She cocked her head, golden eye locking onto mine. Unblinking.
She came for me.
A soft grunt snapped my attention back to the fight.
Kallias staggered, hand pressed against his chest.
No.No!
Crimson seeped between his fingers. Still, he grimaced and launched himself at my father, defiant.
My breaths came in quick gasps, refusing to fill my lungs. All the while Kalepsi stalked closer, mouth open, lips curled. She sensed the blood.
Argos roared again, scales quivering with the threat.
Kalepsi snapped her jaws. A rebuke. Then her attention shifted to the fight.
Kallias ducked beneath Father’s guard, hooked an arm around his neck, and used the spin’s momentum to drive the sword’s hilt into his temple. His legs buckled.
A strangled whimper clawed from my throat, tears springing free.
Kalepsi roared, sparks flying from her mouth. Kallias lost his grip and dropped hard to the stone. The men rolled apart, panting, bleeding.
When Kalepsi snaked her head above the crowd and lunged for my father, Argos tore forward, his black belly just over our heads. One final warning. She snapped at the air in front of his nose, then swung toward Kallias.
“No!” The scream ripped from my throat, raw and grayed. It echoed back, pitiful and thin.
Kalepsi froze. Her glittering pupil narrowed, golden fire caught in the slit. Her lips trembled. Everything, everyone, went still.
Kallias lay beneath her, tunic soaked dark. His chest heaved, shallow and fast. The fractured glow of his skin glinted along her fangs.
“Please, no,” I whispered.
She wouldn’t—couldn’t give in to bloodlust. Not with him. Not Kallias.
Her tongue flicked out, tasting his blood.
But her gaze never left mine. Waiting. For what?!
No one moved. Not Father. Not Greaves. Frozen in some sick time loop. I hung somewhere outside myself, as if suspended midair. My scalp tingled, limbs numb. My heart slammed against my ribs.
Kalepsi rolled her tongue, a shower of sparks raining over Kallias.
My vision danced with stars as I struggled for air. Argos vibrated with tension while the realm watched on in silence. Draconia’s dragon queen hovered over Radaan’s king.
She waited for me. For my permission.
Purge it in dragonfire. Release him.
Kallias trusted his gods. But belief meant nothing when faced with a wall of flame.
He told me to have faith—not in his gods. But mydragons.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I blinked hard to see through the blur.
Kalepsi inhaled, slow and steady, her gaze locked on mine. She pulled her head back.
“Rise, Kallias Sunspear.” My voice cracked, torn from a throat too tight to breathe.
