Page 131 of Ashen Wings

“Nova!” a voice cries through the wall of heat. I whirl around to see Isra, leaning beside Niaxa and her eggs.

Thank you, Morvayne, for sparing them.

Relief washes through me, but only for a breath when I take in the female Blightfang wounded and burning. Her tail took the brunt force of the shockwave, almost entirely eviscerated.

I dart through the decimation, without any feeling of the embers searing my skin, and rip off my cloak. “Where’s Roe?”

“She’s burnt up, but okay. She and Seralyn are looking for survivors. Nova…what the fuck happened?” Isra takes my cloak and starts extinguishing Niaxa’s scales.

“Saphine betrayed us. That’s what the fuck happened. I knew we couldn’t trust that conniving little bitch.” My fists curl. “Is Niaxa okay? And her hatchlings?”

The dragon huffs a pained growl but carefully raises her tail. I take inventory of her three eggs. The smallest of them has a web of fractures down its middle, but the others are seemingly unharmed. When my eyes land on the empty spot nestled between the obsidian eggs, my heart stops.

The guardian.

“Fuck, the Astralwing is gone.”

“Get Niaxa and her eggs to the caves. I’ll find Saphine,” I say, retrieving my lost blade from the rubble. “Then find Tenebris. Save as many of them as you can.”

Isra nods and takes my hand. “Make her pay, Nova. Make her fucking pay for this.”

Niaxa shakes away the last of the flames and unfurls her tail for Isra. I don’t waste time ensuring their safety. Isra won’t let anything happen to those hatchlings, nor to Niaxa for that matter.

Saphine is dead. There is no world where I allow her survival. Not after this.

I plummet back into the flames, like a demon reborn.

The heat gnaws at me, peeling away the last remnants of mercy. Smoke throttles the air, thick and gritty, but I charge through it. My ears ring with every heartbeat, every crackle of scorched earth.

There are so many lifeless dragons—hatchlings and adults alike. I can’t bring myself to linger too long on their ransacked bodies, sinking into the earth.

Jace wouldn’t have ever let this happen. If he was here, Saphine would be cold in the ground already and the Blightfangs wouldn’t have been fucking massacred like this.

I should have fought the faith we so blindly offered her, but it’s no use thinking like that now. Not when vicious, ruthless violence pumps through me, overwhelming my system until all I can see is blood.

I follow the hatching grounds’ perimeter, my body working at full force. We came from the skies, so Saphine wouldn’t know the route through the caves back into Shadow. If I needed a quick retreat, I’d trail the tree line…and if my destination was Smoke, I’d go east.

A smudge of blood stains a papery white tree, its canopy vibrant with flames.

There.

With a low, relentless breath, I plunge into the forest, following the droplets of crimson like a godsdamned hound.

Then, through the smog there are voices. Low, clipped, and frantic. I crouch behind a half-charred trunk. Silhouettes through the haze appear. Smoke soldiers in crimson cloaks emerge. In the shadows, there’s too many to count, their armor glinting in the moonlight like a sea of silvery steel.

Fuck. It’s the entire godsdamned army.

And there beside them is Saphine.

Her silver braid half burned, face smeared with soot. Opposite her stands a tall figure, donned in gold. He removes his helmet and places it at his boot and my body goes rigid. A flash of blonde reflects in the starlight.

“You’ll be paid handsomely for your work, Saphine Sunwither. Excellent job,” Samkiel Ashar’s voice rings louder than the rest, and my blood fucking ignites as the bastard clutches the Astralwing egg under his arm.

“I’ve done what you asked, now let me go,” Saphine spits. My stomach leaps to my throat, wild and feral for revenge.

“Consider this a debt paid.” Samkiel holds out a spidery hand. Saphine doesn’t take it, nor does she move from her spot.

“What are you going to do with the egg?” she asks, her eyes darting to the Astralwing.