Chapter 133

OPHELIA After I’m finished with training for the day, I sit cross-legged on the ground, absentmindedly plucking blades of grass as I stare up at the mountain of dragon that is Anikêtos. It’s been four days since we arrived here, and he and Elpis have remained with us. I don’t know how long they intend to stay, and I don’t want to ask and tempt fate. I love having them here. Why are you staring at me, child? Because you’re a dragon! An actual fire-breathing, cool-as-hell dragon who’s thousands of years old, and I have six billion questions I want to ask you. I don’t say that though. Instead, I ask, “Why can’t dragons harm a son of House Drakos?” It is an oath my father swore long ago to Alexandros’s great-grandfather, the first of House Drakos. “And it lasts forever?” Until we are no longer beholden to it, and only the head of House Drakos can release us from such an oath. His shiny black scales shimmer in the sun. He is almost too wondrous to believe. He and Elpis, who is half his size