Moon soared down through the dripping trees, scattering raindrops off the branches and setting yellow and green parakeets aflutter. Below her, she could see the NightWing village spread out along the riverbank.

Nearly all the NightWings who had left with Darkstalker had returned to the rainforest after he disappeared. The ruins of the old kingdom on the Talon Peninsula would be fascinating to study — Queen Glory was setting up a team to do that now — but it turned out they weren’t actually a great place to live, especially for dragons who were just starting to get used to the plentiful food of the rainforest.

Glory would have let them stay there and choose a new queen for themselves, if that’s what they’d wanted, but despite Fierceteeth’s best efforts, most NightWings ended up deciding that a RainWing queen wasn’t such a catastrophe after all. Especially in comparison to a king who instantly brainwashed them and took them to war. They were all still pretty shell-shocked by that, and by the experience of seeing into the hearts of the IceWings they were trying to kill.

“You’re here again?” Moon’s mother teased as Moon swept down to land in the village clearing. “Don’t you ever have schoolwork to do?”

“I finished it already!” Moon said, jumping up to hug her mother with her wings. Secretkeeper held her close, and her mind said everything about how much she missed Moon, even though she wouldn’t let herself say it out loud.

The hum of background thoughts in the rainforest was so different these days. The NightWings were too busy to be resentful, too well-fed to keep complaining, and too abashed by their instant hero worship of Darkstalker to think about leaving again. They’d discovered that when they stopped grumbling all the time, they actually quite liked it in the rainforest. Queen Glory couldn’t hand out superpowers, but she had forged another peace with the new IceWing queen, and most of the NightWings had really lost their taste for war.

“You know, you don’t have to stay at school if you miss me so much,” Secretkeeper said, nudging Moon’s snout.

“No, I still love it,” Moon said. “Kinkajou and I got a new clawmate — a MudWing. I like her. I miss the ones who aren’t in our winglet anymore, though.”

Carnelian. Umber.

Winter.

Qibli.

There was still hope that one of them would come back. She hoped for it every day.

I should go see him … I should tell him how I feel. I’ve certainly thought about it enough, trying to figure out how I feel about each of them. I didn’t want to choose … but if I want either of them in my life, I know I have to.

Moon sighed and looked around the clearing. She let her mother think these visits were to see her, but really she was checking on Darkstalker — not Darkstalker. Peacemaker. And there he was, close to the river, making mud pies.

“Moon!” he sang happily as he saw her approaching. “Moon moon moon mooooon pies.” He scrambled over with a smudge of mud on his snout and hugged her leg.

“How are you today, Peacemaker?” Moon asked. Feeling even the slightest bit evil? Contemplating the conquest of the world? She knew Kinkajou had worded the transformation spell very carefully, but there was a part of her that couldn’t help worrying all the time.

“Sleepy,” he said promptly. “Mommy made me get up SO EARLY.”

“Which is not how most dragons would describe noon,” Hope pointed out, hopping down from one of the baobab trees overhead. “We’re all trying to adjust to some kind of normal NightWing sleep schedule,” she said to Moon. Lowering her voice, she added, “These modern dragons have it all wrong.”

“I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually,” Moon said, smiling. “When is your house going to be ready?”

“Mightyclaws is working on it now,” Hope answered. She nodded at the dragonet crouched over a flat rock in the pavilion, drawing intently on a square piece of paper. Queen Glory sat beside him, her scales all gold and dark purple, watching quietly over his shoulder. Behind her, Deathbringer was eyeing the forest fiercely.

Most NightWings had accepted earrings to free themselves from all of Darkstalker’s spells, even the ones that gave them extra powers. But a few had chosen to keep their powers, including Mightyclaws. Half the houses in the village had sprung from his magic in the last month.

It turned out this had been Mightyclaws’s secret dream when he asked Darkstalker for the power to bring his drawings to life. All Mightyclaws wanted to do was help build a new, truly wonderful place for his tribe to live. That was why he hadn’t returned to school; he was too happy and busy here.

“Hope, I wanted to ask you something,” Moon said. “Do you know anything about any legends of a lost continent?”

“A little,” Hope said. “It was sort of a joke in my time — like, ‘I’m so fed up with all of this I’m moving to the lost continent!’ ‘Where did these weird plums come from, the lost continent?’ That sort of thing.”

