Couldn’t think.
Kaelith, please.
But there was no answer.
The fire inside me ignited all at once.
But it wasn’t mine anymore.
This wasn’t the usual snap of dragon-bonded power. This wasn’t what Kaelith had taught me to shape and wield.
This magic, whatever it was, seemed different. Wilder. Ancient.
It surged outward with a deafeningcrack, light lancing from my body in violent tendrils.
Perin, or whatever imitation stood in his place, was flung back like a rag doll. His body twisted midair before crashing into the illusionary field in a spray of grass and flame.
Then silence.
A strange, crushing stillness.
And I felt myself falling.
Not backward. Not forward.
But down.
Into darkness.
I came to with a deep gasp, with my lungs burning like I’d been drowning in my own magic.
The first thing I felt was arms around me. Steady. Warm. Tae. He cradled me gently against his chest, one hand gripping my shoulder, the other keeping my head from lolling.
“You’re alright,” he whispered, like he wasn’t sure whether it was for me or for himself.
But my ears were already catching the edges of a fight nearby.
“I told you she wasn’t ready for that kind of illusion!” Zander’s voice cracked like thunder across the courtyard.
“She disobeyed a direct order,” Major Kaler snapped back. “She was told to hold the line of the illusion. Observe it. Not destroy it.”
“Observe?” Zander laughed, and there was no humor in it. “You locked her in a vision, cut her off from her dragon, and threw her against a construct of your making. That wasn’t a trial, that was a punishment.”
“She was never meant to be harmed.”
“She was screaming,” Zander growled, taking a step closer. “And you stood there like it was nothing.”
“She is a rider, not a child!”
“I will not let you use her to prove your damned point about bloodlines and discipline.”
“She’s awake,” Tae said suddenly, cutting through their shouting. “She’s awake.”
Zander turned immediately, crouching beside me. “Ashe. Tell me what happened.”
I swallowed past the ache in my throat, blinking at the early morning sun cresting over the walls.
“I was alone,” I rasped. “In the illusion. The field. Perin was there, at least I think it was him, or something meant to be him. He didn’t speak at first, but then he started talking like… like he would.”
