The next morning, however, the fragile peace of our strange, new family was shattered.
I was in the mansion's library, poring over ancient texts on draconic rituals, my mind a whirlwind of plans for the blessing I had come here to claim, when I heard it.
A small, choked sob.
I looked up, my senses on high alert. The sound had come from the doorway. Yumi stood there, her small body trembling, her face a mask of profound, heart-wrenching betrayal.
"You forgot," she whispered, her voice a small, broken thing. "You promised."
And then it hit me. The dragon ride. In the chaos of the last few days, in the intricate, high-stakes game I was playing with the nobles of the Dragon Kingdom, I had completely forgotten the promise I had made to her.
"Yumi, I—" I began, my own voice a rough, guilty thing.
"You lied!" she cried, her voice rising with a childish, wounded fury. "You said we would go! You said we would fly!"
