But Kerrigan didn’t know the customs, and Fordham hadn’t prepared her for any of it. She tucked the black rose into her bag and hastened after him. They finally reached the end of the village, she decided it was safe to ask.

“Should I not have taken the flower?”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. I couldn’t have taken it.”

“Why?”

He still looked straight ahead at the forbidden forest that led to the base of peaks. “I will have to maintain a certain appearance through this, Kerrigan,” he said, his face like stone. “You may not like it.”

She gulped and nodded. The flower was the least of her concerns. “We’re going in there?”

“Yes, the court lies within the mountain. You should feel right at home.”

“Is it modeled off of Draco Mountain?”

“It predates Draco Mountain,” he told her. “When the dragons first landed in Alandria, they didn’t go south to the valley where you live. They made their home on Nineveh, now just called the Holy Mountain, and its neighboring peak, Ravinia.” He gestured before him. “This is Ravinia.”

“I’ve never heard the story told that way.”

“Of course not. Draco is now the seat of power for the Society. They wouldn’t want anyone to think that power had ever resided elsewhere.”

Only a few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have believed it. But with everything raging through the Society now, she was sure it was possible. Power corrupted; absolute power corrupted absolutely.

The path cut straight through the forest until it reached an open meadow full of tall, wild grasses, and on the other side of the meadow lay the opening to the mountain. The path across the meadow was empty of people. Not a soul wandered the area before the forbidding entrance.

“I’ve gone to battle on these fields,” Fordham told her almost absentmindedly. “Killed on these fields.”

“It doesn’t appear that blood has been spilled in some time.”

His gaze cut to her. “Let’s hope to keep it that way.”

Fear coated her scent, but she could do nothing about it. She’d never been away from her home for this long. Not since she was a child. And she was walking into certain danger. Anticipatory anxiety laced through her.

But Cyrene’s words came back to her, as they always did when she was afraid. Cyrene had won the dragon tournament five years prior and was the first person to see Kerrigan for who she truly was. Her mentor and friend. When she’d told Cyrene of her fear, Cyrene had told her that everyone was afraid, but those who mastered their fear, they were the ones who went on to do great things.

Kerrigan lifted her chin and continued forward. Fear wouldn’t hold her back. She could do anything.