It’s the most terrifying and exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced.
I don’t dare move an inch. Not even to draw a breath.
The dragon blinks, and then presses its snout to my forehead.
Everything goes dark.
A heartbeat later, tall flames erupt around me. They don’t burn me. There’s no stench of smoke.
I stand atop a high hill. At first I don’t recognize it…but I’m at the very top of the Ezkai Castle. Below me, Jaakii is lost to flames. They stretch as far as the sea. From here, the salty water looks as if it’s been set on fire. Even the sky burns.
When I look down, I see corpses littering the entrance. Corpses of people I know.
Jax lies at the base of the hill.
His eyes are open.
Empty.
Kazh’s lifeless body is draped over a bush, her whole front sliced open.
Noire is right at the entrance, his silk robes torn into pieces.
Bjorn and Emil are next to him, their necks angled wrong.
And then there’s?—
Vera.
I’m horrified at the sight. Yet, my feet remain rooted in place.
They are already gone. I can’t help them.
I look down at my hands. They?—
They’re covered in blood.
My Ezkai leathers are soaked in blood.
Oh gods. This is my worst nightmare.
A deadly roar pierces the sky. I look up just in time to see five regal dragons soar right above my head, and away from the Ezkai Castle.
I whirl on my heel, to follow their path. But something else catches my attention.
On the floor lies my set of blades, and my bow. Bloody.
A little farther down is a path of corpses.
I follow the trail of bodies, the same path I walked a hundred times before.
The same path I trained on.
It hits me then.
This isn’t a battlefield.
It’s a pathIcarved.
