And Teddy smiles.
Small.
Broken.
Certain.
Teddy shifts the shield.
Then he looks toward the sky and roars:
“TARRAKAI!”
CHAPTER SIXTY
The deepest scars are not of war
But all the things worth fighting for
Teddy shifts the shield.
Dragonfire collides with it like the wrath of the gods.
The impact ruptures the battlefield apart.
Heat detonates outward in catastrophic waves as the shield screams beneath the collision, the sound sharp enough to split straight through Seren’s skull. For one blinding heartbeat, the world becomes nothing but fire and light and impossible magic tearing itself apart.
Tarrakai’s roar shakes the Stars. Grief and rage and fury and loss coalescing in a single sound.
Teddy angles the shield perfectly, redirecting Tarrakai’s fire with precision. The redirected blast tears across the battlefield in a violent torrent of dragonfire, slamming into Nyrielle with enough force to send her screaming backward through the fractured stone.
If Tarrakai hovers any closer, Nyrielle’s magic would spear straight through the soft flesh beneath his scales. He stays angled above Teddy, directing his wrath into the shield of Aether, exactly as Teddy demanded. But Nyrielle is too slow to recall the strike already in motion. Her magic continues forward.Into Teddy.But this time, there is no shield to protect him.
Dravara’s dragons can see the truth the same way Seren can: Teddy is protecting Dravara with his life. Tarrakai lets out another guttural roar of agony and anger.
But the damage is already done. Nyrielle’s stolen magic surges toward his exposed frame and collides with him exactly where the shield should’ve protected him.
The magic punches through Teddy’s body in a catastrophic burst of light. The strike tears clean through him, burning straight through flesh and bone alike.
His back arches violently.
Blood sprays across the shield.
“No!” The scream tears itself from Seren’s throat like devastation made flesh.
But war does not wait. It does not grieve. It moves.
The goddess is too slow to stop Tarrakai’s fire outright. But she manages to fire off a protective blaze of magic before she’s completely engulfed. Not enough to stop the force entirely. But enough to protect herself from certain death. Enough to clash with the dragonfire before it hits her straight in the chest.
But Teddy is not done. He does not yield.
Still he holds the shield. Still he directs the dragonfire. Like one man standing between the realm and annihilation.
Still he forces the redirected blast toward Nyrielle while the goddess screams beneath the full catastrophic force of it, barely able to protect herself.
Still he stands.
Nyrielle sends a strike into the sky, desperate to stop Tarrakai. She falters under the pain of the dragonfire, and her strike only clips Tarrakai’s wing. But it’s enough for him to bank hard, retreating from the blast.
