Clearsight was relieved when Allknowing finally released them and she was able to find her way to Room 3A. It turned out to be a beautiful classroom — airy and full of light, with plants and little water features everywhere. The teacher showed her around and Clearsight’s anxiety gradually began to fade.

“These are our pet scavengers,” said the teacher, beaming as she patted the top of a large glass cage. “Two females. They’re quite fierce, so don’t stick your talons in the cage, just to be safe. We rotate whose turn it is to feed them, and we’re doing a yearlong study of their behavior. They’re not just adorable; they’re also quite fascinating.”

The two little creatures in the piles of grass inside didn’t look fascinating; they looked asleep. Clearsight wondered what they ate.

“A lot of fruit,” said a dragon hovering nearby, “nuts, seeds, and sometimes bits of meat if we roast it for them.”

“Oh, Listener,” the teacher said. “Would you take care of our new student for the rest of the day?”

“Sure,” Listener said, brightening. She was large for three years old, with curves that suggested she was a very successful hunter. And she had the mind reading silver scales beside her eyes.

Uh-oh, Clearsight thought. A mind reader. That’s just what I need.

The other dragon glanced down at her claws, her wings drooping slightly.

“I’m sorry,” Clearsight said quickly. “I’m just not used to mind readers. I don’t know how to shield my thoughts or only think nice things or anything. I’ll probably think lots of horrible stuff and you’ll end up hating me really fast. Or lots of crazy things and then you’ll think I’m crazy.”

“I already know you’re crazy,” Listener said with a small laugh. “When you walked in, you looked around the classroom and immediately categorized every student into ‘safe to be friends with’ and ‘doomed if I talk to them.’ What is that about? And just checking — I’m not in the doomed camp, am I?”

“Not as far as I can see,” Clearsight said. In fact, most of the paths involving Listener were a lot warmer than the paths without her, with more laughing. This friendship would definitely be a turn toward the right future. As long as they avoided that fight about Clearsight’s timeline scrolls, and that other fight about Darkstalker, and, oh dear, all the fights about Listener’s crushes on various —

“By the Scorching, all right, all right!” Listener cried, flinging up her wings. “You’re one of those! I’ll stay as far out of your brain as I can, I promise. I don’t want to know anything about my future.”

“Nothing?” Clearsight asked curiously. “Even if it meant I could stop you from —”

“Nothing!” Listener yelped. She pressed her front talons to her ears. “Don’t you dare!”

How completely strange, Clearsight thought, blinking at her new friend. “But why?” she asked. “I could change your future and make it better.”

“My family is superstitious about seers,” Listener said, cautiously lowering her talons. “We’d rather be surprised by life than know too much.”

This was such a bewildering and unfamiliar concept that Clearsight fell silent, staring at the scavengers. One of them was waking up, yawning and stretching and rubbing the cloud of dark hair on its little head.

“I have a secret plan,” Listener whispered. “Maybe you know that already.”

Clearsight shook her head. That is, she knew of a few crazy Listener plans that might lie ahead, but she wasn’t sure which specific one might be bubbling up right now.

“I’m going to free the scavengers one day.” Listener glanced furtively over her shoulder, but the teacher was busy reviewing another student’s journal on the far side of the room. “As soon as I figure out the best way to do it.”

“Why?” Clearsight asked.

“Because they’re sad,” Listener said simply. “I can feel it. They don’t like being trapped in here. They like being together, but they would rather be free.”

“You can feel it?” Clearsight echoed, tipping her head. “Like — real emotions?”

Listener nodded. “Small and muddled but very powerful. I feel it all the time when I’m in here. Poor little things.”

The awake scavenger tripped over the sleeping scavenger on the way to the water dish, and the sleeping one woke up with a lot of loud squeaking noises. Clearsight watched them stomp around squeaking back and forth, just as if they were having an actual conversation. Then there was a pause, and after a moment the first scavenger brought over a piece of apple to share.

“That looked like a peace offering,” Clearsight said.

“Exactly! That was exactly her feeling,” Listener said. “Their feelings are crazy similar to ours. I need to ask some other mind readers if they’ve noticed it, too. Or maybe there are scrolls about it in the library. I don’t think we’ve had many captive ones before, so maybe I’m making an awesome new discovery.”

“I’ll help you,” Clearsight said impulsively. “Free them, I mean. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll help.” This was something completely separate from her confusing, tangled-up future. This was something she could do just for herself. Because she’d made a friend, and nobody was going to die as a result.

Hopefully. Not along most of the paths anyway. Maybe she should study those two vague dark possibilities a little more carefully …

She was about to ask for a scroll to take notes on when Listener grinned sideways at her and flicked her tail. Clearsight felt a burst of weird bubbles in her chest. What was that?

Happiness?

Maybe her dad was right. Maybe they weren’t all completely doomed after all.

“Uh-oh,” said Listener. “Here comes Weirdout.”

Clearsight turned, trying to imagine who would give their dragonet such a strange name, and saw Darkstalker’s sister walking toward them. Her startling pale blue eyes were fixed on Clearsight.

