Chapter 1

My hands shook as I scrubbed the marble floor of the throne room.

I was Elara. A wingless half-sprite. The lowest of the low in the Obsidian Court, where dragons ruled and things like me existed only to clean up after them. Half-sprites didn't get names in the mouths of nobles. We got "it." We got "rat." We got kicked when we were too slow.

But right now, the biggest mess in the whole court was inside my own stomach.

I was pregnant. With the Dragon King's child.

I hadn't meant to enter his chambers that night. I was only delivering wine. He was burning with dragon-fire, out of his mind, and he'd caught my wrist before I could set the tray down. The rest was a blur of heat and dark and pain. When I woke, he was still asleep, and I ran.

That was three weeks ago. Now something was growing in me, and it carried his fire.

"Find whoever sneaked into my bed."

The cold, rumbling voice rolled through the massive hall.

I froze. My rag stopped moving.

Kaelen, the Black Dragon King, sat on his throne. He wiped the blood off his broadsword, slow and bored, as if the killing had already been forgotten. His red eyes narrowed, scanning the guards kneeling before him.

"When I find her," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, "I will crush her into dust. Feed her to the wyverns."

I stopped breathing.

I knew exactly how it would go. He wouldn't ask questions. He wouldn't look at my face. A half-sprite who touched a dragon didn't get a trial. She got a sentence. The nobles would call it justice and go back to their wine. And I was carrying the proof of the crime inside me, in a place where no lie could hide it.

Then three little lights blinked into the air around my head.

They had followed me since the day I was born — three glowing specks only I could see or hear. No one else knew they were there. To them, my whole miserable life was the best show ever put on, and they narrated every second of it.

Lumi: Look at him, acting all tough. Crush her into dust? Sweetie, that same man was purring like a kitten that night.

Spark: I'll wager a hundred gold he'd sob if this girl got a paper cut. Any takers?

I kept my head down. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up, I begged them silently. If he looked at me, I was dead.

"You."

The word landed like a blow.

Heavy, armored boots came down the stairs. Clack. Clack. Clack. Each step pressed harder on my chest, until I could barely pull in air.

He stopped in front of me. The heat rolling off his body was suffocating.

"Little sprite," Kaelen said.

I raised my head slowly. His sharp, flawless face filled my whole world, and every line of it was cold.

"Did you see anyone enter the east wing that night?"

"N-no, Your Majesty." My voice came out thin. "I saw nothing. I know nothing."

Pip: Pfft. You saw everything, girl. You saw his abs.

Kaelen leaned down until his face was inches from mine. I smelled ash and dark magic on his skin. His red eyes looked straight through me, as if he could already see the secret buried under my ribs.

"If I find out you are lying to me," he whispered. His thumb brushed slowly along my jaw. "You won't like the consequences."

He didn't pull his hand away.