“But is it real?” Moon asked. “Are there really other tribes out there somewhere?”

“Made you a pie!” Peacemaker chirped, smashing a pile of mud over Hope’s talons. “Yum yum yum yum,” he sang as he buried her claws, his wings fluttering in the breeze from the river.

“Oh, delightful,” Hope said. She shot Moon a curious look. “I have no idea. I guess I always thought yes, probably. I mean —” She broke off, freed one of her talons from the mud, and picked up a cantaloupe from a nearby pile of fruit. “Imagine this is our world, right? According to NightWing calculations, our continent only covers about this much of it.” She spread her talons on one side of the melon, covering about a third of the space on the knobbly globe. “So it’s well within the realm of possibility that there’s more land around this side.” She turned the melon around. “And if there’s another continent, why wouldn’t there be more dragons? But it’s too far for any dragon to fly, we believe, so there’s no way to know for sure.”

“Hmm,” Moon said. Her temples were starting to pulse again.

“You had a vision, didn’t you?” Hope lowered her voice even more. “I know that look.”

“Maybe,” Moon said. “But it’s … mysterious.”

“As visions should be,” Hope said wryly. “Well, before you go looking for trouble, see if you can find anything on the Legend of the Hive.”

“What’s that?” Moon asked.

“An old story. I don’t remember it well, so read about it if you can. It might give you some ideas about these missing tribes.”

“AHA!” Peacemaker suddenly declared. “Have an idea! Super good one! Going to take a NAP! Like a RAINWING! YAY!” He scampered off toward one of the hammocks.

“You’ve only been up for an hour!” Hope protested. “Peacemaker! What about this mess? Excuse me,” she said to Moon, and chased after him.

It was always such a strange feeling, coming to see Peacemaker. Moon kept expecting to find hints of Darkstalker in him. It was both a little sad and an enormous relief that she never did. He was exactly the ordinary dragonet that Kinkajou had promised he would be. Very few dragons knew his secret; he himself certainly never would.

Everyone else thought Darkstalker was back under the mountain again, asleep for good this time. Most of them assumed Anemone had taken care of him with the same spell that ended the battle. Others were sure that Moon and Qibli were involved somehow, or thought perhaps the original dragonets of destiny had saved the world again.

Pretty much nobody guessed that the real mastermind who took him down was Kinkajou.

She didn’t mind. She said the “Epic Legend of Kinkajou“ was a work in progress, and one day when she and Peacemaker were both long gone, the truth would be revealed and then everyone could sing rousing songs about her for the rest of time. But Kinkajou said that for now, really, it was a lot easier to be a student without an Epic Legend following her around.

Moon’s mother thought the whole mess with Darkstalker was proof that powers were a curse and disaster for any dragon who had them. But despite everything that had happened, Moon didn’t think so.

I like my powers. I like caring about what other dragons think and feeling their emotions. I’m even glad I have my visions, no matter how much they hurt sometimes.

I think there’s a way to use my powers for good, like Qibli always says.

And that starts with taking this new vision … and doing something about it.

The forest was full of scuttling noises, from fallen leaves tossed by the wind to squirrels darting up tree trunks. But some of the noises were bigger than others, and Winter was getting better at figuring out which ones were scavengers. They had a way of walking even when they were trying to be quiet, and his sharp IceWing ears could pick out their footsteps from quite a distance.

He crept slowly through the trees. Now he could hear whispered squeaking as well, so there were at least two of them. He wondered if his little net would be able to hold both, or if he should focus on catching just one.

There they were! One was clambering around the branches of an apple tree while the other stood below, holding something that looked almost like a miniature dragon basket. They can make baskets? Actually, that wasn’t too hard to imagine, with those clever little paws.

He felt a little shiver of excitement through his wings. If he could make his scavenger sanctuary happen, he’d get to study them all day long. He’d be able to see them making baskets and maybe even drawings, if Sunny was right that they could do that. He’d seen some of the ones Flower drew, but he personally suspected that she was unusual because of spending so many years around dragons. It would be astonishing to discover that capacity in other scavengers as well. A scientific breakthrough, really.

“Winter!” a voice yelled in the distance. “Winter, where are you?”

Oh, no. The scavengers both shot into alert stances, staring around them like little meerkats. The black fur on their heads fluffed and tufted in the wind.

