we protect, I'll do what I must."

  "Don't you fucking dare," I growled. "Just listen to me!"

  "Your allies do not see as you do," Dhurak murmured. "This is to be expected."

  "Listen to yourself!" Ro added.

  "I am listening to myself!" I knew this was right. Why couldn't they see it? "You knew what I was thinking!" I shouted. "You knew the plan! And you knew what I might decide!"

  Ro shook his head. "I thought you needed to see for yourself... that you needed to try to reason with it to understand that it's impossible!" He pointed his sword at the wyrm. "I never imagined you would actually try to set it free!"

  "I literally said I might!" I shouted. "You agreed to help!"

  "I didn't believe you!" He shouted back.

  "So you don't actually trust my judgment, then? You're just humoring me?" That stung. I knew he'd been letting me take the lead when we went on quests, but had it all been for show? Was I just some dumb kid that he was letting play hero? "That sucks, man."

  Ro's face softened. "No, come on, Alex..." He shook his head. "It's not that. I trust your heart more than just about anyone's." He hesitated. "But this monster..."

  "He's not a monster." I thrust a finger at the wyrm. "He's got a name. A past. He's the last of his kind," I said. "He was taken from his home. His family was killed. He was brought here against his will. And now we're going to kill him? For what? The crime of being?" I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. "We did this to him."

  Ro's sword twitched. "Look..." His golden eyes met mine. For a moment, he stared at me. Then, after taking a deep breath, he continued. "Alex, you're a great guy. Truly. One of the best. Not only are you a great guy, but you're special to me. To us." He nodded back at Na-Ya. "We consider you not only our friend but also our family. We're proud to call you our ally. And you're becoming a fantastic leader, one truly worth following..." His eyes turned hard. "But this is madness."

  "Please, listen to him, Alex..." Na-Ya's voice shook. "I get it. I want to save people, too. I've made that passion my whole life. But what if this goes wrong? What if you've been fooled?" She took a step toward me. "Tristan and I are out of mana. You three are beaten up, and you've used most of your skills. You and Vral almost fell to your deaths, then nearly got crushed right after." She set her jaw. "Think about the risk. We can't take it on again. If we don't end it now, we won't get a second chance."

  "I know not the words they speak, but I understand their intent," Dhurak rumbled. "Their fear... their hate... they are as familiar to me as my own name." His pupil narrowed on me. "Make the choice, mortal. I am willing to die, knowing my life is taken by one of the righteous." When he finished speaking, he closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. "I am ready, but I ask that my death come by your hand. Yours is worthy."

  "Tristan, please..." Na-Ya's voice was pleading. "Talk some sense into him. If anyone can, it's you."

  "I..." Tristan's sapphire eyes found mine. In them was uncertainty, sure, but there was also trust. Absolute trust.

  Her constant support had been one of the only consistent rocks in my life, one that I took for granted too often. But here she was, still giving me her support, even when her own family was at odds with me. Even when I probably sounded crazy.

  I felt a wave of emotion wash over me.

  I'd always relied on her support, and her, since the day I woke up in this world. Hell, I needed her even before I was awake. She carried me home to the Temple when I was nothing but a bag of broken meat.

  I needed her.

  I needed her more than she'd ever know.

  Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I tried to rethink my strategy. How was I going to pull this off? What could I say that could convince them?

  Twang!

  Tristan's rope went slack. In her hand was one of Vral's daggers.

  "Vral, no!" Na-Ya cried.

  "It wasn't Vral," Tristan said. "I did it."

  "Tris?" Na-Ya sounded absolutely shocked.

  Dhurak's eye opened again. Without the rope's pressure holding his chest down, he was able to shift more than he had before. After adjusting himself, he shook his head and murmured, "I do not understand."

  "You will." I nodded to him, then met Tristan's gaze. "Thanks, Tris..." I scratched my beard and felt a wave of relief wash over me.

  Smiling softly at me, she whispered, "I trust your judgment. I always have."

  Vral turned and looked at Tristan, who nodded. With a simple shrug, Vral said, "You heard the boss." She drew her other dagger. "He told us to cut the ropes, so we cut the ropes." Her hand flashed, and the rope beside her snapped.

  Twang!

  The rope holding Dhurak's shoulders down went loose. Using his little arms, he sat himself upright and groaned. "That is... so much better."

  As Dhurak shifted, Ro kept the point of his sword trained on Dhurak's neck. However, rather than striking the beast dead, he simply watched as the wyrm shifted upward.

  "I don't... I..." Na-Ya's face went white. "Ro, what should we do?"

  "There's nothing left to do," Ro said grimly. "All we can do is pray that his heart is correct yet again."

  Twang!

  His sword flashed, severing the rope nearest to him.

  Na-Ya stared at him for a long moment. Then, she fell to her knees and began praying.

  Twang!

  Ro's sword flashed, and the last of the ropes broke free. As it flew over his back, Dhurak sat up, coiled his body around itself, and rested his head on his long, serpentine coils.

