He saw me first. His whole body went still, wings snapping shut, and he dropped the charred stick he’d been using as a scepter. “Mama?” his mind-voice said, the word small and tight.
I forced myself to walk, not run, so I didn’t scare him. I knelt, the stone cool even through the adrenaline, and reached for him. He shifted into boy form before I could grab him, and he all but launched into my arms. He was shaking but trying very hard not to let it show.
“Flint, honey, listen to me,” I said, keeping my voice low and steady. “You need to go with the dragon mothers now. They’re going to take you and the other kids somewhere safe, okay?”
His eyes went wide, then wider. “But I want to stay with you!” he said, voice high and cracked. “I’ll be good, I promise. I can help!”
I cupped his face, thumbs on his warm cheeks, and forced myself to smile. “I know you can, baby. But right now, I need you to do this. For me. For Daddy.”
Flint looked over my shoulder at Jax, who stood just behind me, arms folded and jaw tight. Flint’s face crumpled. He shiftedand wrapped himself around me, refusing to let go, and I let him hang there for a minute, both of us breathing hard and not saying what we wanted to say.
The dragon mothers swept in then, three of them, massive, wings half-furled, eyes old and knowing. They herded the hatchlings with gentle insistence, but when they saw Flint clinging to me, one of them paused, lowered her head, and met my gaze with a challenge. I didn’t understand the look at first, then she motioned to Flint and asked,“Are you sure?”
I nodded, understanding now that she was asking for permission to help get Flint to go with the others. “Flint, I need you to go with Shimmer’s mom and the others. I need to know you are safe so Papa and I can fight with the adults.”
Jax knelt beside us, his hand settling on Flint’s back. He wasn't a natural with tenderness, but he had learned, and Flint always responded to the gravity in his voice. “Little Dragon,” Jax said, and Flint’s head snapped up, startled. Jax smiled, just a little. “You’re the bravest little one I know. But right now, I need you to be brave in a different way. Can you do that?”
Flint’s chin quivered, but he nodded. “Will you come back?”
“We’ll always come back for you,” I said, and meant it with every cell in my body. “Always.”
He buried his face in my shirt for a last, desperate second, then let go. Jax scooped him up for a hug, and I thought for a second that neither of them would survive it if they had to let go first. The dragon mother lowered her head, neck arched so Flint could scramble up. He did, but only after one last look back, his hand raised in a half-wave that just about broke me in half.
The mothers retreated, hatchlings clustered on their backs and between their wings, a living barricade of scale and maternal fury. Flint’s hair caught the light, and for a second, he looked back at us with a look I’d never seen before. A bit older, scared, but somehow proud. He didn’t cry out. He just watched, imprinting the moment into his memory.
The instant they were gone, I let the facade slip. I pressed my forehead to the wall, eyes squeezed shut, refusing the luxury of a breakdown. Jax touched my shoulder, not saying anything, but his hand was steady and strong. I took two breaths, then three, and made myself turn away.
If I looked back, I wouldn’t be able to leave.
After stopping off at our room to grab the sword, we found Adalinda and Solenne on the command level, the two of them speaking in fast, clipped phrases, the air thick with anger. Adalinda hadn't shifted. She stood in dragon form, claws flexing in a constant, silent rhythm. Solenne looked smaller beside her, but the set of her jaw was pure steel.
“He’s probing the defenses,”Solenne said, her mind-voice taut.“He’s not alone. Adalinda’s answer was curt. We face him now. Later isn't an option.”Jax and I exchanged a look. I read the question in his eyes. Are you ready for this?
“Not even a little,” I said. “But let’s do it anyway.”
Jax shifted into his dragon, and I remained human because it would be easier to wield the sword. I climbed onto Jax’s back, and we followed Adalinda and Solenne out onto the launch platform, every step echoing off the stone. The wind had picked up, bending the banners until they streamed straight back from the towers. Below, the main courtyard was empty, no civilians,no children, only a handful of elite guards holding position at the gates.
We launched as one, the four of us, riding the updrafts toward the ridge. Vaelog would not win today.
15
HAILEY
The wind toreat our wings, sang in our mouths, hammered at every joint with a malice I’d never felt on earth. The sword strapped across my shoulders was the one thing in all worlds that might end this. Jax’s scales were scorching against my stomach and thighs. He was running hot, maybe from nerves, maybe adrenaline. The velocity was enough to make my eyes water, but I didn’t dare look away.
Ahead of us, Adalinda split the sky. She still wore the new claws. Each curve glinted in the twin suns, runes flickering with every subtle change of angle. Her flight wasn’t beautiful. Nothing about her had ever been merely beautiful. It was efficient, implacable, and terrifying. If I’d been Vaelog, I would have turned and run. But Vaelog wasn't the running type.
We saw him first as a distortion in the light. A shadow that moved against the pattern of the wind, a black so dense it canceled out the colors around it. He didn’t travel alone. Three smaller dragons flanked him, one a sapphire blue so dark it was almost purple, the other two a matched set of silver-grey, their wings lit at the edges by the static of overcharged magic.They kept their distance, never closing to within a tail’s length of Vaelog’s body. I guessed even his soldiers knew exactly how many seconds they’d survive if they caught him on a bad day.
Corvus’s mind-voice hit like a starter pistol.“Now. Close. Keep formation. He will try to scatter us, hold the line, and do not break, no matter what he does.”
Solenne’s command rode on the back of it.“Adalinda leads. The rest, maintain intervals. Hailey, you know your signal.”
I braced, locked my thighs tighter, and tried not to think about all the ways this could fail.
The first clash came faster than I expected. Vaelog rolled up from his position, slicing a vertical spiral through the updraft, and slammed into the side edge of our wedge. The force of it sent three dragons spinning out of the air, not dead but definitely out of the fight, and their shrieks left a cold stripe up my spine. Adalinda met him head-on, claws out, jaws wide, and when they collided, the sound was thunder.
Vaelog’s claws met Adalinda’s, and for a moment the world just… paused. Every wind, every current, even the sunlight itself seemed to wait for them. Then Adalinda feinted left, slashed with her new claws, and caught Vaelog across the face. The runes on her talons burned a white so pure it looked like she’d dipped her hand in a nuclear forge, and where she struck, scales and blood fountained off Vaelog in a glittering, iridescent spray.
