Page 77 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

Kaelith! I cried inwardly, teeth gritted against the sting.

Her voice thundered in my mind, steady and fierce. She marked you, Ashlyn. A tether laid upon your magic to temper it, to keep you bound when you fought her. Every time you reach for it, she clamps down.

I ducked another slash, rolling to the side and barely avoiding the downward slice that cracked stone where I had been standing. “So that’s it?” I spat, circling her, sword steady in my bleeding hand. “You couldn’t beat me without chaining me first.”

Severeth’s smile was pure malice. “I do what’s necessary. Unlike you, I don’t hesitate.” She lunged, and our blades locked again, her strength bearing down until my knees shook.

Break it, Kaelith urged, her presence pressing into mine like a flood tide. It is a tether of shadow, not iron. Push against it with your bond to me. My flame is not hers to command.

My chest heaved as Severeth’s sword slid close enough to slice my cheek. I hissed, twisting free, and answered Kaelith in my mind. How?

Stop thinking of your magic as yours alone. Let mine flow with it. Together, we burn through her hold.

I sucked in a breath, blade flashing as I parried again. My muscles screamed, my wounds stung, but I reached—not inward, but outward. Toward Kaelith. Her fire surged like molten rivers through my veins, colliding with the storm building in my chest. The tether Severeth had laid thrummed like a cord pulled taut, straining as power pressed against it.

Severeth’s eyes widened as my aura sparked, tendrils of light bleeding through the smoke. “No,” she snarled, slashing again. “You are mine. I marked you—I own you.”

My sword caught hers with a clash that rattled my bones, but my voice was strong when I hissed back, “You own nothing. Not me. Not my dragon. Not anymore.”

And with Kaelith’s fire twining into my storm, I shoved hard against the tether—feeling it splinter.

The tether snapped with a soundless crack inside me, and the pressure I’d been fighting against detonated outward. My scream tore through the mist as my magic exploded free—lightning bursting from every pore of my skin, arcing in violent threads that ripped across the courtyard.

The air around me swelled, pulsing with raw energy, until it burst into a dome of blinding light—like a bubble made of living lightning. The shockwave screamed outward, shredding the smoky veil Severeth had conjured, dissolving it into nothing.

Severeth was caught in the blast. Her body twisted violently, hurled twenty feet into the air as though she were nothing but a leaf in a storm gale. She slammed into the stone with a brutal crack, her limbs sprawled, her sword clattering across the courtyard. For a long, breathless moment—she didn’t move.

“No!” Veralin’s roar split the sky, guttural and furious, the sound of a beast whose leash had been yanked.

The storm still circled me, wild and furious, its eye centered in my chest. I turned slowly toward him, the whirlwind gathering at my command, sparks sizzling across my skin and the ground trembling under my feet.

I raised my hand, and the storm bent with me, coiling like a predator waiting for release. My gaze locked on those cruel red eyes.

This ends with you.

Chapter

Thirty-One

Lightning split the courtyard as I hurled the storm at him, the arcs jagged and screaming like tearing metal. Veralin raised his hand lazily, and a blood-red shield shimmered into existence before him. My lightning slammed into it with an earsplitting crack, sparks ricocheting across the courtyard stones. The shield rippled but held, his mouth curving into a smile too cruel to be human.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Granddaughter,” he sneered.

I gritted my teeth, summoning the storm again. Bolts speared down from the mottled sky, shattering stone and sending cracks spidering toward him. He countered with a blast of black flame that devoured the air itself, forcing me to throw up a wall of lightning just to keep from being incinerated. The two magics slammed together, sparks and shadows colliding in an unnatural storm that shook the ruined castle around us.

Push harder, Kaelith urged, her voice hot and fierce in my mind. He’s not untouchable.

I roared and sent the lightning forward, weaving it with wind so the air screamed with the force of it. Veralin braced, his crimson shield flaring brighter as he absorbed the blow—and then sent it back. A wave of power like a hammer slammed into me, rattling my bones and stealing my breath.

All around us, more black dragons descended from the clouds, their wings blotting out the weak sunlight. Their riders leaped down, Blood Fae blades gleaming, and rushed my friends. Hein’s roar split the air as he tore into them, fire blazing; Narvea struck like a shadow, snapping one fae clean off his dragon’s back. But there were too many. The courtyard filled with steel and screaming, the clash of dragons, the thrum of power.

I forced myself to focus on Veralin, but panic gnawed at me, distracting me with the shouts from my squad. I drew my storm too quickly, too recklessly.

His lips curled, sensing an opening.

A whip of black energy snapped from his hand—so fast I didn’t even see it until it struck me square in the chest.

Agony ripped through me. I staggered backward, air leaving my lungs in a broken gasp as my knees buckled. The world blurred, my magic sputtering as I dropped my sword, sparks scattering across the stone. My chest burned, every breath shallow, and I realized too late that I’d underestimated him.