ina Ha

e the contract? Seraphina, are you out of your

atched grow all season: the chest puffed out, the chin lifted, the way he now looked down at me from a height, as though knighthood had

is fingers could close. His Dragon's Scent flared hot with anger-

l plea. "Lady Seraphina, is... is it because of me? If you're unwi

s Collier, this has nothing to do with you

nmaking of a marriage contract require the consent of both parties, seale

never agree! You're one of the Dragonless! Where would you go

omewhere in the past three years, I had already bled out eve

one, no name, no blood worth mentioning-and you think you can lecture me? I stood before the king, Seraphina. The king! He pinned thi

earing his new rank like a crown, sneering down at the wife who had bou

ed and walked toward t

"Do you think I can be threatened by a childish ta

and pulled the heavy oak door shut on hi

m was a monument to our false peace. I went instead to the west

d of the corridor, her face d

the fire," I said

Winslow Guild's wax stamp. It was my mother's ledger box, and the accounts inside were written in the guild cipher-a

try: the cost of Ethan's Dragon-blood potions,Ethan's mother, Lady Virgini

into the desert, and I had told myself it was

. "Collier Family Debt Repayment-five hundred gol

money to bribe officials in the capital, to smooth his way into the knighthood trials

tly gowns for Blanca, logged as "training equipment." Repai

n league with Blanca, had been feeding on my dowry like parasites-living on wh

I slammed the ledger shut. The sou

d. "My lady,

where I could use it. "Celeste, gather all of

y lady, what

ice quiet and final. "An

No-what they had squandered, I w

hant's daughter weighed nothing against the honor of a brand-new Dragon Knight.

-a name that made the

mother had ever given me: a small, ancient-looking dragon sigil. Take it

into it was stern and merciless, a stark contrast

around it, a darin

ht I had no

as w