“WINTER!” Whoever it was crashed closer, making an almighty dragon-sized racket.

The scavenger in the tree made a flying leap to the ground, knocking over the other one as it landed. They both scrambled up and bolted away.

With a frustrated growl, Winter shot after them. But it was too late. The scavengers around here must have some kind of system of bolt-holes or well-concealed tunnels. They managed to vanish within a pair of heartbeats.

“There you are!” The dragonet bounding into the clearing was absolutely bright lemon yellow and beaming all over her face. “Riptide said you were skulking around the forest somewhere!”

“I was being STEALTHY, Kinkajou,” Winter grumbled. “I know that’s a foreign concept to you.”

“Oh, hello to you too, grouchy and ridiculous all at the same time!” she said. “I am the queen of stealth. I stealthed my way all around that NightWing palace! I can outstealth you any day of the week!” Her scales became pine trees and shadows, and he had to concentrate to keep his glare on the spot where she had been standing.

Although, actually … his frown faded. “Hey, that’s true!” he said excitedly. “You could catch me a scavenger! They’d never see you coming!”

Kinkajou reappeared, lilac and light blue now, looking somewhat mollified. “I might be willing to help you with that,” she said. “Depending on what you plan to do with it once you have it.”

“Riptide is letting me build a den for them in Sanctuary,” he explained. Winter had been living with the Talons of Peace since the battle of Jade Mountain, helping them build another town like Possibility, where dragons from every tribe would be welcome. It was nestled in the foothills of the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, beside a small, very cold lake that Winter was particularly fond of.

“Actually,” he added, “that’s how Riptide got the name for the town — I mentioned wanting to build a scavenger sanctuary, and he liked the word so much he decided to fly with it. I’m hoping to get about six or seven scavengers to live in there so I can watch what they do.”

“Your scavenger obsession is so weird,” Kinkajou said. “Although they are pretty cute. Almost as cute as sloths.”

“But smarter than sloths,” Winter pointed out.

Kinkajou looked skeptical. “I guess we’ll find out,” she said. “Anyway, I’m sure what you meant to say was HI, Kinkajou, oh my goodness, thanks for coming to visit, I’ve missed you SO MUCH!”

“Indeed,” said Winter. “Sorry. Of course. In those exact words.” He hesitated. “Did you … come by yourself?”

“Oh, that’s nice.” Kinkajou wrinkled her nose at him. “Way to make a dragon feel wanted.”

“I thought I phrased that very politely!” he protested.

“Yes, but I know what you mean,” she said. “And no, Moon didn’t come with me.”

He tried valiantly to keep his wings from drooping.

“You could visit her,” Kinkajou reminded him. “You could even have stayed at school. Sunny and Tsunami would have stuck up for you.”

“I know,” he said, “but I didn’t want to cause any more trouble with Snowfall. I’m not a real IceWing to her anymore, so me taking the place of another IceWing who really wanted it … well, it wouldn’t have made relations between her and the school any easier.”

Winter was still surprised that all the queens had agreed to give Jade Mountain Academy another chance. He knew that Queen Snowfall would have preferred to wall off her tribe and never leave the Ice Kingdom again. But after the spell that ended the war, her palace had been flooded with requests from IceWings who wanted to attend Jade Mountain Academy. Even if she had wanted to shut down communications, her subjects wouldn’t have let her. And so two new students had arrived to replace Winter and Icicle, and there was a wait list ready for when the school expanded.

“They really won’t let you go home?” Kinkajou asked. “Even after you fought alongside them? Even though you’re totally awesome?”

“No, they’re still pretty mad at me,” Winter said. “Snowfall said I could come back for visits, like for Icicle’s trial, and to visit Hailstorm, as long as I leave again within a few days. But my mother doesn’t want to see me, and there’s no one else I really want to see there. No one in the Circles, I mean.”

He heaped a small pile of needles in front of him and nestled a pinecone into the middle of it. “It’s not so bad. I thought a lot about some of the stuff Qibli is always saying to me. There are all these IceWings outside the Circles — outside the palaces. I’d never thought about them before, but I visited as many villages as I could to make sure they all were cured of the plague, and you know what? Apart from being less obsessed with status and Circles, they’re not that different from the IceWings inside the palaces.”

“That is astonishing news,” Kinkajou said gravely.