“She’s four,” Listener whispered, “but she’s with us because whenever someone asks her what two plus two is, she says something like ‘Archaeology?’ or ‘Lavender?’ and no one knows what to do with her.”

“I thought her name was Whiteout,” Clearsight stammered.

“Yes,” whispered Listener, “but she’s super weird.”

“Hi,” Whiteout said to Clearsight. She stopped in front of her and stood very still, and Clearsight got the strange feeling that Whiteout was already gathering more information about her than Listener had been able to, even after reading her mind.

“Hello,” Clearsight answered.

“Are you the dragon my brother’s been waiting for?”

The question hung in the air for a moment as Clearsight debated all the possible answers to it. Lying, she could see, would set them off on a bad path. Whiteout trusted either completely or not at all. And it might be very important — life or death important, although Clearsight wasn’t sure exactly why yet — for Whiteout to trust her. Claws of prophecy squeezed her heart, and she could give only one possible answer.

“Yes,” she admitted.

“Good,” said Whiteout. “I’m glad you’re finally here.” She dipped her snout toward Clearsight and moved off to work on a puzzle that was spread across a long table in the corner.

“See?” Listener said when she was out of earshot. “Weird.”

“I think she’s …” Clearsight hesitated, not sure how to sum up Whiteout, especially when almost everything she knew about her hadn’t actually happened yet. “Interesting,” she finished.

“It’s possible to be both,” Listener said with a shrug. “So what was that about? Darkstalker? You know him?”

“No — not yet,” Clearsight admitted.

“He’s intense,” Listener offered. “Maybe the smartest dragon in the history of the NightWings. You know he hatched under three full moons? He can read minds and see the future. It’s a little unsettling. He has a total vibe of knowing way too much about everyone.”

It suddenly occurred to Clearsight to wonder why Darkstalker hadn’t been in the seer training class. Maybe he was smarter than me, and met Allknowing first, and realized that she’s terrible, so he’s still pretending he hasn’t found the class yet. Or he doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s a good enough seer to have found it already.

He’s been keeping all his powers pretty quiet so far. I wish I couldn’t see so many good AND bad reasons for that.

Listener was peering at her curiously. Clearsight had to shut down this line of thought before she revealed too much by accident. She glanced around the classroom. “When do we sit down and start learning?”

Her new friend laughed. “That’s not how it works. There are stations all around the classroom and you’re allowed to work on whatever interests you. Then we come together for a group discussion before free outdoor time. There’s a schedule on the wall over there.”

Huh, Clearsight thought. If I can work on anything I want — that means I could keep doing my timeline scrolls.

Wait — nope. There was a very uncomfortable trip to Truthfinder’s office with her parents in that future. Better stick to what the other dragons were doing.

She did her best to act normal, but as the school night went on, Clearsight found it harder and harder to breathe through the pounding of her heart.

I can’t put it off any longer.

I’m meeting him soon. Very soon.

But I’m doing it on my terms.

The teacher released them into the courtyard when the moons were high in the sky, giving them two hours to hunt, play, or practice flying, whatever they chose to do.

Clearsight stopped in the shadow of a tall pine tree, watching the wings that swirled around her. Dragons called out greetings to one another, tossed pinecones, checked their reflections in puddles. A few settled at outdoor tables to study together; others launched races around the upper branches. One dragonet was trying to convince his friend to try something called a pomegranate.

Everyone seemed happy. No one seemed to know that a very momentous thing was about to happen.

But where was Darkstalker?

Maybe he was angry that she’d avoided him that morning; maybe he’d gone off hunting and decided he didn’t want to meet her after all.

There was one future where that happened. It wasn’t a good one.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from one of the clusters of dragonets. “Watch where you’re walking!”

Clearsight saw Whiteout emerge from the group serenely, looking as though she didn’t realize someone was yelling at her. Behind her, three frustrated NightWings were scrambling to recover the marbles she’d scattered with her tail.

“Can’t you use those weird eyes of yours?” one of them barked.

“Or are IceWings blind as well as arrogant and vicious?” another snarled.

And then Darkstalker was there, materializing beside his sister as though the shadows had unfolded him.

“That was a little rude, don’t you think?” he said to the three marble players.

They shuffled their feet nervously. “She ruined our game!” the biggest one blurted.

“What a disaster,” Darkstalker said. “No wonder you had to resort to name-calling and bigotry.”

Bewildered silence. Blinking.

Darkstalker put one wing around his sister’s shoulders. “Whiteout, these dragons are upset because you knocked over their marbles when you walked through here.”

“Oh,” she said. “I thought the marbles represented chaos theory and I was just another unpredictable whim of the universe.” Darkstalker gave her a look and she smiled sweetly at the three dragons. “I did not intend to disrupt your faith in controllable outcomes.”

“That’s all right,” said the biggest one gruffly. “Sorry we yelled at you.”

“Yeah,” said the other two. “Sorry.”

