The night was starting to fade toward morning when Darkstalker got home from the palace. He’d swooped by Clearsight’s on the way, to see if he could find her, but her parents said she was out with Listener, which left him feeling sort of disgruntled and abandoned.

Arctic and Foeslayer were already asleep, or at least quiet behind the door of their room, having left the party much earlier than he had. Darkstalker stepped softly past his sister’s room and unlocked his door.

He didn’t like this time of day. When the birds started chirping and the sky began fading to purplish gray, that meant it was almost time to sleep. He wished he never had to sleep. He had so much to do, so much he wanted to get done. Not only did sleeping feel like a waste of time, but it also gave him an itching restless feeling of missing things — like something important might happen without him there to affect it.

Carefully he tucked his earring into his jewelry box and unclasped the tail band. For a moment he stood holding it, tracing the embossed silver scales. Tonight, this had been his only protection against a possible killer. If Indigo had moved faster — if she hadn’t stopped to discuss her plan with Fathom — could she have killed him?

He wouldn’t even have been able to use his power to heal himself. It was all here, hidden inside his scroll. He could have bled to death, completely helpless — he, Darkstalker, the most powerful dragon in the world!

He took a deep breath. Indigo’s attack must have rattled him more than he realized. So do something about it, he told himself. He was good at solving problems. Here was a problem: how could he use his magic to defend himself if he didn’t have his scroll with him?

Darkstalker extended his talons and studied them, then ran his claws lightly over his throat. Another piece of jewelry? But jewelry could be removed, or fly off during a fight, and wouldn’t it be suspicious if he wore the same thing every day anyway?

Perhaps he could embed a jewel into his body somewhere. He’d seen dragons with small diamonds buried between their scales. Or something in his teeth — there had been a SandWing envoy at the palace once with two gold teeth.

He touched his neck again. No, nothing removable. He needed something that could always be a part of him. Indigo was a smart dragon; she already suspected him of enchanting his jewels. She might be able to spot anything else he added and figure out what it did.

What if …

Could he enchant his actual scales?

Why not?

He swept his claws down his side, suddenly feeling hyperaware of all the ways he could be stabbed or sliced or burned or frozen. The more dragons knew about his power, the more danger he would be in. And he didn’t want to leave the world before accomplishing everything he could see in his shining future.

Darkstalker hurried to the wall and the painting that was enchanted to hide and protect his scroll. He took the scroll out carefully, rolled it to the next blank spot … and then paused.

Clearsight.

She always read the new spells in his scroll. She liked to discuss them with him and come up with new ideas. Usually she said the right admiring things.

But what would she think of this?

A quiet warning was starting to chime at the back of his mind. He could sense an argument in their close future — the kind where she got judgmental and anxious and made him question all his decisions. The kind of argument he hated.

And perhaps he could avoid it. Wouldn’t that make them both happier?

He rolled the scroll backward, scanning the spells he’d already cast.

Here, near the beginning — there was space for him to write a new spell between the lines of the others. With luck Clearsight wouldn’t go back and reread these; maybe she’d never notice it. And if she never noticed it, she couldn’t question him about it.

It was a makeshift solution, but it would do for now. He’d come up with a better way to hide his secret spells later.

He dipped his claw in the green ink and wrote:

Enchant Darkstalker’s scales to be invulnerable to harm of any sort, to heal instantly if injured, and to shield him indestructibly from any threat of death.

That was a little dramatic, but he liked the sound of it. Maybe he should go a step further and cast a spell that would make him immortal. That was something to think about. Imagine everything he could do for Pyrrhia if he could live forever!

First, though, he should test this spell, since it was pretty unusual. He went to his trunk and dug under the extra blankets until he found one of his daggers — long, wickedly curved, with a gleaming sharp edge.

Deep breath. Nothing to be afraid of. (Ever again, if this worked.)

He set the blade against the skin of his shoulder and slid it firmly toward his neck.

It was like trying to cut diamonds. His scales repelled the knife smoothly, beautifully, with no fuss at all.

Darkstalker tried stabbing himself in a few other spots, his excitement mounting. The dagger bounced right off him, unable to draw blood.

He’d done it. He’d made himself invincible.

Don’t get too cocky yet. Make sure you think of what else someone could do to you, and find ways to protect yourself from everything. Poison, for instance. Poison didn’t seem like Indigo’s style, but someone else might try it one day.

For now, though, he could take a moment to be proud of himself. I wonder if any other animus has ever thought of enchanting their own scales.

I suspect I’m the only one who’s ever come up with something like my scroll. See, I was obviously given these powers for a reason. I can use them more wisely than any other dragon before me. I just have to be careful and smart, that’s all.

And now that his safety was taken care of, he could focus on a more fun project.

What could he use to make a soul reader?

As he began prowling his room, looking for inspiration, another thought occurred to him.

If I can enchant my entire body like that … what could I do to other dragons?