“It takes time for her to sever the parasitic bond,” Lorik screamed. “Don’t hurt her.”
The dragon was aiming at Lorik, its green eyes flashing in the dark forest. It hadn’t severed the bond; it was going to kill Lorik, and his hands were relaxed on either side of his core. He was not ready to attack.
“What are you doing?” I screamed at Lorik, but he didn’t turn, didn’t move.
Perhaps he had just used all his magic, extending his shadows to kill the wildweaver. Or, perhaps, Lorik was depleted of magic from his leg injury, even if the night above us should recharge him.
Regardless, he wasn’t doing anything, and the crimson dragon was just feet away from Lorik, wings open, and his mouth roaring a deep, excruciating sound that screamed it wanted to destroy us.
I had just saved Lorik’s life, and I couldn’t lose him. We had just killed an immortal being against all odds, and I was not going to give up now.
I ran towards them, my hands lifted in the air, pointing at the dragon. My emotions were flooding, anger, rage, fear, passion, adoration, all at once. I breathed to channel all into my magic, into my hands.
Then, from one hand, fire and light erupted; from the other, shadow and darkness surged. Shadow and fire merged in the sky and fell on the dragon’s core. The dragon roared differently this time, perhaps in pain. I heard Lorik scream, but I couldn’t understand his words; all I could hear was the dragon's cry echoing in my ears, and something broke inside me. Sorrow, anguish, and torment inundated my chest as I forced my body to my knees.
I saw the dragon stop running as he stumbled from the magical impact. The dragon’s face was fixed at Lorik’s for a beat, then snapped at me. Deep blue eyes pierced through mine, but I didn’t see sadness as on the bridge beyond the veil, no anger or void. Its gaze showed peace and relief.
The dragon swayed, one, two, three times, before falling in front of me. After the sound of impact that made birds cry into the sky, I sank down onto my heels and then, exhaustion hit me, heavy and longing, as I drifted to my right side to the earth beneath me.
Lorik’s voice was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, but my eyes were on the stars above. After so much fire, shadow, and magma, I could still see the clear night above me.
Lorik’s arms lifted me halfway and held me tight and lovingly, momentarily pulling me from the storm inside of me.
The dragon’s eyes had turned blue. Not green, not burning with rage or control, but blue—clear, unbound. The parasitic bond had broken, just as Lorik had said it would. That was why he hadn’t been attacked. That was why he had stood still.
Terror had consumed me. The raw, instinctive fear of losing him after I had just pulled him back from death. Panic had drowned out reason, eclipsing everything else. In that moment,I hadn’t seen the dragon as it was. I had only seen a threat between me and the Moonveil holding me together and me.
So I had struck.
I had unleashed my fire and the stolen echo of Lorik’s shadow, fusing them into something devastating. I had shattered the dragon when it was no longer an enemy, but a victim—an ancient creature enslaved for years, perhaps centuries, forced to burn, kill, and obey against its will.
The truth lodged deep in my chest, heavy and suffocating, impossible to deny or justify. No explanation softened it. No victory erased it. I had killed an innocent creature.
I lifted my gaze to the night sky, the stars stretched like silk across a sheet of black. The realization struck sharp as a blade, and my heart pressed hard against my ribcage. I didn’t need a clock to know the truth. The twenty-four hours of the Dragontail trials had expired.
I had known, from the moment I took that detour in my trials to save Camelia, what it would cost me but knowing it didn’t make it easier. I had tried to save her, only to fail. She died asphyxiated in my arms, her last breath spent telling me the truth.
I had chosen the detour to pull Shakari and Rowan from the parasite’s claws, and I had chosen it again when I stepped into this clearing to face the wildweaver, Trivian. I knew exactly what I was sacrificing for myself.
And I had killed him.
Yet I felt no happiness, no sense of accomplishment, only the weight of it all, heavy and unmoving in my chest.
“I didn’t pass the Dragontail trials,” I told Lorik, my eyes on the stars and dark sky. From everything I had boiling up inside me, that was the first thing that left my mouth.
Agony, panic, and despair crashed through me all at once. I felt too much, every sensation magnified; every thought spiraling faster than I could grasp it. My chest ached, my head throbbed, and the world seemed to tilt as fear and grief pressed in from all sides.
“We will find a way, Thea. Together. I know that. Don’t let the panic take you. Stay here,” Lorik said urgently.
I didn’t respond. The pain behind my eyes sharpened as the truth settled in, cold and absolute. The Dragontail trials had bound me to Elarion and I had failed them. I couldn’t stay at the academy. I couldn’t rule Rionis. And the wildweavers would get exactly what they wanted. Rionis was unstable and weak.
Chapter 39: Lorik
“I…I killed the dragon,” Thea’s voice trembled. “It was going to kill you.”My lips parted to tell her I understood, that she could move past this, that I knew why she had done it, even if the pain sank deep into my bones but she kept going.
“It was innocent, another victim of the parasites,” she said as she finally met my gaze, pausing for a long moment. “I feel so much. Heartbreak, guilt, grief, adoration…”
“Not all of those feelings are yours,” I said, pushing my voice into the chaos of her mind, stopping the spiral before it could pull her under completely.
