Chapter 132

ALEXANDROS The shade is cool underneath the vast shadow cast by Anikêtos. It has been three days since he and Ophelia rescued me from Giorgios’s prison, and I have already grown accustomed to his presence. After a millennium without him in my life, I cannot deny the joy I feel each day he and Elpis choose to remain in the mortal realm. He stands to his full height, looming over me, and shakes his scales from nose to tail, thus creating a mini sandstorm. I brush the golden grains from my hair. Where is Elpis? He glances out across the ocean. Taking her midafternoon flight. She is taking her fill of the energy from the mortal realm whilst she can. I am grateful for your presence here, my friend. I know. I recall with startling clarity the day we met, near a beach much like this one. I was barely fourteen years old when I came face-to-face with the most fearsome creature ever to have roamed the skies. I had met dragons before him, but none so terrifying—or so opinionated as he. You never