She set down with an awkward thud, nearly crashing into the cave wall before she managed to stop her speed. Utterly graceless.

“You have to take me back,” Nina said.

Zoya gave a massive shrug. Climb off or I’ll throw you off.

Nina yelped and half rolled off her, landing in a heap on the cave floor. Her clothes were soaked and her blond hair looked like someone had tried to style it with a pitchfork.

“Are you in my head?” Nina squeaked, pressing her hands to her temples. “Can you read my mind?”

Blessedly not. But she could feel. So much. It was terrifying. This was what she had always feared, this deep connection to the world. But she had opened the door. She’d burst right through it. There was no closing it now.

Nina pushed to her feet. She was staring at Zoya with huge eyes, and Zoya wondered what she saw. Her own sight was keener, her sense of smell sharper. Each breath felt strange, her belly, her lungs. What had she become?

“I … I still don’t … I can’t believe it’s you.”

Zoya couldn’t quite believe it either. And yet, this was what Juris had wanted from her, it was the true gift that had come through his scales when she’d taken his life and he’d taken hers. But she didn’t know how long she could keep this form. It still felt wrong to her, unstable.

She sought some kind of explanation to offer Nina. There was a time when soldiers became beasts, and when Grisha didn’t take amplifiers, they became them.

“You didn’t become a bear or a hawk, Zoya. You’re a dragon. Can you … Is it permanent?”

Zoya felt a shiver pass through her, an echo of Juris’ loneliness. He had been able to take human or dragon form at will. She hoped the same thing would be true for her.

I don’t know.

“Zoya, you have to take me back to Leviathan’s Mouth.”

You will come home to Ravka.

“No, I will not. My mission isn’t complete.”

A deep growl rumbled through Zoya and she snapped her huge jaws at the air. Why must you be so stubborn?

“I could ask the same of you!” Nina said, and she had the temerity to kick Zoya’s foreleg with her tiny foot.

I put my life at risk to get you back, Nina. The Apparat could still be alive. Your cover may be worthless.

“I’m going to take that chance. I have to.”

Zoya huffed a breath and watched dust and pebbles billow through the cave. The cost of the dragon’s form was just as high as she’d suspected it would be. She felt Nina’s hurt, and it only made Zoya want to keep her closer, find a way to shield her from harm. It was unbearable.

Promise you’ll come home to us.