Chapter 3

Six weeks had passed since that night, and the fire in my chest had turned into a lingering ache.

I was standing in the back room of a private clinic in upstate New York, staring blankly at the ceiling.

The chronic morning sickness and unexplained exhaustion had finally forced me to get checked.

A doctor was running an ultrasound over my abdomen.

Suddenly, she gasped, dropping the scanner as she stared at the digital reading.

She looked at me, her face completely drained of color.

"Charlotte..." The doctor breathed, her voice shaking uncontrollably.

"This... this is a medical impossibility."

"What's wrong? Is something wrong with my babies?" I asked, panic tightening my chest.

"It is triplets. But Charlotte... your chart says your body temperature is 104°F right now. Your womb should be incinerating itself, but the heartbeats are perfectly steady. I... I don't even know how you're standing upright."

She gripped my hands, her palms trembling.

"We need to get you to an ICU in Manhattan immediately. Your vitals are completely off the charts. If your temperature spikes even one degree higher, you're going to experience total organ failure."

At that exact identical moment, far away in the royal gardens of the dragon kingdom...

Drake Kingsley stood before the sacred World Tree.

Suddenly, a sharp, agonizing pain stabbed directly through his chest.

He staggered, coughing up a drop of golden blood onto the grass.

A patch of shimmering scales on his arm calcified, turning to grey ash and peeling away, leaving raw skin beneath.

The physical separation from his bond was slowly destroying his body.

"Your Highness!" the Grand Elder gasped, rushing to his side.

"The Tree is dying! The entire race is bleeding out because your Soul Flame is separated!"

Beside him, the silver leaves of the World Tree instantly withered.

A hundred sacred dragon eggs turned to cold stone.

The entire kingdom was beginning to suffocate because the First Flame was missing.

Drake clutched his burning chest, his eyes wild with desperation.

"I've been searching the human world for weeks! I can't find her!"

"If you do not find her," the Elder warned, looking up at the dying canopy, "the World Tree will reject your Dragon Crown. It will take away your right to rule, and it will choose another King."

Thousands of miles away...

A violent wave of heat tore through my body.

I gasped, doubling over as my hands flew to my stomach.

The lights violently flickered. Every monitor in the examination room erupted into loud, screeching static.

"What the—" The doctor stumbled backward, tripping over her stool.

The ultrasound machine began to smoke, and the room suddenly became hot enough to melt the plastic casing.

The doctor panicked. She scrambled for the door, threw it open, and ran out into the corridor.

In an instant, the entire hospital erupted into chaos.

Doctors, nurses, and patients rushed toward the exits in blind panic.

I lay on the examination table, panting in the pitch-black room.

I could feel something moving beneath my skin.

Not the babies. Something that had been sleeping my entire life was finally waking up.

Golden light pulsed beneath my skin like glowing veins before disappearing as quickly as it had come.

"...Drake?"

The name escaped my lips before I even realized I had spoken it.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

A wooden cane echoed through the darkness.

"He cannot hear you, child. Not yet."

I froze.

The voice didn't come from the hallway.

It came from the darkest corner of the room.

She was wrapped in a heavy cloak, her face lined with deep, ancient wrinkles, and her eyes sharp with wisdom.

My breath caught in my throat.

It was her.

The old woman Sister Margaret had taken me to all those years ago.

The woman who had disappeared without a trace.

"You..." I whispered, clutching the sheets. "How did you get in here? Who are you?"

She slowly lowered her hood.

"I've been waiting twenty-three years for this day."

Her gaze settled on my stomach.

"They've awakened."

My hands instinctively covered my belly.

"Who?"

"Your children. They've begun answering their father."

I stared at her.

"I don't understand."

She stepped closer, her eyes reflecting the golden light still glowing beneath my skin.

"Your children and their father aren't human. And the blood sleeping inside you belongs to the First Flame Queen of the Dragon Kingdom."

She and I suddenly fell silent.

The color drained from the old woman’s face.

Slowly...

She turned toward the shattered window.

"No..."

My heart lurched.

"What?" I asked.

"The Kingsley royal family are not known for their mercy, Charlotte. If they discover you're carrying their heirs..."

The warning was clear enough.

I had to protect my dear babies. No matter the cost.

"They're already here."

She grabbed my wrist with surprising strength.

"Run!"