  For a long time, he sat like that, his massive emerald eyes locked on mine. Everything else in the world faded away. It was just him, me, and Na-Ya's soft prayers filling the space between us.

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  I could feel something passing between us. Something unspoken but important. I couldn't exactly put it into words, but it felt like... it felt like we'd laid the first stones needed to bridge the gap between us. We weren't just a mortal and a beast, a hero and a monster. We were two people sharing a moment in time.

  As we sat there, I realized that this was it. This moment was what being a hero was supposed to be. It wasn't about being some dumbass who ran around killing monsters. It was about being someone who, at the end of the day, made the world a better place. For everyone. And I knew something right then and there that this moment was a step down that road.

  This was what I was here for.

  I didn't know how long we stayed in that moment, but when it passed, the corners of the wyrm's mouth quirked upward. "So," Dhurak's deep, rumbling voice cut through the near-silence. "What is it you would ask of me, Alex, the Iron Sentinel, Hero of the Pit?"

  I shook my head. "I want you to be free and live well, Dhurak." With a laugh, I added, "And if you could stop hunting the farm animals in the region, that would be great. Oh, and please don't hurt people."

  Nodding, the wyrm said, "For the thread you have so graciously left unsevered, I am willing to make those vows to you." His head turned. "However, I know not what farm animals you speak of. I have seen no settlements in the few days I've been in this land."

  "A few days?" I asked. "Have you not been the one who's been moving farm animals and creating crystals out in the forest?"

  Dhurak quirked his brow. "Crystals?"

  "Yeah." I reached into my inventory and pulled out a few of the smaller chunks of crystal that I'd kept as a souvenir. I figured Kasimir wouldn't mind if I kept a few pieces. Plus, even if he did, fuck him. Holding them up to Dhurak, I said, "They look like these, but bigger. I'm pretty sure they're made out of monsters."

  The wyrm's eyes widened. "That material is called Dragon's Heartvein." He snaked closer. The dim light flickering within the crystals sparkled in his massive emerald eyes. "It is not possible."

  "You've seen this stuff before?" I asked.

  He looked from the crystals to me and back again. "It has been an age since I've even seen this, much less handled it."

  "I'm looking for the ones responsible for creating it. Do you know where I could find them?"

  "Not ones," Dhurak rumbled. "One. But she died long ago."

  "She?"

  "The Last of the Elders," The wyrm replied. "Empress of the Frozen Peaks, Keeper of the Frozen Flame," Dhurak spoke with clear reverence. "Ishar. The last great bridge between your kind and my own."

  The names rang a bell. I remembered one of Arden's books mentioning a dragon empress from the Third Age. "Do you mean the Dragon Empress of the Frostfell Mountains?" I tried to think back to that book. It had been so long. "Wasn't she supposed to have been the big threat in the third age?"

  "Is that what you mortals write in your histories?" Dhurak snorted. "You know little of the past, mortal."

  "And you do?" I asked. "I thought the Dark Lord created wyrms."

  Nodding, Dhurak said, "The Tyrant had not yet found and poisoned my egg, and I was not yet thrust in this world twisted and mad back in the Empress's time." He settled his head on his coils again. "But still, I remember. While fragmented and dim, my blood offers memories of the time before my time."

  Did that mean dragons had some sort of genetic memories or something? Scratching my neck, I asked, "Okay, so who was the Dragon Empress?"

  "The frozen one was the mightiest among the dragons. She took on a mortal's form and found one of your kind to be to her liking. Claiming him for her own, she later sired the line that ended with Ishar."

  So it was true that the Dragon Empress took a mate from the mortal races! I'd have to tell Arden when I saw him next. "And what happened to Ishar?"

  Dhurak's nostrils steamed. "The Tyrant ripped her from her throne and forced her to kneel. When she refused, he caged her and forced her to watch as he corrupted her unborn subjects. Then, when he could find no more of my kind, he gouged out her throat and threw her body from the ramparts of his black keep." The wyrm's jaw tightened. "The Tyrant's cruelty knew no bounds. It is a shame his soul was not destroyed utterly when he was struck low, but how does one destroy the shadow of a world?"

  The shadow of a world? Was that what the Dark Lord was?

  Questions for later.

  Shaking my head, I thought back to the glowing crystals. "But if Ishar died, and only she could make these," I held the crystals up again, "Who's making them now?"

  "I wish to know the answer to that question as well, champion." The wyrm stretched its back kind of like a cat would. "But I fear that answer must come another day, for I am injured and in need of rest." Crooning his head upward, his jaws opened, and he let out the mightiest yawn I'd ever seen.

  So, for as much as we'd done on this quest, we still weren't any closer to completing it. Great. "Thank you for answering my questions, Dhurak." I turned to the others. "Well, team. Dhurak's not the one who created these crystals. We've got more searching to do."

  "What did you two talk about?" Vral's eyes were sparkling at the wyrm again. "Was it about how he's going to give us rides when his wing grows back?"

