Wings of Fire Book Three: The Hidden Kingdom Read Free

why hadn’t the prophecy called for a RainWing? And if she wasn’t necessary for this big grand destiny, then what was the point of her life at all?
    Maybe it was all one big mistake, but when she thought like that, she ended up having violent dreams about ripping Webs apart. So, better not to think about it. Destiny would have to sort itself out.
    Right now she was going home.
    The branch above Glory suddenly dipped and dumped a lake’s worth of water onto her head. She leaped back with a hiss and glared up into the tree.
    “Shhh,” Tsunami said from above. She dropped down to the ground and peered around at the gloomy swamp. “There’s a pair of MudWings headed this way, but they’ll never see us in this weather.”
    Rolls of thick gray fog hung over the mud, wreathing the stunted trees like smoke around a dragon’s horns. It was hard to tell what time of day it was. The sky was gray in every direction and the rain drizzled down unrelentingly. Glory agreed with Tsunami; a dragon could barely see her own wing tips in this, let alone another dragon.
    “We should still hide,” Starflight said anxiously. “We’re only a day’s flight from Queen Moorhen’s palace right now. If we get caught —”
    “More prison,” Clay said with a sigh.
    Every queen they’d met so far seemed determined to keep the dragonets trapped under her claws. They’d escaped Queen Scarlet’s prison in the Sky Kingdom only because of Glory’s venom — a secret weapon even she hadn’t known about until she’d needed it.
    She touched her forked tongue to her fangs and glanced at the sky. They still had no idea if Queen Scarlet had survived Glory’s attack. Given their luck, Glory was pretty sure Scarlet was alive and planning some horrible revenge.
    After that escape they’d gone looking for safety with Tsunami’s mother, Queen Coral of the SeaWings. Of course Coral had decided to lock them up as well. Glory hadn’t been surprised. Not even family could be trusted when it came to the prophecy. Everyone had their own plans for how this war should end.
    So if Queen Moorhen of the MudWings found them in her territory, she
probably
wasn’t going to give them tea and send them on their way.
    The MudWing queen held court beside a large lake on the southern edge of the Mud Kingdom. Glory remembered the map of Pyrrhia and a shiver of realization ran down her spine. If Starflight was right and they were only a day’s flight from there, then they must be only a day’s flight from the rainforest as well. From the rainforest . . . and Glory’s tribe.
    And then I’ll belong somewhere. The RainWings won’t care that I’m not in some prophecy.
    “Glory,” Tsunami scolded. “Bright yellow scales are the one thing they
might
see. Go back to camouflage.”
    Glory glanced down and saw the starbursts of gold that had appeared all across her scales. Those meant happiness or excitement, as far as she knew, since she’d seen them pretty rarely in her life. It drove her crazy when her scales changed color without her telling them to. They did that way too often. She had to squash every big emotion before it splashed all over her.
    She concentrated on the steady
drip-drip
of the swamp around them, staring down at the thick brown mud oozing through her claws. She imagined the fog winding around her wings, slipping into the cracks in her scales, and spreading like gray clouds rolling across the sky.
    “Aaaand she’s gone,” Tsunami said.
    “She’s still there,” Sunny piped up. She edged closer to Glory and bumped into one of her wings. “See? Right there.” She stretched out a talon, but Glory moved out of reach. Sunny felt around in the air for a moment and then gave up.
    The little SandWing had been unusually quiet for the last few days. Glory guessed Sunny hated the rain, too — the desert dragons were designed for searing heat, blazing sun, and endless clear-sky days. Even an odd-looking SandWing like Sunny still had the instincts of