Chapters (155)
- Copyright
- Dedication
- 1 Nearly Gutless Grace—Grace—
- 2 Head Space, Talk Space, Give Me Some Space—Grace—
- 3 I Do Like a Good Cup of Hurl Grey—Grace—
- 4 Every Little Thing He Does Is Not Magic—Grace—
- 5 Hot and Not So Heavy—Hudson—
- 6 In One Head and Out the Other—Grace—
- 7 Burning Down the Louse—Hudson—
- 8 Eat, Drink, and Be Wary—Grace—
- 9 From One Blink to the Necks—Grace—
- 10 Burning Your Britches—Hudson—
- 11 Sleep Like the Undead—Grace—
- 12 Grace on a Platter—Grace—
- 13 My Life Is an Open Phone—Grace—
- 14 Diary of a Vampire Kid—Grace—
- 15 The Best Defense Is More Defense—Hudson—
- 16 No Vamp Is an Island—Grace—
- 17 This Is How My Cookie Crumbles—Grace—
- 18 Trying to Lair Low—Hudson—
- 19 Put a String on It—Hudson—
- 20 All the Sizzle, None of the Heart—Hudson—
- 21 I’m Not RSVPing for This Pity Party—Grace—
- 22 All Cry, No Punishment—Grace—
- 23 Welcome to My Jungle—Hudson—
- 24 Dividing the Room in Styles—Grace—
- 25 I Mo, You Mo, We All Emo—Grace—
- 26 Re-Tweeting—Grace—
- 27 De-Briefing—Hudson—
- 28 It Dunks to Be Me—Grace—
- 29 How Do You Say Good-Pie?—Hudson—
- 30 Uneasy as Pie—Hudson—
- 31 Stalks and Bonds—Grace—
- 32 Some Bonds Can’t Be Unbroken—Grace—
- 33 Fake It or You Don’t Make It—Grace—
- 34 I Read You All Wrong—Grace—
- 35 Running Down a Nightmare—Grace—
- 36 Please Don’t Start the Fire—Grace—
- 37 You’re Dragon Me Down—Grace—
- 38 Waking Dawn—Hudson—
- 39 Keep Calm and Don’t Carry On—Hudson—
- 40 Don’t Farm It In—Grace—
- 41 Crop Till You Drop—Grace—
- 42 She’s Giving Me the Smokey Eye—Grace—
- 43 One Direction Is Not Just a Band—Hudson—
- 44 I Can Dish It Out If You Can Make It—Hudson—
- 45 Don’t Let the Bedvamps Bite—Hudson—
- 46 I Like to Sleep Tight, But Not This Tight—Grace—
- 47 You Really Stuck My Landing—Grace—
- 48 No Farm, No Foul—Grace—
- 49 Re-Veg Is Sweet—Hudson—
- 50 I’m Oh So Swan-Yay—Grace—
- 51 A Not So Savage Garden—Grace—
- 52 There Has to Be an Udder Way—Grace—
- 53 Suck It Up, Buttercup—Grace—
- 54 He’s Got Hangry Eyes—Hudson—
- 55 Afraid of My Own Shadow Queen—Hudson—
- 56 Baby Got Piggyback—Grace—
- 57 Cliffs Notes Got Nothing on Me—Hudson—
- 58 I Cave It My All—Grace—
- 59 I Know a Prick When I Smell One—Grace—
- 60 Tastes Like Teen Spirit—Hudson—
- 61 Carpe Drink-Em—Grace—
- 62 Dimples and Curls—Grace—
- 63 Tic-Tac-Toe and No Chill—Grace—
- 64 If I Could F(lie)—Hudson—
- 65 Live and Let’s Run—Grace—
- 66 Good Will Hugging—Grace—
- 67 The First Rule of Fright Club—Hudson—
- 68 I Have Friends in High Places—Grace—
- 69 Color Me Purple—Hudson—
- 70 Way Too Hidden Talents—Hudson—
- 71 Inn-stant Gratification—Grace—
- 72 Gone Wishin’—Grace—
- 73 My Lady in Red—Hudson—
- 74 1D-reams Come True—Grace—
- 75 Café Lotta Say—Hudson—
- 76 The Choux on the Wrong Foot—Grace—
- 77 Ah-Choux—Hudson—
- 78 All LinkedOut—Grace—
- 79 Getting the Red Ribbon Treatment—Hudson—
- 80 Starfalling for You—Hudson—
- 81 All’s Fair in Love and Ring Tosses—Grace—
- 82 Star Light, Star Bright—Grace—
- 83 On Top of the (Other)World—Grace—
- 84 It’s a Knock-Down, Dragon Fight—Hudson—
- 85 Dragon Me Over the Coals—Grace—
- 86 Go Stone or Go Home—Hudson—
- 87 Let Me Change into Something a Little More Stony—Grace—
- 88 Feather or Not, Here I Come!—Grace—
- 89 No One Wants to Catch These Cookies—Grace—
- 90 Sucker Brunch Me—Hudson—
- 91 I Know How to Hold My Drink—Hudson—
- 92 Drinks Are On Me—Grace—
- 93 I’m Spooning Over You—Grace—
- 94 Talk Dirty to Me—Hudson—
- 95 We Roll with the Brunches—Grace—
- 96 No Such Thing as a Free Brunch—Grace—
- 97 Time After Time Dragon—Grace—
- 98 Let’s Talk About the Time Dragon in the Room—Hudson—
- 99 Distrust but Verify—Hudson—
- 100 Whine and Dine—Grace—
- 101 Covering None of the Bases—Grace—
- 102 Between a Rock and a Hard Grace—Grace—
- 103 Passing the Pouspous—Grace—
- 104 How to Rock and Not Roll—Grace—
- 105 A Whole New Meaning to Stone-Faced—Grace—
- 106 Always Look a Gift Mayor in the Mouth—Grace—
- 107 Good Girl Gone Mad as Hell—Hudson—
- 108 I Want You to Want Me—Grace—
- 109 50 Shades of Fangs—Grace—
