Gyrak lunged for him, jaws snapping near his head. The spearhead lashed out, slicing a seam across scaled lips.
The black roared and staggered into Matalino, who fought to reach Kallias, horns carving trenches through dirt.
“He has them. But his hold is weak!” Kallias shouted over the mayhem.
I turned inward, reaching within myself to find that empty chamber inside my soul—that pocket that had always ached for a dragon’s bond. Magic never stayed there. It seeped away like water through cracked stone. But I scoured its expanse, past the ache, searching for any current, any connection.
Stop!
Dragons dropped mid-lunge, momentum carrying them into stumbling heaps. Confused chirps tangled with snarls as instinct battled command.
Something slick and dark brushed against my thoughts.
Cold. Clinging.
He was there.
Tallon slid past the edge of my mind, leaving behind a residue like murky oil on water. I shivered as his presence pressed close. When he used my body before, I had felt nothing—I’d been numb. Detached.
But now? Through the hollow that marked me as the Dragon’s Heart, I saw him—his magic.
Kill them both!His voice coiled deep inside my skull.
Gyrak’s eyes rolled white. His claws carved toward us.
No. Be still!
Matalino shrieked, smashing his horned head into the ground, dirt spraying as he spun. Voices collided in their minds, power clashing against power until the dragons trembled under it. It was driving them mad.
I crawled clear of Kallias’ boots and looked across the field.
Tallon stood alone.
Behind him, the Velli army held formation, content to watch. This was a spectacle. A display of dominance. A show of power. After this, none would dare question him.
But that would be his undoing.
“Kallias, kill him.”
He drove his spear into the earth before me, a wall of gold and steel. “I’m not leaving you.”
“He’s alone!” My fingers dug into grass, blades bending between them. “We are not.”
His gaze searched mine. Cornflower blue, sharp and bright despite the grime streaking his face. Lines bracketed his eyes, his brow pulled tight as if trying to read my thoughts. I was asking him to leave me, to trust me.
War was still a foreign concept to me. I’d misjudged before, trusted my own instinct over his. But this time, he had to lean on me. On my blood. On the call carved into my soul.
I couldn’t do it without him. But he needed me just the same.
A snarl ripped from his throat, then he wrenched his spear free and stormed toward Tallon.
With a small, sad smile curving my lips, my eyelids fluttered shut. I turned my sight inward—and hunted.
Tallon’s grip on the dragons felt slick, like the mucus coating an eel’s skin. Each time I grasped for it, he slipped through, his cackling laughter skittering through my skull.
I tried again. Blind. Reaching through the hollow for that cold shadow. My hold slipped, magic darting away like a fish through claws.
Panic shot through me.
