“By all the moons,” Thorn whispered.

Sunny slid her talons around the black sphere and lifted it up. As she did, she realized that it was set on a chain of hammered gold links so it could be worn as a necklace.

And then she took a closer look at the setting.

In molded, beaten gold, on either side of the onyx stone, were two dragon wings. They caught the firelight of the torches and glowed red-gold-orange as she held the necklace up.

Wings of fire.

Had somebody known, somewhere along the line, and told the NightWings? Was it just a coincidence?

In a way the prophecy turned out to be real after all.

Even if somebody thought they made it up, it’s real to me and to all the dragons who need the war to be over.

But the prophecy didn’t make this happen; no all-powerful fate or guiding force in the universe made this happen.

We made this happen. Me and my friends and all these dragons here and even Flower.

She could feel power thrumming through the sphere, like the Obsidian Mirror or the dreamvisitor, but stronger and lighter, somehow. She wondered if animus-touched objects had different auras based on which dragon had enchanted them.

“No wonder no one has been able to take the SandWing throne all these years,” Tsunami said.

“It’s like Queen Oasis was still hanging on to it,” Glory agreed, nudging the bones with her tail. Flower was watching them nervously from on top of the skull. Sunny held up the Eye of Onyx and made a little bow toward the scavenger.

“Thank you,” she said. “This is what we needed.”

“Sunny,” Tsunami said, “with this, you could be queen. You’d be a great queen.”

“It’s true,” Glory said. “Nobody wants Blister. They’d follow you, if you want the throne.”

They were right. Sunny could sense that the magic in the sphere was not confined to royalty. Any SandWing who held the Eye of Onyx could command the kingdom. Even Sunny, with her harmless tail, could be queen.

Another earthquake shook the ground under her talons.

“And I promise not to be jealous,” Tsunami said, “even though this is all highly unfair because why aren’t thrones just falling into my lap, is what I’d like to know.”

Sunny imagined it: a palace, an army, treasure, and power. She’d command the largest kingdom in Pyrrhia. She could make the Kingdom of Sand a safe, peaceful place to live. She could change the laws and stop dragons from fighting each other all the time.

She looked up at the wings and claws and teeth lining the walls. Or could she? Would she be strong enough to punish anyone who opposed her? Would she know how to defend her subjects if another tribe attacked them? Would she have to become a different kind of dragon?

I don’t want to be queen, Sunny realized. I don’t want to fight for my throne or worry about the size of my territory and how much is in my treasury.

I want to be with my friends. I want to teach dragonets how to make peace and how to find other solutions instead of war.

I just want to be me, Sunny.

But it still didn’t have to be Blister. There was another choice.

She could feel the eyes of every dragon on her; even Blister and Blaze had stopped fighting, alerted by the silence that something significant was happening. Blister stepped toward them with a hiss.

Sunny looked right at her, then turned and gave the Eye of Onyx to Thorn.

Something crackled between them as their claws touched — a tiny jolt of purple lightning sparking along the curve of the black stone.

“This is the new SandWing queen,” Sunny said, hearing her voice echo across the courtyard. “She is our choice. She is the right choice.”

Murmurs and gasps rippled through the watching dragons.

“Fourth moons and fireballs,” Thorn said, awestruck. “Me? Are you sure?”

“I’m extremely definitely sure,” Sunny said.

“Awesome,” Glory whispered, and when Sunny looked over at her, the RainWing queen winked. Beside her, Tsunami was nodding, too.

“Absolutely not,” said Blister, advancing on them. “That is mine. I deserve it. I took the rest of the SandWing treasure. I tricked Mother into flying to her death alone.” She gave the old queen’s bones a scornful look. “I used my brain to get out of facing Burn in a challenge duel, by turning our fight into a war.” She hissed at the dragonets, her usual stillness broken into trembling anger. “I am the smartest dragon in Pyrrhia. I am the rightful SandWing queen.”

