The shadow passed, and the moonlight returned, a low glow that made her white cape illuminate the space around her, like a beacon, as her white hair fell in messy curls around her small shoulders.
This wasn’t her heart, nor was it her blood—something was coming. Something that had even servants of a god on edge.
And Luella was too overwhelmed by whatever sang in her marrow, that had started when the Umbra had called out that they’d breached the wards and when the Tenebrae had uttered that one word:
Stella.
The Tenebrae released her waist, and she sagged, but didn’t want to miss whatever it was that was coming to swoop down and eat them all, so she placed her hands on the pommel to keep herself grounded, to keep herself upright and watching.
The Tenebrae made a fist and raised it.
Their company stopped altogether.
The horse shifted, a hesitant hoof tapping on the path as it snorted in fearful curiosity.
The thundering noise above grew so loud that Luella had to cover her ears. Her right hand twisted uncomfortably as she raised it, so she kept it settled on the front of the saddle, covering only one ear with her good hand. The resounding boom in her uncovered ear made her want to weep.
The air was still, and she swallowed, feeling the call surge; her gaze tugged upward, to the right side of the pass, where the white tips of the mountains gleamed.
A shape hid there. She barely saw the arching curve of horns, where they cast shadows on the rock. Her face rose, just as the shadow swept past the moon once more and hid its light entirely.
Darkness.
Then fire.
A burnished, hot scorching trail of fire lit up the night sky, just as a roar cut through the thundering boom of?—
This wasn’t real, was it?
She had fallen asleep. She was dreaming.
Luella uncovered her ear and reached for her neck, feeling the space where the dream amulet had once been. She couldn’t tell if she was dreaming; she did not have her amulet any longer.
The horse neighed beneath them, rising on its hind legs just as fire scorched the stone path at their side, flame catching on the stone spikes that protruded from the ground. As the fire dwindled—stone did not burn—a singular flame was left at each spike, flickering hotly.
The Tenebrae shouted as they were both thrown from the horse.
Luella fell in a heap to the ground, her back feeling like it had been caught in the flames as pain raced throughout her body. Her right hand twisted dangerously, fingers spasming. Her head thunked against the stone, and she released a choked, feminine gasp of anguish.
Flames were spewed from above, roaring along the side of the mountains.
Lying on her side, Luella reached out, desperate to touch one, wondering if the flickering red and orange tint of them was imagined.
Her fingertips grazed the stone before it, and she hissed as she jerked her twitching fingers back—hot.
It was real.
That meant?—
She rolled to her back, uncaring of the agony from pressing the stone into her wing stump. In the sky, a black shadow with wings flew in a sure circle above them all.
Each wingbeat made the thundering sound echo through the mountains, in her heart, in her ears, in her bones.
She knew its shape. She knew the color of its eyes, even before its large head peered down at her, a glow of slitted green finding her white-cloaked form huddled among stone and fire.
The onyx dragon tipped his head back, and fire spewed from his maw, lighting up the air.
She stared and stared, a choked sob clawing its way up her throat. She tried to sit up, to move and run toward him?—
