Aria's POV
Power courses through my veins like lightning.
I feel every dragon bonded to me—their strength, their memories, their fierce determination. Hundreds of ancient hearts beating in sync with mine. It should kill me. The Matriarch said it would tear my mind apart.
Instead, I feel complete.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" The Void Dragon's roar shakes the cavern. "NO HUMAN SHOULD SURVIVE THAT MANY BONDS!"
"I'm not just human," I say, and my voice echoes with the power of hundreds. "I'm the Dragon Tamer. And you picked the wrong day to hunt my family."
I reach through the bonds, feeling each dragon like an extension of my own body. The Matriarch with her ancient wisdom. Lysander with his strategic mind. Kael with his fierce love.
"Attack," I command.
The dragons move as one.
The cavern erupts in fire, ice, lightning, and wind. Hundreds of dragons pour their power into me, and I direct it like a conductor leading an orchestra. The combined elemental blast hits the Void Dragon square in its massive head.
It screams and pulls back from the broken wall.
"She did it!" a young silver dragon shouts. "She actually damaged it!"
But I can feel through the bonds that we barely scratched it. The Void Dragon's hide is thick with ancient magic. My attack felt like throwing pebbles at a mountain.
The Void Dragon's purple eyes narrow. "CLEVER LITTLE TAMER. BUT YOU'RE STILL JUST A CHILD PLAYING WITH BORROWED POWER."
It inhales deeply.
Everyone shield! I think to all my bonded dragons.
They respond instantly, creating a layered barrier of scales and magic. The Void Dragon exhales, and darkness pours from its mouth—not fire, but pure void. Reality itself seems to dissolve where the darkness touches.
Our shields hold for three seconds. Then they start cracking.
Aria, we can't sustain this! The Matriarch's mental voice is strained. That's void breath—it erases everything. Matter, magic, souls. We have to retreat!
"No!" I push more power into the shields. "We hold!"
You're going to burn yourself out, Kael warns, his concern flooding through our bond.
"Then I burn out!" I snap back. "I'm not losing anyone else today!"
But he's right. The power drain is enormous. I can feel my body starting to give out. My nose bleeds. My vision blurs.
The void breath punches through our shields.
Three dragons scream as the darkness touches them. Their forms start dissolving, turning to dust—
"NO!" I thrust my hands forward instinctively.
Golden light explodes from my palms, wrapping around the three dying dragons. Through the bonds, I pour my own life force into them. The void's corruption stops spreading. Slowly, impossibly, the dragons start regenerating.
The Void Dragon stops its breath attack, staring. "YOU HEALED VOID CORRUPTION? THAT'S—THAT SHOULDN'T—"
It sounds confused. Frightened.
Good.
"I told you," I gasp, swaying on my feet. "Wrong. Day."
But the healing took too much. My legs give out. Kael catches me in human form, his arms wrapping around me.
"You're dying," he says, voice cracking. "Aria, you can't—you have to stop—"
"Can't stop." My words slur. "It'll kill everyone."
"Then let me help." He presses his forehead to mine. Through our bond, I feel him offering something. Something huge. "Take my core."
"What?"
"A dragon's core is their essence. Their soul. If you absorb mine completely, you'll have enough power to fight. Enough to win."
"But you'll die!"
"Maybe. Maybe not. But you'll definitely die if you keep this up." His golden eyes are intense, desperate, full of love. "I've waited ten years for you. I'm not losing you three hours after finally having you. Take my core, Aria. Take everything I am."
Tears stream down my face. "I can't ask you to die for me."
"You're not asking. I'm choosing." He kisses me—brief, fierce, perfect. "You're my mate, my tamer, my everything. I'll gladly burn for you."
The Void Dragon slams against our weakening shields. "TOUCHING. NOW DIE TOGETHER."
I look into Kael's eyes and see absolute certainty. He means it. He'll give me everything.
Don't do this, Lysander's voice cuts through the bond. Kael, there's another way—
There isn't, Kael responds firmly. Aria needs power. I have power. Simple math.
"Wait." A new voice echoes through the cavern—weak, but familiar.
My mother, finally awake, being supported by Lysander. Her eyes glow faint gold.
"Mom!" I try to go to her, but Kael holds me steady.