He made a face at her. “I know, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyway, I met several who were interested in moving to Sanctuary. So I’m not the only IceWing here, which is great.”

“But why is Snowfall so mad at you?” Kinkajou asked.

“Oh, the whole First Circle is furious that I’ve ruined their Diamond Trial by letting Foeslayer escape. Luckily none of them know what she looks like, except Hailstorm, and I’m sure he won’t say anything, even if he happens to run into her in the rainforest.” He paused. “Moon’s last letter said Foeslayer has changed her name and is settling in with the rest of the tribe. I — I know she had something to do with Darkstalker disappearing, but nobody will tell me exactly what happened.”

“That’s because you might not be cool about it,” Kinkajou pointed out.

“I’m always cool!” he protested. “Oh, that wasn’t a pun, stop laughing at me. I’m serious. You guys are acting like you can’t trust me.”

“We know we can trust you to be a loyal friend and awesome dragon and stand with us when we need you, yes,” said Kinkajou. “But to let us handle Darkstalker our own way? We’re not so sure.”

Winter swept his tail through the pine needles. “He’s really not coming back, though? Is he asleep under the mountain again? Are we sure he’s definitely gone? He won’t be back in another two thousand years or something?”

“Winter, he’s gone.” Kinkajou put one of her talons on his, looking him straight in the eyes. “He’s never coming back. Your tribe is safe.”

“All right,” Winter said with a sigh. “I hope Moon is willing to tell me the whole story someday.”

“Like I said, you could visit her. And you could start by apologizing for all those times you yelled at her and didn’t believe in her and were totally mean.”

He winced. “Was I awful? I was so angry about her being friends with Darkstalker … I guess I can be a little awful when I’m angry.”

“You can keep working on that,” Kinkajou assured him. “It, um — it might be too late, though.”

“I know,” he said. “I knew back in the NightWing palace, when she took Qibli with her to face Darkstalker instead of me. It’s my own fault.” He traced his claw through the carpet of pine needles, wondering how long it would take his heart to heal.

“But we’re all still friends, right?” Kinkajou said hopefully. “Turtle and Moon and I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” he said. He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but he missed Qibli as well. The letters he got from his former clawmate were not those of a triumphant rival, but a best friend who was worried about him.

Best friends with a SandWing? What is the world coming to? And not just a SandWing, but the one who won Moon’s heart.

If only I didn’t like him so much.

In his last letter, Qibli had promised to come to Sanctuary soon, and to bring Flower and Smolder, in case they had any ideas for his scavenger project.

He won’t let me stop being friends with him. None of them will.

As weird as it is, they’re my new family now … my new tribe.

And I think I’m going to be OK.

“So what do you say?” Kinkajou asked. Her scales rippled and faded into the background, but he could hear her smile in her voice. “Want to go catch some scavengers together?”

He smiled back. “Absolutely.”

Peril still couldn’t quite believe that Jade Mountain was really her home now.

She was part of a winglet and everything! Turtle’s winglet, no less! She went to CLASSES. And STUDIED. And had HOMEWORK. And did projects with OTHER DRAGONS.

It was SO WEIRD.

She still had her own cave, because of the whole accidentally-setting-your-clawmates-on-fire-while-sleepwalking-would-be-bad thing. And she still needed her friends to read all the scrolls to her. She’d asked Starflight to get to work on inflammable scrolls once he and Tamarin were done with their project of making scrolls that blind dragons could read.

Peril figured if anyone could figure out scrolls that wouldn’t burn, it was Starflight. He was certainly motivated to. He got hilariously twitchy whenever he smelled Peril anywhere near his papers.

She padded down the corridor toward the prey center. Not because it was highly likely that Clay would be there at any given time, of course. She actually had a perfectly good all-Peril no-Clay reason to go to the prey center.

But she didn’t mind the little bounce her heart gave when she peeked into the center and saw him there.

Act normal! Or at least vaguely as though you have any idea what normal is!

He was curled by the river, chatting with his brother Marsh. Marsh’s clawmate, Coconut, was there, too, poking around on the far side of the cave. The RainWing’s scales were a honey-colored mix of amber and brown, like a gold-dappled version of Marsh’s.

Is he busy? Maybe he’s busy. Maybe I should —

Clay turned and smiled at her before she could duck out of sight again. She smiled back sheepishly and he padded across the cave to join her.