“Did you?” said Whiteout. “Yell at me?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Darkstalker with a smile. He pointed to each of the players in turn. “She was cheating anyway, all he can think about is his crush on her sister, and he is thoroughly sick of both of them and wishes he knew anyone interesting. Have fun with your marbles, friends.”

He turned and escorted Whiteout away, leaving the three dragons glaring at one another.

Clearsight waited until they were passing her tree, then stepped into his path with her eyebrows raised. Whiteout went around her and kept going, but Darkstalker stopped with the most wonderful expression of delight, anxiety, and triumph she’d ever seen.

“Very impressive,” she said.

“What?” He gave her a charming grin. “What’d I do?”

“I don’t know how you engineered it,” she said, “but, wow, you covered everything, didn’t you? Courage, check. Cares about his sister, check. Defending the vulnerable, standing up to bullies, making sure everyone apologizes neatly. With a little demonstration of power to show off your intelligence at the end, too. Did you pay those guys? Because that was just perfect.”

“Do I know you?” he asked.

She laughed despite herself, although she was fiercely trying not to. He just looked so wounded and so mischievous at the same time.

“Oh, wait,” he said. “Did we meet on that fishing trip last month? No, hang on, I’ll remember. Aha! You’re on the queen’s Council of Ancient Elders, is that it?”

“You goober,” she said, wrinkling her snout at him.

“You’re the one taking all the romance out of this,” he said. “It’s supposed to go, ‘that was so brave, how you stood up for your sister like that!’ ‘Oh, that, what, no, it’s what any dragon would do.’ ‘No, no — you’re special. I can tell.’ ‘Not as special as you. There’s a magic about you that I’ve never found in any other dragon!’ ‘Why — why do I feel as though I’ve known you forever?’ ‘Because you have … and you will.’ Fireworks! True love and happiness for the rest of our lives!”

“You didn’t prepare actual fireworks, did you?” she asked.

“N-nooooo,” he said. “Not if you … hate fireworks?”

“Hmm,” she said, squinting. “I see a terrible fire ravaging the school gardens …”

“You do?” he said, sounding a little panicked. “When? Now? I — wait a second, you’re making that up.”

She giggled. “Has anyone ever told you that you are a terrible seer?” she asked. “That whole fluttery drippy conversation sounded nothing like me.”

“That’s a relief,” he said with an even bigger grin. “But couldn’t we let this be a tiny bit more romantic? I mean, it’s not every day that I meet my soulmate. Just this once, in fact. Right now.”

Now, Clearsight thought. It’s true. It’s happening right now, the beginning of everything.

What was this pounding in her chest? Joy, love, terror? She wanted to wrap her wings around him and never let go, and she also kind of wanted to set him on fire. She definitely wanted to fly away as fast as her wings would carry her, but she also wanted to keep having this conversation as long as dragonly possible; for the rest of eternity would be fine.

She’d seen what might happen, but she’d never realized what it would feel like.

Darkstalker suddenly leaned forward and took her front talons in his.

“Don’t worry about the future,” he whispered intently. “Just be here, with me, in this moment, when we are both as happy as we’ve ever been in our whole lives so far.”

She wanted to, she would have, but as their claws touched, she was suddenly spun into a hurricane of visions so brutal she thought her head would split open.

Darkstalker, older, in the twisted crown, killing dragons from across the room with a flick of his claw.

Darkstalker, close to the age he was now, holding out a scroll to her with a hopeful smile.

A SeaWing screaming in pain.

Her and Darkstalker, older again, wrestling with their six little dragonets in a noisy sprawling cliff house of their own.

Darkstalker, collapsing in front of her as thunder rumbled.

IceWing blood everywhere.

A gift of sapphires.

Sunset over a valley as she walked creakily on her ancient talons to rest beside him, on their porch, at peace.

Opening the royal treasure room to bestow gifts on their grandchildren.

Five NightWings writhing before the throne, screaming as they clawed out their own eyes.

Betrayal woven into copper wires.

A trip to the sea.

A green dragon in tears.

She spiraled finally back into herself and blinked, there again, back in the present. Where none of the terrible or wonderful things had happened yet.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“You didn’t see all that?” She gently pulled her talons out of his grasp.

“I will never invade your thoughts,” he said. “I promise. I’ll stay out of your mind, always.”

That’s true … in some futures. Not all of them.

“Thank you,” she said.

“It’s not that bad, is it?” he asked, tilting his head. “Our future? I’ve seen mostly good things.”

“No, it’s great,” she said, “depending on how much you like the average apocalypse.”

He laughed, which confirmed that at least for now he was staying out of her head — because she hadn’t been joking.

With another charming grin, he said, “I’m Darkstalker, by the way.”

“Oh, I’m Tailbite,” she said. “You weren’t expecting someone else, were you?”

He laughed and laughed and laughed, and in the sunlight of that laugh, she could almost stay in the present — in the moment of soulmates meeting, in the moment of falling in love.

She could almost forget the violence, the lies, the danger … the blood and betrayal yet to come.