“No,” she whispers, taking in the impossible position he’s in. The only thing standing between units of Dravara’s soldiers, Jax battling five on her own, and The Black Stream bridge that offers the final crossing before the enemy reach the castle, the people of this kingdom. He is the last protector of Dravara. And he knows it.
And gods, Teddy has spent his entire life standing between people and ruin.
“No,” she breathes again.
The word barely survives the chaos around them.
Above the battlefield, dragons tear through smoke and cloud in violent arcs of flame. Tarrakai’s roar reverberates through the city hard enough to shake stone beneath Teddy’s feet as dragonfire rains across the northern ranks below. Somewhere beyond the wall of Nyrielle’s power hammering into the shield, Elyssara and Maireth collide in another catastrophic burst of magic that fractures the sky in a clash of onyx and gold.
The world is breaking apart around them.
And still Teddy holds the line.
He has to hold the line.
Healwaysholds the line.
Even when it costs him everything.
Another blast slams into the shield hard enough to drive him backward across the stone. Agony tears through his shoulders. Something in his ribs cracks beneath the force.
The shield caves inward again.
Nyrielle smiles between blasts. The kind of smile that is not born of victory, but inevitability. As though she already sees the exact moment his body fails beneath her power.
Teddy spits blood onto the stone and grips the shield harder.
Not yet.
Because behind him, the people he loves are still breathing.
In war, the mission outlives the commander.
The lesson had left his mouth a hundred times over the years, delivered to soldiers too young to understand the weight of it.
Teddy understands it now. Because the realms are burning. And they still need saving. Even if he won’t live long enough to see it.
He can hear them through the chaos. Soldiers shouting. Dragons screaming overhead. Jax drawing on the Starborn around her, and taking down more northmen than should be possible.
Life.
Still fighting to exist.
This is what Teddy does—he keeps people alive long enough to change this godsforsaken place.
Beyond Nyrielle’s onslaught, Nymerian soldiers still move through the chaos with practiced precision. Shields of Aether from Caeloria locked into formation, exactly as he taught them. Cannons angled to create overlapping fields of protection. Reposition. Brace. Advance. The exact patterns he had drilledinto them until they could execute them half-asleep and bleeding.
Teddy had trained them for the day their shores were breached. Never for the day he would have to stand against them.
“Teddy—”
He looks back at Seren again and nearly breaks at the sight of her.
Golden threads whip violently around her body, illuminating the tears already streaking down her face as realization settles fully into place between them.
She understands what this means.
Of course she understands.
