Unleash the Storm by Annette Marie

illusion of?”
    “I’ll show you if I can actually get it to work.”
    Ash leaned around her to give Lyre a hard look. “It’s not your fault.”
    Piper blinked, confused. Lyre’s eyes dropped from Ash to the gem in his hands, his mouth twisting.
    “You got her out of there,” Ash continued. “Don’t beat yourself up about her injuries. You stayed behind so she could escape. Neither she nor I could have asked for more.”
    Lyre sighed, the sound full of regret. Sympathy welled in Piper. So that was it. His spell wasn’t a romantic gesture, but an apology that he hadn’t prevented the debilitating injury to Seiya’s wing in their escape from the Ra embassy.
    “Yeah!” Raisa exclaimed, her voice cutting through all the quiet conversations. “I rolled a dragon king! You lose .”
    Jezel irritably threw her dice down, scowling.
    “A dragon king?” Piper repeated.
    Coby glanced at her as she stretched her legs out. “Triple nines, the highest roll. Automatic win. It’s the same dice game most kids play, but we came up with more draconian names for different rolls.”
    “I’ve never rolled a dragon king before,” Raisa gushed while Jezel rolled her eyes. “So cool!”
    “You wouldn’t be so excited if the roll summoned the actual dragon king,” Shona teased her.
    Raisa’s eyes widened. “Yes I would! That would be the coolest thing ever.”
    “It’s just a myth,” Jezel said flatly.
    Scowling, Raisa tossed her dice on the ground in front of Jezel. “I think it’s true. You can’t prove he doesn’t exist.”
    “And you can’t prove he does,” the older girl snapped. “It’s just a stupid legend.”
    “What is the dragon king?” Lyre cut in before the girls could get into an argument.
    “Well,” Coby said, “it depends which story you’re talking about. The dragon king is supposedly the all-powerful, magical dragon who created the draconian people. In other stories, it’s another name for the great dragons—the really big ones.”
    “Really big dragons?” Piper asked curiously.
    “Yes, we have many stories of them,” Coby said. “Whether the great dragons are actually real or just a myth is up for debate.”
    “Oh, tell her the story of the dragon king!” Raisa said. “I bet she hasn’t heard it.”
    “It’s a draconian story.” Jezel jerked her chin toward Piper. “ She’s not a draconian.”
    “It’s just a story,” Coby said firmly.
    “But—”
    Shona clapped her hands once, silencing all talk. Even Raum looked over. Yana wobbled over to Ivria, her mother, and climbed into her lap, clutching her stuffed dragonet toy. Shona straightened, her serene aura of authority claiming everyone’s attention.
    “At the beginning of time,” she began, her words taking on a slow, melodic rhythm, “the worlds were ruled by two great dragons. The black dragon was the Lord of Skies, and his sister, the silver dragon, was the Lady of Seas. They danced through the endless skies and waters of all the worlds, enamored with the beauty of each land. When one world tired them, they would dive through the fabric of the universe itself to a new world to explore, leaving trails of their magic across the lands.”
    “She means the ley lines,” Raisa whispered to Piper, apparently concerned she wouldn’t make the connection herself.
    “As the worlds spun and the universe aged,” Shona continued solemnly, “the great dragons tired of their explorations. They’d left so much magic behind upon the worlds they’d visited, and they were weary. One day, the Lord of Skies bid his dear sister a final farewell. He returned to his favorite world, a land where tiny dragon cousins had once soared through the clouds with him. There, he chose the majestic mountains for his resting place.
    “He lay upon the earth and closed his eyes for the longest slumber—a sleep he did not expect to wake from. But as he prepared for his slumber, he felt the magic still flowing through him and thought of the