- 110 Need You Tonight—Grace—
- 111 Amateur Astronomer—Hudson—
- 112 Waiting for the Other Dragon to Drop—Grace—
- 113 One Surprise Deserves Another—Hudson—
- 114 Sending Out Smokey Signals—Grace—
- 115 The Tail End of the Deal—Grace—
- 116 Ripping the Scales—Hudson—
- 117 From Smokey with Love—Hudson—
- 118 It’s a Hack Job but Someone’s Got to Do It—Grace—
- 119 Big Disco Ball Energy—Grace—
- 120 Death on the Dance Floor—Grace—
- 121 This Is How You Skew It—Hudson—
- 122 Love Is a Red-Ribboned Thing—Grace—
- 123 Grin and Grace It—Hudson—
- 124 Now You’re Inn for It—Hudson—
- 125 Kiss My Asset—Grace—
- 126 A Not-So-Tastee Freeze—Grace—
- 127 Statue of Limitations—Grace—
- 128 Here’s Your Horns, What’s Your Hurry?—Grace—
- 129 Gargoyle Girl Gang—Grace—
- 130 A Shot in the Dark—Hudson—
- 131 The Story of Tonight—Grace—
- 132 You Bite It, You Buy It—Hudson—
- 133 Cross My Heart and Promise Not to Fry—Grace—
- 134 The Wheel of Misfortune—Grace—
- 135 BDSM: Bondage, Dragons, Stone, and Magic—Grace—
- 136 It’s Darkest Before the Dawn—Hudson—
- 137 Where the Wild Things Really Are—Grace—
- 138 Buggin’ the F*ck Out—Grace—
- 139 Don’t Trust Her as Far as I Can Throw Her—Hudson—
- 140 It’s Not Even My Third Rodeo—Hudson—
- 141 Is This a Bad Time?—Grace—
- 142 Full of Light,Full of Grace—Hudson—
- 143 What Grace Around Comes Around—Grace—
- 144 Out of the Shadows, Into the Light—Grace—
- 145 It’s All Coming Back to Me Now—Grace—
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Sneak Peek: Last of the Talons, by Sophie Kim
- Stealing Infinity, by Alyson Noël
- The Valkyrie’s Daughter, by Tiana Warner
- The Liar’s Crown, by Abigail Owen
- The Gravity of Missing Things, by Marisa Urgo
- Ember of Night, by Molly E. Lee
The words settle around me like a mantle. Strong. Powerful. Right. Like an echo in my bones. Like a destiny waiting to be claimed.
And I stand taller.
“Yes,” I agree with conviction. “You are right. But—there must be another way.”
Artelya shrugs. “Even if there were, I’m afraid I would not survive long anyway.”
My eyes widen. “But why?”
“I don’t know. I just know that I’m very sick and that I can’t fight with this poison inside me. My fortification froze the poison as well as my body.” She lowers her head, and thunder booms across the sky, shaking the ground. “But when I shift back, I fear it will weaken me quickly. I’ve never felt anything like it before and yet, being here in Noromar all these years, I know that it is some type of shadow poison.”
“If it’s shadow poison,” I argue, “then surely we can find a cure here in the Shadow Realm.”
But Artelya just shakes her head. “Shadow magic is the most ancient and powerful magic in the universe. It’s older than the stars in the heavens. There is nothing more powerful. I cannot guarantee whether the poison or dragon fire will kill me first, so whatever happens, you must promise to not allow dragon fire to kill Souil. The fate of this world depends on it.”
“You have my word.” Artelya sacrificed everything to keep the world safe, and now she’s dying anyway? It’s not fair and it’s not right. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Grace. I’m the one who did this.” It’s her turn to reach out and touch me. She does it slowly, tentatively, like the action is foreign to her. Then again, after a thousand years, it probably is.
Eventually, though, she manages to pat my hand.
I grab onto her fingers and squeeze tight, because even if this is the last time I get to talk to her, I want her to know she’s not alone. I want her to know that someone in this village remembers her and cares about her and is thinking about her.
Because I am. I’ll think about her for the rest of my life—which may not be long if Souil’s bullshit ends up erasing me from the timeline. But still.
“What matters is that we stop Souil.” She holds my gaze in her steady one. “You will have only one chance. When I release the dragon, I will immediately succumb to dragon fire. You will need to kill her instantly. At least I know you will be ending her suffering.”
“How will I signal you?” I ask.