Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

I walk into the copse, and Sgaeyl does me a solid favor and doesn’t make me ask her to move, taking two steps to the right so I’m in between her and Tairn, directly in front of… What. The. Fuck? That can’t be… No. Impossible. “Stay calm. She’ll respond to your agitation and wake in a temper,” Tairn warns. I stare at the sleeping dragon—who is almost twice the size she had been a few days ago—and try to get my thoughts to line up with what I’m seeing, what my heart already knows thanks to the bond between us. “That’s…” I shake my head, and my pulse begins to race. “Wasn’t expecting that,” Brennan says quietly. “Riorson left out some details when he reported in this morning. I’ve never seen such accelerated growth in a dragon before.” “Her scales are black.” Yeah, saying it doesn’t help make it feel any more real. “Dragons are only gold-feathered as hatchlings.” Tairn’s voice is uncharacteristically patient. “‘Accelerated growth,’” I whisper, repeating Brennan’s words, then gasp. “From the energy usage. We forced her to grow. In Resson. She stopped time for too long. We—I—forced her to grow.” I can’t seem to stop saying it. “It would have happened eventually, Silver One, if at a slower pace.” “Is she full-grown?” I can’t take my eyes off her. “No. She’s what you would call an adolescent. We need to get her back to the Vale so she can enter the Dreamless Sleep and finish the growth process. I should warn you before she wakes that this is a notoriously…perilous age.” “For her?...