"Don't take his core," my mother says, voice trembling. "There's a reason your father survived twenty-three years of torture. A reason Maya and Elias are still fighting that monster outside." She looks at me with tears streaming. "Dragon Tamers don't just bond with dragons, baby. We can bond with other tamers. And when we do, we become something more."
My mind races. "The forced bond. Father tried to bond with me—"
"Because he remembered what Maya taught him before they captured him." My mother takes a shaky breath. "Three generations of Dragon Tamers together? You don't just add your powers. You multiply them."
The Matriarch's eyes widen. "The Trinity Bond. I thought that was a myth."
"It's not." My mother reaches toward me. "Aria, bond with me. I'm weak—they drained most of my power over the years—but I'm still a Dragon Tamer. The bond between mother and daughter, combined with your bond to Kael? That's the foundation."
"And then?" I ask.
"Then we get your father. Pull him here through the bond you rejected earlier. And your grandparents—if they're still alive—they can join too." My mother's expression hardens. "Five Dragon Tamers in a Trinity Bond, backed by hundreds of dragons? That's never existed before. That's enough power to kill a god."
The Void Dragon must sense what we're planning because it suddenly attacks with renewed fury. The shields crack completely.
"DO IT NOW!" the Matriarch roars.
I reach for my mother. Our hands touch, and I let my bonding power flow.
This time, there's no resistance. My mother welcomes the bond like coming home. Golden light wraps around both of us, and I feel her love, her pain, her fierce pride in the daughter she barely knows.
I'm so sorry, she thinks. For everything they put you through.
We'll make them pay, I promise. Together.
The bond clicks into place, and power floods through me. Not as much as Kael gives me, but different. Warmer. Complementary.
"Now Father," I say.
I reach out through the bond he tried to force earlier. He rejected me when I rejected him, but the connection is still there, frayed and weak.
Father! I call. I need you!
For a moment, nothing. Then—
Aria? His mental voice is faint. I'm fighting—there are Council tamers everywhere—
Forget them! I need your power. Mom needs you. Please—for once in your life, trust someone!
A pause. Then his presence slams into my mind, and the bond snaps back into place—but properly this time. Willing. Strong.
Power explodes through me. My father's forty years of experience combines with my mother's endurance and my raw potential.
The Trinity Bond awakens.
But it's not complete. We need—
CHILDREN! My grandmother's voice, weak and fading. CATCH US!
Through the bond with my father, I feel my grandparents. They're both dying. The Void Dragon outside nearly killed them.
"Kael!" I gasp. "My grandparents—they're falling—"
He's already shifting. Already flying toward the broken wall. Lysander follows.
They return seconds later with two broken bodies.
My grandmother and grandfather are barely breathing. Their bodies are covered in void corruption, dissolving slowly.
"No, no, no!" I drop to my knees beside them. "You can't die! I just found you!"
My grandmother's hand finds mine. Her grip is weak. "Finish... the bond..."
"You're too hurt—"
"FINISH IT!" my grandfather coughs blood. "Five generations... five tamers... complete the Trinity..."
I look at my mother. At my father, who just appeared in the cavern covered in Council tamer blood. At my dying grandparents.
If you bond with them while they're dying, Kael says gently, they'll take you with them.
"Or," my mother says, "she heals them through the bond. Like she healed those three dragons."
"That almost killed her!"
"And losing us will kill her spirit." My father kneels beside his parents. "Do it, Aria. Save them. Complete the Trinity. End this."
The Void Dragon tears through the wall completely, its massive body filling the cavern entrance.
"ENOUGH TALKING," it roars. "TIME TO FEED."
I place my hands on my grandparents and let everything flow—my power, my life, my love for the family I barely know.
The Trinity Bond completes.
Five Dragon Tamers. Three generations. One purpose.
The power that erupts makes my earlier display look like a candle next to the sun. Golden light fills the entire cavern, so bright that the Void Dragon recoils.
My wounds heal instantly. My grandparents' corruption burns away. My father's madness clears from his eyes.
We all stand as one.
"Now," I say with five voices speaking in harmony, "let's finish this."
But before we can attack, reality tears open behind the Void Dragon.
Another hole. Another rift.
And through it, I see hundreds of purple eyes staring back.
"Oh no," the Matriarch breathes. "There's more than one."
The Void Dragon grins with too many teeth.
"DID YOU THINK I CAME ALONE, LITTLE TAMER? I BROUGHT MY ENTIRE HIVE. AND WE'RE ALL SO VERY HUNGRY."