“Hey, Peril,” he said. She knew he sounded kind no matter who he was talking to, but she hoped she wasn’t imagining the extra little bit of sweetness in his smile for her.

“I came down to see if anyone wants their food set on fire,” Peril said quickly. “The RainWings like it when I roast their bananas and sweet potatoes, so we’re experimenting with other stuff. Siamang and I came up with this cooked mashed-up apple thing that is awesome.”

“Applesauce?” Clay asked.

“Oh,” Peril said. “Is that what it’s called? We didn’t invent it? OK, fine, applesauce, then. I bet ours is better than anyone else’s, though.”

“Probably,” he said. “You’d better make it for me sometime.” He put one wing around her and she somehow managed not to burst into delighted flames.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I mean, not that you shouldn’t be here, you can be anywhere you want, of course, and it’s just a wild coincidence that you happen to be here, in the place where I also happened to be going. WILD COINCIDENCE.”

“Checking on Marsh,” Clay said. “I was so worried about him after Umber and Sora left … but he seems really happy lately. Doesn’t he?”

“I think so,” Peril said. “I mean, I’m not super great at, like, emotions? On other dragons? But I’m pretty sure when a dragon smiles that much, it means he’s happy.”

“I think it’s Coconut,” Clay said. “He’s the perfect clawmate for Marsh. I wish we’d paired everyone else into best friends that well.”

“I like the SkyWing that Queen Ruby sent to replace Flame,” Peril said. “He’s not completely terrified of me. It is pretty weird to have conversations with a SkyWing who isn’t terrified of me.”

“I hope Flame will be all right,” Clay said. The angry SkyWing dragonet had accepted an earring reluctantly, choosing freedom from Darkstalker’s spells even though it meant having his scars back. But he couldn’t stay at the school after what he did to Stonemover, and he didn’t want to anyway, and Peril thought that was for the best because he was an awful grouch to be around. Queen Ruby had taken him back to the Sky Kingdom to work with the healers.

“The queen will sort him out,” she said. She glanced around the mostly empty prey center. “It seems so quiet today.”

“Everyone’s working on independent study projects,” he said. “I just saw Ostrich, Thrush, and Barracuda talking about the science of RainWing camouflage in the library. And Tamarin, Pike, and Fearless are doing a presentation about Darkstalker’s history later, if you’re interested.”

She shuddered a little, flicking her tail closer to his. “I don’t know. Whenever his name comes up, everyone looks at me like they’re remembering it was my fault he got out. I mean, I’m clearly the ‘talons of fire’ in the prophecy. Which makes me want to be like YEAH, I KNOW and I’M SORRY, OK and I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS FROM AN ANCIENT SCROLL WITH NEBULOUS POWERS.”

“You said friends,” Clay echoed, bumping her side with a grin.

She scrunched up her snout so she wouldn’t smile too much. “I think sometimes maybe they actually like me a little bit?”

“Or a lot,” Clay said. “My guess is a lot.”

“Even Winter has sent me a couple of letters,” she said wonderingly, “like he cares what’s going on with me. I got one from Qibli today. Sunny read it to me.”

“I can help you write a letter back later, if you want,” he said. “Although I can’t promise any of the words will be spelled right.”

She laughed. “Aren’t you a teacher now? I’m pretty sure teachers should be able to spell.”

“Yeah, I carefully avoid writing anything where my students can see it,” he said. “Peril, don’t feel bad about Darkstalker anymore. He would have gotten out of his prison sooner or later. He was too smart to be stuck under there for long. And I think that scroll could have been just as dangerous as he was, if it was left floating around the continent.”

“Right,” Peril said dubiously. Sometimes she agreed and was all like, GOOD FOR ME YAY PERIL, especially whenever Qibli talked about what the scroll might have done to him if it had stayed in his talons. But a lot of the time she remembered Darkstalker bursting out of the mountain and thanking her for releasing him, and then it was hard not to feel like the dragon who nearly set the whole entire world on fire.

She thought for a moment. “You know,” she said, nudging Clay’s neck with her snout, “sometimes I think it’s a good thing it was my dad who found it. He was a jerk, but he could have done much worse things with it. Another dragon might have done way worse things. Right?”

“Right,” Clay reassured her.

