As Smolder led them through the labyrinth of the palace again, Sunny noticed that Peril kept her wings pressed as close to her body as she could. Afraid of setting something on fire, she guessed, feeling sorry for the SkyWing.

“Mother,” she whispered, “why do we care about this NightWing?”

“Hopefully we don’t,” her mother answered cryptically.

They crossed the sandpit to the tower. The six SandWing guards jumped aside with a relieved expression when they saw Smolder.

Sunny heard Peril take a deep breath. Time for her to face Scarlet, she realized. And us, too, since we’ll have to get past her to see the NightWing.

They could hear Scarlet roaring as soon as they opened the door. “Who’s down there? Smolder, I hear your stupid keys clanking. If you —” She cut off abruptly and Sunny looked up. She could see yellow eyes glinting through the smoke as Scarlet peered down at them.

The silence that followed as they wound their way up the ramp was more unsettling than the shouting. What was Scarlet thinking? What would she do when they reached her?

The former queen of the SkyWings sat with her tail curled around her talons, glaring fiercely at them. Smolder stopped in front of her, but she ignored him, fixing her malevolent gaze on Peril instead.

“What are you doing?” she growled.

“Rescuing you,” Peril muttered, staying behind Sunny.

“This is an odd way to go about it.” Scarlet swept her tail in an arc, knocking glass shards over the edge to shatter on the floor far below. “Such an interesting group of friends you’ve brought with you.”

“Where is the NightWing?” Thorn demanded.

Smolder pointed wordlessly at the shadowy lumps behind Scarlet.

“Don’t go near her,” Sunny warned her mother as Thorn started forward. “She’s really dangerous.”

“That’s true,” Scarlet hissed.

Thorn paused, then faced the prisoner. “Show me the NightWing’s face.”

“Looking for someone?” Scarlet said, sounding amused. “Now why would I help you?”

“Because I’m telling you to,” Peril interjected abruptly. “Do it if you want me to get you out of here.”

Queen Scarlet rose up on her back legs, spreading her wings so she looked majestically powerful despite her disfigurement. “It sounds to me like you’ve forgotten who your queen is,” she snarled at Peril.

“It sounds to me like you’ve forgotten who has the scale-melting talons here,” Peril snapped back.

Scarlet hissed and more smoke poured from her snout to envelop her horns. “Don’t you threaten me. I don’t take orders from anyone.”

“Then you can rot here,” Peril said hotly, turning around so fast that Sunny had to jump out of the way of her tail.

She’d only taken three steps when Scarlet cried, “Wait! Wait.”

Peril stopped, breathing deeply, but didn’t turn around.

“The NightWing,” Thorn said with quiet authority, pointing.

Scarlet growled deep in her throat, then picked up something from behind her and threw it as hard as she could at Smolder.

He caught it and then tossed it to Thorn with a yelp.

It was the NightWing’s head.

Thorn looked down at the dragon head in her talons with an expression of pure horror, but it quickly melted into relief. She gently set the head down on the stone and stepped back.

“Is — is everything —?” Sunny asked.

“A stranger,” Thorn said. “Nothing to worry about.” She rubbed her forearms. “Let’s go back to the sunshine.”

“Peril,” Scarlet said, a low rumble in her throat. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back to let you out once Sunny is far away from here,” Peril said, looking over her shoulder at the imprisoned queen. “Don’t try to argue with me. I know what you want to do to her and I won’t let you.” She set off down the ramp as fast as she could, and Sunny followed, feeling grateful and anxious in equal parts.

“I know what you want, and it’s not going to work!” Scarlet shouted after her. “He’s never going to love you! You can keep trying to save his friends, but no one will ever love you except me! I’m the only one who accepts you the way you are! You’ll always be a monster to everyone else!”

Peril threw the door open, leaving scorch marks on the wood, and dashed out of the tower.

Sunny caught up to her outside, where the SkyWing was curled up small in the middle of the sand, rubbing her claws together.

“She’s wrong,” Sunny said to Peril’s back. She hesitated, glancing back at Smolder and Thorn as Smolder relocked the tower. “Don’t let her make you hate yourself. I can’t promise you anything about Clay, but I think — I mean, if I know him at all, I can tell you the way to his heart is by helping his friends.” Although I cannot picture him with you. The kindest dragon in Pyrrhia … and someone who’s killed who knows how many dragons? How could you ever deserve him? She didn’t say any of that out loud, though. If she was being perfectly honest, she’d have to admit to herself that she’d never think anyone was worthy of Clay.

Peril sniffed and then nodded.

“And I don’t think you’re a monster,” Sunny added, thinking, You’ve been monstrous, but maybe you can change. I have to believe you can change. “You’re a dragon like anyone else. You can remake yourself however you want to.”

Peril snorted. “Easy for you to say.”

Not really, Sunny thought. My friends think they know who I am, too, no matter how much I try to show them I’m more than that.

“You don’t have to set Scarlet free,” Sunny reminded her. “You could come with me instead.”

Peril tossed her head, folding her wings back. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

Which means “I don’t want any more sympathy right now,” Sunny thought.

She turned back toward the tower as her mother and Smolder approached.

“I think we have something that belongs to you,” Smolder was saying to Thorn. “If you don’t mind waiting, I’ll go check Burn’s library.”

Thorn gave him a suspicious look and he chuckled. “Or you can come along, but it’s rather a mess, is all.” He glanced at Peril. “Lots of papers everywhere.”

“I’ll wait here,” Peril said sadly. She drew her tail in close to herself, leaving a moon-shaped swathe in the sand.

“Lead on,” Thorn said to Smolder. Sunny joined them, and they headed into yet another twisting set of corridors, these ones lined with flickering diamond-shaped mirrors that caught the sunlight from small holes in the roof and walls.

“Mother,” Sunny said as they walked. “What’s going on? I thought you hated NightWings. Why did you think you might care about that one?”

Thorn stopped and waited until Smolder was far ahead, picking through his keys with a bright, brassy jingling sound.

“I don’t hate all NightWings,” Thorn said quietly. “I mean, I’m not fond of them, and I don’t trust them, as a rule. But I’m looking for one in particular, an animus dragon named Stonemover.”

“Because he did something to my egg?” Sunny guessed. “Is that why?”

“Not exactly. Well, ha — I guess in a manner of speaking,” Thorn said, glancing up at the skylights with an odd half smile.

Sunny stared at her. She had a pretty good idea what that look meant. “He isn’t,” she whispered.

“You wondered why you don’t look like a regular SandWing,” Thorn said.

“So it’s because —” Sunny’s claws trembled with shock. Of all the theories she’d ever imagined … yes, this one had crossed her mind, but of all the tribes she’d wondered about, never this one, never, never this one.

“Yes, Sunny,” said Thorn, her voice falling like drops of water into the stillness between them. “It’s because you’re half NightWing.”