  Could his wing grow back? "Dhurak, you were wounded in our fight." I pointed at his ruined wing and horn. "Will you recover?" I knew a great place for him to heal if not. That made me chuckle inwardly. How many feet onto the temple's ground could Dhurak slither before Renard and the rest of the Templars went to war?

  He nodded. "My kind is not so feeble as you mortals. Once I have time to rest, I will regain all I have lost."

  "How much rest?" Whatever his answer was, I was envious. It would have made my first year in Reial a whole lot better if I could have slept off all my injuries.

  "Two... perhaps three years." He settled his head back onto his coils.

  "What did he say?" Vral asked as she skittered up next to me.

  "It'll be a while." I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

  "Damn..." She clicked her thumbnail against her canine. "That's alright, I can wait."

  "When did you learn how to be patient?" Tristan asked Vral as she found my side. Wrapping her arm around my waist, she added, "Normally, you can't wait for anything."

  Vral grinned. "Yeah, well, you know. Dragon. Worth it."

  Hooking my hand around Tristan's waist, I looked toward the massive tree in the distance and said, "Well, we might as well restart our search by gathering the others."

  Vral looked up at me and pouted. "Can we pleaaase sleep first? I'm beat."

  Tristan let out a yawn of her own. "Yeah, and we need food. I'm famished."

  Na-Ya carefully stepped around Dhurak, stopped in front of me, and sat on a rock. "Can we really rest next to..." She glanced at Dhurak. "... such a threat?"

  I looked up at Dhurak, whose eyes were swimming in their sockets. The guy looked like he'd fall asleep any second. "Yeah, he's a real threat right now, what with him about to fall asleep and all."

  "Still!" Na-Ya huffed. "It's scary."

  Ro started toward us. "Whatever you two talked about was between you." He stepped toward me. "I understand that you've come to some accord with one another, but that has nothing to do with me." He stopped next to me and looked at the wyrm, who looked like he was about to fall asleep. "But I made an oath to the people of this land. I can't let a threat like this one go, even if you believe it's been pacified. He might not harm us, but that doesn't mean he won't harm others."

  "But he's..." I wanted to tell him otherwise, but Ro was right. Even if Dhurak was fine with me or us, that didn't mean he wouldn't attack others. Even if it was self-defense or territorial or whatever, most people couldn't stand up to him. He was far too strong. I mean, it took us an entire night of whittling him down just to stand up to him. After that, we needed perfect coordination to take him down. And we were strong! Really strong.

  He was too much of a threat.

  "What are you saying, Ro?"

  Relief washed over Ro's face. "Even if you've come to some sort of an agreement, one day, you won't be here, right? What then? If you intend to keep it alive, then you must do what you can to ensure the safety of those it could bring harm to." He put a hand on my shoulder. "After watching you speak to... him, I believe that what you've done may have been right. But I can't sit idly by and watch as you potentially put other people in harm's way." His golden eyes met mine. "Please, find a way to make this right."

  My fingers brushed my chin. "Well..." I had an idea, but I didn't know how to pull it off. "Dhurak?"

  "Yes... champion?" Dhurak's eyes opened a crack.

  "My friend here has been an inspiration to me since I arrived in this world. He's strong, passionate, and wise. Far wiser than I am. And he's completely dedicated to the people of Reial." I stepped forward. "He's concerned that, even if we've come to an understanding, you might one day change your mind and harm others."

  Dhurak's eyes hardened. "Ah, yes. The eternal distrust of mortals. A familiar song."

  "Can you prove to him that your intentions are pure?" I asked. "Can you show them who you are?"

  The massive wyrm's eyes fixed on mine. "If assurances are what they need, I shall make an oath to you, champion."

  "An oath?"

  "Yes." He straightened his neck, towering over us. "Words have power to my kind. When we speak, the world listens to our voices."

  A small feeling of dread gripped my heart. Wasn't this exactly what He wanted? The Dark Lord had been continually granting me visions and dreams of rule. He'd bonded me to the goblins, against all of our wills. And now, events had led me to this point, where I was about to accept a wyrm's oath. The Dark Lord's words echoed in my mind once again:

  WHETHER OR NOT YOU CHOOSE TO SERVE, YOU ENACT MY WILL ALL THE SAME.

  I could feel the truth of those words now. It seemed like everything I did brought me closer to some ending that I couldn't see.

  "What say you, mortal?" Dhurak's voice echoed off the water nearby, bringing me back to myself.

  "I..." I didn't know what to do.

  I felt a hand grab mine. Turning, I saw that Tristan was looking at me with those big, beautiful sapphire eyes of hers. I wanted to brush her off, but...

  "Hey," she said softly. "Whatever it is you're thinking right now..." She pressed a hand to my chest. "Whatever it is that's causing those feelings you're experiencing..." Stepping closer, she wove her fingers through mine. "Just know that I trust you. You'll do what's right. I know it."

  In an instant, the fog cleared from my head and heart. "Yes, Dhurak. I would accept any oath you're willing to make."