Chapter 2

“Stop pretending! I saw you trying not to laugh!”

Frost’s voice rings through my head.

“You can understand me! I know you can!”

I stare at the floor.

Somehow, he catches me among twenty people.

Dr. Corvin speaks again, more urgently this time.

“Your Majesty, you need to make a decision. I can prepare something that will let Frost pass peacefully. He won’t feel any pain.”

Kaelen’s hand tightens at his side.

For the first time since I entered the nursery, his stepmother, Dowager Queen Elowen, speaks.

Her voice shakes.

“Kaelen, if your sister were still alive, she wouldn’t want her son to suffer like this.”

She looks toward Frost.

“If you truly love him, let him go peacefully.”

Ravenna wipes at her eyes.

“She’s right. Look at him. He can barely move.”

She steps toward the nest and reaches for Frost.

Frost jerks his head away.

To everyone else, he probably looks too weak to be touched.

Inside my head, he nearly blows the roof off.

“Don’t touch me!”

“I hate you!”

“Keep your hands off my scales!”

Kaelen’s eyes darken.

He takes a slow breath.

Then he looks at Dr. Corvin.

“Then...”

“No! No, no, no!”

Frost’s scream explodes inside my head so loudly that I almost flinch.

“I can’t die!”

“I’m still a baby!”

“I haven’t even grown my full horns yet!”

“I’m supposed to become the biggest, strongest dragon in the whole kingdom!”

His small head rises with obvious effort.

His silver eyes lock on me.

“You! New human!”

“Save me!”

My heart jumps.

Frost keeps going.

“If you save me, I’ll make Uncle Kaelen give you gold!”

“A lot of gold!”

“And a house!”

“A huge one!”

“With a garden!”

I swallow.

Gold?

A house?

If Kaelen really rewards me that much, I can pay for Mother’s medicine.

Maybe I can even move her out of our cold, leaking room.

Frost’s voice goes shrill with panic.

“Why are you still standing there?”

“What do you want? Just tell me!”

Then he suddenly glances at Kaelen.

“Do you like my uncle?”

I nearly choke.

“He’s handsome!”

“He’s rich!”

“He won the border war!”

“Okay, his leg is still hurt, and he looks angry all the time, but that makes him more interesting!”

Stop talking!

Please stop talking!

Frost seems encouraged by my horrified expression.

“You save me, and I’ll help you get him!”

My face burns.

Absolutely not.

I want money.

Not a Dragon King.

Frost lets out another desperate whine.

“Fine! Pretty human! Sister! Wait, no... Mom!”

I almost look up.

“From now on, you can be my mom!”

“Please save me, Mom!”

At that exact moment, Kaelen speaks again.

His voice is low and rough.

“Then do what you have to...”

“Wait!”

The word flies out of my mouth before I can stop it.

Silence.

Every person in the dragon nursery turns toward me.

Dr. Corvin frowns.

Dowager Queen Elowen slowly lowers the handkerchief from her face.

Ravenna looks at me through wet lashes.

For one second, something cold flashes in her eyes.

My legs feel weak.

Still, I force myself to stand.

I walk toward Frost’s nest.

“Your Majesty…”

My voice comes out smaller than I want.

“What if Frost isn’t dying from an illness?”

Dr. Corvin’s expression changes immediately.

“What did you say?”

I glance at Frost.

His eyes brighten.

“That’s it, Mom!”

“Tell them!”

I quickly look away before anyone notices.

I point toward the huge new nest beneath him.

“What if something around him is making him sick?”

Dr. Corvin stares at me as if I have lost my mind.

“You’re a caretaker.”

His voice hardens.

“I have treated royal dragons for more than thirty years.”

“And you think you can walk into this palace on your first day and tell me I misdiagnosed a hatchling?”

Ravenna’s expression turns cold.

“That nest was made by the best craftsmen in the capital.”

She looks me up and down.

“The materials alone are worth more than you would earn in ten years.”

My face burns.

But I don’t move.

Dr. Corvin steps closer.

“Every second you waste is another second Frost suffers.”

Dowager Queen Elowen turns sharply toward the head steward.

“Who hired this girl?”

The steward immediately bows.

“Your Grace, she started today. She was hired as one of Frost’s new caretakers.”

Ravenna lets out a short laugh.

“Of course.”

Her eyes return to me.

“Dr. Corvin has treated royal dragons his entire life.”

“And some human girl who walked in this morning thinks she knows better?”

She lifts her chin.

“Take her out.”

Two palace guards move toward me.

Ravenna doesn’t stop there.

“And make sure she learns not to interrupt the King again.”

One guard grabs my arm.

The other takes the other side.

Frost loses his mind.

“No!”

“Don’t take my mom!”

“If she leaves, I’m actually going to die!”

“Mom!”

“Save me!”

“Save me!”

“Save me!”

I want to cry.

How am I supposed to save you?

I said one sentence for you, and now I’m already being thrown out of the palace.

The guards start dragging me toward the door.

Then Kaelen’s voice cuts through the room.

“Stop.”

Everyone freezes.

The guards release me immediately.

Kaelen’s eyes settle on my face.

Cold.

Sharp.

Suspicious.

“How do you know Frost isn’t dying from an illness?”

My heart pounds.

Obviously, I can’t tell the Dragon King that his nephew has been yelling in my head for the last half hour.

So I force myself to think.

I have spent my entire life listening to dragons.

Even if I can’t explain how I understand them, I have learned how a healthy dragon looks.

I lower my head.

“Your Majesty, a dragon this sick should have more than weakness and loss of appetite.”

I look toward Frost.

“His eyes are still clear. His breathing is steady. His scales haven’t lost their color.”

Dr. Corvin’s face tightens.

I take a breath.

“And…”