Page 10 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

It shimmered in the light like a smoky veil stretched tight across the earth. Wisps of dark mist clung to its edges, rising in slow, hypnotic swirls. The air above it crackled with thin threads of reddish light, like veins beneath skin.

Kaelith landed with a ground-shaking thud a few paces back, her body tense, head low, tail lashing the earth in warning.

I slid off her back with my eyes fixed on the strange veil.

“What is that?” I asked, stepping forward, my boots crunching the dead undergrowth. “Kaelith… have you seen anything like it?”

She crouched low, sniffing the air. No, but it feels… contained. Artificial. As if someone had made a hole in the world and stitched a shadow over it.

The smoky surface rippled as if something within had stirred.

I reached for my blade without thinking. “If Siergen’s inside that…”

Kaelith growled, low and dangerous. Then we find a way to rip it open.

I stood just shy of the smoky veil, its shadow curling over my boots as if it wanted to taste me. My fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade, but instinct told me this wasn’t something that could be cut. Not by steel.

What do I do? I asked Kaelith, my voice barely above a whisper.

She was silent for a breath. Then another. Her mind, usually quick and sure, rippled with uncertainty.

I don’t know, she admitted. This… whatever this is, it doesn’t feel like a ward. It doesn’t repel—it invites. That’s what makes it dangerous.

I turned slightly, eyeing the veil again. It pulsed at the edges, as if it were breathing. “So it’s a trap.”

Or a prison, she said darkly.

I exhaled slowly, mind racing. “We can’t leave it untouched. If Siergen’s in there⁠—”

Then waiting could kill him.

Kaelith circled the edge of the disturbance, claws digging into the dry earth, tail low and lashing. I followed the shimmer with my eyes, tracking where it thinned, where the dark smoke bled into the air like torn silk. That was where it faltered. Weaker there.

“There,” I said aloud, pointing to a spot where the luster flickered—a soft crease in the fabric of it. “I think that’s the weakest part of the veil.”

Then strike there, Kaelith said, but not alone.

Her claws dug a deep groove in the soil. I’ll flood the edge with dragon fire. You strike at the center while the veil is thinning. But you must be quick—if it’s reactive, it could close or worse, trap you.

I nodded, adrenaline already licking down my spine.

“I’ll go in if I have to.”

No, Kaelith growled. Only if it opens. We draw it open—we don’t force it. This kind of magic doesn’t like violence. It answers curiosity, not war.

“Then we give it both.”

I raised my blade, the edge catching the rising sun. Kaelith stood beside me, her body vibrating with magic.

On your word, she said.

I took one breath. Then another.

Chapter

Four

The air around the veil crackled with tension as I stepped forward, my blade lowered, and my palm outstretched toward the weak point we’d found. Kaelith crouched beside me, wings half-furled, her pupils narrow slits of golden flame.