Serina's POV
Fire exploded toward my face.
I threw myself sideways, hitting the ground hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. Heat scorched past my head, so close I smelled my own hair burning.
"TOO SLOW!" Kael's voice cut through the roar of flames. "Again!"
"Are you INSANE?" I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering. "You almost killed me!"
"Almost doesn't count." He raised his hand, and red light gathered in his palm. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be ash already. Now—move!"
Another fireball screamed toward me.
This was supposed to be training. We'd escaped the Council guards last night by the skin of our teeth—Kael had grabbed Finn and me, then somehow moved us through shadows to this abandoned warehouse on the edge of the slums. I'd barely slept, too worried about what morning would bring.
I hadn't expected morning to bring this.
I dove behind a broken crate. The fireball smashed into it, reducing the wood to splinters and smoke. Pieces of burning debris rained down on me.
"Hiding won't save you!" Kael circled like a predator, those red eyes glowing in the dim warehouse. "The people hunting you won't give you places to hide. They'll burn everything until there's nothing left but you, exposed and helpless."
"Then teach me to fight back!" I yelled, pressing against the wall. "Stop just attacking me!"
"I am teaching you." Another blast. The wall beside my head exploded. "Dragon magic doesn't work like normal magic, Serina. There are no words to memorize, no spells to practice. It responds to one thing only—emotion."
He appeared directly in front of me. I hadn't even seen him move.
"When you're angry, dragon fire burns." His hand shot out, grabbing my wrist. Heat flooded through me, making the mark on my chest flare painfully. "When you're afraid, it explodes. When you're desperate, it consumes everything around you."
I tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. "So what, I'm just supposed to feel things and hope the magic works?"
"No." His eyes bored into mine. "You're supposed to feel things and control the magic anyway. That's the difference between a weapon and a disaster."
He released me and stepped back. "Now. Let's try something simple. Create fire in your hand."
"How?"
"How do you breathe? How do you blink?" Kael's expression turned cold. "Stop overthinking. Just do it."
I stared at my hand. Nothing happened.
"Pathetic." Kael's voice dripped contempt. "A thousand years I waited for freedom, and I'm bonded to a girl who can't even—"
"Shut UP!" Fury exploded in my chest, hot and sudden. "I've had nineteen years of people telling me I'm worthless! I don't need it from you too!"
Red flames burst from my palm.
I yelped and shook my hand frantically, but the fire didn't burn me. It danced across my skin like it belonged there, warm and alive and mine.
"Finally." Kael actually smiled—cold and sharp, but still a smile. "Anger. That's your trigger. Remember how this feels."
I stared at the flames. "I... I did it."
"Don't celebrate yet." The smile vanished. "Now comes the hard part. Keep it burning, but don't let it grow. Control it."
That sounded simple enough. But the moment I focused on the fire, it flared brighter. Hotter. Growing up my arm like a living thing.
"Control it!" Kael snapped.
"I'm trying!" Panic set in as the flames spread to my shoulder. They still didn't hurt, but I could feel them wanting to explode outward, to consume everything.
"Stop trying. Just do."
"That doesn't help!"
The fire reached my neck. I felt it building, building, ready to burst—
Kael's hand closed around my wrist again. Cool power flooded through me, smothering the flames instantly. They died like candles in the wind.
I gasped, suddenly cold without them. "What did you—"
"My power, my control." He let go. "But I won't always be here to save you. Next time, you do it yourself."
For the next three hours, he put me through hell.
Fire burst from my hands at random. Sometimes it was tiny sparks. Sometimes it was walls of flame that nearly burned down the warehouse. Kael attacked without warning, forcing me to defend with magic I barely understood. Every time I failed—which was often—I got hit with fire or thrown across the room by wind or slammed into walls by invisible force.
"You're holding back!" he roared after I failed to block his tenth attack. I lay on the ground, ribs aching, arms covered in burns. "Stop being afraid of the power!"
"I'm not afraid of the power!" I shouted back, forcing myself up. "I'm afraid of becoming like you—cold and cruel and alone!"
The words hung in the air between us.
Kael's expression didn't change, but something flickered in those burning eyes. Something that might have been pain.
"Better cold and alive than kind and dead," he said quietly. Then, louder: "Again!"
He launched the biggest fireball yet.
And something inside me snapped.
I was tired. Tired of being hit, tired of failing, tired of rich people hurting poor people, tired of being afraid, tired of Uncle Castor's betrayal, tired of watching Finn almost die, tired of barely surviving every single day of my entire life.
