You trust him? Mitalonys asks.

Of course not but I'm not going to refuse. I'm not stupid, I mutter.

He looks surprised at my compliance but then shakes it off. "What's your dragon's name?" He asks.

I make a face. "Seriously?"

"I'm starting simple," he shrugs.

"His name is Mitalonys, but when I shift he prefers being called Talon," I say.

"When did you shift into your dragon for the first time?"

"When I was 14, but Mitalonys has always been around."

"Really?" He asks in surprise.

"Yeah, we shift early in our lives so we have more time to learn control, why?"

"Well we shift into our wolves at 16, and that's also when we are able to start speaking to our wolves," he tells me.

"That must be why you live in packs," I mutter thoughtfully.

"What?"

"Well you must be very lonely to not be able to speak to your wolf until 16, so you need to live in packs to keep you company," I shrug and he frowns, deep creases forming in his forehead.

"Anything else you want to know?" I ask, letting out a sigh as I lean against the wall.

"How old are you?"

"27," I tell him.

"Seriously? You look like you're like 16."

"Well thanks, I guess. Anything else?"

"I think that's it for now. My room is right across the hall so let the guards know if you need anything," he sighs and waits for my nod before walking into the hall.

I pull myself up off the floor, holding onto the counter for support. I walk into the room and change into one of my new sports bras and a pair of comfy shorts. I slip under the silk sheets of my bed with a sigh. I feel instantly tired and fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

*******

"Zari, are you ready?" my father asks me and I nod.

"Yeah," I tell him.

"Okay, try to put a circle around me."

I take a deep breath and look where he is standing a dozen feet away.

"And please don't set my pants on fire again," he pleads quickly and I laugh.

"I'll try not to," I chuckle. I return my focus to the ground.

'Imagine the ground burning in a circle around him', Mitalonys instructs me. I do as he says and just as my hand twitches, flames erupt from the grass around him.

My father grins at the circle of fire that surrounds him. I laugh and a triumphant grin forms on my lips.

"Good job Lyzaria, you didn't set me on fire, now let's see if you can make it go down," he says and my face falls.

I move my hands in a downward motion but nothing happens to the flames. I close my eyes and imagine the flames going down but they are still burning bright when I open them again.

"I can't, they won't go down," I growl angrily and my father sighs. He snaps his fingers and the fiery circle vanishes.

He walks over to me with a frown."You haven't gotten your emotions under control Zari, you are doing better, but you're not quite there yet," he says and I bury my face in my hands.

"I can't stop thinking about it, it is driving me insane. I get nightmares and can't sleep for more than a few hours before they wake me up," I growl.

He walks over to me and puts his hands on either side of my face."I know, I worry about it too."

"I'm not worried, I'm angry! If it weren't for them, we could live a normal life! We wouldn't be running anymore, we wouldn't have to hide, and we wouldn't have to fear for our lives every time we hear a noise," I say, biting back the tears that I can feel burning behind my eyes.

"I know, but you can use that anger to make your fire stronger, and to control it better. Because what are we?"

"Fury Dragons," I mutter, a proud smile creeping onto my face.

"And what gives us our power?" He asks, forcing me to look at him.

"Anger."

***********

I jerk awake when I hear a sharp squeal. My eyes snap open to find Angel's face just inches from mine. "Good morning!" she shrieks.

"Holy shit!" I curse, quickly sitting up and backing away from her.

She rolls her eyes and slides off my bed. I let out a heavy breath.

"You are so high strung," she mutters.

"Well I've been hunted since the day I was born," I snap.

"Oh right, I forgot about that."

"What are you doing in here anyway?" I ask, heading to the bathroom.

She follows me and leans against the doorframe. "I am technically not allowed to leave the house and you are the only other person here so . . . I was thinking we could do something," she says.

I shrug. "Sure."

"Okay great! Have any ideas?" she asks and I make a face.

"I don't know, what do you usually do around here?" I ask, stripping off my clothes and bandages before getting into the shower. The water is like acid against my wounds but I ignore it.

"Well, usually I trick one of the guards into letting me outside but my brother got new guards since you're here. These guys are impossible to trick or escape from so that isn't an option. But when I am stuck here I either use our pool, or hang out in the library."

"You have a library?"

"Yeah, its on the first floor, down the hall from my brother's office. Its pretty big," she tells me as I get out of the shower.

I wrap a towel around my body and use a smaller one to dry off my hair. "Are there any history books?" I ask, walking past Angel and to the closet.

"Probably, there has to be over a thousand books in there, I don't like history so I'm not sure," she shrugs.

I nod, changing into a white bra with matching underwear and a floral crop top with matching shorts. I pull my damp hair back into a braid, securing it with a hair tie. "Okay I'm good," I tell Angel and she leads me downstairs.

We walk down the hall until we reach a set of tall, heavy double doors. She pushes them open and I gasp at the size of the room on the other side. It stretches at least a few thousand square feet, with a thirty foot ceiling. Book shelves cover most of the room, and all but one of the walls. The wall directly across from us is mostly a massive window with hammocks and small platforms.

"Wow, this is amazing," I breathe out making Angel laugh.

"Yeah, everything is organized alphabetically by title," she says.

"I thought its supposed to be by the author's name?"

"Yeah but I never remember any of the author's names," she shrugs.

"Where are the history books?" I ask.

She points to the top of the bookshelves on the left. "Uh, up there I think, now I am going to order some food, want anything in particular?"

"I can eat anything," I shrug and she nods. She heads over to the window and uses the platforms to climb into a hammock almost ten feet off the ground.

There is a small box on the wall with a blinking light. She pushes a button and starts talking into it. She asks for a bunch of food to be brought to the library and a woman's voice responds immediately.

Angel spots me watching her with confusion. "Its a comm system, its for communication across the house. I just called the kitchen," she tells me with a grin.

"Ah," I mutter before walking over to the rolling ladder. I move it to where Angel said the history section was and climb to the top. I search through the books, using the shelves to slide the ladder around.

I don't recognize any of them but one captures my attention. I grab it, sliding down the ladder. I head over to where Angel is lounging in a hammock and climb up beside her. The hammock is extremely soft. I lay down in it, propping the book up on my knees.

"What book is that?" Angel asks me, peering over at the cover.

"The History of Dragons," I tell her and she looks at me funny.

"Why would you need that? What don't you know about your own kind?" she scoffs.

I sigh. "Everything."