Elara's POV
"Choose!" Theron's voice cuts through the children's screams. "Them or the dragon!"
The torches are inches from the stakes now. Miko's crying. Sara's trying to sing to calm the little ones even though her voice is shaking. Marcus is pulling at his ropes so hard his wrists are bleeding.
Behind me, Valdris roars as more chains wrap around him. "Don't do it, Elara! He's lying! He'll kill them anyway!"
But what if he's not lying? What if this is the only chance?
My mind races. Five seconds. Four. Three.
"I accept!" I shout.
Theron smiles. "Wise choice—"
"I accept that you're a liar!" I spin toward Valdris, our marks blazing. "Now!"
I don't know what I'm asking for. I just know we planned nothing, we're both nearly dead, and this is completely insane.
But Valdris understands.
Our bond explodes with power—not his destruction magic, not my healing magic, but something new. Something that happens when you mix fire and water, violence and gentleness, rage and compassion.
The chains holding Valdris shatter.
Not crack. Not bend. They completely disintegrate into silver dust.
Theron's face goes white. "Impossible! Those are suppression chains! They can't—"
Valdris rises to his full height, free for the first time in five hundred years. Even wounded and exhausted, he's magnificent. Terrifying. Beautiful.
"You want to know what's impossible?" His voice shakes the entire square. "A girl with 'useless' healing magic just broke chains that held me for five centuries. A thief who everyone called worthless just freed the most dangerous dragon in history. And now?"
He looks at me, and there's something fierce and grateful in those golden eyes.
"Now she's going to show you what real power looks like."
"The children!" I gasp. "The fire—"
"Already handled." Valdris flicks one claw.
Instantly, every torch in the square goes out. Not blown out. Not dropped. They simply stop existing. The ropes binding the children turn to ash—gentle ash that doesn't burn, just falls away like snow.
The thirty-two orphans stand free, confused but alive.
"How—" I start.
"Our bond." Valdris sounds amazed. "Your magic and mine together. I can destroy with precision now. No more mindless burning. I can choose what burns and what doesn't."
Theron recovers quickly. He raises both hands, and suddenly fifty war mages appear on the rooftops around us. All of them. The kingdom's entire magical army.
"Impressive display," Theron says coldly. "But you're still weak, dragon. You can barely stand. And the girl has no combat magic at all. Surrender now, or we'll kill every person in this square."
He means it. I can see it in his eyes.
The crowd is screaming, trying to run. But magic barriers slam down, trapping everyone inside the square. Hundreds of innocent people. The orphans. All of them hostages.
"Your move, Calamity Dragon," Theron smirks. "Burn my mages, and the barriers drop. Everyone dies. Or submit, and I'll only kill the orphans. Choose."
Valdris's whole body tenses. Through our bond, I feel his rage—five hundred years of torture and hatred boiling over. He wants to burn everything. Everyone. Make them all pay.
But he also feels my horror. My desperate need to save people, not kill them.
"There's no winning move," he growls quietly. "This is why I hate humans. They make everything a trap."
"Not all humans," I whisper back. "Just the cruel ones."
An idea strikes me. Completely insane. Probably impossible. But it's all I have.
"Can you make me louder?" I ask Valdris through our bond. "If I talk, can everyone hear me?"
"Yes. But talking won't—"
"Trust me. Please."
I feel his hesitation. Then: "I trust you."
His magic flows through our mark. When I speak, my voice carries across the entire square like thunder.
"People of Ashenfell! Look around you! Look at what your Grand War Mage is doing!"
Everyone stops. Even Theron looks surprised.
"He's not protecting you from a monster!" I point at the children. "He tried to burn orphans alive! Babies! And when we stopped him, he trapped you all here to use as hostages! Is this the man you want ruling you?"
"Silence her!" Theron shouts.
But people are listening now. Looking at the children. At the stakes. At the barriers trapping them.
"The legends say Valdris is a mindless beast who destroyed cities," I continue. "But look! He freed the children without hurting anyone! He put out the fires! He's been chained and tortured for five hundred years to fuel your kingdom's war magic! The real monster isn't the dragon—it's the man who's been using him!"
