he has brought our enemies across the water to burn us, to save himself. It is the ultimate betrayal. They want to make us burn, but we will burn them first! Starting with the so-called princess!”
The guards dragged the blond girl forward. She struggled every step of the way, her heels dug into the stone, her arms locked against them. She looked similar to Aurora, but not similar enough. Few people could genuinely believe they were the same person. Not if they had paid her the slightest attention before.
But the crowd was still distracted by the dragon’s screams.
“This witch has infiltrated our city,” the king said. “She has mocked us, and mocked our hopes. We will show her what we do to people who betray us! She will burn, and a new era in Alyssinia will begin!”
A few people in the crowd screamed in approval, but it was not the stirring response that the king must have hoped for. Too many people were still staring in the direction of the dragon, too scared to get into the fever of the moment.
The guards yanked the false princess toward the pyre.
Aurora stood. She could feel the heat of the dragon in the air, the flames caressing the walls. She reached out, tugging on the thread inside her, the second heartbeat. Come, she thought. And the dragon obeyed.
“Stop!” she shouted.
Heads in the crowd turned. Crossbows clicked and pointed at her chest. King John held out a hand, and the soldiers dragging the girl paused. John smiled. “Oh, we have another pretender,” he said. “How many false princesses is Vanhelm going to send us?”
“None,” she said. “How stupid do you think people are, to hope they’ll have forgotten my face?” She stepped forward. The crossbows jerked, but none of them fired. “You wanted a princess? Well now you have one. The throne is mine. It was mine for generations before you were even born. So I suggest you stop. Now.”
John laughed. “And if I don’t?”
Aurora clenched her fists, and the roof exploded behind her, tiles and debris flying into the air. The crowd screamed.
The dragon roared as it plunged from the sky, its wings casting her into shadow. The crowd surged again, people falling over their own feet, over children, to escape. They crashed into the wall of guards, but some of the guards were running too, breaking line to flee down the side streets. Others shoved back, swords out. Panic rippled through the square, bodies heaving back and forth. And scattered through the group, onlookers stood still, staring up at the dragon with wide eyes, as though unable to look away.
Aurora kept her eyes fixed on the king.
“You think you can defeat us with this?” he said. “You think you can take the throne by force?”
“Why not? You did.”
Someone scrambled up the roof to Aurora’s left. She turned, fire building inside her, ready to fight, expecting to see a weapon pointed at her heart.
It was Tristan. His eyes met hers for a moment, and then he turned to face the crowd. “The king has been lying to us,” Tristan shouted. “This is Princess Aurora. Anyone who looks at her for more than a second must know that. And if the king’s lied about this, what else has he been hiding? If he’s willing to kill an innocent girl and his own son, what will he be willing to do to us?”
People weren’t listening. They were still struggling away from the dragon, pushing against the guards. A crossbow fired. The bolt flew into the crowd, and the screaming grew angry, otherworldly, as the crowd swarmed toward the guard. The man raised his sword, ready to cut his way through.
Tristan leapt from the roof and vanished into the crowd. In the moment of distraction, someone had stabbed the guard who had attacked. He gaped at the dagger in his chest as though uncertain what it was doing there, and then fell to his knees. The soldiers beside him also drew their swords, some bearing down on the crowds, some challenging one another, some pointing toward the king.
“Stop!” Aurora screamed. “We won’t hurt you. We won’t hurt any of you, as long as the king stands down.”
The dragon snapped its jaws, the scent of blood, of chaos, pounding through its veins. And Aurora could feel it too, the burning.
She had to end it.
She leapt from the roof as well, and the dragon dove with her. Her knees landed with an ungainly jolt, and she started to