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I rumble low. So this is Queen Tethys.

Sirena draws away and faces the dragons. “I have found help.”

The queen lifts her face to the ridge and finds me. She studies the blue running through my scales with her lips parted. “I thought all of Stormscale was lost to us.”

She looks past my mother, Dominic, and Sam and stops on my father. “Tyrion. Son of Aldric.”

My father’s dragon bows low. My dragon doesn’t wait for my say and does the same.

The queen puts a hand to her chest. “I would be honored to be guided to safety by your dragon.”

Sirena turns back to her. “Mother, this is Ezra. He is the son of Ash Clan and Stormscale, and he is their alpha.” She glances up at us. “They are here to guide us to the safety of Wintermoon. No more hiding.”

Her mother presses her forehead to Sirena’s. When she pulls back, she raises her voice to the pod and gives the command. “Gather the pod. We leave immediately.”

I check on my father. His dragon hasn’t moved. His wings are tucked tight to his sides while he stares out at the waves.

I lean into him, brushing my snout against his. His scales shiver under mine, and his scent sours with fear. I know exactly where it comes from. Every Stormscale who could have answered his call is gone. My dragon presses closer and stays there until the shaking eases. He doesn’t need words to tell him it’s okay to lead.

Then finally, my father’s dragon moves forward. He steps out to the edge of the ridge, lifts his snout into the air, and gives the call. It booms out over the ocean and shakes the ground under my talons. Clouds pile in from every direction and blot out the sun. Blue lightning splits them open, and thunder cracks overhead. My dragon roars back at it. I don’t even try to stop him.

The queen smiles up at the sky. Then she tips back into the water as my father’s dragon takes off toward Wintermoon. Dominic and Sam follow him up.

Sirena peers up at me from the waves. “I will retrieve my pod.” She dips under and disappears.

My mother’s dragon stays behind with mine. She gives me a look, and I smell the pride all over her.

I take off with her on my tail. Below us, the water fills with Mer, and the pod is a hell of a lot bigger than I thought. There have to be over a hundred of them. Where are we supposed to put all these merfolk? I picture Angie’s face when she sees them and snicker inside my dragon. She’s going to lose her mind.

My father leads the way and keeps up the Stormscale call. My mother’s dragon nudges me to fly up and join him, and eventually I do. Even then, I hang back a wingspan. This isn’t my moment. It’s my father’s. He’s the last full-blood of our line, and I won’t take it from him.

Stormscale lives again. My father thought it would die with him. I’m going to make sure that never happens.

The trip home is slower. A pod this size can’t move as fast as Sirena and her family. We fly as far as the littlest Mer can swim and come down on the nearest rocks or sandbars. The pod stays in the water. They float in a huge circle around us. The young ones sing to each other in their heads until their mothers make them stop. I can’t hear a word of it, but my dragon sure acts like he can.

On the clearest night yet, my father doesn’t bother sleeping. He stays in his dragon form at the highest point of the rocks with his face turned up to the sky. As soon as the stars are out, he takes off without us and circles until he finds the ones he’s after. Once he has them, he turns the pod west.

Queen Tethys swims up beside me and watches him. “Aldric did the same for my grandmother’s pod. He read the sky, and we followed his lightning home.”

I’ve sat through my father’s star lectures since I was a hatchling. I always figured they were for his students at the Academy. Turns out they were for this.

I can’t sleep after that. I stretch out with my wings wrapped around me and write Aya a poem I have no paper for.

The ocean is bigger than anyone told me.

It has no edges, and it doesn’t know your name.

But every current my father finds

bends back toward the lake,

and every night my dragon turns his head

toward wild berries he can’t smell.

I’m bringing your sister home.

Then I’m coming home to you.