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Leave him, the ruthless survival instinct whispered in my ear. He is just another candidate. In the court, everyone dies alone.

I looked down at Dax. He wiped the blood from his eyes, set his jaw, and raised his single dagger against the towering titan, refusing to bow his head even as the orange fire flared in the dragon’s throat.

I thought of his reckless swagger in the Great Hall. I thought of him tossing jokes across the breakfast table, standing by me in the courtyard ranks, and fighting through the dragon fire at the river. He wasn’t just a candidate.

He was my best friend.

“Damn it,” I spat between my teeth.

I turned my back on the safe tunnel.

I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t give my self-preserving instincts time to argue.

I launched my body off the high stone ridge, plunging fifteen feet straight down into the volcanic pocket.

I hit the ash-covered floor between Dax and the Bronze Dragon, my boots slamming into the dirt with a jarring force that sent a white-hot spike of agony shooting straight through my ribs. A choked gasp tore from my throat, but I forced my legs to drive forward, placing my battered frame directly in front of Dax, shielding his broken body with my own.

I unsheathed my twin daggers with a loud clatter, throwing myself into a defensive stance, my green eyes blazing through the soot on my face.

“Tauriel?!” Dax yelled behind me, his voice cracking with shock. “What the hell are you doing?! Get out of here! Run!”

“Shut up, Dax!” I shouted over the roaring furnace of the dragon’s throat, not daring to take my eyes off the titan. “You’re making too much noise!”

The Bronze Drake reared back, surprised by the sudden arrival of a second trespasser. Its massive, horned skull snapped down, its golden eyes locking onto my bruised frame standing between it and its cornered prey.

The orange glow in its neck reached a blinding peak. The scales around its jaw flushed with heat, and the air between us turned so blistering hot that the leather of my collar began to smolder.

It was going to burn us both to ash.

I knew I couldn’t dodge the flame. I knew my daggers couldn’t pierce its armored throat before the inferno hit. I locked my jaw, planted my boots into the volcanic dirt, raised my twin blades, and prepared to take the hit.

Don’t die, please don’t let us die.

“Come on then,” I whispered, my voice cold and sharp.

The Bronze Drake lunged forward, opening its colossal jaws to release the fire.

Then, its nostrils flared.

A sudden, violent draft of cold erupted from my skin.

It wasn’t magic that I consciously cast. The latent mark of the Nyxalith; the invisible, shadowy veil the Sovereign of Night had draped across my bones, reacted to the heat of the fire. A thin, wispy plume of pitch-black smoke, smelling of deep space and cold rain, bled from my skin, swirling around my shoulders like an ethereal cloak.

The Bronze Drake halted mid-strike.

The blinding orange glow in its throat died instantly, reduced to a pathetic wisp of grey ash. Its slitted golden pupils dilated until they swallowed its eyes, its massive, scaled head freezing mere feet from my face.

The titan leaned forward, its giant snout descending until it was inches from my chest. It took a long, deep, trembling snort of the freezing air radiating from my body.

It smelled the cold. It smelled the ozone. It smelled the undeniable, terrifying footprint of the ancient titan that ruled the highest peaks of Isath Nalore.

The Bronze Drake let out a low, uneasy whine. A sound of profound, instinctual terror.

It didn’t drop its jaw. It didn’t strike with its spiked tail.

Slowly, deliberately, the massive dragon lowered its horned head toward the ash-covered ground. It wasn’t bowing in surrender to me; it was stepping back in solemn acknowledgment. It recognized the mark. It knew that to harm the female standing before it was to invite the shadow-draped wrath of the Nyxalith down upon its nest.

The Bronze Drake backed out of the narrow volcanic pocket step by step, keeping its golden eyes fixed on my face, until its rear legs hit the open ridge. With a heavy leap, the titan launched itself into the sulfurous sky, turning its broad back and flying away into the distance.