The beast roared again, shaking the air. I vanished—pure instinct—slipping into invisibility as the storm built inside my chest.
Apparently, this land ran on fire and fury.
Good thing I brought both.
The beast landed hard—claws sinking into molten glass, wings folding with a hiss. Its eyes were molten amber, too sharp to be anything but intelligent. The ground around it steamed where its breath touched.
“Big bastard,” Nathan muttered under his breath, sounding hopeful. “You think it’s hostile?”
“Everything here’s hostile,” I murmured back, floating a few feet above the ground, trying to get a clean angle. “Question is, howintelligentis he?”
I reached out with my ability, lightning threading silently through the air—a net of static to read its movements. What came back wasn’t instinct. It wasthought.
“Trespassers. Unforged flame. The air reeks of Aurathions.”The voice wasn’t sound—it was pressure in my skull, old and heavy. The creature tilted its head as if scenting us through the air. Its gaze passed right over where I hovered.
Jet stayed still, levitating a foot off the ground, calm as always. Taking to this new ability as if he’d always had it. Nathan crouched behind a glass outcrop, fire flickering low, his body coiled for attack, Dale sticking close to him.
“We’re not your enemy,” I said carefully, sending the thought back, slow and deliberate. “We came for our brothers.”
The Draxon’s head turned sharply toward my invisible position. Its nostrils flared.“Brothers? No kin of mine would hide like a coward.”
Lightning rippled across my skin—involuntarily. And my shadows writhed on the ground. “Copy that,” I muttered. “I’m going to fuck him up.”
I barely finished the sentence before the air detonated—a blast of heat and shock that sent sand and shards of glass whipping past. The Draxon inhaled, chest expanding, a glow building in its throat.
It was about to breathe fire.
“Jet!” I shouted, even though I knew he’d already read the signs.
He raised one hand. And the fire stopped.
Not slowed—stopped—frozen mid-exhale, suspended between the creature’s fangs like liquid amber.
The Draxon blinked, confused.
Growled.
Tried again.
Nothing.
Its flames simply refused to exist in Jet’s presence.
“Well,” Nathan said, stepping out of cover. “That’s going to come in handy.”
Jet’s eyes glowed faintly—not with power, but with control. “Yes, it will.”
The Draxon snarled, pacing in frustration—until the sky itself answered.
A cry, deep and rolling, split the air. Then two shadows dropped from the red clouds—vast, glowing shapes that made the hunter recoil.
When they landed, the shockwave nearly threw me out of the air.
Zeke and Zane.
Their forms towered over the hunter, wings still steaming from the cold and fire that bled off them. The frost steaming from Zeke’s scales made the ground hiss and crack, while Zane’s molten glow pulsed in rhythm with Nyberie’s heartbeat.
The smaller Draxon lowered its head instantly—not in submission, or fear, but in recognition of their dominance.
