Page 54 of Elemental Becoming

“You close yourself off.”A pause.“That is not like you.”

“I needed space.”I drag a hand through my hair, breath leaving me in a rough exhale.“These shadows . . . I don’t understand them.”

They linger at the edge of my awareness. Watching.

Waiting.

“And I don’t trust them.”

A rumble answers me, deep enough I feel it in my bones.

“Shadow is not separate from the world,”Xaroth says.“The Guardians name it necessary to the balance of nature.”

“That’s not what I’ve seen,”I snap, the edge in my voice sharper than I expect.“It corrupts. It destroys. It ruins everything it touches.”

I close my eyes.

“They killed my mother and nearly ruined my father.”

“What you have seen is not the whole of it,”Xaroth says, his certainty only sharpening the frustration rising in my chest.

My eyes snap open.

Before I can respond, Amara murmurs in her sleep, her eyelids fluttering. I press my lips to the top of her head, the tight edge in my chest easing at the contact.

She settles, and I adjust my arm, careful not to disturb her.

“What’s the whole of it?”

“I don’t know, Mor’kaar. I know what the Guardians say. I know the history I’ve lived. I know what I’ve seen.”

“Why won’t the Guardians tell you? They must have the knowledge.”The words leave me sharper than I intend.“That information could save my father. It could release me from this curse. It could save the realm.”

“Some knowledge is guarded for a reason, Mor’kaar. Even dragons are not beyond its reach.”

“That’s bullshit.”

The rumble that answers rattles my bones. I’ve crossed a line. I know it. I don’t care. Not if it means lives spared.

I look down at the woman in my arms. At ease. Untouched by any of this.

Not if it means I get to keep her.

“You are my rider, but know your place, Mor’kaar. The Guardians are unbonded. They are not beholden to any clan, kingdom, or person. They serve only the realm and its balance. Even bonded dragons respect and defer to those of Mythren Valley. The Guardians do not guide us with answers. They guide us with moments.”

I’ve pushed Xaroth too far. He shares what he knows. But damn those bloody Guardian dragons. They claim to serve balance—how is corrupted shadow magics balance?

I swallow it down.“I’m sorry, Xaroth.”

A gentle rumble washes over me in response.

“You said they feel different when you wield. The Spiritborn has called them soothing.”

The memory on the balcony rises.

The shadows reaching. Holding. Listening.

“She said they felt . . . calm,”I admit.“Gentle.”