"Lies!" Theron's face is red with rage. "She's been corrupted by dragon magic! She's—"
"Then prove me wrong!" I challenge. "Drop the barriers! Let these people go! If you're really protecting them, you don't need hostages!"
Theron's silence is all the answer anyone needs.
I see it happening—the shift in the crowd. Doubt creeping across faces. Mothers pulling children close. Old people remembering other times Theron made cruel choices.
One of the war mages on the rooftop—a young woman with kind eyes—lowers her hands. "Grand War Mage, maybe we should—"
"Traitor!" Theron blasts her with dark magic.
She falls from the roof. Dead before she hits the ground.
The crowd gasps. Even the other war mages look shocked.
"Let that be a lesson!" Theron screams. "I am the law here! I decide who lives and dies! Anyone who questions me will—"
"Will what?" A new voice rings out. "Will you kill us all?"
Commander Ravik steps forward from the crowd. The head of the guard. Theron's right-hand man for twenty years.
"I've served you faithfully," Ravik says, his voice heavy. "I've done terrible things in your name. But this?" He looks at the dead war mage. At the children. At the trapped civilians. "This is wrong. Even I can see that."
"Commander, don't be foolish—"
"I'm done being loyal to cruelty." Ravik draws his sword. Not pointing it at Valdris. Pointing it at Theron. "People of Ashenfell! Who stands with me against a tyrant?"
For one long, breathless moment, nothing happens.
Then someone else steps forward. A baker. Then a farmer. Then three more guards. Then ten citizens. Then fifty.
The revolution I never planned suddenly ignites.
Theron sees his power crumbling. And like all tyrants when they're losing, he decides if he can't win, no one can.
"Fine!" He raises his hands toward the sky. "You want a monster? I'll show you a monster!"
Dark magic pours from him—not aimed at Valdris or me or even Ravik. Aimed at the sky itself.
The clouds turn black. Red lightning crackles. And I feel it through our bond—Valdris's shock and horror.
"He's opening a rift," the dragon whispers. "To the Shadow Realm. He's going to let demons through."
"Can he do that?"
"He's insane enough to try. If he succeeds, demons will pour into this city. Thousands of them. Everyone will die. Everything will burn."
The rift is opening. I can see it—a tear in reality, and beyond it, glowing red eyes. Dozens. Hundreds. All waiting to flood through.
"We have to stop him!" I grab Valdris's claw.
"I'm too weak! Even with our bond, I don't have the power to close a rift that size!"
"Then we'll find the power!" I look at him desperately. "You said I'm Dragon-Tender bloodline. What does that mean? What can I actually do?"
Valdris meets my eyes. "Dragon-Tenders could break bindings. Heal wounds. And in the old days, the most powerful ones could... link minds. Not just with one dragon. With many."
I understand immediately. "The other dragons. The ones imprisoned under the Citadel. If we free them—"
"It might kill you. Linking with forty dragons at once when you're untrained—"
"Do we have a choice?"
The rift widens. The first demon claw pushes through.
"No," Valdris says quietly. "We don't."
"Then let's save everyone." I smile at him despite my terror. "Together."
Valdris transforms into his human form—tall and beautiful and desperate. He takes both my hands in his. "If you die doing this, I'll burn down the world."
"If I die doing this, the world will already be burning."
"Fair point."
Our marks ignite. But this time, instead of just our power, Valdris reaches down—down through the earth, down to the chambers beneath the Citadel where forty dragons have been tortured for centuries.
And he calls to them through me.
"Brothers! Sisters! The Dragon-Tender has returned! She's offering freedom! Will you answer?"
I feel them wake. Feel their suspicion, their pain, their rage. They've been betrayed by humans before. Why should they trust one now?
So I show them what I showed Valdris. My memories. My heart. Every orphan I've saved. Every wound I've healed. Every time I chose kindness when the world told me to choose cruelty.
I show them that not all humans are Theron.
One dragon answers. Then another. Then five. Then twenty. Then all forty of them, their minds connecting to mine through the bond.
The pain is incredible. It feels like my skull is splitting open. But I hold on.
"Now!" Valdris shouts. "Break the bindings!"
