Another dragon sweeps past in a blaze of silver flame, then another beyond it, their roars reverberating through the city like the pulse of something ancient waking beneath the bones of the world.
And gods, for one impossible heartbeat, Seren feels hope. A vast, holy hope.
The kind that reshapes kingdoms.
Tarrakai banks sharply overhead, moonlight glinting across obsidian scales as he unleashes another torrent of dragonfire across the battlefield below. The blast illuminates the city in violent gold, revealing dragons carving through the smoke like living constellations reborn into flesh and fury.
The world is changing. She can feel it happening around her. Like history itself has finally decided to move.
And then… a sound splits through the battlefield.
Magic screaming against metal.
Sharp.
Wrong.
Catastrophic.
Seren freezes.
Every instinct inside her floods instantly with dread.
Something is wrong.
Terribly wrong.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
The deepest grief is not goodbye
But knowing love was worth the price
Teddy knowshe’s going to die.
The realization arrives without panic. Without denial. Just cold, immediate certainty as Nyrielle’s stolen magic tears into the shield of Aether in his hands.
He cannot move, anchored to the ground where the only thing between him and Nyrielle is the shield. It holds, but barely, shuddering and splintering under the force. And he knows with absolute certainty that he cannot withstand her for much longer.
The shield tremors in his hands, the vibrant blue of the Aether reinforcing it guttering and fading with every passing heartbeat. The shield caves inwards, threatening to split under the force of Nyrielle’s power.
Another blast slams into it.
The impact drives Teddy backward hard enough to fracture stone beneath his boots. Pain detonates through his body. Hisshoulders feel half-torn from their sockets. Blood runs freely down both arms now, slicking his grip as every muscle locks against the strain.
Still he holds.
He grits his teeth, a snarl ripping from his throat and every muscle grips around bone for extra torsion. Veins swell under the pressure, sinew tears apart under the strain.
But Teddy does not let go. That is, until…
“Teddy.”
He feels the words land in his soul before he hears them with his ears.
Seren.
He turns his gaze, sweat beading and dripping from his brow as their eyes lock.