Peril looked out at the rain. “I wonder if I’ll ever see him again. I think he’s going to stay pretty mad at me forever.”

“You don’t need him,” Clay said. “You have friends now.” He ducked his head to meet her eyes. “You have me.”

Now there was no chance of holding back her smile. “Want to go flying with me?” she said impulsively. “I mean, I know it’s raining, but it’s kind of cool to fly in the rain, unless you’re busy, you’re probably busy, you’re, like, running a school, so, that’s OK if you can’t, we —”

“Peril,” he said, catching one of her front talons in his. “I’d love to.”

Turtle spread the scroll out on a sunlit rock and read it again, humming to himself.

Dear Turtle,

Auklet and I send our love. You must come home for a visit soon so you can see the new palace we’re building. We chose the perfect island for it and we’re starting with an auditorium that will have wonderful acoustics for my scroll readings, with enough room to host dragons from all the tribes. We’re not going to hide this one like the Summer Palace. I’m hoping it’ll be a center for diplomacy and trade and art that will help us build relations across Pyrrhia, but especially with Queen Moorhen and Queen Glory, who have such interesting ideas.

Thank you for the spell you sent to get rid of the Albatross ghost Darkstalker conjured. What a strange and malevolent piece of magic. Everyone is quite relieved it’s gone!

I hope your sister is doing well! Your brothers seem to think you played an enormously clever practical joke on them the last time you were at the palace. I didn’t get all the details, but they’re very impressed with you. You’d better carefully check your bed for lobsters the next time you’re here.

Sending you all my love, and my newest story,

Mother

He dabbled his tail in the water of the lake below him, smiling. Every letter from Queen Coral felt like a new magic spell, making him stronger and braver and more the hero he hoped to be.

Up in the sky, Anemone was doing flips in the air, flinging out her wings happily. A bracelet of pale pink pearls shone around her wrist, matching her scales. It was the only jewelry she wore anymore, most of the time. She’d sat with Qibli for hours one day, working out the words for a spell that would protect her soul — not just from animus magic, but from the feelings of invincibility and superiority that went along with it. Ever since putting it on, she’d been acting lighter and younger, giggling and teasing Pike, and taking her winglet swimming in the mountain lakes every day.

Turtle wasn’t sure if it was the magic of the bracelet or the relief that came from not worrying about her soul anymore. The soul reader had revealed a much higher level of good in the princess’s soul than they all had feared — and Turtle’s own soul was almost entirely good, too, to his delight.

Now Anemone kept the soul reader in her room, and Turtle suspected she checked it fairly often. He hadn’t seen her cast any spells in the last month. She’d been focused on doing good things — like donating half her treasure to help build Sanctuary — and otherwise, she seemed content to be a normal student for now.

He heard splashing in the lake and turned to find Kinkajou wading out of the water toward him.

“I thought we were going swimming!” she said.

“I just wanted to read this letter one more time,” Turtle said, rolling it up again.

“Awwww.” Kinkajou flicked a spray of water at his tail. “You’re so cute about your mom, it almost makes me wish I knew who my parents are.”

He tipped his head at her. “I could probably find out for you.”

“That’s all right,” she said. “I know you’re trying to use your magic as little as possible. I can figure it out some other way if I ever really want to.”

Turtle tapped his skyfire armband. “But I can use it, if you ever need to. Qibli’s soul spell is really well-written.”

“Speaking of well-written,” Kinkajou said as he dove into the water. She waited until he surfaced again to finish her thought. “I loved the story you wrote for class the other day. You should write more of it.”

“Really?” he said shyly. “You’re not just saying that?”

“I’m not enchanted to say nice things about you anymore,” she said with a laugh.

He laughed, too, but a little awkwardly. They’d pretty much avoided the subject of the love spell for the last month. He paddled his webbed talons underneath him for a moment, then blurted, “I still really like you, Kinkajou.”

Her scales shimmered rose with flecks of citrus orange and yellow. “Oh,” she said. “I mean, I really like you, too, just … I’m still … it’s weird, Turtle! It’s weird to wake up suddenly having all these feelings and then find out they’re not real and then suddenly they’re gone but not really because you remember feeling them, which is awfully close to actually still feeling them, and then there are lots of reasons to feel them because you are adorable but I’m not totally sure how much I feel them and so it’s very confusing.”

