Chapter 46

Valerie

No one had ever seen a dragon.

At least, no one had seen one in a very long time. I had only read about them in books, where they were portrayed as diabolical creatures who horded treasures and stole away with princess, eventually meeting their fates by the hands of a knight.

In those books, villains never won. The dragons were vanquished and the princesses were saved. But those were only stories. Reality had shown me much harsher images.

Though they hadn’t been seen in centuries, I had known for some time that dragons were real. But they were real the way love was real; you didn’t know for sure until you saw it for yourself. Of course, hearing about them wasn’t enough, and many still rejected the concept of the ancient creatures until their existence came to light years ago, when the peace treaty was first signed.

Back then, I was still living in The Cell. I recalled the day the guards buzzed about, shocked by the morning news.

“Dragons?” they asked one another, baffled by th