"Your Highness, other than killing Ruby Vaiva, I am in agreement with your plan. While I act accordingly."
She smiled.
"But know that 'accordingly' means I do what I want."
And from behind her, spreading wide and white against the grey winter sky, a pair of pure dragon wings unfurled.
They caught the light like fresh snow, like moonstone, like something that had no business existing in this frozen wood beside this indifferent river.
The membranes gleamed with an iridescence that shifted as they stretched, pearl to silver to pearl. They were vast. They were magnificent. They were the wings of something that had never been human and had only briefly pretended otherwise.
Ivy Cassia's jaw went slack.
Roarke forgot how to breathe.
Lady Sees, the Dragon Physician, the veiled enigma, the woman who had just manifested pure white dragon wings in the middle of a frozen wood for no apparent reason other than that she could, smiled beneath her veil.
"Do not touch Ruby Vaiva."
