Daughter of Great Power. Born of the Serpent.
Emily was the chosen. We’d been wrong again, it hadn’t only mentioned one of us. We were both there in the prophecy, hidden among clever phrasing. Two of us, but she was the chosen. The daughter of Great Power.
I was the Serpent, but not a snake. My mother had misled us. She’d left the clue there, right in front of us the entire time. I felt like such a fool. I was the one who’d trained for this. My sister was our physical protector and I was supposed to be the warrior of … of knowledge. But I’d not seen it. I was too close. Or I didn’t want to see it.
But it was there, and Morgan had found it. Dracosicarie. Our mother had taken our very name from it. My feet were moving, though I’d no idea why. I’d kept secrets my whole life, and yet I was heading toward Logan, an incredible need to share this. To tell him.
I stepped through the door to find him perched on the sofa, elbows braced against his knees. His face went blank for one instant when he saw me frozen in the doorway, and I had the distinct feeling he was remembering me in his shirt again. But then he saw my expression and stood, immediately back to Logan, my protector.
I took a step toward him, unable for a moment to form the right words, and then he was standing before me, hand coming to my bare shoulder. “What is it, Brianna?”
My eyes fell to the notebook, over the words that held our future.
“Dracosicarie,” I said, running my fingers across the letters. “The words are not the same, Logan. It doesn’t mean what we thought.” My gaze came up to meet his. “Drake. She took our name from the old text. From this,” I pointed at Morgan’s handwriting, “Dracosicarie.”
I could see the recognition in his face as the acid words ran through my mind. Logan would know what they meant. Not the daughter of the Serpent. Sicarie. As in assassin. Murderer.
Dragon Slayer.
Logan’s mouth moved, as if he planned to say something, to comfort me, but there were no words. He was Aern’s best friend. He’d been trained his whole life to protect the Seven Lines, to protect the blood of the Dragon.
“Is it all a lie?” I whispered. “The prophecy. Logan, is it—”
“No.” His voice was thick. “No, Brianna. You just,” he struggled for words, and then decided, “it can’t be.” He stared into my eyes with a determination and trust I didn’t feel. “You are here to save us.”
My stomach dropped. Logan hadn’t seen my visions, hadn’t felt those images of Aern. The fire, pulsing through the city. The end of everyone.
I was here to save them, but from whom? Morgan was harmless now, a captive of the Division. The only other dragon was bound to my sister.
Logan’s hand wrapped around my other arm and he forced me to meet his gaze. “It’s just another clue, Brianna. One more hint from your mother. To save us.”
I tightened trembling fingers on the notebook. “Okay,” I answered. “One more clue.” I pressed my lips together, fighting hard to decide what this meant. Had she been leaving me clues? And if so, what else had Morgan discovered? The lock of hair, the notes, they couldn’t mean he was simply obsessed with her after she was gone. There had to be some reason he still believed. There had to be some reason he was meant to stay alive. “Do you know where he held her?” I asked.
Logan’s grip on my arms loosened. “Morgan?”
I nodded. “Council didn’t know he had her, right? So he must have been keeping her somewhere else.” Logan’s stare softened as he considered my question. “Somewhere he’d gone, probably alone. You and your men were watching him, right?”
The alarm in my expression was replaced by this new resolve, so Logan’s arms fell to his sides, one hand slipping into a jean pocket. “We did,” he answered. “Not officially, of course—”
I cut him off. “Then where? Where did he hide her?”
“Brianna, you don’t understand his schedule. A man like that, his life isn’t so easy to track.”
“Make a list,” I said. “It will be somewhere dark and cold. Two of the walls are reinforced metal. The doors are painted gray; some place industrial, I’m sure of it. Florescent lights, concrete floor, and she can hear him coming for a long while before he gets there, so it must be a big building. Open I think, aside from the room she’s in.”
Logan stared at me. “Brianna,” he tried to keep the concern from his features, “you can see her?”
I swallowed hard. I hadn’t meant to tell him that. My eyes trailed back to his. “Not now.”
Not since she’s dead.
There was a long silence before Logan wet his lips. “I’ll make some calls.”
Chapter Twelve
Abandoned