This girl wasn’t cranky-looking, though. She looked sweet and familiar, though he couldn’t quite figure out why. The drawing was old—this person must be forty or fifty years old by now. If she’d survived, anyway.

Dev glanced out the south window toward the orchard. From this height he could look down on the tops of the gnarled apple trees beyond the overgrowth that surrounded the palace. Maybe one day he would chop all of the weeds and bushes so he could see the orchard even better.

As he turned back to study the drawing, his eye caught movement out the east window, directly in front of him. He froze, hoping it was just a bird like it had been all of the other times he’d been startled by movement outside that window since the Revinir had come. But this bird wasn’t flitting about. It was coming straight on.

Dev’s breath grew shallow, and an old familiar sense of dread washed over him like the river. He went up to the glass and used his shirt to wipe away the smudge he’d left earlier, then peered through the window. His scales lifted on his arms and legs. Fear seized his lungs, his brain. He couldn’t move or think or even make a noise. All he knew was that the thing that had terrified him most was happening again: The Revinir and her red dragons were coming, this time in broad daylight. And soon they’d be close enough to see him if he made a move.

Dev stared, slack jawed, as his gut churned. He couldn’t stay here. He shoved the drawing of the girl inside a book, gathered up his bag and canteen, and skidded down and around the stairs. He exited the tower and ran for his life across the courtyard and down the hill toward the orchard and the village. All the while he hoped and prayed that the gorgeous sunlight, which he’d praised just that morning, wouldn’t be the foil that betrayed his existence to the worst enemy the land of the dragons had ever known.

Acknowledgments

Some of you have been reading this series for a very long time, since you were in grade four or even earlier, and now you’re older, in high school or beyond, and you’re still reading it. Thank you so much for staying with these characters and this world! I love meeting you in person and on Instagram and Twitter (@lisa_mcmann) and learning what you love about the Unwanteds and Unwanteds Quests series. Your steady support over the years makes me excited to write more!

I want to thank my editor, Liesa Abrams, for always knowing exactly what my manuscripts need and helping me put the best story into your hands. And my agent, Michael Bourret, who has been my guide and my friend throughout this wonderful career for over a dozen years.

I also want to give a huge shout out to Owen Richardson and Karin Paprocki for the beautiful cover art and design of all of these books. Dragon Fire is quite possibly my favorite cover of all time. (I exclaim this loudly every time I see a new one, though.) And I’d also like to acknowledge and thank my son, Kilian McMann, who gave me the idea for the Unwanteds when he was twelve-years-old and has been drawing and designing things for the series ever since—you can find his work on TheUnwantedsSeries.com.