I didn’t hesitate to step into Steele, wrapping my arms around his torso and resting my head against his chest. His warmth sank through me, steady and real. Steele wasn’t one for open affection outside the privacy of our bedroom, so the quiet satisfaction that came when he tightened one arm around meand the other slid up to the back of my neck in a possessive hold sent something unguarded pulsing through me.
In that moment, I wanted to tell him everything—what this meant to me, how hopeful it made me feel that he was determined to figure this out with me, how seen I felt under the weight of his belief that I could be pushed and still survive it. I wanted to say all of it.
Unfortunately, our peaceful silence didn’t last.
A vibration rolled through the stone beneath my feet, subtle at first, like distant thunder rising from below. Steele’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing, every line of his body going tense. I opened my mouth to ask if he felt it too, but the ground shuddered again, harder this time.
A deafening boom followed, shaking the Placement Hall.
The glass ceiling shattered with a deafening crack, shards raining down in a storm of glittering fragments. Steele moved before I could react, his hands covering my head as he shouted for everyone to get down. His wings unfurled, a broad shadow folding over us, and I curled my own wings up to brace beneath his, providing extra protection over our heads. I threw my arm over my face as stone groaned beneath us, the floor shifting from the blast of power that echoed through Alfemir. The air roared with impact, glass striking against his shoulders as his frame shielded me from the worst of it. My heart hammered, fear spiking that one of those shards would impale him.
When the last of the glass settled, the hall fell into a tense, echoing quiet. My ears rang in the sudden silence. “Whatwasthat?” I shouted, my voice louder than I meant it to be.
When I lifted my head, Ronan had already summoned a shadow dragon, its wings spread wide over Gabe and Niz. Bastian stood nearby, a blood shield arched above him and Noah, the crimson barrier dissolving into droplets that fell in a perfect circle around them.
Steele shifted beside me, and that’s when I saw it—a deep cut along his forearm, blood tracing a line toward his wrist. Panic flared, but before I could reach for him, he brushed away the shards with a quick, practiced motion.
“It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before,” he said, voice low and steady.
I wanted to tell him it didn’t matter. That it didn’t matter how many times he’d dealt with it before…but I also knew I was being a hypocrite. I’d told him not to make a fuss over my wounds, and yet the mere thought of any of them getting hurt tightened my chest in a way I couldn’t ignore.
Noah nodded toward the doors, voice clipped. “It’s coming from outside.”
We moved quickly, cutting through the training yard toward the front doors. Another vibration rolled through the ground—steady, rhythmic, pulsing like a heartbeat. I had no idea what was causing it, only that it was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
Before we could reach the doors, they burst open. Archangel Astor and Shrue staggered inside, wings folding against their backs and breaths harsh and fast, faces drawn with panic.
“Thank the Creator,” Astor panted through heavy breaths. “We were heading over here to ask for help coordinating with the wyverns—never mind that now. We need to get to the castle.”
“What’s going on?” Gabe asked, his voice thick with concern.
Shrue’s expression tightened, eyes wide with shock. “It…it manifested right outside the castle.”
“Whatdid?” I demanded sharply.
“A Dominion.”
13
NIZZUS
The worldaround me burst into motion: shouts echoed, wings unfurled, and feathers sliced through the air in perfect rhythm. The space that only moments ago had felt steady beneath our feet now thrummed with urgency. Power thickened in the air, crackling like static along my flesh as instincts kicked in across the group.
But I didn’t move.
Everyone moved as one, their training almost military-like in precision as I stood frozen in the middle of it all, my feet welded to the stone beneath me.
My breath stuttered in my chest.
I wasn’t an angel. I didn’t have wings meant to snap open with the kind of swift grace the others wielded. Mine were different—tied to something ancient, primal. Bone, muscle, instinct. And right now, those instincts weren’t pushing me to act, they were screaming for me to stay still.
To survive.
The wordDominionrang louder in my head than the chaos around me.
I had never seen one. Not in person. But I knew what they were. I’d studied the histories, committed every harrowingaccount to memory, read and reread the words of those few who survived. The slaughter of the wyverns hadn’t been a myth but a method: adeliberatecleansing.
The creature now waiting for us at the castle had once stood at the center of the purge.