Just... tired.
Red rage filled my vision. The dragon mark burned white-hot on my chest. And I screamed.
Fire exploded from every part of my body.
Not small flames. Not controlled bursts. A wave of crimson dragon fire that filled the entire warehouse, meeting Kael's attack head-on and devouring it. The two forces collided with a sound like thunder, and for one perfect moment, I felt powerful.
Then the fire vanished, and I collapsed.
Everything hurt. My chest, my arms, my head. The mark on my skin felt like someone had carved it fresh. But I was smiling.
"I did it," I whispered. "I actually did it."
Footsteps approached. Kael knelt beside me, and for once, his face showed something other than contempt or coldness.
Respect.
"Yes," he said. "You did."
He pressed his hand to my forehead. Cool, soothing magic flowed through me. Burns healed. Bruises faded. The exhaustion remained, but the pain disappeared.
I looked up at him, confused. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because if you die, I'm trapped forever," he replied automatically.
"That's not the real reason."
His hand stilled against my forehead. Those red eyes studied me for a long moment. "No," he finally admitted. "It's not."
"Then why?"
"Because..." He stood abruptly, turning away. "Because you remind me of something I forgot. Someone I used to be, before the seal. Before the betrayal. Before I learned that humans only care about power."
"I don't care about power," I said, sitting up slowly. "I just want Finn to be safe."
"Exactly." Kael looked back at me over his shoulder. "You broke into a death trap not for yourself, but for someone else. That kind of selflessness is... rare. Especially among humans."
He moved to the window, gazing out at the slum streets below. "The humans who sealed me did it because they feared my power. They couldn't control me, so they destroyed me instead." His fists clenched. "I swore I'd never trust your kind again."
"And now?" I asked quietly.
"Now I'm bonded to a stubborn girl who yells at dragons and jumps into fire to save her brother." A small smile touched his lips. "Perhaps the world isn't entirely terrible after all."
Something warm bloomed in my chest—not dragon fire, but something even more dangerous. Connection. Understanding.
Maybe even the beginning of trust.
The warehouse door suddenly exploded inward.
Kael spun, magic flaring to life in his hands. I scrambled to my feet, exhaustion forgotten.
Finn stood in the doorway, chest heaving like he'd been running. His eyes were wide with terror.
"Rina!" he gasped. "They're coming! The guards—Uncle Castor brought them—they're searching every building in the slums!"
My heart stopped. "How close?"
"Two streets away." Finn grabbed my arm. "We have to run! Now!"
Kael moved toward us, his expression deadly calm. "How many guards?"
"I don't know! Twenty? Thirty?" Finn's voice cracked. "They have mages with them. Real ones, with official robes and everything. And Uncle Castor told them you have a dragon mark. They're looking specifically for you!"
The mark on my chest burned as if responding to the threat.
Kael's eyes met mine. "We can run, but they'll track the magic signature now that you've used so much power. Or..."
"Or?" I demanded.
"Or I teach them why hunting dragons is a mistake humans only make once."
The temperature in the warehouse dropped twenty degrees. Red light began to glow beneath Kael's skin, his eyes burning brighter than ever.
"No." I grabbed his arm before he could do something terrible. "We can't fight the entire Magic Council. Not yet. We need time."
"Then we're trapped," Finn whispered. "There's no way out of the slums that they haven't blocked."
He was right. The warehouse only had two exits, and both led to streets the guards would be sweeping. We had maybe five minutes before they found us.
Five minutes to figure out an escape.
Five minutes before everything ended.
Kael looked at me, power radiating off him in waves. "Your choice, Serina. Run and hope, or fight and survive. Decide now."
Through the broken windows, I heard boots on cobblestones. Voices shouting orders. Magic crackling in the air as the Council's mages prepared their spells.
They were close. So close.
And then I heard the voice that made my blood run cold.
"Search this one!" Uncle Castor's triumphant shout echoed through the street. "The warehouse! They're hiding in the warehouse! I'm certain of it!"
Finn grabbed my hand, trembling. Kael's power flared brighter, ready for violence.
And I had exactly ten seconds to make a choice that would change everything.
Fight the Council and become fugitives forever.
Or run, and pray we survived long enough to learn the truth about why everyone wanted us dead.
The warehouse door shook as heavy fists pounded against it.
"Open up! By order of the Magic Council!"
My dragon mark blazed hot enough to burn through my shirt.
And in that moment, I realized something terrifying.
I wasn't afraid anymore.
I was furious.