My healing magic explodes outward, amplified by forty-one dragons. Every chain, every torture device, every binding spell in the entire kingdom shatters simultaneously.
The Citadel shakes. The ground cracks. And from beneath the earth, forty dragons erupt into the sky—free for the first time in five hundred years.
Theron stumbles backward, his concentration broken. The rift starts to close.
"No!" He pours more magic into it, desperately trying to keep it open. "I won't lose! I won't—"
The largest of the freed dragons—an ancient creature with silver scales—lands behind Theron. When she speaks, her voice is gentle despite her size.
"Hello, old friend. Remember me? You used my daughter's screams to power your war spells for three hundred years."
Theron goes white. "Morvanna. I—"
"I should kill you." Morvanna's eyes glow. "But the Dragon-Tender showed me something. She showed me that revenge isn't freedom. So instead, I'll let the humans decide your fate."
She picks up Theron in one claw—carefully, not crushing him—and drops him in front of Commander Ravik.
"Your justice system. Your choice."
The rift closes completely. The demons retreat. The sky clears.
Forty-one dragons circle overhead, and every person in the square is staring up in wonder and terror.
I collapse. Linking with that many dragons pushed me past my limit. Valdris catches me, cradling me in his arms.
"You did it," he whispers. "You actually did it."
"We did it," I correct weakly.
Around us, the city is chaos. Good chaos. The kind that happens when a terrible system suddenly breaks and people don't know what comes next.
Commander Ravik is organizing guards to arrest the war mages who stayed loyal to Theron. Citizens are helping the freed orphans. The dragons are landing, carefully, trying not to crush anyone.
It's messy and confusing and beautiful.
"What happens now?" I ask Valdris.
"Now?" He smiles. "Now we figure out how humans and dragons build a new world together. With you as the bridge."
"Me? I'm just a thief."
"You're the Dragon-Tender who freed us all." He touches the mark over my heart. "And you're bound to me forever. Hope you don't have regrets."
I think about everything that's happened. The impossible choices. The desperate risks. The revolution I accidentally started.
"No regrets," I say. "Although I should probably check on the children before I—"
A roar splits the sky.
But not from our dragons. This roar is different. Wrong. Full of malice and hunger.
Everyone looks up.
The rift Theron opened—it's not fully closed. There's still a small tear in reality. And through that tear, something is coming.
Not a demon. Something worse.
Morvanna's face goes white. "No. That's impossible. He was sealed away in the Void. He can't—"
"Who?" Valdris demands. "Who's coming?"
The ancient dragon's voice shakes with fear. "Kthanos the Soul Eater. The dragon who betrayed our kind to the humans five hundred years ago. The reason you were captured in the first place, Valdris."
A massive shape pushes through the tear. Bigger than any dragon I've seen. His scales are rotting, his eyes are empty holes, and his presence makes my soul hurt.
When he speaks, his voice is full of hatred and hunger.
"Hello, little brother." Kthanos smiles at Valdris. "Five hundred years I've been trapped in the Void because you refused to join me. Now I'm free, and I'm going to finish what I started—eating every human soul in this pathetic kingdom."
He spots me in Valdris's arms.
"Starting with your precious Dragon-Tender."
Kthanos lunges.
Valdris throws us both aside, but Kthanos is too fast. His claws rake across Valdris's chest, and I feel his pain explode through our bond.
Valdris crashes to the ground, bleeding black blood. Through our connection, I feel his life force draining away.
"No!" I crawl toward him. "Valdris!"
Kthanos laughs. "How sweet. The mighty Calamity Dragon, brought down by love. How pathetic you've become, brother."
He raises his claw for a killing blow.
And I realize—I have no magic left. No strength. No way to stop this.
Valdris is dying. The Soul Eater is about to kill us both. And I can't save him.
Unless...
The mark on my chest pulses. And I remember what Valdris said—Dragon-Tenders and dragons could share life force.
If he's dying, maybe I can give him mine.
All of it.
"Elara, no—" Valdris's eyes widen as he realizes what I'm thinking. "Don't you dare—"
I press my hand to his wound and pour everything I have left into him. My magic. My strength. My life itself.
The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Valdris's face, twisted with grief and rage.
Then nothing.