“Sure, yeah, OK,” he said. “Never mind.”

“No, not never mind!” she said, splashing water over his head. “More like, let’s keep hanging out and see what happens? And I’ll try to figure out which feelings are real after a little more time has passed? That’s what I think we should do.”

“That’s all right with me,” he said. “I mean, it’s great. Totally great with me.” He felt a fish swim right between his claws, but it wiggled away when he tried to grab it. “You really think I’m adorable?”

“Yes,” said Kinkajou, “but I think lots of things are adorable, so don’t get too excited. I mean, you’re somewhere between baby sloths and Anemone’s crush on Tamarin on the adorableness scale.”

He dunked his head underwater, hiding his smile. A moment later, he popped out again. “Wait, what? Anemone has a crush on someone?”

“Oh my gosh, yes,” Kinkajou said with a giggle. “You haven’t noticed? She’s been casually showing up everywhere Tamarin is, offering to read her scrolls, leaving her little gifts of flowers or unusual fruit. It’s almost cute enough to make me forgive her, but I told Tamarin she better be careful. I am watching VERY CLOSELY to make sure Anemone doesn’t use any magic on my friend.”

“She won’t,” Turtle said confidently. “Our soul spells stipulate that we can only do magic that doesn’t affect another dragon’s free will. And that we can’t do any magic that’s selfishly motivated. Both of those should keep Anemone from doing any more love spells.”

“Hmmmph,” said Kinkajou. “Well, I’m keeping an eye on her anyway. She’s going to have to be pretty super awesome to ever be worthy of Tamarin.”

I’m going to work hard to be super awesome, too, Turtle promised himself. I’ve read enough romance scrolls; I should have some idea of what to do. It’ll be crazy if I actually end up in one of those stories myself.

Save the world, check. Stop being afraid of my magic, check. Figure out a way to protect my soul, check.

Become the kind of dragon I’d want to read about — working on it. Probably working on it for the rest of my life. But I think I’m getting there.

A gust of wind lifted a spray of sand and danced it across the dunes. Qibli set the stone he was carrying into its place in the wall and checked the sky. Dark blue and cloudless, as usual, as afternoon faded into evening. A few stars were already shining over the horizon and the moons were rising in the distance. Everything was calm. Nothing to worry about.

“Time for a break,” Six-Claws called from the roof of the treasury.

The SandWings around Qibli stretched and wandered off in search of water. The reconstruction work was almost done; everything Vulture, the Talons of Power, and Qibli’s sandstorm had done to the palace was nearly fixed.

Qibli spotted Queen Thorn standing next to Six-Claws, as though she’d been there watching for a while. She said something to her general and then flew down to land beside Qibli.

“Six-Claws says you’ve been working hard,” she said, handing him a flask of water.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” he said.

“OK, enough of that,” she said. “Your talents are completely wasted on building walls. When are you going back to school?”

“Don’t you need me here?” he said.

“There will still be plenty to do after you are done with school,” she said firmly. “Are you hiding from someone?”

That was a little too perceptive for Qibli to handle. “No!” he said quickly.

“Oh, good,” she said. “Because the someone you’ve not been hiding from is here to see you.”

“She is?” he said, flaring his wings. Queen Thorn gave him an amused glance and he realized he’d given himself away. “I mean, who? What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I told her to wait for you in the observatory,” Thorn said, nodding at the domed tower that was open to the sky. “If she can talk you into going back to school, I’ll give her some kind of SandWing medal of honor.”

Qibli’s wings were trembling so much he wasn’t sure he’d make it all the way up to the tower. He took a few deep breaths, poured the water over his head to clean off the sand, and shook himself dry.

Moon was peering into the telescope as he came through the hole in the roof.

“This is amazing,” she said, turning to him with the brightest of smiles. “I can see craters on that moon! Are there any SandWing astronomy scrolls? Does this palace have a library? It must, right?”

“It does,” Qibli said. “I can take you there if, um … if that’s why you’re here.”

“No, no, it’s not,” she said. She crossed the room and was suddenly right in front of him, like he’d been imagining for weeks. What were all the clever things he was going to say? Why had they all flown out of his brain?

“Please come back to school, Qibli,” she said. She took his front talons in hers. “We miss you. I miss you.”

