POV: Serina
The explosion hit before I could scream.
One second I was sleeping on the cold cave floor, dreaming about fire and dragons. The next, the entire cave shook like a giant had punched it. Rocks fell from the ceiling. Dust filled my lungs.
"SERINA!" Kaelion's roar cut through the chaos.
I rolled sideways just as a boulder crashed where my head had been. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst. Through our bond, I felt Kaelion's fury burning like a wildfire.
They found us.
I scrambled to my feet, coughing. The cave entrance glowed with angry red light—attack magic. Lots of it.
"Finn!" I screamed, searching through the dust. "FINN!"
"I've got him!" Mira appeared, clutching my little brother against her chest. Finn's eyes were huge with terror, but he was alive. Thank the ancient fires, he was alive.
Another explosion rocked the cave. This time I saw the magic coming—crimson bolts that screamed through the air like angry hornets. Guards poured through the entrance, their armor gleaming in the firelight.
And leading them was Commander Drace.
My stomach dropped. I'd seen him before, on my thieving runs through the Gray Districts. He was the one who'd let me go when he could have arrested me. But the kind look in his eyes was gone now. He looked grim, like a man doing a job he hated.
"Surrender the dragon!" he shouted. "And the girl bonded to him. The rest of you can live!"
"LIARS!" Silvaris roared from deeper in the cave. The old silver dragon shifted into his massive form, blocking the guards' advance. "You'll kill us all the moment we submit!"
He was right. I'd seen what the Citadel did to prisoners. They didn't leave witnesses.
Kaelion materialized beside me in human form, already reaching for my hand. The moment our fingers touched, power surged through the bond. My skin tingled. The dragon mark on my chest burned hot.
"Can you fight?" His golden eyes bore into mine.
I thought about the three days of brutal training. The blisters on my hands. The way I could now sense magic in the air like tasting smoke. I wasn't strong yet—not nearly strong enough—but I wasn't helpless anymore either.
"Yes," I said, surprised by how steady my voice sounded.
His mouth curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Good. Because we're about to give them a very bad day."
More guards flooded in. At least thirty, maybe forty. All armed with spelled weapons that glowed with stolen dragon magic. Magic they'd ripped from Kaelion during his imprisonment.
The sight made my blood boil.
"Protect the children!" Drace shouted as a rebel—a scraggly man named Holt—launched a desperate attack. The guards formed ranks, their shields glowing with protective wards.
Then she walked in.
Lady Isadora Thornwell stepped through the smoke like she owned the place. Her red robes swirled around her, and her hands crackled with blood-colored magic. She was beautiful in a cold, cruel way—like a knife made of ice.
And she was staring straight at me.
"So this is the little slum rat who broke the World-End seal," she purred. "I expected someone... more impressive."
Rage flooded through me—not just mine. Kaelion's fury poured down the bond, mixing with my own anger until I couldn't tell where his emotions ended and mine began.
"Don't," Kaelion warned through gritted teeth. "She's trying to provoke you into attacking first. It's a trap."
But Isadora wasn't done. She raised one perfect hand, and suddenly Finn screamed.
Mira stumbled backward, clutching him. Red light wrapped around my brother's small body, squeezing like a snake. The same curse that had nearly killed him before was back, but worse—so much worse.
"Stop!" I lurched forward, but Kaelion grabbed my arm.
"That's what she wants," he hissed.
"I don't care!" Tears burned my eyes as Finn writhed in pain. "She's killing him!"
"And if you rush in blind, she'll kill you both." Kaelion's grip tightened. "Trust me. Trust the training."
I wanted to scream. To rage. To burn everything down.
Instead, I closed my eyes and reached for the power we'd been practicing. Deep inside my chest, past the fear and anger, I found it—that warm, silver light that had been growing stronger every day.
Dragon fire.
My eyes snapped open. "Get Finn to safety. Now."
Mira didn't argue. She ran deeper into the cave with my brother as I stepped forward, my hands beginning to glow.
Isadora laughed. "Oh, this will be fun. Show me what you've got, little—"
I threw fire at her face.
Not the weak orange sparks I used to make. Real flames, silver-white and hot enough to make the air shimmer. Isadora's eyes went wide with shock as she barely dodged, her perfect hair singeing.
"You DARE—" she snarled.
The cave erupted into chaos.
Silvaris crashed into the guards, his massive silver form scattering them like toys. Drace was shouting orders, but nobody was listening anymore. The rebels fought back with desperate fury. Magic lit up the darkness in a dozen different colors.
And in the center of it all, Kaelion shifted.
His dragon form exploded outward—massive black scales, wings that scraped the cave ceiling, eyes like liquid gold. He was terrifying and beautiful and mine. The bond between us thrummed with shared power.
Together, his voice echoed in my mind. We fight together.
I didn't know how, but I understood. I reached up as he swept past, and his tail curled around my waist, lifting me onto his back. The moment I touched his scales, our power merged.
The world exploded into sensation. I could feel everything he felt—the wind under his wings, the strength in his muscles, the rage burning in his ancient heart. And he could feel me too, my fear and determination and love for my brother mixing with his millennium of pain.
We moved as one.
Kaelion breathed fire, and I shaped it, directing the flames away from our allies and straight at the attacking guards. They scattered, screaming. Isadora threw up a shield, but I could see the cracks forming.
She's weakening, I thought.
Then let's end this, Kaelion responded.
We dove toward her together, power building between us like a storm about to break—
And then the floor exploded.
Not from above. From below.
Something burst up through the stone in a shower of rocks and dark magic. Something huge. Something that made even Kaelion freeze in midair with horror.
Another dragon.
But this one was wrong. Its scales were gray and rotting, held together by red magic that pulsed like infected wounds. Its eyes were empty, dead—but it moved anyway, a puppet on strings of blood magic.
"Did you really think you were the only dragon we captured?" Isadora's laugh was triumphant. "Meet Valdris. He's been dead for three hundred years, but he still serves the Citadel so well."
The undead dragon's head swiveled toward us. Its jaw opened, revealing teeth like tombstones.
And deep in my chest, through our bond, I felt Kaelion's heart break.
"No," he whispered. "Not him. Not Valdris. He was my brother."