A dark shape barrels through the sky and slams into Mal’s side with bone-shattering force.
Talon tears her from her path in a spray of black scales and shrieking rage, sending them both tumbling through the night sky.
Heart still hammering, air snags in my chest as the Dragons collide, claws tearing, teeth sinking into flesh. Blood arcs across the stars. Talon’s wings beat once, hard enough to shake the trees below, sending them both spiraling higher, locked together in a brutal grapple.
His scales catch the moonlight in brilliant flashes of obsidian and fire, but Mal—gods, Mal is wrong. Her shape keeps changing, shifting, struggling to hold together beneath the weight of what she’s become.
I rip my gaze away only when movement below draws my attention.
Vampires. More than I can count, surging from the burning village like ants from a cracked nest. Feral. Hungry. Thrall-bound and mindless as they make for the gates. For the castle.
For me.
I step forward, planting myself between them and the people I love. Between them and the threshold they will not cross.
“You better back the fuck up,” I warn. I feel my eyes light up with power and my hair lifts, defying gravity. “Because I’m a Lost Girl and I will eat you alive.” I grin, my lips curling upward without humor.
They don’t listen, rushing toward me anyway.Witchtitting idiots.
My power pours out of me like a hungry maw with fangs made manifest. Pink arcs tear free from my chest and slam into the first wave, sinking invisible teeth into flesh and bone. I rip their lives free without thought, without mercy. Souls unravel in ribbons of light, pouring into me, feeding me.
It’s not like feeding from Talon. It never will be. But it’s enough. Because I control it, it doesn’t control me.
The next wave breaks against me. I open my arms to meet them.
Power crashes outward again, cracking through the night like jaws snapping shut. Vampire after vampire drops in my wake, their bodies falling in a fast-growing pile, their souls flooding the void inside me that craves even more.
I step over a corpse without slowing.
Above me, Talon roars—louder, fiercer than I’ve ever heard him. Fire rolls off his wings as he collides with Mal again, their claws raking, their teeth sinking deep. They fight, gods above a burning earth, locked in a bloody struggle.
Smoke claws at the sky. Fire devours rooftops. Screams cut through the night, and the stench of blood and magic burns in my throat.
Rap is in motion, barking orders as she hauls villagers from burning homes, her hair wild in the firelight.
Ariel maneuvers her chair with ruthless efficiency, weaving through the wreckage, owning the terrain. Her voice rings, reassuring but sharp over the din as she drives people toward the gates where Rosari guards fight to hold line against the vamps.
Kai carves his way through the chaos with precision, shielding civilians, pulling survivors from the smoke, cutting down any vampire stupid enough to cross his path.
Cinder breaks thralls with precise bursts of blood magic, unraveling Mal’s grip on the vampires one by one. Confusion flashes in their eyes as control breaks, and then those freed turn on their captors—adding to the chaos, the bloodshed, the hope.
Snow fights like something feral. Daggers gleam. Her smile is all teeth and satisfaction as she cuts through Mal’s army with vicious precision.
My friends hold the line.
I continue to stand my ground but the frenzy of battle is already calming.
"Aurora!"
My mother's voice cuts through the smoke and chaos. I turn to see my parents rushing down from the castle gates, guards flanking them. My mother's dark blonde braid has come half-undone, ash smudging her cheek. My father's crown sits crooked, his royal robes singed at the edges.
They'realive.
For a breath, I can’t move, can’t breathe. My heart lurches, a ragged sob tearing free before I can swallow it down. I missedthem so intensely. As I stumble forward on shaking legs, I become a child again, desperate for the safety of their arms.
My mother reaches me first, her hands frantically checking my face, my body, searching for injuries. "My darling girl, you're hurt," Her fingers ghost over the burns on my arms, tears streaming down her face.
"I'm okay," I whisper.