She flicked her tail at Burn’s body, then at Blaze, who was crouched on the stones, bleeding from several small wounds. “Besides, it’s in the prophecy,” she growled. “Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn, two shall die …”

“And one shall learn,” Sunny quoted back at her, “if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher, she’ll have the power of wings of fire.” Morrowseer was talking about the NightWings, hinting that the winning queen would have to submit to the NightWing tribe. But this is much better. “This is your fate — to accept your new queen.” She nodded at Thorn.

Blister coiled her venomous tail up, giving Sunny and Thorn a cold glare that was unsettlingly like the dragonbite viper’s. “You don’t seriously think that’s going to happen, do you?”

“So fight me,” Thorn said. “I’m not afraid of you. I can win this throne in battle, if that’s how you want to do it.” She tossed her head toward Blaze. “Or are you only willing to fight weak and cowering dragons?”

Blister’s expression was hard to read. Is she afraid to fight Thorn? Sunny wondered. Or is she calculating her next move — coming up with another evil trick?

“I don’t have to fight you,” Blister said, pacing closer and closer. Her obsidian eyes glittered in the moonlight. “You have no right to this throne. The Eye of Onyx is mine.” Suddenly she lunged forward and snatched the smooth black sphere out of Thorn’s talons.

Orange sparks flew off the Eye where Blister’s claws touched it. There was a hissing, crackling, spitting sound that seemed to fill the whole courtyard and expand outward, shock waves spilling over the walls and the desert beyond.

Blister’s talons started shaking. It looked as if she was trying to drop the Eye but she couldn’t. Lightning flickered across the black stone and then out, darting along Blister’s arms and up into her wings. She jerked back, nearly lifting into the air, and fell, still clutching the sphere.

But she didn’t scream. She never made a sound, even as her tail smashed into the ground and her head thrashed from side to side.

The lightning cracked again, faster, ripping through the SandWing’s body.

And then Blister, the dragon of their nightmares, the sister whose evil schemes had started the whole war, exploded into a pile of black dust.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke for a long, long moment.

And then Blaze said wonderingly, “It’s me? I’m the sister who survives?”

Thorn stepped forward and gingerly picked up the Eye of Onyx again. It made a little humming sound and flickered with dark purple lines, just once, then went quiet.

“What happened?” Starflight asked. Beside him, Fatespeaker shook her head, for once too shocked to speak.

“I think we’d better do some research about the exact enchantment on that thing,” Glory said, giving the Eye of Onyx a wary look.

“I can see why Oasis kept it in her treasury instead of wearing it,” Thorn said. “I’m a little traumatized right now.” But she lifted the necklace over her head and let the chain settle around her neck, with the onyx stone and the dragon wings resting in the center of her chest. They bumped against the moonstone that was already there, and Sunny thought of her father.

We proved him wrong. We really did it. We ended the war.

She looked up at all the dragons who were watching — from the walls, from the sky, and now spilling into the courtyard — SandWings coming forward to greet their new queen. Blaze was the first one to reach her, crouching and bowing low to Queen Thorn. Behind her, others followed suit.

“This is really strange,” Thorn whispered to Sunny. “I hope you’re planning to help me figure this all out.”

“I will,” Sunny said. “But you’ll be brilliant.” She caught a glimpse of Smolder, Six-Claws, and Qibli among the bowing dragons, and she saw Queen Glacier, Queen Coral, and Queen Moorhen watching from the walls, looking relieved. “And I think there will be lots of other dragons willing to help you figure it out, too.”

She realized that Clay was sitting up beside Starflight, rubbing his head, and she hurried over to him with Tsunami and Glory right behind her. His bewildered, worried, wonderful face — alive, alive and all right — made her whole body feel as though it was full of light.

“Wow, everything hurts,” Clay said. He blinked at them and at the sky where the sun was rising and at the courtyard full of dragons. “Uh … did I miss anything?”