He didn’t care if it wasn’t a dragon. He would love it anyway.

A smile spread across his face. It was true, he realised. He cared desperately about this egg, in a way that hadn’t happened at the hatching ceremony.

He memorised its pattern, its strange glittering lumines­cence. He’d seen this kind of light before, out at sea one evening on a trip beyond Sartola with his father. At night the ocean had been full of lights, as if the stars had fallen into the water. It was the same kind of glow, a moonlike night-time brightness that had nothing to do with the sun. 88

He wriggled his fingers deeper, round the egg, and care­fully lifted it up.

He was vaguely aware of Winter doing the same with the other egg, and gasping when she must’ve felt that tingle under her fingertips.

‘Hello, you,’ he said. It was heavier than it looked. It felt charged with potential. It wasn’t alive exactly, not yet, but it could be, Joe felt sure.

He stared down at it.

This egg was his.

Suddenly everything made sense. Of course he’d failed at the ceremony! If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be here now. He felt calm. He felt happy, for the first time in weeks.

They stayed there for a long time.

When they’d placed the eggs safely back in the casket, Winter and Joe turned to each other.

‘What do you think?’ he asked, gripping both her arms, giddy with excitement. ‘What are they?’

‘Not like any dragon eggs I’ve ever seen. Not like Jin’s egg – that was smoother and larger.’ Winter grimaced with pain then, her eyes full of shadows.

‘We need to find out. We need to know what they are, what they need, how to look after them.’ Joe’s head was spinning with new energy and ideas. He dropped Winter’s arms and started pacing up and down.

She was nodding. ‘The city library, at the palace.’ Her voice was soft and faint. ‘We should try there.’

Joe was about to agree with her. Then he remembered. ‘I can’t. I’m supposed to be dead, remember?’ But in the next 89moment, a new sense of purpose washed over him, and it was stronger than fear. For this egg, he could do it. He could do anything. ‘Wait. The tunnels go that far, don’t they? Could they get us into the palace grounds?’

‘Of course,’ Winter said, retreating and huddling against the wall as if she were cold. ‘You know the maps.’

‘Then we’ll find a way. Even if we have to break in. We’ll—’ He stopped dead, suddenly noticing she didn’t share his mood. ‘What’s wrong?’ He paused, taming his excitement. He took in her fearful expression, her hunched posture.

From the moment she’d compared this egg to that of her lost dragon, Jin, Winter had seemed to slip away from him, battling against the shadows in her past.

He should have realised. This was different for her. She’d lost one dragon. It was natural she would be anxious as well as protective of another egg.