Page 83 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

The sound shook me to my marrow. The black dragons below screamed as if the very marrow of their bones were splitting apart. Their bodies writhed in their cages, wings thrashing against rusted bars, tails lashing until sparks of stone scattered from the cavern floor.

Color—impossible, unnatural color—rippled across their scales like oil spilled over water, shifting from shadowed black to hues I couldn’t name. Their claws raked at the bars until the air was filled with sparks and the metallic screech of steel under relentless assault. Their cries weren’t only rage. They were pleading. They were begging.

Ashe, Kaelith whispered, the grief in her voice palpable, they scream as if they are being unmade.

The fae commander, Leyriam, stepped forward slowly, his white braids brushing over his armor as he began his descent into the cavern. Each step was deliberate, cautious, but fearless.

Zander’s hand brushed mine once before he followed, and I forced my trembling legs to move after him. The stairway curved down into the darkness, torchlight catching on the obsidian bars that shimmered with ancient runes.

When we reached the cavern floor, the dragons turned their glowing red eyes toward us. Their screeches became deafening, rattling the earth. They hurled their pain at us, at me, as though I could be the one to free them. My chest ached with the weight of it.

“What is happening to them?” My voice was raw, the words torn out of me.

Leyriam’s pale eyes flickered as he watched the black-scaled titans writhe. “I am… unsure,” he admitted, though his voice carried the weariness of ages.

Kaelith’s mind pressed hard against mine, urgent. Ask him about the spell. The one he bound to the chest.

“Leyriam,” I said quickly, almost shouting over the dragons’ thrashing, “the spell you cast around the chest—what did it do?”

His head tilted, profile cutting against the dim light. “It blocks all magical tethers. No power, no bond, can touch what is inside. It cannot be corrupted, nor accessed, by anyone but me.”

“And when you die?” Zander asked tightly, stepping closer to the bars as one dragon’s tail slammed against them hard enough to rattle the cavern walls.

“My son,” Leyriam said, calm despite the chaos. “And his son after him. My family line was forged for this purpose. Our bloodline possesses the strongest wards left on this isle. When I return to the earth, it will be their sworn duty to maintain the seal.”

The dragons screamed again, their scales shuddering with unnatural waves of color. I staggered back, pressing my hand to my chest as if I could smother the ache tearing through me.

“They know,” I whispered. “They know what’s been done to them. And they know we can’t save them.”

Leyriam’s expression darkened. “Perhaps not yet. But if this war is to mean anything, we must ensure no one ever uses them again.”

The cavern pulsed with the weight of screams, scales scraping against steel, and then a new sound split the air.

Not a scream.

A roar.

The sound shook the stone, deeper, more commanding, and for a heartbeat all the other black dragons fell silent. My gaze shot to the far cage where the dragon inside thrashed with unusual strength, sparks of gold shimmering beneath its black hide. At first, I thought it was another ripple of corruption, another illusion of suffering. But then the black scales split, burning away, until molten gold burst outward like dawn breaking free of night.

Light—pure, radiant gold—gleamed off the beast’s wings as his eyes turned from blood-red to blazing amber.

“How is that possible?” My voice cracked, the question trembling from me.

No… Kaelith’s voice cut through me like a blade, grief searing across our bond so sharp my knees buckled. No. It cannot be.

“What is it?” I rasped, clutching my chest as if I could hold myself together.

Kaelith’s agony flooded me until I nearly stumbled off the stone steps. Her roar echoed in my skull. That… Her voice shook with anguish. That is Siergen and Ria’s son. Ria still held the egg within her when she was killed. We had no idea… no idea it had been ripped from her body.

I covered my mouth with my hand, horror strangling me. “Veralin forced it to hatch.”

Yes, Kaelith hissed, and the weight of her fury scorched me from the inside out. He enslaved it like the others. He made my brother’s child into his weapon.

“Who is it bound to?” Zander demanded, his voice low, lethal.

Kaelith’s silence pressed hard against me, a silence laced with despair. One of the fae still alive. But like the others…

Her grief gutted me, hot and raw. Siergen’s son will die.