“Moon,” he said, looking down at the floor. “You should be saying this to Winter.”

She paused. “Winter,” she said cautiously. “Why?”

This part he’d prepared for. That didn’t make this any easier to say, but he was determined to try. “Because he needs you. He’d go back to school if you asked him. You make him a better dragon and I … I don’t know if he can live without you.”

She studied his face. “I don’t know if that’s true, Qibli. I think he’ll be all right no matter what happens — he’s strong and smart and he’s going to do great things with his life. But I do know I need you.”

That wasn’t in any of the possible scripts Qibli had practiced. He was startled into meeting her eyes. When she smiled, her teardrop scales became little rivulets of silver.

“I want to be with someone who’s kind and makes me laugh and listens to me. That’s you. When I think about the future and everything I want to do with my life, I think about you. That’s what I know.”

Qibli wasn’t sure his lungs were working properly, or maybe that was his heart trying to escape from his chest to fly around the room.

“But —” he started.

“No, no,” she said. She touched her claws to his temples. “I know your brain is shooting like a comet right now. Stop thinking about all the problems and scenarios and ways out. Just take a breath and look at me.”

He did. Her eyes looked into him, and even with the skyfire hiding his thoughts, he knew she saw his whole self. And that was what she wanted, somehow, miraculously.

“Can we try being together?” she asked. “Without a prophecy or a scroll or a catastrophe or a war or anything else crazy going on? Don’t overthink. Say yes.”

“Yes,” he said.

A smile spread across her face like a sunrise. “Awesome,” she said.

“Awesome,” he agreed, smiling back.

They stood there, smiling and feeling very silly, for a long quiet moment.

“So,” she said, “I know I literally just said ‘without a prophecy or catastrophe or anything crazy,’ but … I’ve kind of been having a vision lately.”

“Oh no,” he said with a laugh. “Another mysterious prophecy?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “But there’s something I need to check out. I was hoping you’d come with me?”

“Anywhere,” he said. “Always.”

They said good-bye to Queen Thorn, flew west through the night, and reached the coast before morning. Qibli had never been this far west; he’d never seen this edge of the Kingdom of Sand. He hadn’t quite thought about the surging ocean right at their doorstep, although he knew there were a few SandWing settlements along the water. But Moon didn’t take them in that direction; she turned north instead, toward the border with the Ice Kingdom.

In a little cove north of the farthest northern oasis, they found what she was looking for: a small hut on the beach, roofed with palm fronds.

Qibli glanced at Moon in confusion as they landed on the damp sand in front of it. “Who lives here?”

“Someone I saw in my vision, I think,” she said. “If I’m right, Turtle saw her, too, just for a moment, in Darkstalker’s throne room. He told me about it — but he said he wasn’t sure she was real. I think she is, and I think we’ll find her here.”

As she said that, the door opened and a SandWing emerged. She was tall and long-necked and graceful, with wide black eyes and a dappled brown triangle pattern on her wings. She watched them gravely as they climbed the beach toward her.

“Hello,” Moon said, dipping her head to the stranger. “My name is Moon and this is Qibli. Did you know we were coming?”

“I knew someone would come,” she said in a quiet voice. “I guessed it would be soon.”

“What’s your name?” Moon asked. “I saw you in a vision, but I don’t really know why.”

“I’m Jerboa,” said the SandWing.

Qibli’s eyes widened, and she noticed and shook her head. “Not the original Jerboa,” she said. “Her daughter.”

“From way back in Darkstalker’s time?” Qibli asked.

“Yes. My mother cast a spell to make sure nothing could ever harm me.” Jerboa shrugged. “I’ve been waiting a long time to fulfill my purpose.”

“Your purpose?” Moon asked.

“Yes,” Jerboa said again. She spread one wing to invite them into the hut. “I believe the first step is introducing you.”

“To who?” Qibli asked, stepping inside. He edged sideways to make room for Moon to enter, too, and his eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark interior.

There was an injured dragon in there, lying on a bed of palm fronds. She sat up as they entered and eyed them warily.

And then Qibli saw the shape of her wings, and her face, and the color of her scales, and he realized this dragon was no hybrid. She was not from any tribe he’d ever seen before.

She was something completely different.

“What —” Moon whispered. “How —?”

“I believe this,” said Jerboa, “is our first visitor from the lost continent.”